Backhand Footwork Masterclass: The 1-2 Shuffle Drill for More Time & Power

So what I like to see is just a little test of seeing technique, footwork, and rhythm all in one, just with this simple little test. So we're just going to hit a few backhands and back. Okay, pretty good. So what I see is I am tossing you a relatively neutral shot. Did you feel under pressure hitting any of those shots? No. But what I'm seeing is that you're moving like you're under pressure. If I had been feeding you a forehand and then a backhand and then a forehand and then a backhand, I would expect you to move like that. You've got to get there. Priority one, get to the ball, move fast, move natural, which you're doing. But what I'm seeing is that a ball tossed right here, which is nowhere near the sideline, you're taking a bunch of steps. So you're moving, moving, moving, moving, moving, and hitting. And what I like to teach is less steps when you have to move to a ball, more adjustment steps when the ball is near you. So we want to get out of the way, set up and hit, get out of the way, set up and hit. When there's not a lot of pace, plenty of adjustment steps using our feet. But when the ball is just slightly away from us, we want to be in rhythm. We don't want to be super, super fast and over moving and having the head move. I feel that we're going to lose consistency like that. So we want to take steps out instead of five steps to get over there. We want two or three. So a shuffle one, two will be very rhythmic. You're not going to lose power and you're going to feel like you have way more time, which is essentially what we want to do in tennis. We want to give ourselves more time and we want to take away time from our opponent. And we accomplish both with that. We're going to be in rhythm. We're going to have plenty more time and then we can step in and take time away from our opponent. So what I want us to work on just without the ball is just getting in that shuffle one, two kind of rhythm. So you can follow me. We're going to start with our left foot and go shuffle one, two, and come back. Shuffle one, two, and come back. Let me see you do it one time. Shuffle one, two. Great. Again, one more time. Shuffle one, two. Good. And here comes the ball. Shuffle one, two. Less steps. Shuffle. Ah, you see you still got too many steps. So you're doing it great. You're going shuffle one, two, three. I want you to really narrow it down and go shuffle one. Okay, let's try that again. Two times without the ball. Shuffle one, two. Good. One more time. Shuffle one, two. Great. Here we go. Shuffle one, two. Good. That's fine. Shuffle. Yes, there we go. Perfect. Perfect. That's exactly how we want it to look. And there you're in rhythm. And if we tossed, let's try to do like five balls like that. Let's see if we can get that rhythm. Do it one time without. Shuffle one, two. Perfect. Shuffle one, two. Good. Turn first. Nice. Excellent. Great. Great. Great. And what I did is I tried to just slightly keep pushing you further and further out. The very last one, you might've taken one extra step. But again, I was trying to push you further wide so it gets to the borderline. But those last few, that rhythm is perfect. And so basically what you would just try to do is obviously right now the environment is closed. We're very simplistic. We want to feel that that's natural. Then I try to get back as soon as I can, feed you some. Then we rally some cross court, live ball with you just continuing to try to get in that rhythm. And then as soon as you get the volume in, that's going to become very natural because you already did it right there. Okay, so let's check out your backhand. What we're going to notice with your footwork is again, that is a correct way to move. If we're on that forehand side, what we want to do is turn and walk slash run over to that ball. So you're going to notice that when you go to move, you're starting with your right foot crossing over, which again, is not an incorrect way to move. But what you'll also notice on the film is you move here, you hit like this with this left leg staying here. And so what you're using is you're using your back and your butt and your upper body to hit your backhand. And what we do kind of as a test is if I gave you this medicine ball and I want you to move the exact same way, if I increase the weight on the medicine ball, you would start getting more and more uncomfortable because you're using only your hip and your back. And what I want you to get aware of is your body and how you can use your left hip to help you. So just hit your back in the exact normal way. I'm going to give you the ball, run over and throw it at me. Now, what I want you to do is kind of like you did with your tennis a little bit, come over here and throw it and tell me if you kind of feel a little uncomfortable. So you're going to move a little this way and not so much forward when you go to throw it. Okay. So turn, run. Good. But you kind of feel that it doesn't feel as wonderful. So all we're going to do again, that footwork pattern is not wrong, but we want you to be aware of the other footwork pattern and how you can use your lower body to just help you get some easier power that's not as muscly. We want that efficient power, the easy power. So all you're going to do, you're going to take the same medicine ball. You're going to start with your left foot, shuffle one. And now I want you to throw the ball with your left hip, not with your kind of right butt. You can go nice and slow. So you're going to start with that left foot, send it out there, shuffle step. There we go. Good. And definitely use that left hip to be the thing where you feel it. And so if we kept you just stand like this, use that left hip. I want you to push like that. There we go. And to help you do that, I want you to swing and then let that left foot come here. Yes. Wonderful. Feel that? Okay. So start from the beginning, shuffle one, two, throw it and release. Shuffle one, two. One more time. Yep. Shuffle one, two and release. Yes. Perfect. Get your racket. Give me that ball. You're going to practice it three times without the ball. Go for it without the ball. Shuffle up. So don't cross over. Keep facing me and just shuffle to the left. There we go. Good. Perfect. Again. Look at that. Nice. Now try to get that upper body turned just a little bit. There we go. Good. Okay. Ready? Same thing. Nice and easy. Yes. It's okay. Keep going back. Shuffle first. Shuffle. Nice. Good. That was your best one. Shuffle. Yes. One more. Shuffle. Look at that. Perfect. Good. Not the best results, but very good footwork. And again, that's part of tennis. There's feels and then there's seeing it. If we show you on video, you're going to see that that looks a little more efficient. Did it feel great? No, because you missed a couple, but that's what volume is for. Now we give you volume so that you start feeling like, okay, I'm feeling a little more comfortable doing it. I can make more balls. And that's where you kind of get your confidence of, okay, it doesn't feel so bad. Okay. I'm seeing that the result is getting better. We always have to be very careful about execution versus learning slash retention. Okay. You can do things wrong and execute, and it feels great because the ball went in, but you can do things right. Miss a little bit at the beginning and think, oh, I must be doing it wrong because I'm not, the execution isn't there. Be patient with results. Be patient with execution. That is not going to be the key. That is something that you want. That's the feedback that you want. But especially when you're learning a new skill, be a little bit patient with that.