Your dominant eye and your technique: TENNIS MASTERCLASS by Patrick Mouratoglou, EPISODE 3

today I want to tell you everything about a specific feature that plays a tremendous role in the construction of your Technique in tennis and actually this is true for all sports because it concerns everyone this is called the dominant eye [Music] are you uncomfortable hitting your forehand in some situations do you feel lost in space hitting your serve if your answer to any of this question is yes it is probably because you're in a position that is physiologically wrong you'll see it's easy to correct and this will change your life not many coaches know about

it and as a consequence many players develop technical mistakes it prevents them from progressing follow me I will explain you everything do you know what is a dominant eye the eye that is a very good answer all of us I have a dominant hand you know some are righty some are lefties this everybody knows but what we don't all know is that we also have a dominant foot and a dominant eye as humans we see in three dimensions each eye plays a role the dominant eye relates information more accurately while the non-dominant one sees things

laterally displaced the neurons respond preferentially to input from one eye to the other knowing that you can imagine that the consequences on your Technique in sports can be major if you want to see specific examples in tennis follow me on Instagram you'll find one minute Transformations with my players taking their dominant eye into account so do you know your dominant eye or not no okay perfect you're gonna learn something about you so please put your racket on the ground you're not gonna need it because you will need both of your hands and I drop mine

also okay first thing to do is to straighten your arms in the direction of your coach who is on the other side of the Court now with your fingers you make a triangle and you put your coach inside the triangle so now the first thing you're going to do is close your right eye is he still in the Triangle is out of the triangle he's in the Triangle yes yes he's in the Triangle yeah when you close your right eye isn't a triangle okay no no yes okay so we have two apparently left eye dominant

because when you close your right eye is still in a triangle and you when you close your right eye is getting out of the triangle which means that the accurate eye is the right one now you open your eyes and you close your left eye this time is in the Triangle wait yes yes okay you write I dominant confirmation you are left eye dominant yes you are right eye dominant okay oh incredible so we have two left eye dominant and two right eye dominant it's quite rare because uh 67 of the population is right eye

dominant ninety percent of the people are right hand 90 but only 67 are right item in it so there is cross-dominance and the two who are cross-dominant can be very happy because there are two good players who are cross-dominant they are called Raphael Nadal and Roger Federer but uh [Music] is it a bad thing to be cross-dominant now that you know that Roger is cross-dominant you can see it's more than an asset than anything else Rapha is actually not a pure crust of an Empire because he decided to play left-handed as a righty but as

a tennis player and a champion he is cross-dominant specialist in Ophthalmology consider that it gives a special Advantage but don't worry if you are not cross-dominant a large majority of the players are nuts you just need to know your specifics so you can Implement them into your upper and lower body technique as you understood one of your eyes relays information more accurately and your neurons respond more preferably to it when talking about neurons we are referring to your arms your legs and your hands in other words it has many consequences on your Technique in regards

to the position of your head the general rule is to always have your dominant eye fixed on the ball why if your dominant eye is not focused on the ball you adjust your placement and have to move looking through an eye that sees the ball in an inaccurate position you will see that using the wrong eye to adjust your footwork puts you in the wrong space with the ball and you don't want that secondly nature will push you to favor your dominant eye it will make you wait to see the ball and that will also

impact your contact Point Champions have developed a technique that is dictated by the dominant eye they usually each have a shot with a bigger shoulder rotation a lateral contact point and a strong transfer they also have the other side the other shot with less shoulder rotation a contact Mount more in front and less transfer but with more wrist action to compensate okay let's start with the two left eye dominant and you're just gonna hit some balls I want to see if your Technique is in accordance to your item in it you're a cross yeah exactly

both of you are crossed a minute [Music] which one is your best shot forehandle backhand yeah the immense majority of the cross-dominant player have a better forehand than backhand and there is a reason for that you can have a good a big preparation and still have a very good perception of what's Happening that's why your forehand is better you are always I mean much more often with a good placement that's one reason the second reason is because you can have a good a big preparation so you can go through the ball with more power okay

