Joe Dinoffer: Part three is all about the split step. You know the short hopping motion that tennis players should make as or just before their opponent contacts the ball. Now there are three primary purposes for this action.
1. Leg muscles contract, so they can explode into a quick first step towards the ball.
2. Ground forces increase when the legs are flexed to also assist us in that critical first step.
3. Balance is achieved on the balls of both feet to allow us to move equally well in any direction.
Now unfortunately understanding the split step and actually mastering it are two completely different things. Most players especially at recreational levels either take their split steps late and up off balance leaning to one side or the other or don't even take one at all.
Let's listen in to another segment from the live workshop that discusses the split step or ready hop and offers a drill on how to improve it.
We did a survey of about 100 coaches in New England and we ended up asking them what are the top few things that you would love not to have to say again on a tennis court and they came up with number one, had to do with movement, bend your knees, are you ready, like that.
So this next exercise was meant to solve that problem, alright and here is what it looks like. So how you and I will demonstrate, it's a double ready hop. So instead of one, I am going to take two. Alright, so go ahead. You can tap to me and hit. Just before she hits I take two quick split steps or a hop. Can you do two Holley?
Holley: Yes.
Joe Dinoffer: You guys ready to take over. Now hop, before they hit and let's have our coaches that are watching, just two Holley not four or five. Good Mark. Where if I am watching, let's see it. A hop good. Now hold up.
Now just go back to one. Let's see what that feels like. Let it bounce, Janice. Let the ball bounce, you could back up just a little. Just one. Alright, that's whole dock. What did that feel like relative to two.
Chris: One more time
Joe Dinoffer: You like that?
Chris: Yeah.
Joe Dinoffer: Chris said, I want one more time, because all of a sudden it's like that double back swing. You are squeezing in. A lot of things in a short period of time then when all of sudden it goes back to normal you feel like you have all the time in the world. Do you have more time in fact? There you think if they have more time in reality. Same time. Then what change? Their readiness, their perspective changed.
This reinforces a key point made earlier in this video. Namely, that essential to learning as quickly as possible is to get a feel for the skill or movement. In this case, the intense effort of taking two splits steps or ready hops made a kinesthetic impression on the players that will easily be remembered.
When they went back to one ready hop, rest assured the feeling impressed upon them will last for a long time to come. The opposite is the player who is simply told by their coach or teacher to move more or to get ready sooner. They can be remind it for years and years but it just doesn't seem to sink in. The reason is that they didn't feel it. The double ready hop exercise provides a feel for the action that is quickly learned and easily remembered.
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