Transition Footwork Circuit
Why this drill
The trip from baseline to kitchen line is footwork before it is anything else: split step, advance, stop, split step again. Ten minutes of patterning without a ball makes the pattern automatic when there is one.
Setup
A court, no balls needed. Paddle in hand, starting position behind the baseline.
The drill
Run the advance pattern: split step at the baseline, shadow a drop, advance two quick steps, split step and freeze in a low ready position, shadow a reset, advance again — three or four stops total until your toes reach the kitchen line, then shadow one dink and backpedal-turn away. That is one trip. Do eight trips, resting thirty seconds between. On even trips add a drop-step and three retreating steps mid-advance, as if a lob went up, before resuming. Every stop lands balanced, knees bent, paddle at chest height.
One thought to take on court
Be stopped and split before the imaginary opponent hits — you can arrive late to the kitchen, but never arrive moving.