Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

Where Your Eyes Should be at the Net

• Will Boucek • Episode 179

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0:00 | 15:29

Over the past six months, I've closely studied net players at every level of tennis. One of the most difficult concepts to teach is where the your eyes should be at the net.

This episode covers where to focus your eyes and what to look for when you're at the net. Almost no club-level players get this right because it goes against our natural tendency to follow the ball. But, if you understand when to look at the ball vs the opponents, you'll be able to read the ball earlier, force more errors, and get more easy volleys.

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Speaker 1

Today we're going to cover where your eyes should be when you're playing at the net. This is something that I've studied a lot the last six months, both going to pro tournaments and watching them, as well as watching club level players in some of the high school matches that I've recently been coaching, and what I find is, even at the pro level, a lot of players don't get this right, and at the club level, almost no one gets this right. So I wanted to do an episode on it to help you improve where you're focusing when you're at the net. We're going to cover how to do this as the server's partner, the returner's partner and then during the rally as well. A couple of quick announcements first. Well, a couple of quick announcements first. So we completed our kind of mental game of tennis phase, which lasted a little bit longer than I expected mid-February, through April but we launched the Mental Game Masterclass. Thank you to everyone who enrolled. I wanted to update you on what is next.

Speaker 1

So through the rest of May and probably through the entire month of June, I'm going to be releasing some new courses, and these are going to be mini courses on different topics, including serve strategy, return strategy, net play and more. And all of these are going to be totally free. So all you have to do is enter your email, which is going to sign you up for the weekly strategy newsletter, and then you'll get access to these mini courses and with those I'm going to make some changes to the current email newsletter freebie. So right now, if you sign up for the newsletter, you get a free it's about 13 to 14 page guide on NetPlay strategy. I'm actually going to start charging for that. So if you want that for free, it's still free right now, but at some point later in May I'm going to be charging for it. It's going to be a small amount maybe five, $10, something like that but that is no longer going to be free. But these new mini courses will continue to be totally free on an ongoing basis and then, after these mini courses are completed, we're going to focus on serve strategy and that's going to culminate in a new course as well. That should be sometime in July and August is the plan now, but things certainly can change.

Speaker 1

And then, last request of you is if you listen to this on Apple Podcast or some other platform where you can leave a review. I haven't asked this in a while, but please leave a review. It helps other people to find the show and it really is a great way to support the work that I'm doing the free content that I put out as well. So if you can take two minutes and leave a review on wherever you listen to this podcast, that would be super, super helpful. So let's dive into today's episode.

Speaker 1

So we're talking about where your eyes should really be focused at the net, focused on when you're at the net. So again, pro level players do a good job of this for the most part. I still see a lot of pros get this wrong. Club level players almost never do this. So if you are able to get this down, you're going to be ahead of pretty much everybody you play against.

Speaker 1

The tendency for us at the net is to follow the ball. The ball is the thing that's moving the fastest. I guess you know I'm like this too. I'm almost like a dog, where I'm like chasing a tennis ball around the court and my eyes always want to be on the ball. But the problem with this is we're not getting information about the opponents fast enough if we're staring at the ball the whole time. So we have to be focused on the opponents more. So it's a little bit different depending on your position. I'm going to talk about each of those in a second, but the point I'm trying to make right now is that our natural human tendency goes against what I'm about to tell you to do. So this takes a very, very conscious effort to get right, and I still have to remind myself all the time, even though I've known this for years at this point that I need to have my eyes in the right position and not following the ball.

Speaker 1

So let's start with the server's partner. So the server's partner eyes should be on the returner. So what happens with a lot of people is they're looking down at the returner, their partner serves, and as soon as that ball crosses the net, they shift their eyes to the ball. They watch the ball land, they're trying to see if the serve was in or out. Then they watch the ball, go to their opponent's racket and then they react based on the ball that their opponent hits. So this is going to make you a little bit slow if you pinch or poach or fake at the net or if you're moving in a particular direction out of eye formation. The reason for that is you're not going to see if the opponent is hitting a forehand or backhand until the ball gets to them, until they actually hit it. So what should we be doing instead? We actually want to keep our eyes on the returner the entire time and we can pick up on different tendencies with each player's return and move accordingly, based on which direction they turn in.

Speaker 1

So one common example is from the ad court. If it's a right handed player returning in the ad court, almost all right handed players in the ad court like to hit that backhand cross court. They have a lot of trouble redirecting that ball down the line. So if I am in regular formation in the ad court, I'm staring down the line at the returner. As soon as I see them turn to their backhand side, that is my cue to poach or pinch or even fake and create an error and try to force them down the line. I know that they're turning to that backhand side and I can start to move earlier. If I was watching the ball, I'd watch the ball land. They'd be turning to their backhand side. I wouldn't know they're hitting a backhand because I'm looking at the ball and then the ball gets to their racket, hitting a backhand because I'm looking at the ball and then the ball gets to their racket. Then they hit the backhand, then I react.

