Following the ball

Tim Patton Asked 6 months ago

Are there any drills I can do at home to help me follow the ball more closely? I’ve got a tendency to not watch the ball all the way to the bat, rather I’m looking where I want it to go which is letting me down at higher levels

Jeff Plumb Answered 6 months ago

Hello Tim,

It's great to see you working on refining your skills, especially focusing on such a fundamental aspect of table tennis—tracking the ball. Here are some effective drills you can practice at home to improve your ability to follow the ball to the bat:

1. Shadow Play: Practice your strokes without the ball, intentionally following through with your eyes on where the ball would be if you were actually playing. This hones your eye-muscle coordination and trains you to keep your gaze focused through the entire stroke execution.

2. Ball Toss Drill: Toss a ball up with one hand and strike it with your bat in the other hand, ensuring you watch the ball all the way onto your racket. Start slowly with higher tosses and as you improve, increase the speed and reduce the height of the tosses to simulate more realistic playing conditions.

3. Solo Wall Rally: If you have a wall to play against, use it! Hit the ball against the wall and focus intensely on watching the ball as it comes off the wall, making sure you're tracking it back to your bat every single time. This can also help refine your reaction time.

4. Use a Marked Ball: Mark a table tennis ball with a distinctive colour or symbol and concentrate on observing the mark as you hit the ball. This encourages not just watching the ball but focusing intently on a specific part of it, enhancing your concentration.

5. Record and Review: If possible, set up a camera and record yourself while playing. When you watch the footage, pay attention to where your eyes are focusing during a rally. This can be very revealing and helps in correcting your focus to keep it on the ball.

6. Visualisation and Mental Practice: Spend some time visualising yourself playing and watching the ball into your racket. Mental practice can be surprisingly effective at improving physical skills and can be done anywhere, anytime. These drills can be incredibly beneficial, and you should see improvements not just in your ability to track the ball, but also in your overall game consistency.

Stick with it, and good luck enhancing your play!