C6L7: One footed groundies

I first saw this shot, this one footed shot when Marcello Rios did it about 15 years ago. I was at the U.S. Open, I was just so impressed. He did it a few times I thought why does that look like it feels so good. How does he get that weightlessness as he hits this ball. I wondered because it seems like he crushed down like a coil like a spring. Then as he came up his feet would leave the ground. This fella here he is a nice player as well, amateur but a good player. As you see he has that double fisted racket but it doesn't really matter he really executes that shot well. I started to experimenting and thats where the incline board came up. Then I started to have all my students do this exercise where they got up on one foot which forced them to really feel the coil in their hips. Watch this guy again, this is really important to watch. Watch how this left leg come up and it crushes the left hip in, see that left hip turning, turning and he is pressing down look at the verticality there. You see the slope from his left to right hip. So what he is doing here is locating that 45, the contact point. Look at hip crush in there you see that he has located his hit and he starts his coil. Look at that hip, see how its completely turned around even though he is on one foot. He is compressed in and now as he straightens his leg out that decompresses his hips and you see they come around and he is perfectly at the 45. Look at that contact point as his left foot kicks back along the 45. I mean he really has a huge pop on the ball and its a great exercise to try whether you use it in a match is really not important. I guess if you are feeling in the flow you are going to use it. It is great to use on both sides, see I am using it here to try and keep my balance, see I lost it there. I do a little better sometimes. On the forehand you will bend the right leg and you will crush in and crush down into the left leg as your hip turns. This forces you into a tighter coil during the transition because you are only on one foot. You really have to have a small tight coil to make this work. As your racket extends out to the 45 look how your foot goes in opposition and goes right behind as if it were going to the 45 behind you. So this is a phenomenal drill to do, do it on the forehand with your students and the backhand and they will really have a good time doing this drill its a very fun drill and its very productive. I mean you learn dynamic balance, you learn more about the coil and your hip rotation and you learn to tighten your coil against the hit. See that one really felt good, you can tell when they feel good. That one I should have thrown my left foot, I mean my right foot back a little bit more, like that time. That's what keeps me on balance. This is a heck of a great learning tool, this one footed coil and execution it is such a great teaching method. Believe it or not I call it a teaching method and do it on both sides forehand and backhand. Your players will really get confidence in knowing that the power is inside of them. The power is in the larger muscles. They will love the drill its a lot of fun and you will see some will start to use it in matches.