A COMPLETE SYSTEM OF ON-COURT MOVEMENT

 By Paul Dale | The 3AM Method

MOVING WELL ON-COURT IS ESSENTIAL TO
PLAYING TENNIS AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS

Tennis today is played at a much faster pace than ever before. The demands on a player to move faster place tremendous importance on fitness, speed, and anticipation. I teach a system of movement that involves all three of those requirements and some more.

There are 3 main parts I try to teach my students when working on court anticipation and movement:

1. OBSERVATION 
2. REACTION 
3. RECOVERY

Here are the 3 parts explained in more detail -

OBSERVATION

In today's fast-paced game, players must anticipate where the ball will go to some degree. Observation is the most critical aspect of anticipating well. Anticipation requires players to read their opponent's preferences and swing patterns and get a quick read on the ball's direction. It's time to move!

I ask my players to observe the moment of contact at the other end of the court. The moment the opponent makes contact with the ball should be monitored closely because once the ball has been struck, we can't afford to waste a second.

REACTION

Once my students have started observing the opponent's contact, I have them create a 'Skip Check.' The skip check is a soft lift off the ground. You see this skip check with good returners of the serve; without it, the quick movements to the left or the right are impossible. Today, the pace of the groundstroke game demands the same explosiveness as the return of serve, and therefore, we must add the skip check to our general baseline game. The skip check should be synchronised at the exact moment of contact at the other end of the court.

The skip check isn't a habit — it's the explosive link between observation and action.

This links observation to action. Without action, the observation becomes lazy, and the player sees no reason to spend time or effort watching for the opponent's moment of contact.

Action (the skip check) also needs a function, or it's meaningless. The purpose of the skip check is to create an explosive start to the movement on landing if required.

While the player is airborne, the ball begins its path back toward the opponent's racquet, and we now know where to run for the next stroke. This is the key to the skip check; you are about to land on the ground, knowing which direction you move next. From the landing, the direction to move can now be anticipated, and through pre-innovation, the movement can be explosive and accurate.

We have now added an action to our observation, making us much quicker on the court.

RECOVERY

We have covered the movement to the ball, and this will undoubtedly improve once the skip check becomes calibrated to the opponent's contact and the two become instinctual.

However, if you leave your player with just observation and reaction skills, you haven't done them justice. The rally lasts a lot longer today, and players are expected to get many more balls back during the average rally. They need a way to recover for the next ball.

Recovery needs to involve the best way to run at full speed to a wide ball and return from that position to cover the court as best you can. 

The way to achieve this is by 'Flipping the Spine.' FTS means that you enter the strike zone with your spine in an optimal position, create the Line at the moment of contact and position the spine in an optimal way to recover back to a central place on the court.

In this first picture, you see Rafi moving toward the wide ball at speed. His spine is angled towards the side fence.

At full sprint, the spine angle tells you everything about what comes next.

In the 2nd picture, the contact shows Rafi creating the Line. The Line is the optimal point of balance and energy transfer from the ground (through Rafi's right toe).

The Line — perfect balance and energy transfer in a single moment.

The 3^rd picture shows Rafi already recovered from the stroke. He has 'flipped his spine' back to begin his movement back toward the centre of the court. This flipping of the spine is the essence of recovering quickly to the vacant court.

Flip the spine, recover the court. The secret to staying in the rally.

Performed together, this system of Observation, Reaction, and Recovery has all the elements a player needs for on-court movement in today's fast-paced game.