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Dear Oscar,
I would like to get your advice on the following: I am coaching the a girls varsity tennis team. Two of my girls have very pretty ground strokes but absolutely lazy feet during matches. Even at practice they are kind of slow reacting to balls, even though we do agility drills jump ropes, etc. or working on sequences of approach shots, volleys, overheads. When the lobs are too deep they can't get there. When it comes to match play it becomes downright ridiculous; they just stand there mesmerized or shell shocked or do something goofy with their racquets. Both girls are playing all year round and have private coaches, who must have given up on them with regard to foot work.
As soon as I talk about being them being on their toes and ready to move, I kind of feel a little bit of resentment on their part or "oh, not again" reaction. Do you have any magic drills in your bags of tricks?
I am having lots of fun teaching and coaching tennis and feel that I
pretty good at it. It is obviously easier to have a beginner than
undoing someone's bad habits.
Oscar's response:
Hi, Jorg, interesting scenario.
The key may be the following:
"Both girls are playing all year round and have private coaches, who must have given up on them with regard to foot work."
Kids that are taught "footwork" with the conventional teaching usually have two barriers created: first, the way they are taught in conventional footwork coaching, brings about that they have to think about the way they move, and second, that those moves are not natural. The end result is clumsiness, no speed (huge, but common problem, mostly in the USA).
I usually tell the kids: you don't have to move your feet in tennis (and they laugh at that), and then I tell them to move the head (or I push them in that direction). The feet will follow naturally. After that, it's drill rounding the can (caution, exactly like in the book, rounding the can from behind, or you'll create another barrier), and I just tell them is to check how quick they are. I don't feed the balls very far, I let them get their "win", then slowly I keep stretching them. And the funny thing there is, they get surprised at how far and fast they are getting, with time, on a gradient scale of difficulty. Adjust each drill to each player, don't give them losses. Even if the ones you push farther start complaining that you are nicer to the "slow" girls.
If you have a group, do ten ball on the forehand down the line with one player, then complete the group on the same drill, then forehand crosscourt (always rounding the can), backhand crosscourt first, then down the line. If you have a left hander, let them do the same drill as the others, even if it is their backhand.
Mark the court in one side with a couple of cones so that they are hitting to about 1/4 of the court, between the cones and the sideline.
Give them time to get back to the center, even if they are slow, but as soon as they start rounding the can you feed the ball to where they can reach it with a bit of effort. Don't let them stop somewhere around the can while they wait for your next feed, or it will destroy the purpose of the drill.
Let me know how it works.
If you don't have the old book with the drills explained, here is the link:
TennisTeacher.com
It does not have the drawings. You can access the same chapter with the drawings and pictures at the Online Tennis Academy.
Best regards,
Oscar Wegner
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