so when you are cross-dominant with your forehand you will see that your contact point and that's the case for both of you are checked your contact point is not too much in front in general it's more between your legs you know somewhere here which is good also because you can keep the ball longer in the Racket and you have a better control and and more power that's why both of you have much better forehands Roger Federer is a righty and left eye dominant his forehand preparation starts with a huge shoulder rotation making a 90 degree

angle with the net and bringing his head to the side this is not a problem because his left eye keeps the ball in his eyesight all the time his contact point is less forward than a right eye dominant players and on the right side of his body the big difference is when he hits the ball his shoulders are not totally facing the net they are making a 45 degree angle all of these elements generate an opportunity for him to keep the ball longer on his racket which leads to power and accuracy his favorite stance is

semi-open and sometimes when moving forward he can get in close stance position when running to hit the forehand his body is orientated to the side because it allows him to keep his left eye on the ball and start his preparation early at the same time right to the left eye dominant players are usually very dangerous running to their forehand side show me your backhand without the ball okay yes okay as you are cross-dominant your head shouldn't move if your head doesn't move your left eye is always seeing everything if your head moves in the preparation

your eye is there the dominant eye and this is not good for tennis okay you can be close tense also that's not that's not exactly it's more difficult to keep the head that's why I'm not a fan of crow stance backhand for left eye dominant but you can do semi semi-open exactly this is perfect right but let's do some trials your only goal is to keep your head always facing the net your head is turning all the time maybe you need more flexibility here do it do it we do it slow we do it slowly

yeah okay you you're in close stance that's why yeah okay let's do some with open stance don't try to hit the ball in or make a good shot try to feel comfortable with having your head in front good how does it feel comfortable okay you contacted all the balls well how do you feel better yeah yeah we keep that his specialty is that he also has great shoulder rotation on his backhand side which I would not advise for a player who has crossed them in eye but when you look in slow motion you can see

that his left eye stays on the ball all the time he does his turn at the same speed as the ball let me explain first he makes a reasonable shoulder turn keeping his left eye on the ball he increases his turn when the ball gets closer to him and enters in his left eyesight this is very difficult to do and requires incredible timing and an enormous capacity for adaptation to the speed of the ball I deeply recommend that you avoid copying Roger on that shot if you are cross-dominant yeah yeah sure okay I've seen enough

so you have a very different service very different serve you serve like your right eye dominant and you're left and you serve like your left item in and your left eye dominant so your serve takes advantage of the fact that your left eye your shirt doesn't take advantage so you're going to take advantage right okay I'm gonna stand here so you see better even if you turn your shoulders your eye is still and your head is still there with your eye you you still can see okay so let's take advantage of that because then you

can have a very good shoulder rotation which increases the power and everything and also you can have a toss that is closer to you which is good too like like for the back end if the toss is closer your contact point is also closer and you have longer contacts with the ball which is better okay you're doing it very well you are turning your shoulders and you are tossing with the arm going parallel to the Baseline yeah when you toss you toss here when you toss you toss like a right eye dominant okay so this

is what we're going to change in you it's a big change so no pressure so your arm will go like this okay okay of course your head is still here because you still need to no not like this but you still need to see okay okay and you can do it yes exactly one more it's difficult to control the task because you're not used to it but yes okay very good more power yes good good news wait I'm gonna make sure your arm goes where it should it's like no yeah and after you serve normal

huh yeah no after yes or no it's just your thoughts for the moment yes it's much better okay one more it's better more power huh Andy rodic nice to meet you [Laughter] thank you great job no very good no what do you think yeah you feel better yeah so great job because you you did it already have nothing to do the good news both of your backhands are going to improve a lot your surf is going to be also better fantastic register is typical for a player with a cross dominant eye his right foot is

very much on the left of his last foot which generates his shoulder turn he almost turns his back to the net at the start of it this is possible because his left eye is still seeing the court in front of him the goal of this is to deploy body rotation and generate more power but also disguise the shot better he tosses on his right side and his arm when tossing is parallel to the Baseline so if you want to be inspired by Roger's technique make sure your left eye dominant and righty otherwise it can damage

