Still Watching the Ball? You’re 1,000 Reps Behind the Pros
- Tom Kiat
- Jul 31
- 2 min read
Here’s a brutal truth most rec players don’t want to hear: you think you’re watching the ball, but you’re not. At least not the way the best players do.
I see it every single week. A player with decent hands, good footwork, maybe even a flashy drive. But the moment the ball speeds up, their eyes freeze. Or worse, they follow the ball halfway, then guess the rest. The paddle goes one way, the ball another, and they’re standing there saying, “I watched it!”
No you didn’t.
You stared at it for half a second and hoped for the best.
Here’s how the pros do it differently. They don’t just look at the ball, they track it all the way onto the paddle, every single shot, no exceptions. They see spin, speed, angle, and intent before you even know you’re about to get burned. And they’ve done it so many times it’s not conscious anymore.
When I coach players who want to level up, I ask them a simple question: When was the last time you practiced tracking the ball, on purpose, for hundreds of reps? Not drills for your swing. Not footwork patterns. Pure tracking. The answer is almost always the same: Never.
If you think tracking the ball is obvious, ask yourself why you keep mishitting your thirds when the pace changes. Or why you shank dinks under pressure. Or why you “almost” block that speed-up that burns right past your paddle.
You’re not late. You’re not unlucky. You’re not out of position. You’re just not seeing the ball like the pros do, because you haven’t trained your eyes to stay locked in under stress.
When I train with serious players, we drill this relentlessly. I’ll feed 500 resets in a row. They don’t get to worry about where the ball goes, they worry about seeing it off my paddle and onto theirs. We practice calling “hit” when it contacts the paddle. We practice soft hands but laser eyes.
And here’s the part that rec players hate the most: this is boring work. No highlight reel. No fancy Erne. No trick shot behind the back. Just boring, disciplined reps that separate the guy who plays Saturday open play forever from the player who medals at 4.5 and above.
If you’re serious, stop pretending “watch the ball” is a given. Make it a drill. Make it your obsession. Your swing won’t save you if your eyes aren’t dialed in first.
So next time you think you’re practicing smart, ask yourself, are you hitting balls or tracking balls? The difference is everything.
The pros already put in those thousand boring reps. That’s why they look calm when your best shot is screaming at them.
Keep staring. Keep tracking. Or keep guessing and stay exactly where you are.
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