Hi Ven,

The split step doesn’t come naturally to those who haven’t played any sports beforehand where lots of movement is involved.

If one played sports like soccer or basketball or something similar, then their foot coordination is really good and also their reactions to what they see (perception) – like the ball being passed to them or their opponent kicking the ball somewhere and so on.

So they have the basic building blocks in place: foot coordination and good perception and reactions.

Split step in tennis is then learned very easily, quickly and comes naturally.

If you haven’t done any sports like that, then basic building blocks are missing.

We have to develop them and in the mean time split step doesn’t come easy.

We have to work with kids for months (in most cases) typically at young age (6-8 years old) for the split step to become instictive and more natural.

With adults it can take the same time or even longer when they do not come from sporty background.

Why sometimes the split step comes forced even to you is probably because you think about it or because you are feeling mental pressure in the match and you are becoming more tense.

So you lose the playfulness and lightness in the feet as hence the split step doesn’t happen naturally.

In fact looking to find that light split step and moving light on your feet is a great method of relaxing the mind through body activation and overcoming the pressure in a match.

Hope that answers your question!

As usual brilliant again. I have one question though, I believe as with strokes the Movement also should be natural. We have tons of information going around about the split and everyone acknowledges the importance of it, but it does not happen naturally in most of the recreational players and also the young kids.

I believe setting up the body for the split would make one split naturally without thinking about it. As I have observed multiple times even when you do a split wide, it appears more forced and on numerous other occasions it seems so natural and seamless as if you are gliding into it without thinking.

What could be it or what would make it happen naturally?

As I said I do it many times without even thinking about it and many other times find it hard to do it even when I focusing on trying to do the split.

I guess there might be an explanation. If any one can explain this I believe you are the one.

Hi Zac,

I see your point but the split step should eventually become automatic so that you don’t have to think about it.

You there should be no decision whether you should split step or not because you’re not even conscious about it.

But it sounds to me that you haven’t reached that point yet so my advice is to keep pushing yourself to split step lightly all the time and keep dancing on your feet until you feel and realize that it’s much better to have happy feet and constant split steps compared to being flat footed.

I find it natural to split step when I’m being moved around the court by an agressive player during competetive play, but less so when I’m just rallying with a friend to the center of the court. When the ball is just coming to me, I don’t feel an instinctive need to split step, and when I try to do it in this situation I have more trouble finding the right timing.

Any thoughts on how to incorporate the split step into even the most relaxed situations?

Thanks a lot, Gabriel. I don’t have videos from France but I do give private lessons in Slovenia so if you’re interested please contact me through the menu on top of the page.

Thanks, Athena. I doesn’t matter from which foot you push off but for me it’s mostly the one I would use if I did a long jump in athletics for example.

I feel better pushing off with my left foot than with my right foot.

And sure, we do a split step so that our opponent’s cannot wrong-foot us.

I might be in Singapore again next winter.

I’ll keep in mind the drop shot…

This is Athena from Houston. I just saw your video on the split step. Unbelievable as usual. My question is, on the one foot hop,does it matter which foot you use to hop off of? Also,Iam presuming that if your timing is good,it would be hard for an opponent to “wrong foot” you. Is that that a correct assumption.?
On a personal note,I just had a friend move to Thailand. Maybe I can come and work with you when you are in that part of the world again next year and visit her!!!!!! One last thing, if you have not done a video on how to execute a REAL dropshot,I hope that you will. If you have done that send me the link.