Question 160: Please tell me if there are any tips for timing to catch the ball in front

Answer

▶ Because you are "conscious" of trying to catch it in front...

I think the reason is probably that you are currently "conscious" of trying to catch the ball in front of your body.

When you do that, even if the ball is in your field of vision and you are looking at it, you aren't seeing it clearly, so it quickly disappears, you misjudge the sense of speed and distance, and you are struck by the feeling that the ball has suddenly teleported to your hand, causing you to swing late..

What should you do?

Of course, you should try "not to be conscious" of trying to catch the ball in front.

On top of that, as stated here, if you continue to focus on the ball from the moment of the opponent's impact, spending the longest distance and longest time, I think it will become easier to accurately perceive the sense of speed and distance.

If you do that, you will come to be able to hit at the moment (time = timing) you feel "Now!".

▶ Tennis becomes difficult because you define the "location" of the contact point

By the way, I do not recommend trying to define the contact point by location or position.

The locations or positions often mentioned, such as "let's hit at waist height" or "let's hit two ball-lengths in front of the stepping foot," actually "change every time", so you need the adaptability to flexibly change your form there.

https://youtu.be/TC5yc32EnL4

In other words, if you try to define the contact point by location or position and struggle to "fix your form," you may impair your adaptability (related article "The curse of 'fixing your form'").

Even if you can take the contact point in front of your body, if it doesn't match the moment you feel you "want to hit" (related article "If you 'concentrate', you will want to do it") and you feel cramped, that is a late hit.

Of course, it is definitely disadvantageous in terms of biomechanics for the contact point to be behind your body where it is hard to put power into it, but the contact point is prioritized over location or position when it comes to "time = timing" creating a nice shot.

▶ Do not be "conscious" of trying to match the timing

Time is important for the contact point.

However, being "conscious" of trying to match the time is, of course, a problem for the same reason as mentioned above.

Therefore, do not be conscious of things like "let's make the contact point in front," "let's not swing late," or "let's match the timing."

Just try to look at the ball.

If you keep looking at the ball from the longest distance (or more accurately, from the moment you hit it and it flies away), your consciousness will no longer be able to grasp those thoughts.

▶ The essential cause of timing mismatch

Furthermore, as a more essential cause, there seems to be a "gap between your image and reality".

To put it simply, the image you have convinced yourself of, that a ball of this speed will bounce this much, does not match the actual behavior of the ball flying toward you.

Especially when you swing late and the contact point is behind, the actual ball is bouncing deeper than you imagine.

Even so, because you are convinced that "it will only bounce this much," the timing does not match.

The essence of "conviction" lies in the fact that you "cannot notice" that you are convinced of it (related article "The time to 'transform' will come").

▶ "Iron ball" and "Super ball"!

"I know myself that I'm swinging late."
"I know myself that my contact point is too far back."

Because I know this, I try to swing earlier and take the contact point in front of my body so I won't be late, butit ends up being a cramped swing after all.

In such cases, your image of reality is misaligned.

Of course, this is an extreme example, but you are convinced that the tennis ball is an"iron ball".

When it lands, it goes thud (Related article: "If the incoming ball were an 'iron ball'").

However, unlike other ball games such as basketball, soccer, or rubber-ball baseball, an actual tennis ball does not bounce just from the elasticity of its core (rubber), but is a "super ball"filled with nitrogen gas to increase internal pressure (Related article: "Tennis balls bounce well").

As you know, the "pssh!" sound you hear when opening a can is because the inside of the ball can is pressurized to about 2.0 atmospheres to keep the inside of the ball at about 1.8 atmospheres, which is higher than the standard atmospheric pressure of 1.0.

Since it's an "iron ball" versus a "super ball," they are quite different.

Because of this difference (misalignment), your timing is off.

When they hear this, most people react by saying, "That's ridiculous," but otherwise, there is no reason why you wouldn't be able to hit it with a racket that has a large mesh, and given that the target is close and wide, it should be landing in the opponent's courtand yet it doesn't (Related article: "It seems easy but you suffer all the more because you can't do it").

Rather than assumptions made by the head, it is desirable to make an effort totake in a large amount of high-quality information about the actual ball by utilizing all five senses.

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