Heidi worked really hard in her lesson this morning. Evidently, she was inspired having just returned from a week at The BNP Paribas Open. Impressive to her was the doubles play of Martina Hingis and the quickness exhibited by all of the singles players.
Heidi is a former dancer so exposing her to ideas relating to footwork is easy for her to grasp. When she was shown the walking step forehand approach shot pictured here, she picked it up immediately. Heidi found it comfortable to take the quick, small, adjusting steps that precede the walking step.
This style has been around for decades and is a very efficient way of transitioning from back or mid court to play volleys. Now, if you watch the pros, you surely will see much less of this as they tend to hit more approaches from a hopping step where they move in, place the left foot in front, and hop a bit from left to left.
The reason Heidi was introduced to the walking step is that she is tall and this style for her is less complex and encourages consistency.
We wondered together in the lesson why so many club players let balls bounce twice while warming up…why they don’t take the opportunity to practice transitioning to net with the footwork that is most suitable to them.
If you’d like to view a six minute video on footwork, just google Practicing Modern Footwork with Yann Anoux. (He’s terrific)
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