on the ball vs rapierlike

on the ball

prep
  • Alert, active, or attentive; on top of things. 

  • Playing as a midfielder. 

  • Being in control of the ball. 

rapierlike

adj
  • Resembling or characteristic of a rapier; sharp, piercing. 

How often have the words on the ball and rapierlike occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )