Thoughts on FYB’s most recent footwork video.

Mini Tennis: Do It!

I absolutely love that Will and Yann put out a video of the two of them performing a mini tennis rally. This warm up and practice method is hugely underused by recreational players! If you’re one of the many tennis enthusiasts that thinks hitting inside the service boxes is below you, amateur, or a waste of time you’re completely wrong. In FYB’s video both players demonstrate great footwork (which was the focus of course) but what you need to also take note of and try to emulate is their outstanding control of technique and swing. Within a 5 minute long rally (one take!) Will and Yann talk, demonstrate multiple types of footwork patterns, swing between forehand and backhand and even between topspin and slice all without losing control of where the ball was going. All of you reading this should be striving for this as you use mini tennis as a warm up every time you walk out onto a tennis court.

If you try mini tennis with a partner only to be frustrated please don’t give up on it. Will and Yann make it look really easy in their video, but in reality it isn’t. Only through years of practice, great athleticism, and high level skills are they able to rally for that long while demonstrating everything that they did. Start off with a goal of making 15 in a row with your hitting partner. Every shot must land inside the service boxes, no double bounces, no volleys, and you should be using a slower, slightly abbreviated version of your baseline techniques. If 15 is easy for you and your partner then start throwing in different directions on purpose (cross court/down the line rallies) as well as changing up between topspin and slice. Again, make sure that you’re using quality technique! Please don’t cheat the drill and yourself by pushing and poking at the ball with short, jerky technique.

“Not Thinking About It”

Yann makes a comment at the end of this video about Will completing all of those different steps during the rally “without thinking about it”. That should absolutely be your goal whenever learning any new tennis technique whether swing related or footwork, just make sure to keep in mind the amount of time, repetition and work that will be involved in creating this new habit. I think that the walking step, hop step, and inside step can all be used effectively by players on any level, but not everybody will simply pick them up first try and have it benefit their game immediately.

I’m definitely not asserting that Will or Yann made any kind of statement saying that this is easy, or that you’ll get it right away, they didn’t. On the other hand it can be really easy to assume that it’s not very difficult when watching two players as good as them do this type of practice. If you’re below a 4.5 level and don’t currently use the three types of steps described in this video then I would take quite a bit of time with each of the three individually as you try to get comfortable performing them. Don’t try to get all fancy and throw them all in together at the same time until each of them has been practiced enough that it starts to become second nature. How long will that take? Everybody is different. If you’re a great athlete it might only take 5 minutes each, a more average one might take half an hour of solid work, and somebody without much natural talent might not ever get comfortable with some of those steps at all (might be harsh to say but 100% true).

Work On Your Footwork

Lastly, I’d just like to briefly state how important I think footwork is to everybody trying to excel at the sport of tennis. When watching rec players at the club where I teach or at a public courts the types and amounts of footwork used makes it REALLY obvious what level of player is out there immediately. I think that footwork is really under taught both online and on the court since the modern recreational player is enthralled with the huge amounts of spin and power created by professional athletes. Well guess what? Unless your body is in a comfortable position in relationship to the ball you’ll never be able to use that great technique that you spent hours and hours practicing with easy feeds from a ball machine or tennis coach.

The walking step, hop step, and inside step can be great additions to already solid fundamental footwork but make sure that you are already great at the basics! To all of you 3.0 and 3.5 players out there dismissing my last sentence you need to really pay attention here. Simple patterns like the lateral shuffle, cross over step, backward shuffling and cross over (for deep groundstrokes and overheads) and the split step are HUGELY underused by average level players. Take some video of yourself in a baseline exchange and really take a long hard look at it. If you’re making contact at different heights and widths from shot to shot then completely forget about adding what’s be advocated in the video above, get better at the basics first!