Footwork

[Rina]

I was hoping somebody will have advice on how to get a kid to remember proper footwork all the time. During privates and tough matches he does it pretty good, but during drills and not so tough opponets he just walks on the court and seems surprised when the ball gets back! Footwork has always been somewhat difficult for him, but it is frustrating when he seems just to hang there after he hits the ball, no matter how many times he is reminded. Unless coach is reminding at him all the time, often he will even admit that he never even gave it a thought! Any advice on how to improve this? Often this will cause him to play defensively, he still gets to most balls but imagine how much better he would return with more time to hit if he did proper recovery. Anyway, if anybody has some advice, that would be great.Thanks.

[LeeD]

Lotsa coaches make the player drill with automatic footwork after the ball is hit. By the kid, he hits the ball, and automatically heads back to center of intersect and splitsteps as his opponent hits HIS ball.
EVERY shot your kid hits needs him to move his feet and body back towards the center of his court.
NO shots are hit without him moving back to cover his opponent's shots.
If he drills this, he will implement this in match play against any opponent, regardless of skill.

[10ismom]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4NDw...eature=related

Footwork is very important. I would say it is even more important if your kid is a "he". All the top ATP guys do have "pristine" footwork.
The earlier your player realizes how important it is and work hard on it, the higher level he/she will achieve. Many parents new to tennis are so concerned with their kids's strokes and spend little time on footwork. Without proper footwork, kids are not going to hit quality strokes and will not reach their full potential.

I would suggest 2 things that can help tennis specific foot work.
One is to practice shadow movement without hitting the balls. Watch the Bailey Method video above. It might look a little silly but have your son practice those shadow moves and recover before start hitting the balls. Another suggestion is to hand feed the balls to different spots on court. Without good footwork and recovery, he is not going to hit those balls right. I found these 2 things helpful and improved my daughter's footwork a lot. Hope these will help your son too.

[Rina]

Thank you for the replies. He does something similar to shadow movement and I might try some balance boards, and see if that helps. I would like it to become automatic but maybe it's just not that easy for him. I guess to some kids it comes naturally.

[MarTennis]

Originally Posted by Rina

Thank you for the replies. He does something similar to shadow movement and I might try some balance boards, and see if that helps. I would like it to become automatic but maybe it's just not that easy for him. I guess to some kids it comes naturally.

on youtube for first rate, implementable footwork solutions. I like Bailey Method but think you gotta buy the product to effectively use. You could do the 7 min Bailey Method clip on youtube over and over again, but not good quality video. Find Mr. lorenzo beltrame and let me know what you think.

[t135]

Repetition.

[KevinB9986]

It also comes down to if the kid wants to be on the court that day. Some kids are more motivated than others, but sometimes kids would rather be doing something else that day. Not sure what we can do about that. When they are motivated they will move their feet more. Of course the other posts here are correct about the drills that need to be done.