One Key Tennis Skill Separates the Novices From the Pros

Consistent strokes, footwork, fitness, visual skills and mental clarity … all of these tennis skills are essential to consistently winning on the court. But only one of these crucial skills makes almost every shot a good one. It’s that impossible-to-overemphasize visual ability to steady the eyes and head at the point of contact when the ball hits the racquet. The good news is that, from the very beginning, a novice can be taught to master this key skill. We call it Point of Contact Training.

Even a kid can hit a tennis ball like a pro player
It’s going take them years of playing to acquire all of the necessary skills to win consistently on the court. Even the pros know about the importance of eye position at point of contact, yet few have mastered this art that grants them the substantial edge they are looking for.

Maintaining the proper eye position at the point of contact (EPOC) is a very difficult skill to learn, because keeping the head in one place is not natural when the target is over there! The eyes and head reflexively move away from the point of contact with the ball too soon—unless they’ve been retrained not to move until just after contact.

Beginners have fewer bad habits to get rid of
The advantage of starting young, and being trained at the Point of Contact correctly from the beginning is that all of the player’s learning can be directed toward improving their game much quicker. They are acquiring a skill that comes into play with every shot they make. Having that ability as part of their basic repertoire makes all of their subsequent practice and play even more effective and rewarding.

Customarily, much of any learning curve involves going back and eliminating counter-productive habits that were acquired along the way. A beginner has yet to develop a repertoire of bad habits that have become entrenched over time. They do, however, come to the game with the same inborn reflexes that everyone has. So those reflexes that interfere with their quality of play need to be addressed.

The most important thing is to stop doing things wrong and start doing things right ASAP. Fortunately, the reflexive one that makes the eyes shift prematurely eight out of 10 times can be removed and replaced with a new one that works for both reflexes and habits. Either way, the player will see an immediate improvement in their balance and performance.

Since the average player who plays once a week hits approximately 12,000 shots a year, they are either losing their balance or mishitting about 10,000 times a year! Becoming competent with their eye focus when the ball hits the racquet assures that number will drop dramatically. Also, increasing the number of hits done correctly through repetitive practice will help the new behavior stick.

Habits and reflexes are very different
Just to be clear, a reflex is not a habit because reflexes are primarily instinctive. However, habits are a more learned behavior that a person has acquired—intentionally or unintentionally—until a particular behavior becomes automatic.

In developing habits, we actually decide to do something deliberately, but then if repeated often enough it happens without thinking, but it never becomes a reflex. However, once a habit is established, it goes away from the conscious control of the mind, so it is just about as difficult to stop or change as a reflex is.

Doing things right consistently is a restart to how you improve faster
It is easier for a player to improve their overall performance if they start correctly at the Point of Contact from day one. The good news is the same re-training of the eyes works for players at any level of play quickly within a few hours. Once they’ve mastered the ability to hold their eyes and the head still at the point of impact for that fraction of a second, their whole game shows improvement. And with less work, too.

My best advice
It’s taken me many years to find a way that gives a player this Point of Contact Training advantage. Removing the cause and replacing it with the correct habit is the key with thousands of correct reps, so they are not thinking about it. This habit works for every player, at every level, and for almost every shot and can be ingrained within just a few hours. The renewed excitement for the game when players of all ages see themselves improving faster than their expectations almost overnight is priceless!