Keeping Your Eye on the Ball in Table Tennis/Ping-Pong

Watch the ball! How many times have you heard that said? Many times I'm sure. But is this actually good advice? In this article I'm going to look at the subject of keeping your eye on the ball in more detail, and I'm hoping to give you some food for thought before you utter those three magic words again.

Watch the Ball - What Does This Mean?

To start with, when we tell ourselves or someone else to watch the ball, what do we actually mean? I would suggest that when most of us say this, we are talking about watching the ball closely from the time our opponent hits the ball until it hits our own bat. I'll start with this definition and talk a bit more about other aspects of watching the ball later.

Sean O'Neill, 5 time US Nationals Champion and 2 time Olympian, has a different point of view regarding watching the ball.