when it comes to playing tennis there's a big difference between footwork and speed
one you can live without the other one you can't and you guys are going to be surprised
when i tell you that you don't need to have incredible speed to become a good tennis
player so what is the difference between speed and footwork so just picture someone
like a rafael nadal or gael monfils running down a drop shot this is where you see pure speed maybe
two of the fastest guys on the atp tour on the other hand picture someone like a
maria sharapova who's not known for her speed and just take a look how she moves her feet
she had some of the best footwork on the wta tour so basically speed is something that you're
going to use when you run down a drop shot or you're hitting forehands or backhands on the run
on the other hand footwork is something that you need on every single ball and unfortunately a lot
of recreational players struggle with footwork they might have great speed but they lack
tennis specific footwork i have a lot of students that used to do other sports and they're great
athletes they're very fast but they don't possess the right intensity and the right footwork that is
so crucial when it comes to playing tennis and what makes tennis so unique that every ball is
going to be coming at you differently you have to deal with several variances so it could be
your opponent giving you different spins or slices hitting the ball high or low hard or soft but then
also you have to deal with outside factors such as the surface you're playing on or the wind and what
that means that every single ball that's coming at you will require for you to be moving your
feet and putting yourself in the perfect position to strike the ball otherwise you're going to be
committing a lot of mistakes and one of the best ways to practice your intensity and footwork is
the tennis wall and why do i say that because the ball obviously is going to be coming back
very fast even faster than on a real court and you have to move your feet you have to be on your toes
and constantly be moving and guys the reason why i love the wall so much for tennis footwork is that
i'm hitting the ball straight to myself and despite that fact i'm still moving my feet
this is what a lot of people don't understand you have to move the feet in tennis even if the
ball is coming right to you just take a look at my feet there's constant adjustments being made
in order to strike the ball cleanly and one of the biggest problems at the recreational level
is that players will stand around they will be flat-footed on their heels when the ball is coming
right to them naturally players will move when the ball is further away but on those stationary
balls when the ball is coming quite central this is where players don't move their feet
and now unfortunately they're not going to be set up good enough also their movements are not going
to be dynamic and they commit a lot of mistakes because of that and this is what it looks like
i'm going to hit the ball right to me and players will just stand like this they are flat-footed
they're not moving at all they might take a couple of steps out of the way
you can see that this drains the entire intensity out of my whole game and naturally if the ball
goes a little bit to the side they will move and run but what you have to learn is to have this
constant intensity that is something that every high level tennis player has in common which is
basically a constant movement of your feet where the heels are off the ground basically you're
going to be on your toes the whole time adjusting according to the ball now these might not be big
adjustments these might be very small steps that you are making to put yourself in the proper
position so take another look i'm gonna hit that ball right down the middle and you can also hear
that the shoes are squeaking that's always a good sign when you play on hardcourt if you hear this
squeaking sound it's probably somebody playing who's at a little bit higher level so when you
hear that sound when you play you know that you're moving your feet a lot better now i'm
very much like sharapova i'm not the fastest guy genetically even though i did a lot of work
to become as fast as i possibly could but i have some limitations due to my height and my genetics
where i'm not naturally fast however i have very good tennis specific footwork and what that means
for every tennis player is that while you might have some genetic limitations on how fast you
can become there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't learn to have good tennis specific
footwork and there's no better place to learn this tennis specific footwork than the tennis wall
all right last one
and guys even though the rally was only maybe 10 15 shots i can already feel it in my legs and the
surprising thing is that i wasn't really running it's just that i'm tired from setting up the balls
correctly this is the type of intensity that you need if you want to play tennis
at a little higher level it's something that is absolutely necessary because
if you don't have that if you're flat-footed if you're standing around you are at the mercy
of the incoming ball and you're bound to make improvisations in your strokes because of that