Besides yourself, there are three necessary elements to the game of tennis:
- A Ball
- A Court
- An Opponent
To be good at this game you need to focus on all three of these elements. To do that you need to develop “Triple Vision”. Triple vision is critical in tennis. Essentially it is the ability to see the ball, court and opponent all at the same time.
We have all heard a coach say “watch the ball” during a lesson. But you actually have to focus on more than just the ball itself to know where it is and where it is going. Your “hard focus” should be on the ball, but your “soft focus” should be on the opponent and the possible openings on the court.
If you are only looking at the ball while you are playing, you are playing as if you’re drunk. When testing potential drunk drivers, the cops always look at the eyes first. Intoxicated drivers fixate on an object and look at only one thing. The eyes of sober drivers dance around all over the place. They are looking at the person talking to them, cars going by, and other movement or objects in the environment.
Here are some drills you can do to help develop, or improve, your triple vision.
Rhythm & Flow Tennis 