Footwork technique

Mark, depending on your age and fitness level, there may be some general things you can do in the gym to help with that but I don't think there's any quick fix.  Multiball drills are the main way to develop that kind of efficiency.  I don't know if that is an easy option where you're at.  The Chinese players have been doing insane multiball drills (in terms of duration and intensity) since they were little kids, delivered by people who know what they are doing.  Some coach once told me that it's only when you are getting totally exhausted during a multiball drill that your most efficient form comes out because you have no choice.  Maybe some others have a faster method, but this seems like a big part of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RswAMesc57c

see around 1:30 for one really good one.

Baal wrote: Some coach once told me that it's only when you are getting totally exhausted during a multiball drill that your most efficient form comes out because you have no choice.

I find that I play my best late in a tournament because I don't have the energy to run around frantically trying to kill every ball.  The tireder I get the smarter I play. 

Mark, a few quesions:

Exactly how wide is your stance when looping? My (very uninformed) opion is that it's nearly impossible to swing agressively at the ball with a narrow stance and not have the feet come off the floor.

When you reach the end of your backswing on a forehand loop, how do you initiate the forward swing? Do you "push off" on your right foot or do you simply think about firing the right hip? Perhaps exaggerating the hip rotation and thinking about the stroke as a circular motion could help with this.

Can you hit your loops in warmups without your feet coming off the floor, when you dont have to move at all?

I wish I had some better advice, but I struggle with this same problem. Curious to hear everyone's thoughts.

Do you have any vid of your footwork drills? Hard to asses without seeing what you are doing.

Edited by V-Griper - 09/25/2014 at 10:11pm

Footwork - the most difficult skill to master and hence to teach, in real life. So keep your expectation low coz it will be so many times harder through the internet.

Before heading down the road, you need to get the specific footwork down right first, like what foot to move, in what order etc. Then you need a decent sparring partner. Do it with a single ball with fixed placement and start slow and soft. Don't worry about the shot quality. Concentrate on grooving the order of movement.

Now your turn:

Can you link us a video of any pros doing what you want to achieve?

Caveat:  My footwork is putrid, so I am an expert in how to do it wrong.

This has been linked to many times before, but it's a good example.  Slo-mo starts around 1:30.  

Baal wrote: Somewhere there is or was a video of Wener Schlager showing a younger player his very efficient way of moving, which in some ways was different from what the classic Chinese video posted above says.  It was controversial here, some people saying "that's not the right way to move", but it struck me then and now that is a lot more likely to be something people here can actually do.  But now I can't find that video!!!!

I'm on it, Baal!






Edited by Ringer84 - 09/26/2014 at 11:33am

Ringer84 wrote: Baal wrote: Somewhere there is or was a video of Wener Schlager showing a younger player his very efficient way of moving, which in some ways was different from what the classic Chinese video posted above says.  It was controversial here, some people saying "that's not the right way to move", but it struck me then and now that is a lot more likely to be something people here can actually do.  But now I can't find that video!!!! I'm on it, Baal!

I think this is acceptable footwork for tall players who can effectively just take a step to their right to cover the forehand. Persson does this as well during drills.

Yes.  Also, Schlager is not a giant, maybe the OP is taller than he is.  (Now for that little kid he is coaching it may not be that easy to make that step!)  For me anyway, the Schlager approach is feasible (in fact it's pretty much how I move) whereas the way the Chinese coach is suggesting is just not feasible for me, not in my wildest dreams.  Maybe if I was still in my teens or 20s.

So I would study guys who aren't that quick but who are balanced and effective.  Maybe guys like Primorac.  Watch how they move.

It is good to emulate the great players when you can.  The trick is to figure out which ones are doing stuff you could conceivably incorporate into your game.  So maybe a tall guy might want to emulate Samonsov or Ovtcharov or Oh Sang Eun more than, say, FZD.  If you are slow, you might want to emulate guys who are slow but still good, like Persson or Primorac or maybe even Karakašević.  Guys like Xu Xin are fun to watch, but there is almost nothing he does that I would even think about trying.

Racquetsforsale,

I'll just drop this here:

Ringer84 wrote: In other words, can you do what Zhang Jike is doing at the 1:02 mark of this video?

sandiway wrote: Let me share this video. This is my wife's sister illustrating how to do a footwork drill properly at my house.  She's very light on her feet, *well balanced* and the loop is plenty strong. The key is to hold that balance during the drill. If you watch it in slow-mo, you can clearly see how it's done. Everyone can loop one or maybe three hard but end up overbalanced. Therefore it becomes tough/impossible to recover for the next ball. In other words, the weight transfer has to be done but not overdone.  Even without the ball, I find it impossible to copy what's she's doing in real-time. It's really not so easy. Try it. You have to be very economical with movement to keep it going.

Edited by ameetnsharma - 09/24/2016 at 10:26pm

DreiZ wrote:   ***Edit i think its more of staying lower and not reaching/being lazy as mentioned in the video. You can shadow train the movement in the video on daily basis too. I would focus more on endurance and reaction on the initial hopstep. And for continuous hopsteps, leg strength alone wouldnt be as beneficial as working on strength and reaction together. Jump rope exercises would help with endurance, strength, and reaction.