Tennis Footwork Split Step
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Titulek 1 The split step and the ready positioin are very closely related.
Mechanically speaking, split step is just a small hop you take.
Behind me, I'm in the ready position in a split step I take a small hop, I'm taking a ton of air I'm only getting an inch off the ground and then I land, my weight transfers down - that's critically important when you split step the weight comes DOWN I've got it on both feet if we zoom in a little bit we can see little bit more clearly what that's gonna look like I split about an inch of air and I land and the weight centers down on both feet and the split step is gonna allow you to be more explosive than you otherwise would be able to. You're gonna move more quickly more explosively towards the tennis ball if you split and have the weight come down than if you were just standing in the ready position because what the split step does is that it acts as a natural spring when you split and your weight comes down each leg is now coiled up and you can push off it more explosively than you otherwise would be able to.
Let's talk about when you split and the timing of your split Now you wanna split step every single time your opponent is about to make contact with the tennis ball Since you don't know when he's gonna hit it you need to be able to move explosively in any direction around the court again, the split step lets you to do that.
Now, when do you time your split? Well, you wanna be at your most explosive so you want your weight down and your legs coiled like springs at the instant you realize where the tennis ball is going you're gonna figure out where your opponent has hit the ball after the ball is off the strings, when it's travelling back at you that's when you're going to realize OK, it's coming to my forehand, it's coming to my backhand it's gonna be short, it's gonna pull me back.
Practically speaking what that means is when your opponents starts to swing forward to hit the ball that's when you split So you wanna be in the air at the instant your opponent makes contact.
Behind me we've got Andre and I split screened and we are rallying in these shots.
So, let's take a look at how we move, specifically when we split when each of us is about to hit the ball.
So, Andre on my left here is about to make contact and as he swings forward you can see now I'm starting to split step so once he makes contact I'm in the air, and then I land as the ball is travelling back to me and now I can move out and adjust; and as I prepare to hit and now I prepare to swing forward Andre is now about to hit his split step and once I make contact the ball is now travelling back towards Andre, he's in the air and he lands, moves out to his ground stroke and finally one more time he sets up, begins to swing forward and now again, I'm hitting my split step, so as he makes contact I'm in the air and then I come down and now I've realized where the tennis ball's going so I can move explosively towards the ball very quickly.
Let's look at the split steps of couple pros.
Behind me here, we've got Roddick XXXX and he is hitting a split step, he's about an inch off the ground he's got his knees bent, and again, his upper body is pretty much exactly similar to the ready position.
Racket's out in his front of his body, arms in front of is body racket has angled slightly up. Here we've got Thomas Johansen (?), this is from the front again, he's is about an inch off the ground, and if you actually just took his body and moved it down about an inch it would look like he was standing on the court in the ready position.
Now we've got Paul Goldstein and again, he's about an inch off the ground knees bent, racket and arms in front of his body finally, let's bring it back to Tommy Hass again, his body position looks virtually identical to his body position in the ready position but again, he is hitting his split step so he is about an inch off the ground Now let's go to a shot of two players, we got G. Monfils and we've got Marat Saffin (?) we'll take a look at the timing of the split step In this particular shot, we're gonna zoom in on Monfils and right here he's in contact, he is on his serve he hits the ball about 135 mph, so he's at contact if we move to Saffin now, he is coming off the ground so he's hitting his split step and rising up off the ground as Monfils makes contact with the tennis ball In this next clip here Monfils has now hit the ball and the ball is off his strings travelling over towards Saffin again and probably at over 130 mph, if we get a closer look at what Saffin's doing Even though the ball is about to cross the net Saffin is in the air He is probably at the top of his split step right now he's going to be coming back down but again, what I wanna highlight with that point is that even at an extremely high level of play, when the ball is coming at you extremely hard you are still going to be in the air after the ball is off your opponent 's strings because again, in this situation here, Saffin doesn't yet know where the ball's going he simply doesn't have enough time, the ball has been hit so hard he doesn't know where it's going so he is going to be in the air and when he lands, at that moment he will know where the ball's going and then he can move as explosively as possible towards the tennis ball.
