Secrets to Federer’s Tennis Footwork

Roger Federer never looked like he was moving very fast, yet he was always in the right position. Court movement looked effortless for him, people said he glided on the court. He was an incredibly efficient mover. Not everyone has Roger’s sense of anticipation or physical capabilities but we can all be doing things to help us improve our speed, agility, and footwork. 

In fact, it is not that hard to get gains in these areas. We have found the best approach is to do tennis footwork drills; This will get your body used to moving at high intensity through multiple movement lines eg lateral, forward, and backward. We need your body to get pushed in the areas of specific tennis agility, footwork, and speed for you to have an adaptive response and improve. 

You know the old saying "If you don't change what you are doing, you won't change the result"  

Let's have a look at some effective changes you can implement right now, I will even give you some exercises to get you going! 

You are lucky today! I have put together some tennis-specific drills for you and you get to see one of the best movers of all time perform them - Lleyton Hewitt. 

Try performing the below tennis foot speed and agility drills a couple of times a week. You can even incorporate some of these drills before practice or playing. You will see some of them are partner drills, this is a great way to add a fun and challenging aspect to your training. 

Get your family, friend, or coach involved and get moving! 

You will notice some of the drills are reactive, meaning you need to react to the ball being thrown or a change of direction being called. This adds an extra layer to your footwork and agility training as you will also be working on your reaction. Having a quick reaction time is important for movement, the quicker you react the faster your body can stop and change direction, reaction time often leads to the winning or losing of big points so focus on reacting as quickly as you can! 

Tips for your tennis footwork and agility training

1. Keep a wide base. When performing foot speed and agility drills hold a wide base and aim to feel like you can stop and change direction if needed. 

2. Focus on the first 2 steps. Tennis movement is generally short and dynamic, so we want to be working on improving our first 2 steps to help make us as efficient as possible in this area. We call these power steps. So no matter the direction you are moving or how you are moving focus on using 2 power steps to get yourself going. 

3. Take small controlled steps to slow down before hitting. Once you are approaching the ball and preparing to hit a shot it is ideal to use small controlled steps to get in the best position possible. We call these adjustment steps. Holding a wide base take small controlled steps and then WHAM you will be in the best position to do what you want. This is not the case for every shot but when you have the opportunity to do it make sure you get it done. Look at Lleytons small controlled steps on the drills. 

4. Stay balanced through movement. You never want to feel like you are going to slip over or you cannot stop in time on the tennis court. So make sure you practice moving with balance, think about keeping your upper body sitting directly above your hips so you are not loading one side of your body more than the other, this can put you off balance. Lleyton does this incredibly well in the videos and is a great example of how to stay balanced.

5. Move with purpose. No matter how good the drill is,  if you are not doing the drill with enough effort you will not get the best results. You need to push yourself above and beyond what feels comfortable in order to get this right. Be aggressive with the movement and stay locked in for the whole session. 

So there you have some tennis tips on court movement. Give the drills a go a few times a week and if you stick with my recommendations I guarantee you will be feeling quicker and moving better on the court in a few weeks! 

Let's Go!!!

Tennis Footwork - Watch the Video Below

6 Tennis Footwork Exercises

Exercises 1 - 4: Agility exercises (eg responding to a stimulus)
Exercises 5 - 6: Change of speed exercises