John's USPTA Forehand Return Presentation

[klacr]

Its a move players do going into the split step that allows them to react or should I say move more explosively to the ball. It sounds counterintuitive to most but when stepping towards center of court and into split step they have more force to then push off that near center foot to a serve if struck out wide. This is my theory. I feel it has worked for me but I never really gave it much thought before this thread. I've never asked a professional player about this so I'm just going by my own kinesthetic feel.

To me, I never understood the idea of split stepping and going straight up and straight down, as it never really got me anywhere and took up an extra fraction of a second. I rather use that time to move in some direction just to feel I went somewhere with the effort. That same feeling probably explains why I'd rather ride a bike than go to a spinning class at the gym. All that effort, I wanna go somewhere, not stay stationary.

As far as reading of the serve goes and tendencies, well this was a classic Agassi take on reading Becker's serve...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suXcaC61gRk

And here's a look at an Agassi return at the French Open, this step looks a little more subdued than other clips I've seen but it's a step towards the center and yet the serve is going wide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLX0Y2H1m9o

As for looking at Fed's returns and the direction of his step and location of serve, this subject has peaked my interest. I'll try researching that the next few days when my schedule and other professional obligations allow me. If anyone else wants to attempt, have at it. I'd love to compare notes and get your thoughts.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[johnyandell]

Don't know about the tongue applying to the return, but you are definitely right about the Agassi split step...

[stotty]

Its a move players do going into the split step that allows them to react or should I say move more explosively to the ball. It sounds counterintuitive to most but when stepping towards center of court and into split step they have more force to then push off that near center foot to a serve if struck out wide. This is my theory. I feel it has worked for me but I never really gave it much thought before this thread. I've never asked a professional player about this so I'm just going by my own kinesthetic feel.

To me, I never understood the idea of split stepping and going straight up and straight down, as it never really got me anywhere and took up an extra fraction of a second. I rather use that time to move in some direction just to feel I went somewhere with the effort. That same feeling probably explains why I'd rather ride a bike than go to a spinning class at the gym. All that effort, I wanna go somewhere, not stay stationary.

As far as reading of the serve goes and tendencies, well this was a classic Agassi take on reading Becker's serve...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suXcaC61gRk

And here's a look at an Agassi return at the French Open, this step looks a little more subdued than other clips I've seen but it's a step towards the center and yet the serve is going wide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLX0Y2H1m9o

As for looking at Fed's returns and the direction of his step and location of serve, this subject has peaked my interest. I'll try researching that the next few days when my schedule and other professional obligations allow me. If anyone else wants to attempt, have at it. I'd love to compare notes and get your thoughts.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

No time to explain...sorry. Just watch this short clip about the split step.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kdvS6Vrfc4

And this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoulGXrz0kw

[klacr]

Good Finds Stotty. Curious about that first video and the product. Still not sure how it works or what it all means.

As for the second video, a few nice points.

Still curious about the frequency of the step towards the middle and the whole theory behind it. Will have some time over next 2 days to analyze the returns of Fed, Nadal,Djokovic and Agassi and see what I find. The real questions are..."What does it all mean?" and "what is the true benefit of stepping to the center of the court and giving up room for the wide serve?"

I'd love to hear what Jeff Salzenstein thinks about this maneuver.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[tennis_chiro]

Vic Borgogno

Good Finds Stotty. Curious about that first video and the product. Still not sure how it works or what it all means.

As for the second video, a few nice points.

Still curious about the frequency of the step towards the middle and the whole theory behind it. Will have some time over next 2 days to analyze the returns of Fed, Nadal,Djokovic and Agassi and see what I find. The real questions are..."What does it all mean?" and "what is the true benefit of stepping to the center of the court and giving up room for the wide serve?"

I'd love to hear what Jeff Salzenstein thinks about this maneuver.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

I first met Vic about 10 years ago at a USPTA seminar presentation JY was doing during the annual convention for High Performance coaches at La Quinta. At the time, I felt the USTA program was incorrectly advocating the drop step as the best way to get moving to a ball. Vic was the first one that I saw with solid evidence that this was not the case and his work on the split step is absolutely first rate. I haven't seen the machines he markets in person, but the concept is very sound. I was looking at his devices this weekend and if I had a program with a lot of juniors, I would think one of his devices would be near the top of my list of routines and devices to add to improve the program.

don