One of the most important things to get to a decent standard of play at tennis is to keep your eyes on the ball.
Put the whole of your focus on following the ball and not your opponent. If you have difficulty following the ball there are some things you can do to help.
Hand-eye coordination (known scientifically as visuomotor control) is the relationship between visual input and hand reaction and is essential to almost everything we use our hands for.
Research has found that playing video games can help to improve and coordinate eye movement
A study from the University of Toronto published in 2019 found that people who regularly play video games, particularly action games such as Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed, perform better in sensorimotor tasks and improve their hand-eye coordination compared with people who do not play video games.
Other studies seem to indicate that increased cortical thickness in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain and the left frontal eye field correspond with greater density and more brain cell connections which means improved brain function in those areas.
The left frontal eye field plays a major part in processing visual-motor information and is involved in making judgments about reactions. The increase in thickness in this area attributed to playing video games suggests these types of games will greatly improve one’s hand-eye coordination.
The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is part of the brain that is responsible for higher-order thinking, such as decision-making and self-control, and the increased thickness in this area shown in studies would also indicate that video games improve complex cognitive functions.
If you’d like to try out some eye exercises that are designed for gamers, then take a look at Dr Levi’s video on Eye Exercises for Gamers.
However, no matter how many video games you play there is nothing like being out on a tennis court actually playing the game to improve your hand-eye coordination. Keep your focus firmly on the ball and develop your ball-watching skills steadily.