Serve and Volley: The Split Step

Welcome to the Essential Tennis Blog! Thanks so much for being a reader and dropping by today. Remember to check out the Essential Tennis Podcast as well for even more high quality tennis instruction to improve your game. Simply click the link on the right side of this page.

Today's topic comes from Shawn. He recently wrote me a question about serving and volleying that said:

"I have tried in the past to serve and volley, but I find this exceedingly difficult. I seem to have two choices
Serve (spin serve w/ lots of kick), Sprint toward the net (following my serve), Split step inside the service box, Hope I’m under control enough to hit a good volley.
Serve (spin serve w/ lots of kick), run 75% speed toward the net (following my serve), Split step a little outside the service box, I am under control, but maybe not close enough to the net to get to everything (I often receive dipping topspin shots at my feet)

Clearly what I would like to do is "a" but be under control at the end. Should I be doing some extra footwork drills to improve my chance of gaining balance after a full sprint? Note that the kick serve is a conscience choice since I find that a fast flat serve comes back way too quickly to get anywhere close to the net."


Shawn, thats a great question, well worded and thought out. Coming to the net immediately after a serve is a great way to mix things up in your singles play, and something that everybody should be doing most of the time in their doubles play. As you say, this skill is very difficult to become comfortable with for the first time. Once you start using a split step correctly though, things become much more manageable. A split step is part of good tennis footwork, and is used to prepare your body by putting yourself in a balanced position.

I will split up this article into the two main components of the split step: the timing, and the technique of a high quality split step. After reading it, make sure to get out and practice!


Technique

The split step is a purposeful "hop" or drop into a good, wide ready position. Here is an old photo of Roddick coming down into a ready position to prepare for a return of serve. You should hit the court with your balance on the inside edge of the balls of your feet, knees bent, feed wider than shoulder width, and weight forwards.

Timing

This is by far the most important part of the split step, and by far the least understood part of serving and volleying by intermediate level players. When you split step has nothing to do with where, and everything to do with when. Shawn the reason why you're having to choose between balance and getting closer to the net is because you're choosing different places on the court to make your split step, instead of timing it with your opponents swing. A correctly timed split step will have the balls of your feet touch down on the court at the same instant your opponent makes contact with their oncoming shot. If you time it too soon, you are wasting time that could be used to get closer to the net. If you time it too late, you won't be in balance until the ball has already been struck by your opponent, which puts you closer to the net but with much less time to actually move to the ball. This means that you should begin your split step right before your opponent or partner makes contact, as they start to make their forward swing is a good time to start from. If your feet are landing first and then they're hitting the ball you started too soon, if they hit the ball and then your feet land second, then you're too late.

Readers, this is an art form and it will take you some practice to start timing perfectly. Don't be discouraged if you don't get it right away. Let me reiterate though that the timing is absolutely crucial. You want to get as close as possible to the net for your first volley or half volley, but getting close and running right past the ball obviously doesn't do us any good, so we need to be in balance as well to move for the ball. At the top of the page is a great series of photos of James Blake serving and volleying. Notice that before making his split step he only gets in two steps. Being in balance is more important than being close! Just make sure you use all the time possible, because I do want you to get as close as possible. The final photo of him in that series shows him just coming down into his split step, It looks like he's already started to identify that his first volley will be to the right and he's leaning in that direction.

Thats all for today. Thanks so much for stopping by and take care.

Doubles: Get to the net!

Greetings and welcome to the Essential Tennis Blog! Thanks very much for coming by and checking out this article. If you find it helpful, make sure to also check out the Essential Tennis Podcast which is also weekly updated with helpful tennis instruction. Simply click the link on the right side of the page.

This week's article is about why you need to be at the net as much as possible in your doubles play. In lower level and intermediate team practices that I teach there seems to be a constant debate over whether coming to the net all the time is good or not. A large amount of players at the 2.0-4.0 level feel its better court coverage to have one player stay back. Well, I'm here to tell you that if you ever want to move up in level (rather than moving up within your level) coming to the net is not only good, its necessary. Below are the main reasons why.


