SANTA CLARA – Asking Patrick Willis to improve upon his rookie season is a bit like telling Superman to try just a little harder.

After all, Willis played every defensive snap last season – the only rookie defender to do so – and finished with 174 tackles, the highest total for any defender in 10 years. Willis ran down wide receivers, outshined Minnesota's Rookie of the Year Adrian Peterson when they met Dec. 9 and otherwise provided 49ers fans with a ray of light in a pitch-black season.

If it wasn't for a broken right hand Week Nine in Atlanta – a minor inconvenience; Willis still led the team in tackles that game – you might think he was made of steel.

In Willis' eyes, however, there's room for improvement.

For one thing, he wants to add the game-changing turnover to his repertoire. Compared to his gaudy tackle numbers last year, his turnover total was pedestrian. He finished the season with two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and no interceptions.

It's not that his hands are suspect. He was a big-play tight end and split end early in his high school career.

Instead, the key is being a step ahead of the play.

And for that, he's been getting plenty of instruction. Linebackers coach Mike Singletary constantly harps about proper technique.

"He's always saying, 'If you play low and play fast, you can create a lot of plays,' " Willis said.

And head coach Mike Nolan stresses anticipation.

Last year, Willis, said, he dropped back into coverage and hoped the football might cross his path. This year, he visualizes precisely what may happen.

"You don't hope," Willis said. "You tell yourself, 'It's going to happen this play.' You tell yourself that you're going to create this play. Sometimes what you have to do is play the play in your mind before it happens."

Consider a situation last year in St. Louis: With the Rams on 49ers' 9 yard line, quarterback Marc Bulger took a deep drop and saw Drew Bennett running free along the back of the end zone. Willis wasn't even in the quarterback's field of vision as he began to wind up, but the linebacker somehow was able to knock the pass down, and the Rams settled for a field goal.

It was his finest play of the game, but Willis sees it as a lesson. This year, he said, he'll be in a better position so that when he breaks on the ball he'll end up with the interception.

"Last year, it was a matter of getting back there and just hoping that things fall your way. Now it's more of taking it upon yourself to create those opportunities for yourself and for your teammates. That's what I'm focusing on – not just hoping for (turnovers), but creating them."

Offensive opponents won't want to hear this. But after a year in the 49ers defense, Willis is even faster than this season.

"Patrick Willis today is not the Patrick Willis of last year," said fellow linebacker Manny Lawson. "A year ago, he was just a (garden) gnome in a field. … If you told him to stand there, he did. Very robotic."

These days, Lawson said, Willis is barking out instructions in the huddle, getting teammates in position at the line of scrimmage and coming up with turnovers.

A week ago, Willis made a one-handed interception of an Alex Smith pass intended for tight end Delanie Walker. The next day Willis victimized Smith again. He jumped in front of a short pass intended for running back Frank Gore and took off toward the end zone in speeding bullet fashion.

Is that what he envisions happening in the regular season?

"I'm hoping," Willis says before catching himself. "No, I'm not hoping. I'm going to create that this year. It's going to happen."

Read Matthew Barrows' 49ers blog at www.sacbee.com/blogs.