VISUAL SKILLS IMPORTANT FOR TENNIS
American Optometric Association Sports Guideline
Visual Acuity: Both static and dynamic visual acuity are important in the fast-moving, visual sport of tennis. The target is in motion, the athlete is in motion, and the opponent is in motion. This introduces some very complex visual equations for the brain to compute and solve in very short reaction times.
Peripheral Vision: This is a very essential skill for superior performance in a game like tennis. This is especially true for doubles when the players must be aware of where their partner and his/her rackets are, to avoid collision and injury. It helps in picking up lob shots when running backwards while looking over your shoulder, and in knowing where the boundary lines are.
Depth Perception: Necessary for accurate shot placement, evaluating the defensive positions of the opponent and judgment of whether a ball hit to you will land in or out of bounds. Thus, you decide whether to play the ball or not. It also assists in judgment of the speed of the opponent’s shot. Billie Jean King rates depth perception as the highest attribute for a young tennis player, even above court speed or eye-hand coordination. This visual skill can be quickly diminished, however, by extended near work prior to a match. Students, computer programmers, or business executives play much poorer tennis after work than on weekends.
Eye Motility: Eye tracking ability is important in tennis. Quick, accurate saccades are needed to rapidly survey the changing locations and movements of the opponent and the ball in relationship to the net, boundary lines, etc. Studies have shown that if the head has to move to aid in eye tracking, not only is it less efficient, but balance is thrown off too. The ultimate goal regarding this visual skill and tennis is to track the ball until it actually hits the racket, not flinching on impact.
Eye-Hand/Body/Foot Coordination: All are helpful to performance for a tennis player. The eyes lead the body and the visual system guides the motor system.
Visualization: This could be very useful for a tennis player, particularly when serving the ball. A tennis player has a 30-second time limit between the end of one point and the service for the next. This is enough time for some quick visualization. The rest of the game is so fast-moving, the player doesn’t have time to think and visualize using the five-step technique. He or she must simply react. Subvocalization, thought by some to be a form of visualization, actually distracts from it! Not only does it take longer — it is not as efficient. Therefore, don’t give yourself a “pep talk” while playing tennis — visualize instead.
Speed of Recognition Time: This is quite an important and useful visual skill for a tennis player. Bill Tilden’s serve was once clocked at 163.6 mph. This doesn’t allow much time to react. Even more normal rally shots come very quickly. A good player needs to detect the speed and spin on the ball as quickly as possible in order to make the proper return. He must pick up the ball as it comes off the opponent’s racket. The opportunity to make that proper return shot only presents itself for a fraction of a second.
Speed of Focusing: This is also important in tennis because the ball and the other player are moving quickly and one has to be able to shift focus from near to far or to intermediate targets rapidly throughout the contest while general body stamina is running down due to heavy exertion.
Glare Recovery Speed: This is quite important for tennis players because most play is outdoors and under bright sun conditions (at least on the professional circuit). So lob shots may get lost in the sun momentarily, causing a dazzle to the retina. The player must recover very quickly before the next return shot is imminent. A lot of tennis is played indoors these days, too. Here, bright overhead lighting can cause some problems for the players.
Ability to See in Dim Illumination: Not usually an important factor for tennis players unless it’s an outdoor tournament game near dusk before night lighting is turned on. Most games are scheduled at good hours or under proper artificial lighting.
Ability to Withstand Eye Fatigue Without Decreased Performance: This is important in tennis because it’s a very fatiguing sport that requires a lot of running, jumping and constant concentration. Best three out of five tournament matches can sometimes run 4 or 5 hours. In warm climates, this can be very fatiguing.
Color Perception: Color is not terribly critical to a tennis player’s performance.
Eye Dominance: Of some interest probably, but not as critical a factor in this sport as it is in baseball hitting, rifle shooting or archery. Studies with professional tennis players indicate they generally do prefer strokes that correspond to their dominant eyes, however.
Fixation Ability: Fixation is critical in serving the ball, for example. The tennis player also has to focus quickly on his/her target (the ball first, and then shift fixation to the smallest possible detail on the opponent’s court where he wants his shot to land). Then he must execute the shot and follow through by retaining fixation on that target spot after the shot is hit. In serving, staring at your fixation target too long before hitting the serve can lead to more misses. The ability to center on the precise portion of the opponent’s court where you want the shot to go diminishes with time. Therefore, tennis players should be advised by their sports vision consultant to avoid staring. When balanced and ready, just center on the target’s finest detail (first on the ball and then on that spot on the opponent’s court) and smoothly stroke your serve.
This also has to do with how well you can eliminate undesired stimuli while fixating or centering on desired stimuli. During a tennis match, if the crowd noise and movement, lights or other surrounding distractions are not shut out, the concentration needed for success cannot be obtained.
Visual Memory: Past experience and the number of proper shots, depth, spin and speed judgments, fakes, etc., on file in the visual memory, combined with good visualization techniques for serving, etc., could be a big factor in the steadiness and consistency of a tennis player.
Central/Peripheral Awareness: This is an essential skill for a tennis player whether on defense or on the attack. The attacking player has to look directly at his target spot on the opponent’s court while being peripherally aware of the opponent’s position and direction of movement. Also, he must be peripherally aware of court boundary lines. The defensive player must concentrate centrally on the attacking player’s court position and the likely direction the ball will come off his opponent’s racket. Meanwhile, he must be peripherally aware of where the net and boundary lines of the court are, etc. These factors all hold true for doubles, too. However, in doubles, the players have the additional complications of being peripherally aware of where their partner’s body and racket are.
Spatial Localization: Knowing where you are relative to other objects is very important in tennis. It is a fast-moving sport in which the athletes and target (the ball) are in constant relative motion. Obviously, the boundary lines and net are stationary, but the player is usually hitting the ball in relation to these stationary targets while he/she is moving laterally, vertically, transversely, or “all of the above.”
Also, there is evidence that a player with esophoria tends to see the world closer than it really is. Thus, we might expect this player to hit generally short of the court placement target. Conversely, the exophoric player tends to see the world farther away than it really is. Thus, we might expect this player to place shots generally long of the court placement target.