You want to hit down, not up.

Next time you're on a tennis court go stand on the baseline and look over to the other side of the court. How much of the opponents court can you see while looking OVER the top of the net? The answer is none of it. What does that mean for your tennis? As long as you stay on the baseline you are going to have to hit the ball in an upwards direction in order to get it to your opponents side of the court. You can do this either by opening up the racket face, or hitting it more aggressively by closing the face more but swinging upwards to hit it over. In both cases you are lifting the ball upwards, which must happen in order to make your shot from the baseline. The closer and closer you get to the net the more of your opponents court becomes available for you to hit directly at, instead of hitting up. If you're of average height and stand on the service line, now you can see some of the court over the top of the net in no-mans land on the other side. Take two or three more steps in, now you can see to around the service line on the other side. Take two more steps in, now most of the court is at your disposal to hit into.

Why is this important? If you stay at the baseline and hit up, and your opponents come to the net, they have the ability to hit down. That's a problem. You're now lifting the ball up to them, and they have the ability to hit down at you. If you were a volley ball player, what would you rather be doing, setting to your opponents or spiking? Hopefully I don't have to answer that for you. The closer you are to the net the more potential you have to attack. Now you still need to have the technical skills to accomplish this, and so if your net game is not very good coming to the net will become quite frustrating. Does that mean the strategy is poor? No of course not, it means you have to get out and improve your technique.


Take time away from your opponents.

The closer you get to the net the less time your opponents have to react to your shot. This means a mediocre shot at the net can end up winning the point, where an outstanding shot would have been needed from the baseline to throw them off the same amount. Does it mean that it takes time away from yourself as well? Yes. Therefore make sure that you're not running up and kissing the net after hitting a weak shot to your opponents. Hit a shot thats either low to their feet, or strong and with a lot of pace before committing to moving all the way in. Otherwise you could end up being a sitting duck.


Intimidate and pressure.

When both you and your partner move up to the net together your opponents will be pressured to hit a better quality shot. Had one of you stayed back, there would be an easy out to the baseliner, a way to neutralize the point and stay comfortable. With both players at the net ready to put the ball away a better quality shot must be hit by your opponents to avoid getting beat, this will make them uncomfortable and they will make more errors.


Proactive tennis, not passive.

Coming to the net puts matters into your own hands, you're trying to take over and take care of business. This is exactly what your similarly skilled opponents don't want. They want to stay in their comfort zone and not be pressured or rushed. Don't let them feel comfortable! Its your job to make them as uneasy as possible, pressuring them as much as possible. Moving both players to the net as much as possible will do just that, don't sit back and give them an easy way out to avoid hitting to a net player. Get in there and shut them down.


It's what high level players do!

Period. This is the strategy of top level doubles players. Get to the net, get to the net often, and get to the net quickly. Are you happy and satisfied playing at the level you're at right now? Something tells me that if you were you wouldn't be reading this blog. If you or your partner are currently playing one up/one back moving you both to the net will improve your doubles. Will you get lobbed over and passed? Sure you will. Will it be every point? Of course not, if your net game is competent then the balls you put away and the mistakes your opponents make trying to hit a perfect lob or passing shot will far out weigh the great shots that they do end up hitting. If your volleys and overhead aren't good enough to keep from making a lot of errors once you get up there then you need to get out and work on your technique!


Approaching the net is an art form, there are many skills and nuances that must be learned, so if you're not used to being there every point don't be discouraged if it doesn't show immediate results. I plan on continuing to cover specific parts of it along the way. In the mean time if you have any questions about it feel free to let me know! You can always reach me at ian@essentialtennis.com. Take care, and enjoy your tennis.

Awareness: a tennis essential

Welcome everybody! Thanks for visiting the Essential Tennis Blog. Before we get started I just wanted to remind you all of the Essential Tennis Podcast which is available on the iTunes music store. This week I discuss singles strategy and hitting cross court, basic serve technique, and doubles positioning for the serving player. Simply click the link on the right side of this page.

