your forehand looking more continuous
yeah like you remember before the first time I saw you you were like in here and
you're getting stuck back here and now you're a little bit more flowing
Sara in today's video I would like to do Spanish footwork drills
some of these drills I learned from Emilio Sanchez you know Emilio Sanchez
yeah a lot of the Spanish coaches have the best drills
did you do a lot of like hand feeding and footwork drills when you
were playing in juniors in Spain a lot of hand feeding a lot of Fitness right
footwork
okay good now one more time you know like I grew up in Germany and when somebody from those
northern European countries go to Spain to play Like Satellites or Futures they get destroyed by
the Spanish players because the Spanish players are so good at playing on Clay well first of all
you guys can play on Clay like the whole year that's number one but also like the clay is
a little bit harder I feel so the ball bounced a little bit higher and the spin is super effective
where the clay like in northern Europe is a little bit softer like more it feels like it's more muddy
in a way and the ball doesn't bounce as high it's more suited for flat flat ball Strikers but in Spain
and it's so hard I went one time as a preparation for the German league I went one time to play
satellite in Spain and I got destroyed no chance well also I want to say like it was in April and
it was the first time I played outside in six months but yeah it's it's normal for like players
who live in a northern European countries to go to Spain and get absolutely destroyed it's nice and
it's Clay yeah but you guys will get more hard courts now too though no one
no one was not hard through red clay of course but remember back in the day like
Spanish players only knew how to play on Clay right and they would even skip
Wimbledon they didn't go to Wimbledon but now I feel like the Spanish players are all Court
players they play on Hardcourt they play on everything I mean you have Carlitos and
it's a really not only him but like what about Carreno busta and Bautista Agut are good like
all these guys are really good hardcourt players as well so why is that you you think it's just
do you think it's more the fact that like um the ATP game is more uniform now where everybody kind
of plays the same or do you think is the fact that in Spain that they have more hard courts
now is that what it is or I think we all with hardcore you always had hard courts I think
train every surface but I also think
they all have their fighting mentality of course they're applying it that to every surface well
that's true that's true that's true that's true why is that try to explain that to me
like the Spanish players always have tons of intensity positive body language like they
fight for every point I don't recall seeing one Spanish player who's like um Moody player who
will you know kind of tank games the tank points or even tank matches or throw their racket all
the Spanish players are like the hard-working type player the Grinders the positive attitude
moving their feet that's what makes them so tough to play but why is that they're just
um is that the way you guys get brought up on the tennis court I mean I think
I think if not you don't go is that right I'm gonna pay for you to be like and coaches are
not going to have you you're they don't babysit you yeah even when you're a kid so maybe it's a
little bit cultural too right I think yeah that's very interesting and you go practice on time
you're on time if you're late what happens I mean you run laps is that right yeah do
you know the story where David Ferrer's coach I forget his name I wish I knew his name but when
David Ferrer would do something wrong maybe show up late the coach would lock him in the ballroom
it was like a closet they kept the balls in and he would leave him in that room for a few hours
that builds a lot of character yeah and discipline and respect for the tennis courts
respect for the coach but also respect for the game yeah yeah you know because ultimately like
when you throw your racket when you tank a match this disrespect to the game of tennis you know
what I'm saying okay Sara we're going to do some Spanish style drills I'm gonna do the V and X
drill so you're familiar with those yes yes okay so we start off with the forehand V basically you
get one forehand deep where you're gonna move back diagonally like this hit the ball come
back to the middle all the way and then you get a short forehand where you're going to be diagonally
moving forward so you're going to be moving in a V formation up and back okay good Sarah come
on rip it hard don't get stuck in your take back keep it continuous back there good and again up
and One More Time come back good and up
okay it's okay with the camera don't worry one mistake I saw you do a couple of times
and there's a lot of recreational players through this mistake too let's say you get a
ball that's short and wide and you go here first and then you go here it's like a detour you know
so you go straight to the ball you go shortest distance to the ball like this this way
testing the worst thing I could correct the time go ahead I correct that oh this one yeah
yeah but you didn't you did it correctly a lot of times what I saw a couple of times you did a
little bit of a detour so let's do four more and then you focus on that short one just cutting the
angle off and moving more efficiently middle short batter and go deep all the way to the middle Sarah
come it's that Spanish discipline come on yes all right same thing on the back end deep first
come to the middle and short cut the angle off and all the way to the middle Sarah deep
come on middle short good and Sarah all the way to the middle I'm going to put a cone down
here we go all the way to the middle come come all the way to the middle up
and last one right here come on big turn rip it's okay it's okay go deep
middle big shoulder turn Sarah come on good middle deep
and middle short love those little setup steps good deep and short come and we go deep come
and short Sarah one more Sarah I try to teach all my students to do what you just did there
those little adjustment steps you hear those but people don't do that they take a long steps they
don't adjust you know they they don't ever like when you see recreational players like 3.0 level
play you don't hear any squeaking because they don't adjust and they don't have the intensity
