Former college tennis player and CoachUp coach, Paul Hammond, shows how to split step to prepare you for retrieving balls from your opponent. To split step, do a quick little hop when your opponent is about to hit the ball.
Hi, my name’s Paul Hammond, former Division 1 tennis player & CoachUp coach. And this is the split step pivot. Preparation is critical in tennis, fifty percent of the time you’re retrieving the ball. So it’s really important that you’re ready before your opponent hits, so you can track the ball down with ease. So I want to make sure that every time your opponent strikes the ball you have a quick reaction time. The key to this is the split step. So when your opponent is about to hit the ball, not after they hit the ball, but when your ball bounces on the other side just before they strike it, you’re going to do a quick little hop just like a goalkeeper would do in soccer where you’re ready to react. Now, when they hit the ball, you’re able to move agilely and you’re able to pivot and get down low underneath the ball where you can find your finish.