To start off todays blog I would like to thank Tomas in FL who submitted a great question to me last week. Tomas says:

"I am an average player myself always
trying to improve my game. Sometimes, and almost by pure luck, I make
a self-discovery and those are the things that stays in my mind more
permanently. Like last weekend when I played and suddenly I had a
perfect hit in the sweetspot - ah that feeling! How did that happened
I asked myself the second after I hit. It was the simple thing that I
caught the racket after in my left arm after the swing. And then I
tried again and again, and it worked for me. The swing improved
rapidly because I was forced to end up the swing at the same position."

Tomas I would like to encourage you on your quest to improve your tennis! You may be an "average" player right now, but I guarantee that if you continue to practice with such great attention to feeling and detail great strides will continue to happen in your game.

Tomas' discovery of the correlation between a certain feeling and a certain swing technique boil down to an essential athletic quality that all top performers have: awareness. Awareness means that you're conscious of many things at the same time whether you're actually focusing on them or not. These things include your position on the court, your eye hand coordination and knowing where your racket is facing, where your opponent is, the technique you're using, and how good of balance your body is in. These are all factors that play a huge part in the goings on of every point, and even every individual stroke.

Since the question had to do with technique specifically, I will list what I believe the main four things to be aware of are as you are all trying to improve your tennis strokes. If you're aware of these things as you practice and play, then learning what works and what doesn't becomes second nature, and continuing to improve follows close behind.

Quality of Contact:

Beginning and intermediate club level players just aren't very aware of how cleanly they're hitting the ball. This is a generality of course, I've taught beginners before who have known right away that a missed shot was the result of hitting off center on their string face, but for the most part lower level players just aren't conscious of their quality of contact. Realize that it isn't all or nothing, there are different degrees of contact quality, it isn't simply either strings or frame. When the ball hits your racket three inches off the center of the strings you will not get your full potential from the stroke, and the resulting shot is affected. I often tell students that technique is 100% irrelevant if you can't hit the middle of the racket, and it's true. If you're not already conscious of your quality of contact start paying attention to it right away. You'll be able to tell how clean of a hit it was by the sound, the feel, and the resulting shot. I wrote a whole article on this a few months ago, check the archives.

Tension of Muscles:

In any technique drive sport or skill staying relaxed is extremely important. When your muscles tense up it takes work to move them, and the more work it takes to move your muscles and body the less you're going to get out of your efforts in terms of the resulting tennis shot. Tension for the upper level player is an indicator that something with technique was incorrect, because correct technique should make hitting the ball over the net easy. If technique is poor, then more effort is required to make up for the lack of a quality swing. Next time you go out to hit be aware of how tense or loose your muscles are, chances are you have room to improve how relaxed you are as your swings are executed. Check the archives for a full article on this as well.

Path of the Racket:

Pay close attention to where your swing starts and where it finishes if you're trying to improve your stroke or resulting shots. This is how Tomas improved his forehand, he was aware enough of his movements to notice finishing up higher gave a better quality shot, and so now his game has improved. Where does your racket finish in general when you hit a poor backhand? When you hit a great backhand? It's not by chance or luck when you hit either of these shots, the direction that you moved the racket is going to determine the direction that the ball travels.

Path of the Ball:

This is a direct reflection of the path of your racket, its pure physics. Want the ball to go higher? Start lower and swing up. Want the ball to go straighter? Swing forwards more and less vertically. Want spin on your serve? Hit past the side of the ball, make it rotate. Every resulting shot is caused by the direction and acceleration of the racket at contact, as well as where the strings were facing. I love technique, its my job to study it. I'm quite sure that I could improve somebodies swing simply by watching the ball that they hit into the court, and not even seeing their technique. The resulting path of the ball will tell you all you need to know about what the racket was doing at contact, the ball can't lie.

