The level of anticipation in tennis will differentiate the level of tennis you have.
Pro players have the best anticipation. The moment the ball leaves the opponent’s string, they know where the path of the ball is going. Making it easier for them to move towards the direction of the ball. Even the pros have different anticipation level.
Beginners however struggle in this department and not many coaches aware of this situation. Waiting for the players to master anticipation naturally will make them delayed in progression.
When you can’t read the balls, you will be late. And thus will not be able to contact the balls at the right moment and using sound techniques.
Beginners need to be trained to look at the opponent when opponent about to hit the balls. This comes to the training of looking at the opponent, balls and court. Have u heard of the three things? When you really look at the opponent, you will see small gestures that is consistent. These small gestures will give hints to you to know what the opponent is going to do.
To be able to “read” the ball faster, one needs to be trained to do so. The training can be done using drill named “called out”. This is a drill shown by coach Simon Wheatley in his high level junior player development course in Roland Garros in 2023.
During rally for beginners, a player call out loud the direction of the balls, going to his/her forehand or backhand. The beginners at first “call it out” on the bounce when receiving the balls. By doing so, they practice the anticipation and progress from there. Once the ball bounce, they can call out, “forehand” or “backhand”.
Once they are good at calling out the direction of the balls at bounce, make them call the ball when it travel above the service line of their court. To progress further, call out loud when the ball is travelling just above the net. Progression is made until they are aware of the direction when the ballleaves opponent’s racket.
It is surely not a one day or even a one month work. Do it everyday and see the results. I am sure, this will help a lot of players to anticipate the placement of the balls earlier. While doing the direction call out, a lot of more things can be added up such as the “forehand move”, “forehand stay”, “forehand back”, or “forehand forward” vice versa.