Explosive Steps

We often stress the need for explosive first steps. No dynamite or TNT necessary, just focus and effort. These explosive first steps are, quite simply, major fast-twitch responses to visual input, firing every bit of muscle fiber in your legs to react in an immediate, balanced, and agile way. In our view, there are two moments in the assembly of every tennis shot where this type of physical response is required.

The first moment for an explosive first step is out of the split-step. This is a time when you are responding to a lot of important and immediate information you should be receiving visually. HP players should be splitting on time, such that there feet are just making contact with the court as they receive the initial information about the opponent's incoming shot. In that millisecond between seeing the first portion of the ball's flight and the first step to respond to it, humans possess an uncanny ability to determine a great deal of information like angle, speed, rate of ascent. spin, trajectory, etc. The first, is direction - i.e. "which side of my body is this ball going to, and how much time do I have to get there?" By the time your feet land on the court, your feet should be already turning in the direction the ball is heading, with your knees and ankles preparing to absorb the ground as you settle onto it. Your quads, ankles, and calves are "exploding" with intense and immediate effort in response to what your eyes are seeing. By responding with such urgency, players maximize the required movement in the given time frame. If we "explode" to the ball in this way, we get the major part of the response reaction accomplished efficiently, and leave the remainder of the time to continue to get to the ball, improve alignment, and create the best possible shot. Its kind of like the "split and three" discussed in an earlier article. If we train the habit of explosive first steps, we always use the time of the beginning of the opponent's flight in the most efficient way, regardless of what the time frame is. - improving our timing, and ability to get to every ball. We also get more time on every ball to fine tune position and alignment. It is easy to make the connection between early flight reading skills and these explosive responses - a topic I will save for another day.

The second opportunity for an explosive first step is into recovery. It is at that moment when you have completed your shot, gathered your balance and agility, and begun your recovery to the center of the court (which you established with the placement of the shot you just executed).. This step is equally important to the first, but the more overlooked, undertrained, and underutilized of the two. By efficiently moving into recovery at the earliest possible moment, we raise the likelihood of being where we need to be before our split-step associated with the opponent's subsequent shot. Players tend to "spectate", or pause to watch the result of their shot, costing them valuable recovery time and the ability to stay current in the point. Another common breakdown when training this is starting the recovery BEFORE the current shot is completed. This has an obvious negative effect on the quality of the shot being attempted. The timing and rhythm of completing the shot, then executing the explosive step into recovery is very trainable. In fact, most properly executed groundstrokes finish in one of three common footwork patterns that all result in the weight and balance being on the outside foot. This is designed to facilitate the "push off" and recovery to center (often followed by a crossover step) that is so critical to an on time recovery.

So, there are two critical moments requiring an explosive first step in the sequence of making every shot. They are out of the split-step, and into recovery. Though many of you at different levels may have varying degrees of "explosiveness" at these two moments, all will benefit from an increased urgency at maximizing these two time frames. Start utilizing these explosive steps in your game, and watch your results "blow up"!