Footwork Patterns

David Bailey the prominent footwork Trainer on Carlos Alcaraz, his court coverage, quickness, speed and so much more, all about the starting move …

“I was watching Alcaraz and believe the reason he is so quick and effortless is his use of anticipationary splitting steps……..see photos above

This technique helps him keep his momentum and flow as against a reaction split step where both feet hit the ground simultaneously and more of a split where the players has no idea where the next ball is heading”

The three moves he describes are as follows

Split Step – reaction, both feet land together, wide base as opponent contacts the ball

Flow split – anticipation, driving leg lands first, outside foot turns, plqyer flows in the same direction

Shift split – Anticipation, driving leg leads first, inside leg pulls under, player shifts weight in opposite directionThe above is from David Bailey (do check out his site) a noted Australian footwork coach.

Please revisit this article on Agility below – it is the same move shown within a video – at the moment I don’t have video of Alcaraz on the move – though I do have great footage of his serve!

Agility ; Hsieh Su-wei

2 Comments

  • James Ward

    Reply Reply October 3, 2022

    Hi Jim,

    I’m very interested in these keen observations by David, but did not see a link to the photos of Carlos Alcaraz, unless I overlooked the link.

    As always, love to see your insights and observations.

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