when they're on their toes and moving but you know let me tell you when I was young that was
the worst one with footwork is that right because I was always tall yes like you know
when you were 12 I was already this height yes so I had to work extra on it right that's why
you developed it it's definitely something you can develop that was the worst
no you know it sounds like you know what else like that part of tennis
the footwork part is independent of speed so you don't have to be fast
to be able to do that it's got nothing to do with being fast it's just moving the feet and setting up
to adjust to the incoming ball those small little footwork adjustments that's footwork yeah
you know so like there's a lot of players even on tour less and less these days like even a lot
of the tall players move really well but maybe back in the day it was more of the
taller players who didn't move so well they weren't fast but they still had really good
footwork for example someone like Sharapova you know wasn't that fast but her footwork
was excellent really good yeah okay so now we do the same drill but hitting forehands from the
backhand side okay okay it's the reverse backhand V we're doing forehands from the backhand side
yeah but you come back to the middle all the way no cheating here we go come deep
and come to the middle short come on attack middle deep
and middle I'll keep that forehand continuous come on good and we go deep come
and again Sarah come short good and we go deep come and we go short come Sarah
you got two more and go deep all the way to the middle and short come on get in there
good okay Sara we're gonna do the backward V so you start stand in front of the cone
right here in front of it and I'm gonna push you back on the forehand you hit it with a
lot of spin you come back around the cone and then a defensive backhand back there same
thing and try to put as much Spin and as much height on the ball as possible okay here we go
come around the cone and backhand come around the cone here and forehand come on
good and again backhand and again forehand come Sarah good and backhand come
on all right Sarah now we're going to do the forward V okay this is an offensive drill you
start behind the cone you get one short forehand you move up to it diagonally go around the cone
and then the same on the backhand side there we go forehand come and go around backhand come
and again a little bit more topspin come on control on the ball good backhand come
on good and forehand come on good Sarah Nice Shot backhand come
get a little bit more distance on the backhand more space and match point right here
oh you put control because you missed the last match point that there you put a little bit too
little power there was a little bit of a too safe of a shot there but good job nice work very good
okay now I'm going to remove the cone and we're going to turn the v's into X's so we're going to
combine the drills that we just did and we're going to do what's called The X drill okay so
hear me out you're gonna do one forehand deep come back to the middle one forehead short come
back to the middle one backhand deep come back to the middle one backhand short come back to
the middle so that it looks like an X let's do a set of 12. back to the middle all the way up
and deep backhand middle up Sarah now we do the X but we're going to isolate one shot so while these
situations might not be completely realistic this is great for spacing learning to get out
of the way and learning to get out of difficult situations so let's do the X only forehands and
then we'll do the X only backhands okay okay we start off with forehands there we go 12.
Middle forehand again and now forehand come middle forehand again forehand middle forehand again
and forehand come middle forehand again no cheating all the way in the middle Sarah come on
four more middle forehand and forehand again middle forehand come not the match point Sarah
give me a round of four more you get punished for that four more here we go forehand middle
and deep
and middle come short
much better good middle the backhand is going to be uncomfortable you're going to have to work a
lot to make it feel more comfortable come middle up okay Sarah now we're gonna do bounce feeds
another thing that I learned from Spanish coaches this is great because I can increase the frequency
and give you a little bit of pace as well so it's a little bit different than hand feeding and you're
going to be working on your racket head speed and your reaction time so I'm going to bounce feed
the ball you don't have to run but you do have to get ready and get prepared really fast come
on quick it helps to stay a little bit lower stay low to the ground go again come on keep going sara
keep going Sarah come high intensity go again high intensity come on come on keep going come on again
keep going come on make that big shoulder turn and again Sarah come on Sarah and take a little break
that's hard right it's a leg burner
and core too right you feel it you fill in your abs
come on Sarah this is your last drill for today come on we're gonna burn you out come again
come on again come Sarah come Sarah the last one all right
good work so there's a few other bounce feed drills that I usually do with my students one of
them we did last time we did drills remember the high one so I bounce high and we're running back
and one that I love another thing that I learned from the Spanish coaches is
rallying like me at the net and then every now and then I bounce one into the ground
and this will also improve your preparation and your explosiveness so I really am a big fan
of the Spanish way and I think this was good that I had a player from Spain to
demonstrate these drills you did a great job really good thing how you feeling you tired
it's Fitness like not only tennis like you know you get Fitness out of it but that's what I love
about the hand feeding or bounce feeding is that the frequency is much higher you can
maneuver the ball and in a way where you can't really do that if you're hitting with someone
so the intensity is super super high it forces it to move the feet really quickly and again
it's no surprise to me that Spanish players have always had some of the best footwork in
the world and when you play on Clay you can't really survive on clay unless you have good
footwork so it kind of goes hand in hand so true but yeah good job today nice thank you