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

So in fact, I would recommend that your focus should change as follows. Once you hit the ball, you should be watching the opponent closely up until the time he makes contact with the ball. Then you should be watching the ball closely up until the time you hit it. Once you have hit the ball, you should go back to watching the opponent again, until he makes contact with the ball, and so on.

Conclusion

As you can see, there's more to this watching the ball issue than just looking at the ball like a seagull eyeing a chip. So the next time you take your eye off the ball and miss it completely, don't just yell at yourself to watch the ball - but keep in mind just when to watch it closely, and when to focus on your opposition. After all, when's the last time you heard someone yell - "Watch the opponent"?

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