hey guys in today's video i want to talk about tennis props so what do i mean by tennis props
these are things that we're going to be using on the tennis court to improve our game now
these things can include cones ladders hurdles boxes or steppers we're going
to jump off or different type of plastic lines that can separate the court in different areas
and in today's video i want to give you in my opinion on whether these props can improve your game or
not i'm a big fan of cones this is a great way to work on your directional control or also if you
split the court up in different sections this is a fantastic way to improve your directional control
and i encourage anyone to practice in that way
now when it comes to these other things such as
ladders boxes or hurdles that we're going to be jumping over and somehow improve our game
and my answer whether this is helpful or not is quite complex so let's just say for example that
i at my age of 44 years old start practicing by jumping over the hurdles and doing ladders
every day and doing all kinds of fitness related drills on the court with these props
will my footwork and my overall fitness get better it absolutely will of course these are
great exercises and they will of course improve my fitness however any of these exercises will teach
me absolutely nothing when it comes to tennis specific footwork now this doesn't matter for me
because i already know how to move intuitively i learned tennis specific footwork more than
30 years ago so this is not a problem for me but the question is if you are a recreational
level player who doesn't have good footwork yet or you're a junior who doesn't have good footwork yet
these type of drills will do absolutely nothing to teach you tennis specific footwork and guys
think about it logically the movements that you're doing for example on a ladder when you're jumping
over hurdles those movements do not exist on the tennis court as i demonstrated in the intro of
this video if you try to make any of those movements and try to hit a ball at the same
time you're going to fall down and possibly hurt yourself and guys this is the absolute
truth when it comes to tennis footwork this has to be an intuitive process there's absolutely no way
to play tennis and think about your feet at the same time if you ever try to execute any type of
steps and at the same time track the ball and also try to hit the ball it's absolutely impossible to
accomplish the thought process that's required to make certain steps happen and at the same time do
all these other things there's simply not enough time for that and it's something that's absolutely
impossible to do so what happens instead is that players do not think of their feet they
spend absolutely no time even setting their strokes up there so they're not aware whether
they're doing open stance shots or closed stance shots they're not aware of how many steps they're
taking to the ball they're not aware which foot is coming first which foot is coming second all
this stuff is happening naturally all this stuff is happening intuitively however one thing that
all these players have in common that play at the high level and who possess intuitive footwork is
that they all play with high intensity something that is lacking big time at the recreational level
so recreational players and even some junior level players will often be caught flat footed
this is how your footwork is going to go wrong and most of the time players they will move when
the ball is away from them they will start running towards ball and maybe even get back to the middle
but in between the shots there's often a flat footed stance where you're simply waiting for the
ball like this and this is a lack of intensity that's going to translate
into really bad tennis specific footwork so the key to make your footwork intuitive is to be ready
to move you constantly have to be under intensity or what i call electricity you never want to allow
yourself to have your heels touch the ground you want to be on your toes you want to have a stance
where your upper body is slightly down your hands are in front and something i call the sprinter
stance you want to be ready to explode when you need to but also you got to be constantly moving
even when you're not hitting even when you're not tracking the ball this is something that
you absolutely need as a tennis player just take a look at any professional player when they're
rallying you will never see them flat-footed unless it's federer he's sometimes maybe the only
guy out there who likes to stand around at times but then when federer plays with intensity he more
than anyone else is bouncing around like crazy and he moves his feet exceptionally well maybe
he has some of the best footwork in the history of the game so take a look at the professional level
players how they're moving and don't try to copy the amount of steps they're taking towards the
ball don't try to copy which foot they're going first with i guarantee you these players are not
spending one second thinking about these things these are intuitive processes that take place
and even the fact that they're moving all the time and playing with intensity this is also something
that is in their muscle memory they're not even thinking about that this is what naturally happens
when they play tennis because from early on when they were juniors they started playing like this
and they understand that there is no other way to play high level tennis but to play with high
intensity and also not think about your feet and then throughout the years as you continue to
play tennis this type of footwork does not only get more ingrained but it also tends to improve
as time goes on the interesting thing about my own game is that while i'm getting slower with my age
my footwork is actually getting better so there's a difference between speed and footwork footwork
is the amount of adjustments you are making in order to be in the perfect position to strike
the ball that is footwork when it comes to speed is for example when you're sprinting down a drop
shot so obviously i've gotten slower with time but through all the years of practice my footwork has
become more accurate and better over the years so it's really important that you understand
the distinction that i'm making in this video all these drills that i demonstrated in the intro
those are great things to do and they will improve your balance they will improve your agility and it
will improve your overall fitness if you already possess intuitive footwork if you are an advanced
player doing these drills will indirectly help you move better on the court however if you are
a novice to tennis and don't possess tennis specific footwork yet these type of drills
will do absolutely nothing to teach you the tennis specific footwork that you need in order to play
better tennis so what you need to do in order to learn the intuitive footwork that every high-level
player has in common is that you number one need high intensity so you can't catch yourself
standing on your heels also you need to be ready you can't be straight up like this waiting for
the ball you got to be in a ready position it gives your body the opportunity to react
properly also another important thing that's connected to a footwork is the ability to
track the ball and follow the ball wherever the ball is so those three things will give you the
best chance to learn to move intuitively on the chords so guys the title of this video
was tennis props and whether you're a coach watching this or you're a player who does a
lot of training that includes props i want you to think about the beauty of playing on
a tennis court that has nothing on it let me show you this is something that
you've seen a million times but now try to soak it in take a look at this chord
now i want you to imagine an opponent on the other side that opponent is going to be hitting a ball
back to you when you are tracking that ball your concentration is solely on that incoming
ball there's absolutely no way you could even look down to see what your feet are
doing when you're working with props whether it be a ladder whether it be jumping on boxes
or hurdles you have to look down to make sure that you're executing those steps correctly this
is absolutely impossible to do when it comes to playing tennis your concentration must be solely
on the incoming ball and what happens to your feet will happen intuitively james blake once said the
best way to get in tennis shape is to play tennis there's a lot of truth in that because let's face
it what are we training for we're training for match play so what you have to do in your training
is try to recreate what happens in match play in your training sessions now this doesn't mean that
you only have to play matches you can do drills you can do many different things on the court but
it must be realistic where your focus is on the incoming ball and you're not thinking about your
feet or making certain jumps or steps consciously and there's another reason why training with props
is not the optimal way to train for tennis let me give you the definition of a prop it is an
object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production now in the world
of comedy the best comedians in the world look down upon comedians that use props on stage and
the reason why this is something that's frowned upon is because the props are used to enhance
the comedy in other words the comedy by itself is not good enough or funny enough so those type of
comedians need the help of props to get laughs now i can make a direct comparison to tennis training
whether you're a coach or a player if you heavily depend on props in your training to perform
at your best you are doing it in a way that's artificial you need to learn to create the maximum
amount of intensity without any artificial enhancements or to put it simply just play tennis