Stroke production vs. Footwork?

[SuzukiSS]

This is my first post in the junior forum so hello to everyone. My question is how much movement do you promote on court with younger juniors at the detriment of stroke production. I have a junior with excellent technical stroke and footwork patterns that I do not want him to lose but they disappear when moving. We have all seen lessons where the kids are run all over the place which looks great to inexperienced parents but in reality the kids are learning nothing while developing bad strokes. What is the correct balance?
One of my favorite John Wooden quotes was "never confuse activity with learning!"

[BMC9670]

I've had success with hand feed drills to introduce movement while learning strokes. It works well because you are in very close proximity to the player for instruction and you can also control very easily how much you want them to move.

With my kids, I do progressions of hand feed drills that start very static and gradually work in movement. If they get sloppy with the technique, I can dial it back a bit. Also works great for any age/ability because you can make the movement subtle or turn it into al all-out workout.

Search Youtube for some effective hand feed drills.

[Topcoach]

If you set up efficiently when a ball is hit near you, the biggest problem when moving is not taking extra little steps after the big steps. Generally when running to a ball you have to start the swing in the middle of the final steps to get your right foot behind the bounce -forehand, and the left foot-backhand.

[gplracer]

How old is your junior? Stroke production is very important. That is why some people skip competition in the early stages. Send me an email and I can give you some links.