Hey yeeman, yes this can be tricky when starting out, definitely watching the opponents bat as your friend said will help. I would suggest first getting good solid shots,so forehand and backhand drives and being confident with those shots and then start to work on irregular exercises so you don’t know where the ball is going and this will improve your reaction to each shot a lot.
But it’s important to develop and understand the stokes in a fixed position to start with before doing this.
