Teaching with the Eye Coach

[gzhpcu]

I have been using the Eye Coach for about 10 minutes a day since a month. I have also mounted the Zepp sensor for stats on power, impact point, etc.

I do not overhit, move my legs to change position. Find it a good tool to groove strokes with. A hitting partner told me my stroke looks cleaner... I feel it as well. I probably hit as many strokes in 10 intensive minutes as I do on court in an hour...

[vgrin545]

The current Eye Coach product is necessary but not sufficient

I was coaching my daughter for 10 years before she got her tennis scholarship. Let me share with you my observations. I wanted my daughter to be a power player. We developed array of drills to focus on the powerful final shots. The ball machine was producing between three and six long shots that my daughter could not attack followed by what we considered to be weak shots that she was supposed to attack and win. There were three week shots in a row delivered by the ball machine. It appeared that she was missing two out of three powerful shots. I started to videotape her and run the recordings in slow motion to discover that she started to open up too early and her eyes were no longer looking straight at the ball. It turned out that something was impacting her desire to produce the anticipated victory strikes. The very thought she was going for a kill seemed to disturb her killer instinct. We were researching the footage of the lions and tigers during their hunting to notice that the animals with the built in killer instinct could miss their targets. It did not look like the misses destroyed their confidence. It is not known what they tell themselves after the miss, but the way the tail was moving indicated they were trying to relax like tennis players are taught to closely examine the rocket strings while moving from one corner to another. I strongly believe if we had the Eye Coach device at the beginning of the tennis fundamentals learning my daughter would be more successful player. However, the currently available device needs two more features: an alert suddenly issued to demand a hard shot and some kind of attached measurement of the ball RPM.

[gzhpcu]

I got the Eye Coach. myself now. I think Scott is correct, I think the benefit to this aid is best realized not blasting away. The instructional piece on the forehand suggests hitting the ball, let it recoil back and forth for one cycle, and on the 2nd recoil cycle, time your swing and footwork to hit the ball again, for a series of 15 hits. This seems to really help with shortening your swing, not overhitting, and just making solid contact with the ball. To me, the way the ball is attached on the eye coach, if you overhit or blast away too much, you tend to hit the ball mounting bracket, not a clean hit.

Right, came to the same conclusion...

[stroke]

I should also mention that you can practice everything you need to on the Eye Coach without blasting away at it. Kids are the biggest offenders but adults seem to want to go bombs away on it too. My feeling is if the base lifts off the ground with weight on it you're hitting it too hard.

I got the Eye Coach. myself now. I think Scott is correct, I think the benefit to this aid is best realized not blasting away. The instructional piece on the forehand suggests hitting the ball, let it recoil back and forth for one cycle, and on the 2nd recoil cycle, time your swing and footwork to hit the ball again, for a series of 15 hits. This seems to really help with shortening your swing, not overhitting, and just making solid contact with the ball. To me, the way the ball is attached on the eye coach, if you overhit or blast away too much, you tend to hit the ball mounting bracket, not a clean hit.

[johnyandell]

The two of you and Picollo have a great life! He's a lucky dog.

[gzhpcu]

Picollo loves the workout.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

Picollo is fascinated by the Eye Coach, because he loves tennis balls. He keeps pawing the stem, but can't reach the ball...

[klacr]

Picollo loves the workout.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

So, I have started using the Eye Coach in my living room. I like it. Very solid, good quality. Great to be able to practice shots at home.

It is a good training for keeping the head still and watching the impact point after contact (since you are not tempted to look to see where the ball is going, but only on hitting ball).

This will be part of my daily workout: 20 minutes abs and back excercises, 10 minutes weights, 10 minutes stretching and, now, 10 minutes Eye Coach.

And, of course, tennis three times a week, and walking 20 hours with my wife and our Jack Russell, Picollo...

[bottle]

I can relate to that. For serving, I need more often to use my ball on a cord device (at home where nobody can see if I hit my knees or anything else).

But here in the pages of TP is a great article that seems very germane to these subjects and it's Thanksgiving (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nt_of_contact/).

[gzhpcu]

Well, for one thing, I like doing it at home without a tennis court.

[bottle]

I await the report too. But in the meantime, why couldn't a player fill his opposite side pockets with tennis balls and intersperse self-feeds into a hit with a highly sympathetic rally partner?

Personally, I don't know any such person, but maybe one could do blackmail by promising to work on whatever the person desired after both had gotten their fill of topspin angles.

Then one could hit the angle with a self-feed then try to hit it off of five rally balls then hit another self-feed, etc.

This will work best in cold weather when one has more pockets.

[johnyandell]

Hopefully you will like it after all this...

[gzhpcu]

OK, it arrived today! I was like a little kid waiting for Christmas. Looks very solid, will try it out and report...

[johnyandell]

Ah! OK I am the same way. Let's get your review!

[gzhpcu]

I will show the Eye Coach to our 80 year old lady friend. She might like it, since she is taking a break this winter (hall is too cold and drafty for her...)