The Top Tennis Drill That’ll Improve Your Footwork

There are a number of important things that go into being a good tennis player and consistently having success when stepping onto the court. Something we focus on at our New Jersey Tennis Camps and at all of our other locations across the country each summer if a player’s footwork.

Why is this important? Well, it’s because everything starts with your feet. If we want to use a metaphor to help drive this point home, your feet act as the foundation to the rest of your body, which can be equated to a house. Do you build a house or building before pouring and getting the foundation set? No way.

Your feet and the manner in which you’re able to use them allows you to properly position your body to not only reach shots and having a chance to return it, but to also put as much power into your return shot as possible.

The “X Drill” is a great tennis drill that allows players to both work on and improve their footwork and reaction time. In addition to that, it also gives tennis players an opportunity to hit both short and deep forehands, along with short and deep backhands.

What’s nice about this drill is that it’s also easy to set up once you find a court to use. To start, make the initial point be in the middle of the service line and baseline. Then, have someone stand on the center service line with tennis balls and throw them to each point of contact, making an X, hence the name “X Drill”. If you’re having a hard time envisioning what exactly this could look like, you can see a picture of how this would be set up right here.

The key to this particular drill is to focus on footwork and body positioning, along with getting back to that initial spot after each opportunity to reset and head in a different direction.

It’s seemingly small drills like the X Drill that end up making a huge difference in a player’s on-court performance. Having a simple set-up like this allows a tennis player to do it often and get a ton of reps in the commit to muscle memory as long as they have a partner available to hand feed them balls to practice their strokes.

New Jersey is just one of 19 states where we offer adidas Tennis Camps each summer, which are staffed with some of the sport’s elite coaches. We pride ourselves on emphasizing a positive and fun atmosphere to learn and grow as a tennis player for children ages 8-18. The big-name coaches that come and help out each year is something to know about, but our camps are the best in the industry due to our ability to provide individual attention to each player that joins us thanks to the low camper-to-coach ratio we boast every summer.

Getting the personal attention from coaches who have had a lot of success in the sport for a simple drill like this can truly take a player’s game – and confidence – to another level.