Ultimate Tennis Footwork Guide - Beginner Tennis Lesson
Tennis footwork is the foundation for preparation on all tennis strokes and arguably the most important aspect of the game. The common theme with all top tennis professionals is that they have outstanding footwork. Many professional players utilize different grips, swing patterns, and styles of play, however, in order for the pros to execute their strokes they need to be able to move to the ball and set up their body properly.

The Ready Position
The ready position is the stance that allows you to react effectively to the actions of your opponent. Just like a boxer has a ready position with his hands up to deliver offense and defense, a tennis player has a ready position that promotes effective movement on the tennis court and the stance is repeated constantly. It is important to learn the ready position so that your opponent is less likely to capitalize on flaws in your movement.

Tennis Footwork: Split Step
The split step is a small hop that you take from the ready position which allows your body to react explosively to the ball. In order to initiate the split step you want to time your split step by focusing your eyes on the ball and judging when your opponent’s racquet will make contact with the ball. Over a short period of time you should be able to pick up on your opponents stroke patters and time the split step effectively which will be covered shortly.

Tennis Footwork: The First Step Reaction
For the first step, push off your outside foot and begin moving to the ball. Think of the outside foot as being the loaded leg of a sprinter in the starting block, the first push off sets the tone. If the ball is hit to you, you can focus on making small adjustment steps to establish your spacing between you and the ball, which we will cover in the next section.

Adjustment Steps
To ensure you are in the optimal place to set up for the ball, tennis players often utilize adjustment steps, small calculated steps. Adjustment steps can be forward, backward, horizontal, and diagonal movements. Without taking the adjustment steps you may find yourself too close or too far away from the ball, or taking the ball outside of your optimal contact zone.

Tennis Footwork: The Back Foot Follow Through
There is a Follow Through for Foot Work?
In tennis there are strokes that require a follow through of the racquet and on certain strokes the back foot should follow through as well.

Perfect Tennis Footwork Rarely Happens
There will be times where you need to hit with a closed stance and your last step to the ball is a horizontal movement. This typically happens on the return of serve or a ball that forces you to take the horizontal step out of necessity due to being on the run or stretched out.

Tennis Footwork: The Side Step
The side step is performed by pushing off of your outside foot to step with your inside followed by bringing in your outside foot. When performing the side step your feet should not touch one another and your body posture should be similar to that of the ready position.

The Cross Step
The cross step is performed with the same body posture as the ready position and side step. First, you want to push off with your outside foot and step across your inside foot, while maintaining your posture and having the core of your body facing the net. After you take one cross step, it is important to transition into the side step. The cross step is great for when you need to cover a good amount of court quickly in order to recover.

The Run Step
Another option to recover back is the run step which is similar to the cross step and the first step reaction. The run step in initiated after you complete your stroke and you have your feet near parallel in relation to the baseline. Similar to the first step reaction, you want to pivot your feet in the direction you want to move, which will naturally turn your shoulders and hips perpendicular to the net. Next, push off your outside foot and take a run step.

Video Timeline:
00:00​ - Ultimate Tennis Footwork Guide - Beginner Tennis Lesson Intro
00:13 - Footwork Red Flags
1:12 - Ready Position In Tennis
2:47​ - Split-Step In Tennis
3:57 - First Step Reaction To The Ball In Tennis
5:12​ - Adjustment Steps In Tennis
6:20​ - Back Foot Follow Through In Tennis
7:13 - Side Steps In Tennis
8:23​ - Cross Over Step In Tennis
9:18​ - Run Step In Tennis
10:03 - Tennis Footwork Pointers & Best Practices

For the full length guide go to 👉 https://www.tennisnation.com/lessons-...

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