Often hitting the upper edge of the racket

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I'm having a problem with the consistency of my shots. I very often hit the ball too late or wrongly when playing strokes (often because I'm looking at my opponents position.

My questions are:

When should my eyes be on the ball and when on the opponent?
How can i train my eyes to always look on the ball when hitting?
 
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I personally think the idea of watching the ball actually hit your rubber is a myth. Rather, you're kinda looking at the ball or the region the ball is in. I think it's partly watching the ball and partly using your peripheral vision.

Are you getting nice & warm before you play? The warmup simple counter hitting corner to corner professionals do before a match. I love that drill. I think it gets your feel going and your consistency going (ie - not hitting the edge of the racket). Furthermore, your hitting a high number of balls in a short time-span. Do you do this regularly when you train?

On a side note, our work here has a monthly skill challenge. This month it's juggling (no i'm not kidding and I guess there are benefits for your brain activity related). Anyways, you do this a little every day and it's amazing how much better you get quickly. All I know is that you're largely tossing & catching balls without really looking at them specifically. I've got to imagine it's a great eye-hand coordination training tool. Maybe give it a go. IDK... If nothing else, it's kinda fun. ;)
 
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I'm having a problem with the consistency of my shots. I very often hit the ball too late or wrongly when playing strokes (often because I'm looking at my opponents position.

My questions are:

When should my eyes be on the ball and when on the opponent?
How can i train my eyes to always look on the ball when hitting?
I suffer from the same problem. Yes, I am usually looking at the opponent's motion after I have estimated where the ball will go.
However, I blame hitting the top of the paddle on being tired. My swing is slow or late as you say.
However, I also gain by watching the opponent. When I am fresh, I am very good at hitting the ball to the oppnent's left when he is moving right or the reverse.
 
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I'm having a problem with the consistency of my shots. I very often hit the ball too late or wrongly when playing strokes (often because I'm looking at my opponents position.

My questions are:

When should my eyes be on the ball and when on the opponent?
How can i train my eyes to always look on the ball when hitting?


The answer to this question varies depending on your technique and playing level. Regardless of what you think, you are predicting where you think the ball will be when you try to hit it. You may just be playing opponents with more topspin and hitting the racket edge more often.

The other thing is how your racket approaches the ball. Usually people who hit the top edge approach the topspin ball from the back while most pros approach the topspin ball from the side.
 
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Either that, or i'm hitting the top of the net
I hit the top of the net and the ball goes long too. This is a curse. This happens to be much more than my opponents.
So what are we doing that is similar that gets similar results?
It is time to get out the camera.
I have had some very high rated coaches (~2500), but nothing beats looking at yourself in a video if you know what to look for.
 
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Try this.

Move more and better. The chinese only need to train one forehand loop while others ned to train more because We Do not move aswell.

As stated above. Try to Do the same stroke all the time and just move the legs. But of course change a little depending on the ball.

Play much slower so you actually can Do the same stroke all the time. With a slow pace you Will get the chance to train the stroke many Times.

Bad shot selection. Can bot play hard on everything. Need to react to What comes first and not decide beforehand. Maybe you get hard shots against you all the time and this is the reason you miss. Then you need to work on serve and return.

To closed angle. This Will cause you to hit the edge.

To much backswing so the distance between the balls ND racket is to big. This Will make it hard with timing and Will make you miss more.

You want the strokes to look as similar as possible if possible. Like using the body a little in forehand counter because otherwise the forehand loop Will be s different stroke and hou need to learn two completely different strokes.

I think good players should look more st the opponent to see where the ball is coming But this is pretty difficult i think. So if you miss alot Maybe you should look at the ball for the moment. I think it is most important to look at the opponent if you are blocking.

Good luck.
 
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