Tennis - Footwork
(from The Inner Game of Tennis)
Footwork is clearly one of the critical variables for the successful execution of any shot in tennis. It provides the foundation that supports the body’s movement as it swings to hit the ball. Much has been written about this subject and it is all too easy to get the feet tangled or feel awkward in the process of “obeying” a myriad of footwork instructions. We will take another approach.
The footwork technique most commonly taught by teaching professionals on the backhand has remained relatively unchanged over the past twenty years. Right-handed players are typically instructed to “hit the ball with your feet moving forward toward the ball at an approximately 45-degree angle with your feet comfortably separated.” It is commonly explained that “one tends to lose balance if the feet are too close together,” and that “your weight should transfer from the back foot toward the front foot as you move to strike the ball.”
Assuming that these two instructions can be useful guides to learning footwork technique, how can they best be used? First, resist the temptation to immediately obey them. The first step is to closely observe your own footwork especially as it relates to one of the variables in the instruction, say, weight transfer. Without making any conscious changes in your weight shift, simply observe how the transfer is occurring now. As you continue your observation, chances are your weight will automatically begin to make some changes, that is if any change is needed. You can let Self 2 experiment until it finds what feels best and works best for you.
The same approach can be used with discovering the proper angle. Knowing what 45 degrees might look like, you can simply observe the angle with which your front foot steps toward the ball. If during your initial observations you observe your foot moving significantly less or more than the desired angle, don’t force it. Just allow Self 2 to approximate the desired angle until it feels comfortable. You are asking; it is executing. Be prepared for the fact that sometimes Self 2 may find that what works best for it is not in conformity with the instruction. Such might well be the case with the footwork on the forehand side.
In contrast to the backhand, what has been accepted as correct footwork on the forehand has changed dramatically over the past twenty years. When the first edition of this book was published, it was commonly taught that the footwork on the forehand should be close to the same as on the backhand, except with the other foot moving forward toward the ball at approximately a 45-degree angle. That was certainly the way I was taught when I first learned the game over fifty years ago. In fact, when I learned, the “correct” footwork steps were painted on a black rubber mat. To learn the prescribed footwork on the running forehand, I was trained to place my feet in the printed steps over and over again until I could do it without looking. Then, when taking my lesson, failure to reproduce that exact footwork was a cue to the instructor to give corrective instructions.
However, now there are two alternative and commonly approved footworks recommended. One way, called the “open stance forehand,” was discovered and propagated by clay-court players who began hitting with weight established on their right, or back foot, instead of transferring weight to the front foot. Instead of stepping into the ball with the left foot, they would step horizontally, parallel to the baseline, with their right foot assuming an almost 180-degree stance. They would turn their shoulders, rotate their hips and unwind like a corkscrew to hit the ball. Easier to observe than to describe, the open stance forehand proved very effective on clay courts and ultimately was adapted by many professionals playing on hard courts or grass as well. It had the advantage of making it easier to produce topspin and also to return to the center of the court faster than when hitting off of one’s left foot. This evolution is especially interesting to me, as I remember the countless times I was scolded for hitting the forehand in this way, before it had become “approved.”
To learn the footwork for this “open stance” forehand along with the other elements of the swing that go with it would be a daunting task if you had to break it into its component parts, learn them by means of instructions and then put them all together. However, it might not be so difficult to learn if you observed someone who did the stroke well, let yourself “play around with it,” before putting your attention to the details of the swing. During this experiment it would be important to be totally nonjudgmental, even unconcerned about your results, until you got a feel for the swing as a whole. Not until then would you focus your attention on the specifics and allow them to refine themselves. When you felt ready, you might choose to focus attention on how much your hips were rotating, observe your shoulder turn, the action of your arm, etc. You would observe each of these in turn just as you did the weight distribution of your feet on the backhand,without any conscious effort to make them conform to a certain pattern, but allowing yourself to discover the feel that is comfortable for your body and personality and produces effective results.
If you learned how to hit the open stance forehand, that does not mean that you have to use it on every shot or that it is even the correct way to hit the forehand. The other accepted technique for hitting the forehand, called the semi-open stance, is done by forming a 90- to 100-degree angle between your two feet and the baseline. Obviously this is a compromise between the traditional footwork and the open stance forehand and shares some of the advantages of each. If you so choose, you can master all three forehands, and use each when it seems appropriate. The important thing is that the choice is kept in your court, and that instead of trying to fit yourself or your stroke into a preconceived model, you fit the models to you and use them only to help you discover and develop the skills you desire. To do otherwise is to diminish your potential as a player, and as a learner.