September 22, 2009
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Stepping out at the U.S. Open Dave W. Smith, Senior Editor TennisOne This year's U.S. Open was certainly punctuated with interesting side shows and exciting runs by some unexpected players. The women's game especially, shows that any number of players can emerge. Some claim the women are wrought with inconsistency and players who can't "seal the deal." I disagree. I believe the women are playing a fairly high level of tennis, to the point that no one is running ahead of the pack. The men’s game certainly shows that Federer is still the force to be reckoned with, but that he is not the invincible force that we had come to expect from previous years. His year, nonetheless, has been full of exceptional tennis, something that many were thinking could be a thing of the past. But one of the big stories had to be seventeen year old Melanie Oudin, who shocked not one or two, but three top ranked women players on her way to the quarter finals, before losing to a pretty player both on and off the court, Caroline Wosniacki. The diminutive Oudin stood toe to toe with some of the biggest guns in the sport and came out on top. Interestingly, she was finally taken down, not by a more powerful female, but one that was able to match her court coverage and consistency. In fact, Wosniacki played a similar game to that of Oudin, only she did it a little better. Footwork Almost all students of tennis, whether they are casual players, who take the occasional lesson or hard-core tennis fanatics, who attends camps, clinics, and workshops, and play leagues, challenge matches, and tournaments, understand various footwork patterns related to hitting specific shots. Open stance, neutral stance, closed stance, reverse pivot, brake steps, gravity steps, drop steps, and jab steps have a particular role in various stroke situations and need to be developed just as one would develop strokes, grips, and swing patterns for any given shot.
However, prior to the actual footwork associated with the stroke itself, players have to get close enough to each ball to employ these various footwork patterns in optimal sequence. Many lower level players are forced to use a particular footwork pattern due to poor positioning. This often results in the player hitting a less effective shot. Ever wonder why you can hit that forehand so beautifully and consistently during one of your lessons and yet it fails you so miserably during a match? That's because your pro feeds the ball into your optimum strike zone each and every time so as to reinforce a consistent swing pattern. Unfortunately, your opponent is trying to do exactly the opposite, and this is where you must compensate with sound footwork. Steps The average number of steps taken between each shot by the pros is between 10 and 12 or more. The average club player: 4 to 6. This simple statistic is revealing to say the least. I don’t know a single able-bodied player who can’t simply take more steps in a short period of time. The human body, however, is basically a lazy machine: it will do the least amount of work to accomplish a given task. And though players can take a minimum number of steps to position themselves to “hit” a ball, such hits are usually far from ideal. In other words, they may be outside the optimum hitting zone. But players can and do make contact, once in a while, using limited footwork, so, when they miss, they are often misled into thinking there was some other aspect that caused their forehand crash into the net or sail well beyond the baseline. However, more often than not, errors can be traced back to movement (or lack of), which prevented them from being balanced and in an optimal position to execute the stroke properly.
So, most players miss because they are not in optimal position to recreate shot after shot. Imagine a baseball player trying to hit a pitch way out of the strike zone. Hitting a baseball is already hard enough (with good batters only succeeding an average of 3 out of 10 times.). Sure, they might be able to hit a ball shoulder height or below the knees, but more often than not, they will usually miss it completely or hit it poorly. Radio Dial Watching Melanie Oudin play, reminded me of those old-fashioned radio dials. Some of you may be too young to remember the knob for tuning in a station? It wasn't an exact science. You had to move the dial from one end of the frequency spectrum to the other. Then, when you got close to the station, you had to turn the dial back and forth a number of times until the station came in clearly. Tennis players should approach moving for balls in a similar fashion. Large steps to cover large distances, followed by small, quick steps to get the body in the best possible position. Oudin did this time and time again, giving her the best chance of not just returning balls hit by her opponents, but attacking balls when the situation warranted it. She was able to out-hit bigger, stronger opponents because she got herself into a balanced position relative to the ball she wanted to hit. As one of the smaller girls on tour, Oudin demonstrated that superior positioning could counter any size difference, allowing her to execute the right shot more often than not. So, take a lesson from this diminutive dynamo and keep those feet moving. As always, we would love to hear from you! Questions, comments, personal experiences all create helpful dialogue for everyone! Please click here to send us your email.
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