The ball and I are one

I had a Zen-sounding epiphany in the shower this morning, after another drill session. I thought back to when Marina and I took cha-cha lessons. It was all broken down into discrete steps: 1-2-3, 1-2. When the instructors themselves showed what it could be, it was one smooth flow of movements. I realized it's the same when hitting a ball. I used to think of a ball as an object I need to hit, so I need to watch it, prepare and set up, hit and follow through. But as I'm practicing the forehand, it feels more and more as a continuous elliptical movement: ball goes over the net, hands move up and the body turns, ball moves down, hands separate and the left arm smoothly starts to move to the left, and so on. I had an image of strings and pulleys connecting me with the ball: it and I are truly one, and as it moves, I move. I don't react, it's all a smooth connected movement. Imagine a yo-yo: as it rolls down the string, you start to slowly move the hand up to get the momentum that will pull it back, rather than waiting for it to hit the end of the string. I can't explain this, but it feels like a single movie: you can move the slider back and forth, and the ball and the body all move in unison.

Another thing to remember: on the backhand, prepare with the weight on the left foot, then push off it. Serve: release the ball at eye level and agressively move the racquet hand back to counterbalance the ball hand moving up.