Footwork

Footwork in tennis is extremely important. Not only do you have to get to the ball, but you have to get to the ball in a way that allows you to effectively hit the ball as well. The complexity of a tennis player’s footwork is very high. From a young age, we teach players how to do side shuffling, karaoke steps, and various other movements that include high knees, butt kicks, and skips. These motions develop the player’s movement coordination and muscles that are used for various tennis movements. These movements include:

The lateral ball

The lateral ball is the simplest of movements; the ball is hit towards the baseline, and the player needs to move laterally across the court to retrieve the ball. This movement requires a sprint out to the side, and a cross step and shuffle back to the middle of the court to the ready position, with a split step in the middle of the court. This movement is developed first and is usually the quickest of the tennis movements. A good drill to work on lateral movement is for a coach or peer to toss the ball side to side to the player, where the ball throw back to the coach/peer is a mimic of a tennis swing.

The inside out ball

Sometimes, on the move, the player gets caught when the opponent hits the ball right to them, necessitates movement away from the ball rather than to the ball. This skill typically develops with age and with experience, as younger players may have a harder time coordinating this movement in conjunction to watching the ball intently. Because of this, players get “caught” by the ball, hitting the ball too close to their bodies. Movement away from the ball can be with short steps or fast side step movement. A lot of players forget that even though they moved away from the ball, they still need to step into the shot to hit well. 

The short ball

The short ball a lot of different tennis players struggle with, because this movement is not forced by the IT-band muscle that moves players laterally, but instead is using quadriceps and hamstrings for movement, both of which should be developed off court to help with on court movement. The short ball requires a burst of energy and explosive start to get to the ball on time and still be able to focus on hitting the shot itself. Always have players line themselves up diagonally behind the ball instead of forcing themselves onto the ball. Approach shots, or any other form of short balls, should be hit more in FRONT of the player rather than behind the player, as the momentum of movement propels the ball aggressively over the net, and catching the ball late ends up with a mishit. This movement should be trained often, and can be trained in many ways, from simple wind sprints, to resistance running, to exercising the quads and hamstrings through plyometrics and weight training.

Backwards movement

Sometimes when a player is at the net it is required of them to move backwards, either for an overhead or for a deeper shot that the player then has to go retrieve. Running back to an overhead will require the player to sidestep backwards, while a running shot can be sprinted back towards as long as the player is watching where the ball is going. :) This movement should be practiced both with the ball and without.