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Jeff Salzenstein (Tennis Evolution)
Video Capture: 5 Steps To Master Your Footwork — Jeff Salzenstein (Tennis Evolution)
What would it look like if you could start to master your footwork hi my name is Jeff Saul's enstein founder of tennis evolution former top 100 ATP pro and I want to help you get more clear on how you can improve your footwork so you can move around the court more efficiently and more effortlessly and in today's video I'm going to give you five steps to help you with your footwork step number one is the split step and there's a lot of misunderstanding a lot.
Of misconceptions around the split step I want to give you one tip around it today so the idea and I see a lot of problem players making this mistake the idea is to actually be in the air when your opponent strikes the ball a lot of players think that they should be on the ground when their opponent makes contact but you actually want to initiate the split step early before they make contact sear in the air when contact is made so when you're in the air and they.
Make contact then you can push off in any direction the ball has already been struck when you're in the air you want to be coming down the ball hits the ground sorry the feet hit the balls already left the racquets so that you can move in either direction there's a timing to this most players are too late with their split step they're actually on the ground when the ball is being struck and the reaction time is slower that's step number one I want you.
To focus on that step number two to improve your footwork is I want you to have a wide base a lot of players are very narrow when they come out of their split so I want to make sure that you're in a wide base you're in a strong base where the feet are outside the shoulders so you want to make sure that you're in a wide base when you're playing when you come out of the split you also want to be in a wide base when you get out wide.
For balls so if I move out wide here I see a lot of players finish and their feet are about this wide we need to get this foot outside of this shoulder so that we can push off and get ready for the next shot again common patterns that I've seen with this wide base is that almost everyone is too narrow so one reason players are two narrows because they're not aware of how their body should feel they're not aware that they should have these feet outside.
The shoulders okay on many occasions yes there's a time to step in and be upright and I teach that but when you're playing in a dynamic fashion you want to get into that wider base and the only way you can do that is if you have strong legs so make sure that you're doing the appropriate strength exercises for your legs in your lower body a lot of single leg stuff would really help you a lot single leg squats any type of squats where you're practicing being.
Wider with your feet outside the shoulders okay that's step number two okay step number three to help you with your footwork is to take bigger steps I know I'm probably going to take some heat for this one for all the coaches out there that say take little steps to the ball but I'm not seeing that with the pros been studying the game for a long time I've watched a lot of video footage I've worked with pros I've seen them move and I've practiced it on myself and yes.
There's a time and a place to make little adjustment steps but I think more players need to practice taking bigger steps and the way to do that is to have a strong first move so an example that I can give you or taking bigger steps and this relates usually with balls where you're moving out wide is that when you come out of the split step assuming in your wat you're in a wide base look I'm in a wide base I can really drive and make a strong first move to the ball a.
Lot of players come out of their split and then they take little steps to get out to the ball and that takes too much time especially when the ball is coming faster if as you keep ascending and going to the next level with your game you're going to learn how to take these bigger strides that have more rhythm to them so when I come out of the split I take a big first move I take it make a big step okay so I crossover and then the next.
Step is pretty big so you can see that if I move at a good clip here watch me move out of the split I'm able to the single sideline with two big steps watch this again I come out of the split one two and then I hit the ball and I shuffle a lot of players they come out of the split and they try to do this to the ball and that takes too much time and there isn't enough rhythm behind it so these bigger steps are huge and it usually.
Starts with the first move if I have to move up to a ball and I come out of the split I want to take a bigger step it's this little step at the beginning that really slows momentum down it's taking little adjustment steps at the end of the shot that throws your rhythm off if you study the top pros Djokovic Federer and Nadal they are taking bigger steps to the ball yes if the ball is close okay there are little adjustment steps to be made and I.
Teach that and I believe in that but not enough emphasis is being mentioned or focused on with taking these bigger steps to cover more ground whether you're running straight ahead diagonal even if I have to drop and go back a little drop step in a big crossover allows me to cover a lot of ground when people are moving back a lot of times they just turn and they do this stuff so we have to learn how to take those bigger strides okay those bigger steps that bigger.
First move now that's step number four to improve your footwork is shadow strokes and shadow footwork when I was in my late 20s I lived in California and Palm Springs and a lot of times he's 120 degrees out no one would play with me so I went out to a public park very similar to this we're at a public park right now and I would just work on my shadow strokes in my footwork and so I would move around the court and I would just repeat a pattern like this.
Every time and I would just work on it I just come off square up I drop back I go here and you can see there's a rhythm to my movement had come here on my backhand oh right a little shuffle step and then I step in oh alright then I crossover and then I square up oh alright so I would play with one two three shot combos maybe I run up for a lowball here oh all right I come to the net and I'd knock off some volleys but I was very precise with my footwork I had studied.
The pros I had seen how they moved and that helped me develop the footwork system that I teach a tennis evolution so if you've been struggling with your footwork and so many coaches are telling you hey just move your feet well I'm going to show you how to move your feet I'm going to give you the breakdown I'm going to give you the attention to detail the specifics how to move on the baseline how to transition forward how to move at the net how to serve and recover how to.
Use your footwork on return to serve I've studied all of it and a lot of it starts with shadow strokes no one spends a taut enough time with the shadow strokes I shouldn't say no one very few people spend enough time on the shadow strokes and the footwork very few people spend time studying video and then going out and trying to model that footwork I've done the shadow footwork and I've also studied the videos so that's step number four is to practice.
Your shadow strokes in your footwork with the precise footwork hopefully you're studying the footwork that I teach over a tennis evolution step number five and this one's an interesting one and again probably some disagreement out there but that's okay we're all open to different opinions you just need to go out on the court and see what works for you this step number five has to do with rhythm and getting arriving at the appropriate time I believe that we should arrive at the.
Appropriate time depending on the speed of the ball so if the ball is coming really fast then I need to move fast to get there but if the ball is coming slow I don't feel that you should move really fast to get over there and slow all of your momentum down I think you should move to the rhythm of the ball so if the ball comes really fast okay I'm going to get there I'm going to get there really quickly right okay I'm going to get there if the ball is slower.
Okay slower I wait and then I arrive at the correct time to be able to load and rotate into the shot but if I if I'm dealing with a slow ball and I get over there really fast which I see a lot and then I have to wait and then I swing then there could be some issues with rhythm timing and tempo I'm all about rhythm timing and tempo with movement and even with the swinging of the racket okay so see if you can practice moving quickly when the ball.
Comes quick and moving more deliberately maybe even slower in rhythm and arrive load this leg at the right before you're supposed to accelerate and hit the ball okay very important to get the rhythm and the tempo down with the movement so those are the five steps I've gone over the split step the timing of the split step I've gone over making sure you have a wide base I've covered taking bigger steps or making.
A bigger first move I've talked about shadow footwork and finally I've talked about rhythm and arriving at the right time those are five powerful steps that can help your tennis footwork I'm here to help you guys I hope you enjoyed today's lesson give us a thumbs up subscribe to the channel tell your friends about it and maybe more importantly click the description link below to get more free tips from tennis evolution where.
We're committed to helping passionate players all over the world those committed players that want to the next level that want to take deliberate inspired action I want you to tennis evolution go over to the blog check out the tips somewhere in this video you're going to see links that you can click on videos you can click on to get more information to get more free tips click that link in the description below thanks again for your time today I.
Love your patience for tuning in to this entire video where you're going to study this and now get out and improve your footwork thanks so much we'll see it the next one.
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