hey guys in today's video I want to talk about something that's incredibly important possibly
the most important thing when it comes to playing tennis or improving in tennis and I often talk
about my research where I studied the greatest players in the world and I set their technique
as The Benchmark of how tennis should be played but something else that I've done in my research
is that I listened and read transcripts of a lot of players interviews and there's so much value in
listening to professional tennis players talk about tennis but one player in particular and
that's Roger Federer and one thing that he said that stuck with me was the following the greatest
tennis players are always the greatest movers and guys if you think about the greatest players in
the history of tennis you will understand that this is one of the most accurate statements that
has been ever made about tennis and let's talk about some of the greats for example Bjorn Borg an
unbelievable athlete an unbelievable mover on the court how about Steffi Graf an incredible mover
known for her excellent footwork how about Pete sampras I'll never forget I saw a clip of Pete
Sampras playing out a point in a group lesson when he was 11 years old and I've never ever seen a kid
at 11 years old move like sampras did so Sampras is one of the greatest movers in the history of
tennis and we don't even have to mention the big four Andy Murray Rafael Nadal Novak Djokovic and
Roger Federer some of the greatest movers we have ever seen on the tennis court how about the new
kid on the Block Carlos alcaraz who has risen to number one in the world and won the US Open again
an unbelievable athlete an incredible mover so if you want to reach the elite level of the game
if you want to be amongst the best players in the world you are going to have a very difficult time
doing so without being a great mover now I know what you're thinking you're going to say Nick
what about John Isner Riley Opelka Milos Raonic Maria Sharapova these are not the greatest movers
but yet they reached the top of the game well you have to understand one super important distinction
when it comes to movement on the tennis court there's a big difference between speed
and footwork and look these two things should never be confused because when we're talking
about speed we're thinking about someone like a sampras or an alcaraz who are just incredibly fast
players and that is obviously incredibly important on a tennis court and you can make the argument
that maybe on the ATP Tour where the game is extremely physical you're gonna have a very
difficult time to win Grand Slam tournaments or become number one in the world if you don't
have that speed on the WTA tour I do think it's possible even though the WTA tour is
getting more athletic as well but someone like a Maria Sharapova is the example that I always
use of a player who has excellent footwork but yet is not necessarily fast relatively speaking
Maria Sharapova is fast or let's say it was fast when she used to play but compared to some of
the other athletes on the WTA tour she wasn't as fast as them but yet she had excellent footwork so
we have to make the distinction between footwork and speed you could become an elite level tennis
player with a relatively slow speed but there's absolutely no chance you're even going to reach
the high level if you don't possess good footwork now I'm going to explain the difference between
speed and footwork when it comes to tennis so imagine yourself on the Baseline and you're in
a ready position and somebody hits a drop shot and now you have to Sprint to get that drop shot
or somebody hits a great angle and you have to Sprint laterally towards the ball now this is
where your speed is going to be the biggest Factor whether you're going to have success
of Defending a shot like that obviously if you're someone like alcaraz or like nadal you run down a
drop shot you're gonna have great advantages over someone like a Sharapova or other players who are
not naturally as fast and they're gonna have a more difficult time defending shots like that
now what footwork is is the amount of steps that are required to set up a specific shot
in other words any shot that I hit I have to set it up because the thing about tennis is
the following you can never predict how a ball is going to come to you even if it's coming at you
right through the middle of the Court it still requires footwork it still requires setup there
is a certain amount of steps that you have to make in order to set up a specific shot and guys
without this footwork you're gonna have a very difficult time advancing in the game of tennis
yeah as I said before good footwork is necessary if you want to reach the
high level you will not see a high level tennis player with bad footwork like I
said you might see a high level tennis player who's maybe not fast like some other players
but you will never see a high level player that doesn't have good footwork and why would that be
the case because if you don't have good footwork you will not be able to set up your shot properly
and you're gonna commit a ton of mistakes because of it quick Interruption guys we'll get right back
to the video but I want to show you something that's quite frankly genius you see how the ball
is going forward but yet the tip of my racket is going up and then across this device called
The Top Spin Pro see a lot of people have this faulty mental image that we must hit forward
in order to get the ball to go to the other side and it's a completely false the topspin pro will
teach you the correct swing path and not only do I recommend this device for the recreational
level this is something that I use personally to improve my forehand and backhand topspin so go to
the description click the link and get yourself a topspin pro so here's the important question what
Roger Federer said is absolutely true and all of us should strive to improve our footwork and
also to improve our speed because this is going to help us tremendously on the tennis court because
let's face it we're going to have to chase that ball down it's not going to come right to us and
Tennis is all about movement which should be a reminder to you that when you're practicing
not to just stand in place this might be okay if you're working on something technical but every
tennis practice should involve movement because this is going to be the real deal guys when you
step on that match court the balls are not going to be coming to you you're going to have to rely
on your movement so let's talk about how you can develop your speed first and we of course
have to Encompass everything that is related to speed on the chord flexibility range of
motion agility these are all things that you're gonna have to work on and I made a great video
this is the first time that I got out of shape on purpose and I tried to get myself in good
tennis shape and I title this video getting back in shape and I performed various tennis specific
exercises and these are drills that are very tennis specific some of the other drills performed
in this video are drills that I've been doing with my dad for many many years and all these drills
mimic the exact movements that you're going to be doing on a tennis court and I highly recommend
that you watch this video and that you copy these drills if you want to improve your overall Fitness
and speed when playing tennis and when it comes to tennis specific footwork this is where things
get more complex they get more complicated I made a course that's more than two hours long titled
the intuitive tennis footwork things that you do have to learn regarding tennis footwork there
are going to be rules that you have to follow regarding tennis footwork it's not all natural
some movements in tennis are counter-intuitive but one thing that I can tell you that also featured
in this course is something that I've talked about many times in many of my videos and it's
possibly the biggest flaw at the recreational level that is the fact that players will
stand on their heels and a lack intensity they lack Readiness they are relating the pace of the
incoming ball and determine how they're going to move so when the ball comes at them easy and slow
they will become very nonchalant and they'll lose all the intensity this is something that
you don't see at the high level because no matter if the ball is fast or slow the ball
will always be unpredictable so you have to treat every ball seriously you have to set up
every ball with a tremendous amount of intensity I always say this you go to a local Club you take
a look at the Players especially when they play doubles and you're going to see tons of players
just standing on their heels guys I'm going to keep repeating this until it clicks because you
guys need to change this you will never ever see a high level player standing on their heels high
level players are always on their toes they're always moving around they're always ready so
this is something that's also very important as the Readiness factor that is connected to
intensity so the first thing that you can do is increase your intensity you got to get your heels
off the ground something that John Mcenroe said one of the greatest tips ever is that you always
try to keep your heels off the ground when you're playing tennis this is something that I've always
done now people that don't know anything about tennis have made fun of me and the way I run
because when I jog I kind of jog on my toes which is not the correct technique but I'm kind of like
Sharapova a lot of people ask me Nick who would you compare yourself with on the professional tour
and I always say I'm the male version of Sharapova not as good I'm the poor man's version of
Sharapova because just like her I'm not very fast but I do have excellent tennis specific footwork
and on top of that I do have a lot of intensity and this is what you guys need as well you need
the whole package no doubt about it you got to get yourself in shape you got to lose the
extra pounds I have a great video on my website where I show you how you can do
that also you have to always try to improve your tennis speed but most importantly what
you can do right now is get those heels off the ground start getting on your toes start being
ready don't underestimate any balls and try to set up every ball to the best of your abilities