your game when you're not cross-dominant like you the best shot is backhand in general but you adapted really well I watch both of you when you hit your forehand your head stays here so no problem there is no work to do for you on your dominant eye for your forehand so just for you so you understand your domain I has to face the net all the time so when you hit your forehand if you turn your head then you'll be in trouble and then you'll have contact point that is always changing Etc an example of

right hand right eye dominant that is a good example is a zverev Alexander zverev is right eye dominant and is righty his forehand preparation is different from Rogers his shoulder rotation is shorter to make sure his head still fully faces the chord in order for his right eye to keep following the ball all the time this contact point is on the right of his body making space for his arm to extend in front of him he starts opening his shoulders early so that when he hits the ball his shoulders are totally parallel to the Baseline

in other words it doesn't hit the ball turned on his right side like Roger but facing the net his stance is semi-open to open and when he closes his stance is much less comfortable and often doesn't contactable as well now on the back end and that's what's interesting also for the backhand your eye is here so you can turn because your eye is still watching the net so you can turn so you can have a bigger preparation your contact point should be more between your feet than too much in front because when it's more here

you you keep the ball much longer in the racket you have more power and you also have a better feel of the ball you can close your stance no problem zero Prime and we're going to focus on where to hit the ball more hears and drive it okay great yes yes okay very good okay so I have a good news for you your new best shot is your backhand yeah good this one very good this one yes that's a great angle do you feel the contact Point here yeah it's comfortable yeah yes so you're doing

great and I can see that you have extra power just make sure once you contact the ball that your hands push nothing else not the body just the hands the body will follow the body always follow the hands great down the line exactly the same push with your hands they refuse to miss a ball okay in general when I say that people will miss the next one so good job bubble you feel good yeah okay we keep that yeah the good news is your forehand is your best shot and your backhand is going to be

amazing for both of you his backhand just like feathers forehand has a much bigger shoulder turn going over a 90 degree angle with the net which is possible because his right eye is still facing the net he rarely hits open stance and prefers to stay closed sometimes in an extreme way this is possible again because his right eye is dominant his contact point is on his left side and not so much in front of him his shoulders stay semi-open and do not face the net while making contacts this favors a long passage of the racket

heads through the ball bringing both power and accuracy let's do some serves such slowly because you're not warm good this one I just want to see your Technique hand I don't I don't mind about anything else okay good so you have a perfect technique for a right eye dominant okay we have to work with you so I explained and I go to you why I said your Technique is right and yours is not right according to your item in it which is a good news because you you can improve your servant blue when you serve

if you turn your head not good and you are a bit lost in the space and you will see that once you're gonna be You're Gonna Keep Your Head in front it's going to change your life you you your arm is touching in front so your head stays your your arm is going on the side your head goes okay the the arm the toss has to go in front so your head is in front of the net and your eye is here and then you hit boom in front of you so you're doing perfectly we're

gonna do a little work with you okay okay do it again don't worry I don't care about the results I just want you to feel comfortable okay so this is better but your your head turns come here I want you to see you tell me if your head turns to the side or not it does a bit yeah that's why you don't hit the ball well I'm here I want you to see me all the time see me see me see me see me much better this one was better see here yeah that's perfect here

here yes it's better okay oh she's a good coach I'm here yes how do you feel better huh just as a reminder very simple tell yourself I put the ball in front of me and I push it in front on in the box that's really the idea do it I'll just make sure you're just really in front of you yes okay it's clear for you yes perfect thank you thank you you're welcome thank you so you have a worker on the backhand you have a work on the backhand and the serve his serve is classic

for right-handed right eye dominant player contrary to Roger whose right foot is on the left of his left foot Alexander's feet are almost perfectly aligned when it starts serving he tosses in front and lift his arm to face the net his shoulders do not turn they make a 90 degree angle with the net his head faces the net and does not move from that position from the start to the end of his serve what do you think coming from here I don't know but I can guess just looking at her play yeah you see it

in the back end the contact point is very much on the side huh you see and beforehand she was like more in front yeah yeah knowing what you know now and watching Champions try to guess who is right eye dominant and who is left eye dominant if you like this video and want to see more tips in the future subscribe to my channel to keep learning with me together we can take your game to the next level [Music] [Applause]