6 Int/Adv Hand-Eye Coordination Drills for Athletic Performance

[@craigcarpenter1461]

Some of these look very challenging. Awesome

[@athleticengine]

Give them a try 👍🏽 🎾

[@vince4313]

This is really good! Appreciate it!

[@athleticengine]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. We have a playlist with other hand-eye drills: kzbin.info/aero/PLVh_g2E7AJnYEb3-toQl_ryRC_a_1HL7G

[@prabhanjanavramagiri8208]

Keep going you are doing great. Very worth it 🙌 Such a good skill.

[@athleticengine]

Thanks - glad you like it 👍🏼👍🏽

[@dominickreyes7718]

Amazing! Thanks. I got to try some of these later.

[@athleticengine]

Awesome 👍 thanks for sharing. Let us know how it goes.

[@azizz4443]

Would it be beneficial for a basketball player to use strobe glasses doing these exercises? Thanks!

[@entstructor3828]

Very helpful 👌 keep it up!

[@athleticengine]

Glad it was helpful!

[@entstructor3828]

@@athleticengine I am using some of your drills for an online Volleyball Training, the kids are loving it :)

[@waafles]

very helpful

[@athleticengine]

🙏

[@Naman12387]

Nice 👍👍

[@athleticengine]

Thanks - glad you liked it

[@thehappyman2274]

Great drills! I have a question. I am a tennis player. Can the drills you suggested can help me in my tennis? I am gonna play to those players who hit more than 100 mph serve and shots. Or do I need advance eye hand coordination drills so that I can see more so that 100 mph serve. Thanks!

[@athleticengine]

These type of drills will help your general rhythm, coordination, footwork, perception, and “feel.” All of those things will translate in tennis. Serve returns are a very specific skill and the best way to develop that specific skill is to practice returning the serves at gradually more difficult spins and speeds. If you’re already a skilled tennis player, I would practice your serve returns regularly against somebody who can deliver speed and spin beyond your current ability to return consistently and with control. And in addition to that you should work a lot on footwork with foot control (not allowing your ankle to be loose and collapse or your foot to dorsiflex). Your ability to react quickly and return fast serves starts from your feet. Best of luck! 🎾 👣

[@thehappyman2274]

Hi! I play tennis. Can you please recommend some footwork drills that can help me move faster. for example, reaching fast when the opponent hits a really fast groundstrokes, just like Alcaraz reaches almost everywhere. Thanks!

[@athleticengine]

If you want to move faster, you have to learn the skill of “lightness” on your feet. That means you need to be able to “unweight” your body very quickly and easily. It doesn’t really matter what footwork drills you do, there are an infinite number. What matters is HOW you move when you practice them. So my recommendation to you is when you’re playing tennis, running, working on footwork drills, etc try to be as silent as possible on your feet. The more noise you make on the ground, the more inefficiently you’re moving. You can move fast, inefficiently. Many athletes do. But it’s not sustainable. You will suffer more injuries. Alcaraz has already had many injuries and he’s only 21, playing a non-contact sport. He is a great tennis player but he does not move efficiently. Don’t bother focusing on speed. Speed is an OUTCOME. Focus on the quality of your ground interaction. Figure out how to move as quietly as possible. The better you can master that, the quicker and more agile you will become, will less risk of injuries. In addition you have to keep your body structure in a state where it’s capable of moving efficiently, which doesn’t come from doing footwork drills but from keeping your joints decompressed, building integrity and connective strength (not muscular), keeping your muscles supple and relaxed, etc. Unfortunately it’s not as simple as doing some footwork drills, especially because most athletes/people in general are starting from a deficit and a weakened structure due to lifestyle factors like excessive use of chairs and poorly designed modern footwear. Work at it! 🪶

[@thehappyman2274]

@athleticengine To be honest, this is the most unique answer I got on footwork. Before playing a tennis match, I do lots of footwork drills but was still not able to move faster or reach the ball when my opponent hit 100 mph groundstrokes and serve. I thought my reflexes might be weak. Then, I found your video on KZbin. You gave a correct answer to my question on improving reflexes on tennis. There's lots of noise when I run on tennis court. Can I get more information about the skill of lightness on my feet? Is there more effective ways to unweight my body and feet quickly? Is there an athlete who did this?

[@athleticengine]

@@thehappyman2274 Lightness on your feet is a combination of things - perception, skeletal alignment, tensegrity strength, coordination and rhythm, etc - all can be improved with the right training process. I help athletes with this who work with me either in person or virtually. Right now I’m working with a group of young tennis players once a week on this stuff and some of them are starting to show more lightness on their feet already in just one month, one hour per week. One tip I can offer you as a good starting point is to get your alignment properly assessed. If your body is poorly aligned, if your hips don’t have SPACE to rotate correctly as you run, if your feet/ankles collapse when you run, etc then you will not be as light and quick as you can. The $87 assessment offered through our website is the best initial investment any athlete who is serious about improving can make because it will show you OBJECTIVELY where you really are right now structurally and then you will know what needs to be fixed to improve how you move. Otherwise you’re just guessing. In terms of athletes, there aren’t many modern day ones who move very well, despite the fact that there are many who perform at a super high level. That is why the injury rates continue to soar. If you want an example of light footwork, look up old clips of Muhammad Ali. Look up clips of how Bruce Lee moved. In tennis, Sampras had very athletic footwork in his younger days. Federer had good footwork too. Footwork isn’t just about getting to balls… it’s about getting to them in a way that you’re balanced, you own your axis, you’re ready to strike, you use as little energy as possible, and you can slow down, change direction etc on a dime. No loud, clunky steps. I wish you all the best in your training. If you’re serious about addressing this I would recommend you do the assessment and see what shape (structurally) your body is truly in right now so you know what to prioritize in training without wasting time and effort.

