One of the many issues I see with junior players, and professionals also for that matter, is that they focus too much on only their own side of the court. I think it’s very important to focus on the other side of the net, not only to see how the opponent is doing mentally, but to track the ball off of their racquet carefully, to watch how they rotate into the ball to work out where their shot is going, and to watch their contact carefully when they are serving. I call these things “middle ground” or the “gray area”. A huge part of the middle ground is triple vision, which I will be addressing at length. I do not for a minute encourage players to think about too many things and obviously, each player has different strengths and weaknesses. However, having a balanced yet simple thought process is key to success.
Triple vision refers to court awareness, ball awareness, and opponent awareness. Court awareness is knowing where you are on your side of the court and recognizing when you’re out of your ideal position, as well as when you’re in a position to control the point. Having good court awareness helps us to know what types of shots we need to hit from certain positions on the court. For example, if we are pulled out wide, we need to play a defensive shot to neutralize the rally. Opponent awareness is knowing where your opponent is on their side of the court. This is important so that we make good decisions regarding shot selection regardless of what situation we find ourselves in during a point. Knowing where the opponent is can also help us control points, as we can then hit shots to keep them off balance etc. Ball awareness is for me, the most important of the three. This is what I touched base on in the opening stanza. This means watching the ball off of the opponent’s racquet, watching the flight of the ball in detail, and doing this will make it easier to judge the bounce. Knowing where the ball bounces on your side of the court so that you can get in position is crucial. I’ve always found it amazing how players often have no idea where the ball bounced on their side of the court when I ask them during a point in a practice set or match that I just observed.
I find those that pay close attention to triple vision usually have a more balanced thought process during matches because they are not as self-absorbed as those who focus on only their side of the court. They are also often very good problem solvers and can often get to solutions relatively quickly. They probably win more matches than others think they should because being great in the areas mentioned does not stand out to the casual observer.
If you want to win more matches, and realize that some of the things mentioned are missing, spend time working on them with your coach. Watching a match you recently played and having your coach go through it with you, and look closely at the triple vision elements, is a great way to improve in this area. It is not always technique, movement, or tactics themselves that are the issues. Maybe your lack of triple vision affects your technique, movement, and execution of tactics?