How to Improve Reaction Speed in Tennis
Reaction speed is one of the keys to playing great tennis at a higher level, where the balls fly much faster.
 |
Quick reactions are also important at all levels of tennis doubles, where there are ball exchanges at the net when players volley at each other at shorter distances.
If your reactions are fast, you’ll have more time left to:
- get to the ball,
- make the right decision,
- balance yourself before the stroke
- perform your stroke
So how can you improve your reactions in tennis?
There are a number of steps this equation, and the first one is anticipation.
1. Anticipation means that you predict what will happen with high probability, and prepare the “program” in your mind, so that it’s ready to fire.
For example, you are at the net and your partner returned the serve to the feet of your opponent. You can anticipate with high probability that your opponent will play the volley up (she has to!), and cross court back to your partner on the baseline.
So before your opponent hits the ball, you already “see” what will happen and prepare your actions – to attack the ball in advance. (That’s anticipation!)
Once that happens, you can pounce immediately. For the outside observer it may seem that your reactions are fantastic but in fact it was your anticipation that made that possible.
2. The real reaction, without the help of anticipation, has to do with you clearly seeing the situation and the ball.
What often happens is that you watch the ball coming to your opponent, who is about to hit it, and you don’t notice your opponent’s body language.
Your eyes are so narrowly focused on the ball that you cannot “read” your opponent’s shot.
This doesn’t have to do so much with anticipation of your opponent’s intention. Rather it’s sending all the available data to your brain, which will be able to better decide what the right reaction should be.
Another problem is that the ball suddenly changes direction – going from you towards the opponent and then back to you. This sudden change of direction makes it difficult to track the ball and you can “lose” it for a split second.
And you can only react when you see the ball again and determine its flight path, which again takes a few hundreds of second.
So the key is to switch your narrow focus from only the ball, to the ball AND the opponent. Once your opponent hits the ball, you’ll get more cues on what kind of shot she played, and you’re eyes will automatically find and track the ball.
3. Another part of the reaction is physical relaxation. If you are tense, you cannot react fast because your muscles feel “locked”. Even though you see what is going on, your body doesn’t move immediately.
The key is to stay alert and yet relaxed. The mind is focused and alert while the body is relaxed and ready to pounce.
4. Closely related to the physical part of reaction is the split step.
Every sport that demands quick reactions and movement to the ball has split step. A soccer goalie makes a split step before moving to the ball. The same applies to a handball goalie (but the split step is very low), and to a volleyball player who reacts to the spike.
Split step allows you to store the energy in your legs BEFORE the actual event (stroke, hit, throw, ..) when you’ll have to move quickly.
But if you store the energy too early, it will dissipate. (For example, if you stay low with bent knees for a second, you cannot move fast.)
That’s why you see tennis players constantly moving and jumping which allows them to keep this energy in the legs ready to explode.
Timing of the split step is crucial. You need to land exactly when you realize where the ball is going. That means that you have to “split step” just before your opponent makes contact.
How early? Even if I explain that here, it won’t help you. You need to practice and FEEL when its the right moment to react and push towards the ball the fastest.
And one last thing about reactions – this skill is best developed between 8 and 14 years of age. After that improvement is very slow.
You can of course spend some time working on improving reactions in tennis, but in my experience you’ll improve more by learning to anticipate what’s about to happen.
Once you can predict better you’ll also react better.
- Related posts:
November 5th, 2007 at 8:58 am
excellent.wish video feed was there as demonstration.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:02 am
I am a doubles player and i.m 80 years old, but before we play we short court volley, I think this is best for quick reactions, when I am back at the line is where I am in trouble when I volley to across court, making my self follow the ball, at least two or three steps and split stopping, I am generally late or off balance, another problem I have, when an opponent comes down the line straight at me, I have trouble moving towards the ball, it seems I generally wait till the ball gets to me, and then i flob it or go into the net.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Hi Jack,
It’s an honor to meet an 80 year old tennis player and I’m glad that you enjoy this beatiful and challenging game.
Yes, volley-to-volley is a great warm-up and practice for improving reactions.
Regarding your cross court volley; if you volley cross court, it’s very difficult to cover the net because you open a large gap on the side where your opponent is hitting the ball. That’s why you need to play most volleys down the line. Play cross court ONLY if you feel that you can hit a winner.
One possible reason why you are late on a down the line attack from your opponent may be that you are not clear on what to do with the ball. I suggest you go for a short cross court passing shot 80% of the times and only 20% either down the line or lob.
That will help you be clearer on the right decision and you’ll move quicker to the ball.