Visual search, peripheral vision, gaze in tennis, anticipation
Play Smart Tennis – MIND YOUR GAME – Anticipate! Don’t participate
by Milos Dimic, Sports Neuroscience PhD
Visual search, peripheral vision, gaze in tennis, anticipation
In tennis, the player transfers the energy from the body to the ball through a tennis racket to generate speed and spin of the ball. The loaded energy is the potential (stored energy) is transferred through the kinetic chain into the moving energy (the energy of movement) of the body segments in the timely manner through the ball into the wanted direction
Self focused training approach is encouraging athletes to be completely aware of the demands of the situations to achieve a certain goal. They need to have an understand of their own capabilities which are on their disposal to overcome the task problem and achieve the goal of the practice task. Our athletes should be equipped with the abilities to make decisions independently of the coach having not just knowledge but to reflect on the experience in solving or decision making process in order to reconstruct the knowledge in situations when needed
My METHODOLOGY of the training development includes working with athletes as a holistic process, as a coach being a mentor equipping them with tools to take control over the situation at the times of the challenges, to build resilience at the times when feeling of giving up and to understand the importance of overcoming the limits that usually athletes establish by themselves
It may take a very small body water deficit (1-2% of body weight) to significantly reduce the physical and mental capacity of the tennis players. This small deficit will challenge a player’s on-court abilities and decrease a performance
At the highest level of the game of tennis due to the extreme time constraints, the players do not have time to think through the options and generate the potential moves but only one, the right one. The players are restricted to recognize only the relevant action information based on which they should adapt their option generation strategy so they could as fast as possible come up with the adequate reaction.