Great tennis footwork is the key to great tennis, which is a fact that so many players overlook.
Here are the top 5 reasons why improving your tennis footwork improves your game!!
1. GREATER SHOT POWER
Developing your footwork skills results in greater power in your shots for the following (and very important) reason. When you get to the ball and get set in a good position, you give yourself the chance to hit the ball using as many body parts as you can. If you don't, you end up hitting the ball just using your arm or maybe off balance.
Think about it like this, a boxer doesn't land a knockout punch by flicking out a jab. The knockout blow is always made by getting the feet in the right position so that all the bodyweight can go into the punch. The same is true in tennis.
2. MORE SHOT OPTIONS
Improving your tennis footwork gives you greater flexibility of shot choice because you get there earlier and in a better position. You get to choose what stance you use to play the shot (open stance, closed stance, neutral etc). You also get to choose where you play the shot and with what stroke (cross court, down the line, backhand, forehand, deep or short, passing shot or lob to name but a few. Without it you will have fewer choices available and the choices you do have may well end up suffering from poor execution.
3. REDUCED ERRORS
FACT! As many as 70% of unforced are down to poor footwork - ATP statistic. What would it mean to your game to reduce your unforced errors by as many as 7 out of 10? Do I need to say any more?
4. STAY IN POINTS FOR LONGER
Improving your footwork for tennis will also improve your agility, balance and co-ordination which are all critical for higher levels of play.
You will be able to get to more balls, more often (even when under pressure) and that forces your opponent to play 1, 2 or 3 more shots than they expect to and maybe want to and that gives them more chances to miss.
5. BETTER TENNIS SPEED & TENNIS FITNESS
If you work on improving your footwork, you will have no choice but to improve your tennis speed and tennis fitness - no bad thing.
I have seen many many good "technical" players lose to so-called "lesser" players who had superior court speed, movement and fitness.
This goes back to the point above and links in with forcing your opponent to play as many shots as possible.
Not only will it draw more errors in the short term but over the course of a match the tiredness they begin to feel has a major impact on their error rate as they get more tired.
So, if you really want to improve your game, it's very simple - Leave your racket in the bag and work on your footwork.
HERE'S HOW TO DO IT!
The first thing you need to do is stop running so much on the court. You should only run if you are a long way from the ball and it is the only way to get there quickly.
Apart from that most of your movements around the court should be made using side shuffles and cross over steps.
Start by incorporating tennis footwork patterns into the warm up routines of every one of your lesson/practice times.
Then progress up to using cones (for zig zags etc) and ladders as training aids.
Start slowly with simple footwork exercises and build up the speed of execution & difficulty of drill as you improve.
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