Practice the Vertical Game to Improve Footwork

By Kevin Pope

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Sharpen Your Footwork Moving North-South

So many of the drills that we seem to do for footwork emphasize lateral movement and the ability to explode forward. While that covers a lot of the ground we traverse in a tennis match it leaves one area untouched, our ability to move backwards. Here is great drill to sharpen up your footwork in a north and south direction. 

This drill is done with two people on half of the court. One person takes the baseline on the deuce side to start off, while the other player takes the net. The baseline player starts off the drill by feeding a ball to the net person. Keeping the balls traveling strictly down the line between the two players, the net person's job is to alternate deep volleys with drop volleys.

The baseline player is to play all the balls on the bounce; thus their movements will take them from the baseline to the net area and back again, to the net etc.. The net person should try to execute the volleys to stress the baseliner's footwork but attempt never to put the ball away. 

A Great Conditioning Drill Also

As you can imagine this can be an exhausting drill and a great form of conditioning. After a few sequences in the first position, reverse roles for round two. Round three reverses roles again, but on the opposite sides of the court. The drill can be done crosscourt also.  

I like this drill for a number of reasons. One is that it gives the net person the opportunity to work on varying the length of their volleys. The drop volley is not a shot we get to practice a lot in a typical hitting or warm up session. Another reason I like it is that when playing the position of the baseliner, it makes me hit a lot of shots in awkward situations. It's a great opportunity to work on getting my body balanced to hit shots, when the position of the ball often lends itself to leaning, twisting, or reaching. As stated earlier, this can be a brutal but great drill. The better you and you training partner get at it, the harder it gets, and the greater the reward.

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