Focusing on the Ball when Playing Forehand
Strokes and Technique
Fouad Hafnium Asked 9 years ago
Hello dearest Jeff and Alois,
Now this one is about forehand technique: do you think keeping track of the ball with my eyes all the way as it comes to my side of the table is necessary when playing a forehand stroke? Sometimes I feel like I should have focused more on the ball because it slips right next to my racquet especially when it has some side spin in it. This is typically not a problem for the backhand stroke because my racquet is at about the same axis as my eyes.
Thank you!
Alois Rosario Answered 9 years ago
Hi Dieudo,
Yes I think you should watch the ball all the way through it's path. This will definitely help with hitting the ball when it has some tricky sidespin and moves in ways you are not expecting it to.
Tracking the ball in the rally is an important element that isn't stressed enough in general.
Thoughts on this question
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pascal becane Posted 8 years ago
I was going to ask that same kind of question.
Last time I trained (yesterday, that is), I thought, maybe all those balls I miss or hit the rubber instead of the bat, maybe it's because I don't track ball movement enough. I relied too much on "anticipating where the ball should arrive", meaning those side spins got me hitting the air instead of the ball too many times.
Same goes for when serving, I think. I thought: "hey, the top players seems to never lose sight of the ball when they throw it for serving. Surely, there is a reason" ^^'
Table tennis is asking for so much concentration. Yesterday, I concentrated for maybe 2 hours in a row, mainly thinking about getting in place through footwork and keeping track of the ball, and I made less errors, I think. I won 5 easy sets in a row against a good regular player ! :)
But after that, I began loosing concentration and lost 3 sets in a row (the last one like, 15-13)...
=> Do you know ways to improve one's ability to concentrate?
Alois Rosario from PingSkills Posted 8 years ago
Well done on the improvements Pascal.
The best way to improve concentration is to keep focus for as long as you can in training. The more times you do that the longer you will be able to maintain the concentration.