C6L6: Galloping Players

So far this month we have primarily talked about how to tighten the coil by creating torque between your front hand your hitting hand your racket head and your lower body. You set the racket head and then start to pull against it and create tension on the 45 degree angle. The racket head has this infinite speed coming out but to do this you have to be balanced. Your vertical axis has to be true. You have to learn to move dynamically on the court. You can't be leaning forward or running with all your might or just stutter stepping. Here you see Roger its always a one two punch with his feet. Its one two one two his feet land separately on the ground. He is one of the greatest movers of all time. You see his vertical axis is perfectly true throughout the hit. Djokovic does the same thing but everyone has this gallup on the court. It is sort of related to the figure 8. You are doing your figure 8 motion you know the right hip rises as you turn to the right and your legs sort of screw down like vines so they get a little shorter. The left leg stretches out while the right knee bends a little bit and then you go to the other side of the figure 8 and the same thing happens. If you try it yourself you will see. You can go from this figure 8 into this galloping as you lift one foot and the other up and down. Look here how Djokovic gallops on the court. He never splits with both feet at the same time. See its one two all the time, there is criss crossing going on all the time so the idea of side stepping and clicking your heels together is really old school and I would call that linear movement. Its not really applied to todays game. Look at that one two and then he strides into the shot. If you are a player you gallop on the court you just don't move your feet mindlessly, watch this. One two, one two one two keeping your vertical axis. Its very important, watch Steve here good player certainly not where Roger or Djokovic are yet today but still you will notice here his movement on this point. One two, lets see it again one two, see that there is always this galloping and thats what keeps his vertical axis so true. This is how he can have balance on every hit thats why player leave the ground or stand on one foot or even fall backwards but they have this pop because their vertical axis stays true. There fore they can tighten the coil. So without proper movement you can't even think about getting a tight coil on the hit. You follow me that pop comes from a real dynamic balance and a real torque built up in the body. Start watching the great players and you will see there is always this galloping. This one two one two going on in their feet. Its a rising and falling as they move and not just a flat out bust your chops to get to the ball. Its very graceful, very efficient and its certainly a lot softer on your body than thinking in an old school fashion of just split stepping, pushing off and then stutter stepping until you're in position to hit. Thats very over simplified and not correct. Start watching all the great players and you will see its one two the feet always land juxtaposed to one another. Take one last look at Roger here, same thing moves beautifully he gallops out there.