Tennis Footwork Exercises - Split step tennis footwork exercise<br /><br />Mazin Hadi Kzar<br />Physical Education and Sport Sciences Department, Al-Mustaqbal University College, 51001 Hillah, Babil, Iraq<br />[email protected]<br /><br />The split step is one of the most common footwork used when you play tennis. The objective of this split step footwork exercise is to develop your anticipation capability because in a tennis game, good anticipation as to where your opponent will hit the ball is very important. This exercise will also improve your agility when you are already on the court. <br />The split step is normally done by tennis players anticipating the return of their opponent. This is done by jumping at about 1 or 2 inches from the ground. However, to do this jump you have to time it perfectly that when you land on your toes, you opponent has just made contact with the ball. <br />Once you are up in the air, you have to spread you legs apart. The width of the spread depends on how comfortable you are when you land on the ground. Some players like to have their legs spread wider but some prefer to have their legs closer to each other. Ideally, the gap between the legs should be about the shoulder width. As mentioned above, you should be comfortable enough the way you speed you legs, because it is very important that you are ready to spring towards the ball when you land. To give you more stability and readiness to spring towards the ball, you should also bend your knees when you land. <br />At the start of the exercise, you must position yourself on the baseline (center) facing the net. From the position, execute the split step (as described above) imagining that have an opponent in the other side of the court. When you do the split step, make sure not to be off balance when you land. Upon landing, run to the right corner of the doubles alley and from there; go back to the center of the court using shuffle steps. Once you are in your initial position, run to the other side of the court (left corner of the doubles alley) and go back to the center with same side step. Repeat the exercise three times and take a rest for 60 seconds and do the same process for three sets successively<br /><br />. <br />Key words: Tennis, Footwork, Exercises – split, سفثح<br /><br />