Jorge Capestany - TennisDrills TV

What is Your Footwork Number?

For many players, movement is the biggest limiting factor in their game. Determining a player’s Footwork Number is a quick way to assess a player’s footwork and help them improve the movement on the court.

Before we discuss the concept of the Footwork Number, we should first identify two basic elements in movement that are necessary for every player.

1. Athletic Stance: Players must have their knees bent and ready to move. Their “athletic height” is actually shorter than their actual height. This is a simple prerequisite to good movement, but an alarming number of players do not have an effective athletic stance.

2. Split / Hop step: Players must execute a split or hop step every time their opponent hits the ball.

Once a player understands these two elements and is using them regularly, the last thing to determine is the players actual Footwork Number.

Footwork Number is defined as the number of times a players’ feet touch the ground between their shots. As players rally, simply count how many times their feet touch the ground between each stroke they hit.

The table below refers to what the footwork number is for the various levels in tennis.

Mastering the concepts listed above is the foundation to becoming a great mover on the tennis court. Remember, you can’t hit a ball you don’t get to first.

Jorge Capestany - TennisDrills TV

Jorge is the Founder of www.tennisdrills.tv - a video based website that shows more than 700 videos of tennis drills and tips. Jorge is one of only nine people world-wide that is a Master Professional with both the USPTA and PTR. Jorge is a 6-time Michigan Pro of the Year a 2-time Midwest Pro of the Year. Jorge has coached hundreds of ranked juniors including 3 national champions.