So there you have it. Whoever says tennis is easy has clearly never tried to become a competent player, haha. Is this a simple thing? Clearly not. However, if you start paying closer attention to the four things above you can improve your strokes and game through your awareness. Keep what produces quality shots, and get rid of what doesn't.

As always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at ian@essentialtennis.com. Take care!

Good miss, bad miss

Greetings Essential Tennis readers. Welcome as always.

Just a quick note to remind you to check out the Essential Tennis Podcast available on the iTunes Music Store. If you enjoy my writing then I'm sure the audio will be helpful to you as well. On the podcast its my plan to make it listener oriented, answering questions submitted to me every week. Simply click the link on the right side of this page.

I say "good miss" to my students often when their technique was solid and their resulting shot was close to being very successful. I often get cross eyed looks from people who haven't taken many lessons from me before when I say this, and I find that most people are incredibly difficult on themselves when missing a shot by the smallest of margins. That is why I'm writing on this topic today.

Ever play golf? Many tennis players do. Did you know that there's a best place to miss a putt? Thats right, even when missing the most important shot in golf there is a best place that you can miss. The best place to miss is past the hole and to the "high side" of the hole, meaning the side of the hole that the putt breaks from if there is any curve to the roll of the ball. If the putt breaks from left to right, then the left side of the hole is the "high side". Why is past the hole on the high side the best place to miss a putt? Because without the ball getting to the depth or hight of the cup at some point during the roll of the ball its literally impossible to make the putt! You want to have a possibility of making your putt right? So that means when your putt travels past the hole and on the high side, you at least had a chance of making the putt regardless of how difficult it was.

So what does this have to do with tennis? Plenty. There is a best and worst place to miss every shot, below is a paragraph on each.

Worst place: The worst place to miss any shot in tennis is the net! Wow do I hate the net, and you should too. It's the first obstacle we face while trying to accomplish any stroke in our tennis arsenal. If the shot we hit doesn't make it over the net, it was dead in the water, it never had a chance, never saw the light of day, it is completely doomed. As soon as your shot crosses over the net a whole new set of parameters need to be met before it can be called successful, however you've just passed the first barrier.

I often start off my tennis lessons with a personal goal of not hitting the net one time during the hour I'm with my student. I rarely do feeding drills in my teaching unless I'm working with either a total beginner or somebody who's learning a new stroke or skill, so I'm usually engaged in some kind of cooperative or competitive rally the entire hour. I've only accomplished this goal over a whole hour a hand full of times, it takes conscious effort to be that consistent even when its what I do all day every day. I'd say on average I'll miss in the net half a dozen times or so during a typical lesson, all six of them leaving a certain disdainful feeling behind in my head, haha. Start taking note of where you miss, and if you're missing in the net more often than any other place on the court changes need to happen immediately! Of course what the change needs to be varies very widely depending on which stroke is the offending one. I can 100% guarantee you however that if you cut your net errors in half you WILL be more successful on the tennis court.

So where is the best place to miss? Simply put, anywhere but the net! How good of a miss you had is dependent on where your shot landed in relation to where your target was. If you missed a forehand drive from the baseline within the bounds of the sideline but deep by two feet then thats a great miss. Quite obviously I would rather you not miss the shot at all, but lets be realistic here, you're going to miss sometimes. Tennis is maddeningly difficult to master, and along the way you will miss shots, period. I'm simply suggesting that if you're going to make mistakes, they should be in a place that will lend to future success as much as possible. A ball that hits the net will never ever have a chance of landing in the court. A ball that lands long had the chance of their opponent playing it out of the air first, or wind causing it to drop in, or their opponent errantly thinking the ball was actually in.

If your contact was solid, most of your technique was correct, you had a target in mind and it fit your game and the point situation, and if the ball made it over the net but missed by a small margin then it was a good miss! Don't beat yourself up over it. Simply be aware of what needs to change in order to make the shot next time and move on. Shots that miss due to hitting the frame, poor technique, no target or an improper target, or hitting the net were bad misses. These should not be occurring often, and if they are steps need to be taken immediately to remedy the problems.