[@handeyecoordinationskills]

Can someone define how these drills when mastered can actually benefit an athlete , in other words how can they help a young athlete ? By the way I tried these and they're a great challenge, thanks

[@athleticengine]

Thanks for your question. These drills develop many elements that fall under the general umbrella of coordination. For example: synchronizing the left and right side of the body, synchronizing the upper and lower sections of the body, sharpening sensitivity/perception to improving timing of actions/reactions/reflexes, gaining a better sense of distance/weight/volume/proportions, improving the ability to focus. These abilities are largely overlooked in athletic training in my view, as the focus in more recent years has become biased towards strength training for performance. Strength is an important aspect of development, but a strong athlete without a high level of coordination and sensitivity is missing a lot. In a less obvious way way, improving all of these aspects of coordination also reduces one’s risk of injury because preventing injuries is not only about being more “bulletproof” and able to take impact, but also about being able to sense and avoid impact, which depends a lot of the qualities mentioned above, among others. Think of a boxer. They must be able to take a hit, but must also have exceptional footwork and coordination to avoid getting hit in the first place. So this coordination training helps a young athlete develop and refine the “softer” aspects of athleticism which are largely overlooked but certainly no less important in our view. Lastly, these drills can improve a young athlete’s ability to learn and “feel” things out. Learning strength exercises for example is often very simple and can be picked up without too much attention, sense of rhythm, or feel. These drills will bring some awareness to how you approach learning something where a little more complexity is involved and where rhythm, coordination, and efficiency are more important than just brute strength. Anybody can pick up a dumbbell or do some lunges with very little practice, but juggling a soccer ball for example is different. Efficient coordination is the FOUNDATION of healthy athletic development. Specific strength and skills must be layered on top of that foundation. These drills provide an opportunity to develop better coordination in a way that is particular helpful for any sports that involve handling a ball in any way.

[@handeyecoordinationskills]

@@athleticengine wow , I take my hat off to you on what is a brilliant answer to my question. Before replying and thanking you for this, I had to read over it several times to truly grasp all you mentioned. It makes perfect sense to me and I couldn't agree with you more. Without trying to be boastful, all these points you make are what I've kind of being thinking about for yrs but perhaps a bit afraid to express it too much in my classes as I thought it may take up too much time, but you've cemented all these ideas I've had for a long time and I guess I just needed to hear it from someone else. I'll give you a little example of what happened , at one of my beginner tennis classes a couple of years ago, with younger children I decided to work with balloons , so kids simply started tapping them up with their right hand then their left hand then their right foot then they're left foot etc progressing onto holding a racket while again tapping up 1 balloon then 2 etc and I gave them the added challenge of walking along narrow benches while tapping up.... which they loved... When that particular course was over, I noticed two or three of the kids dropped out and never came back for the next course . I never knew the reason but I figured that the children said to mom and dad, "we did balloon stuff today" and the parents might have got perhaps annoyed on why they weren't actually practicing tennis shots and hence took them out of my classes. The thing is , the children who returned improved amazingly quick within a matter of weeks and subsequently progressed on to being able to hit the ball at ease . I put this all down to the fact that I trained both sides of their brains to juggle up these balloons , spatial awareness, walking straight and at a pace that allows this tapping up to work , control of touch and feel to control the action etc and of the course the main reason, FUN 😁 So thank you again for your information and excellent ball hand/eye skills you provide

[@athleticengine]

I’m glad it’s helpful, and thanks for the example you provided. Yeah not everyone will understand or appreciate the reason for doing certain things which is fine. As a coach/teacher the best thing we can do in my view is to teach what we know has worked well by experience. And the only way to know what works well is to be an experienced practitioner first. In other words if you can demonstrate a high level of competence then people truly seeking to improve will be likely to trust your guidance. And it’s important that whatever guidance is given is based on what you’ve personally practiced and has worked well for you. 🙏🏽

[@handeyecoordinationskills]

@@athleticengine thanks , only problem with me now is I'm middle aged and after a knee op , my flexibility and strength aren't what they were but I can still do things reasonably well, Just wanted to thank you again for the fab answer you provided , I met some parents this morning who dropped their kids in and I rattled off some of your quotes and felt very confident , I'm almost thinking about just doing co-or training exclusively and dropping tennis , who knows , many thanks again and I'll keep watching your videos, cheers man 😊

[@athleticengine]

We will be releasing some new videos around the end of the month, so be sure to check those out. Thanks again for your comments - it’s great to hear 🙏👍

[@Dggb2345]

Looks like fun but where’s the peer reviewed paper that supports this exercise? What can be measured to see if improvement has been made?

[@athleticengine]

If this is a joke, I had a good laugh so good one! If it’s a serious comment/question, I don’t read peer reviewed papers and don’t care about any peer reviewed paper that has ever been written. I only live in the real world and do what works in reality. 🙏🏽 Either way, thanks for your comment and have fun with your training!

[@Dggb2345]

It wasn’t a joke. I think that having a peer reviewed process hones in on what really works. Anecdotally, the latest Roger Federer video shows him using hand eye coordination drills in his daily training and my question was more directed toward where you learned these skills?

[@simonrankin9177]

I think at my age of 62 and a weight trainer for years ,all this stuff is great , its different, it blows the cobb webbs off you ,and gets your mind and body stimulated ,i think these exersizes would be incredible for anyone facing or getting dementia. ....💙💚💛

[@Dggb2345]

Trust the process but verify

[@simonrankin9177]

It looks like a different place where your training ...in a basement with lots of space ...