Speaker 1

So, as you can, hopefully, I explained that in a way that makes sense. But um what? What helps so much here is you're able to move earlier because you know if they're hitting a forehand or backhand earlier than if you're following the ball. So you have to pick up on their tendencies. I talk about this a lot in the serve strategy ebook, which I'll link to in the show notes some of the more common tendencies, but that's just one example. But again, the key is to really be focused on the returner and then choose your movement accordingly, based on their tendencies, with their forehand and backhand return, and it's going to give you a lot more information, a lot more quickly than if you follow the ball.

Speaker 1

So let's move to the returner's partner. This is the most difficult position on the doubles court. It can make a huge difference, though, if you know where to look and how to get this right, even more so than the serve partner tactics that I just went over. So the returners partner their eyes should. It's okay to focus on the ball until it lands. I think I'm good with that. A lot of coaches will teach you never look at the ball.

Speaker 1

Let your partner call the line. The problem with that, in my mind, is a lot of partners or a lot of doubles players, especially adults, have trouble calling the serve long. I'm one of those. I just have a lot of trouble seeing that ball when I'm the actual returner, whereas the returner's partner has a very clean look at that line. So help your partner call the serve long. Watch it land.

Speaker 1

As soon as it lands, your eyes immediately need to go up to the opposing net player. Now, the reason for this is their movement should dictate your movement. So if they start to move towards the center and they're lifting their racket, you know they're poaching and you're about to be on defense. So as soon as they start to move towards the center, you can start to shuffle backwards. Now, if you're watching the ball, like most people do, they'll watch the ball land, they'll watch it go back to their partner and they're totally turned around watching their partner hit a return. You're never going to see that opposing nut player poach and you're going to end up getting hit or not being able to react in time. But if you can see them move earlier, you'll be able to shuffle back earlier. Or if they stay closer to the alley or they have their hands down and you can tell they're out of the play, you'll be able to move forward earlier, which will put you in a better position to put pressure on the server.

Speaker 1

Who's hitting their serve plus one shot from the baseline. So your eyes go to the ball until it lands, call it in or out, if it's good. Your eyes go to the opposing net player If they're out of the play. As soon as you know they're out of the play, you're moving forward, assuming your partner hit a decent quality return and then your eyes are on the opposing baseline player and again, this is similar to the server's partner. When your eyes go to that opposing baseline player, figure out what type of shot they're hitting and move based on that. If they're hitting a very defensive shot from behind the baseline, you can start to move towards the middle. If they have a very easy forehand from inside the baseline, you should probably move to cover the alley or to shuffle back a little bit. So your eyes are on the opponents from the time that the ball lands. This is really important, really takes a conscious effort. It's not natural. Some people like to say things. So as soon as the ball lands, you'll say ball and look up at the opponents.

Speaker 1

I talked with Sterling Strother about this. I'll link to that episode in the show notes as well, but he had some good tips and kind of drills you can do to help simulate this during practice. But this will again make a huge difference in your game, and what I'm going to do over the next probably week or so is actually put out some videos of pro players doing this and I'm going to do it in slow motion and you can see where their eyes are based on where the ball is. So I'm going to publish that on our YouTube and Instagram channels. So if you're not subscribed or following us there, then you can go look us up, the Tennis Tribe, and then you'll be able to get access to those videos as well and that will help you understand, kind of based on the position of the ball, where their eyes are. And then I want to talk about during the rally a little bit. So it's similar to the returners partner You're watching the ball bounce.

Speaker 1

I think that's okay. If it's a ball that you know is going to be well in, there's no reason to watch it bounce, so don't worry about that. But if it's going wide or they lob it really deep and it might land long and your partner has trouble calling it, I'm okay with you watching the ball bounce just to help them with the call. But then again, as soon as that bounces, your eyes are on the net player and you're just going to be able to get more information more quickly about where the ball is going by looking at the opponents rather than the ball. The ball, for it to come back, it has to come off the opponent's rackets. So rather than following the ball, you might as well follow the opponents, because I promise you, if your partner hits a winner, you don't need to see it for it to be a winner. If they hit a winner, that's great. But if the ball is going to come back, it's going to come off one of your opponent's rackets, so your eyes might as well be on them.

Speaker 1

So if you have any questions about this I know this is a difficult kind of topic you can always reach out. But again, the key takeaway here is this really does take a conscious effort. You have to remind yourself of this constantly on the doubles court and really focus your eyes on the opponent. So the serve strategy ebook goes into this more. The return strategy ebook does as well, including kind of specific tendencies and tactics that I see work well at the club level. So you can check those out in the show notes. And then the interview with Sterling Strother was a really good one as well on this topic. He's got a few drills, so I'll link to that in the show notes too. So thank you everyone for listening. I will talk to you all next week.