Just got through watching the video of Fernando Verdasco. Great point about the staggered split step. I noticed that I have done that myself in the past. I’ve wondered if that is wrong. When I teach the split step and demonstrate the split step I always land in a neutral stance with both feet landing at the same time parallel to each other. When in reality it doesn’t always happen that way. I think it depends on the situation on how you land. In the scenario that we see in this video, he lands with his left foot first. This helps him move to his right for the next volley. Going into the split step he doesn’t know which direction the next ball is going to be. Just watched it again at the 2:36 mark. So, Fernando goes into the split step off of the left foot and actually lands on his left foot, which enables him to push off his left leg in order to move to the right for a forehand volley. Do you think if going into the split step when he leads with his left foot if it was a backhand volley that he would have landed on his right foot, so that he could move to the left and hit a BH volley? Or do you think he would have crossed over with his right foot? I think the latter is the case. I don’t know if I lost you here or not. Hopefully you followed me there. Thanks for all your work and effort in researching the sport of tennis.
Nice analysis. Also steps backward instead of into the ball which has been taught for so long
Jorge,
Just got through watching the video of Fernando Verdasco. Great point about the staggered split step. I noticed that I have done that myself in the past. I’ve wondered if that is wrong. When I teach the split step and demonstrate the split step I always land in a neutral stance with both feet landing at the same time parallel to each other. When in reality it doesn’t always happen that way. I think it depends on the situation on how you land. In the scenario that we see in this video, he lands with his left foot first. This helps him move to his right for the next volley. Going into the split step he doesn’t know which direction the next ball is going to be. Just watched it again at the 2:36 mark. So, Fernando goes into the split step off of the left foot and actually lands on his left foot, which enables him to push off his left leg in order to move to the right for a forehand volley. Do you think if going into the split step when he leads with his left foot if it was a backhand volley that he would have landed on his right foot, so that he could move to the left and hit a BH volley? Or do you think he would have crossed over with his right foot? I think the latter is the case. I don’t know if I lost you here or not. Hopefully you followed me there. Thanks for all your work and effort in researching the sport of tennis.
Thanks Mike.
Great videos
Thanks Raul