How to Master Your Footwork and Skyrocket Your Game

Welcome back to The Pickleball Clinic Coaching Newsletter!

When your partner says “Let’s practice our footwork today”, what’s your initial reaction? 

Maybe a sense of dread that you’re going to be doing ladder drills and getting a leg-crushing workout? 

That’s usually what players associate good footwork with! 

Fortunately for us, that isn’t what pickleball footwork is about. Having good footwork in pickleball is about putting your feet in the right place at the right time, and often trying to accomplish that with as few steps as possible. 

That being said, while proper footwork is simple, it is also very specific, so it’s important you’re moving the right way. 

Today we’re going to break down the fundamentals of good pickleball footwork, and a few key footwork steps to maximize your kitchen game. 

Let’s dive in.

Imagine you’re playing a match, and your opponent hits every shot right to you.

You’d play amazing!

That’s the effect that good footwork has on your game. When you move your feet to the right place at the right time, you are in position for your shot, and therefore can hit comfortably.

There’s two main things that good footwork helps us with: creating space and creating time. When you have space and time to hit, you have the greatest chance of hitting the best possible shot.

If you’re hitting the ball too close or too far from your body, or you are late in your swing, you’re probably not going to hit a great shot.

This is especially crucial at the kitchen line since there is only 14 feet between you and your opponent! 

Here are a couple footwork steps to keep in mind when you’re at the kitchen line that will help you get to the ball efficiently.

The Shuffle Step

The shuffle step is what you are going to be using most of the time when you are at the kitchen. This is when you slide side to side without moving backwards or forwards. This is the most fundamental, and more important part of kitchen line movement. When you shuffle, you should be sure to keep your feet shoulder width apart, stay in a low athletic base, and keep your feet from crossing over each other. When you are moving side to side at the kitchen, you should not turn sideways so that you are perpendicular with the line. When you turn sideways, you are taking time away from yourself, and automatically creating a backswing with your paddle, which can cause your dinks to pop up. Here’s what side to side kitchen line movement should look like. ⬇️

The shuffle step is great for when the ball is shorter in the kitchen and you can get behind it just by moving laterally. However, sometimes our opponents hit us a dink that is deep and wide. If you shuffle to these dinks, you’re likely to short hop the ball. 

📖 Short hopping the ball is when you hit the ball close to the bounce while it is still rising. It is very hard to control a dink when you short hop it, let alone do something offensive with it, like hit topspin. 

When the ball is deep, you need to create space so that you can hit it at the peak of the bounce, rather than on the short hop. That’s where the drop step comes into play. 

The Drop Step

The drop step is when you pull one food back off of the line to create some extra space. This is used when our opponents pull you wide with a deep dink away from your body. By using the drop step, you’ll be able to get behind the ball while giving it time to rise up to its peak. Once the ball gets to its peak, you’ll be able to hit with way more control, pace, and spin. When using a drop step, your body creates a 45 degree angle with the court. The foot that is on the side that you are hitting on drops back, and your non-hitting foot stays at the kitchen line as your “anchor”.

I know what you’re thinking: “But Matt, isn’t it bad to back up from the kitchen line?”. Yes, it is bad to back up with two feet, but as long as you only pull one foot off, you’ll be able to recover well before your opponent hits.

Besides, why not back up if it means you’re going to hit a better shot than if you don’t?! In addition to making you more comfortable with your spacing, the drop step gives you way more time to react to the ball. Here’s what the drop step should look like. ⬇️

I’ve had students tell me that they were amazed they could actually think about what to do with their dinks when using the drop step, and one student told me she felt like she had too much time (you can never have too much time in pickleball!).

When executing the drop step, you should shuffle out towards the ball, and once you’re one step away, make your last step the drop step. That way you can ensure that you’re keeping one foot at the kitchen line, and not backing up too far.

See you on the courts!

- Matt Slowinski (Co-Founder, Pro Player & Coach)

We aren’t making this stuff up! Footwork is one of the easiest things that we can pick up from the pros. Pay attention to the shuffle steps and drop steps in this highlight.

Notice how each one of these players moved square to the net throughout the point, and dropped one foot back to create space and time where needed. Good footwork is one of the ways the pros make pickleball look so easy!

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Insights from World No. 3 Ranked Pro James Ignatowich

Using a drop step can help you create space at the kitchen. By stepping back, you gain the necessary space to get behind the ball, which is crucial for hitting with topspin, which allows you to control the rally.

Some people believe in holding the line at all times, but that isn’t what you should do. If you watch the top pros, we’re not always just standing an inch from the line. We often take a step off the line so that we can create space for ourselves to hit topspin.

See you all for my next bulletin!

-James

^{For more from James, check out his Instagram and YouTube!}

We’ll be the first to admit it… footwork isn’t the most fun thing to practice 😬. But, if you practice your footwork, your game will thank you, and you will definitely notice a difference almost immediately. Make sure to watch the video breaking down some of the most important footwork steps at the kitchen, including the drop step we talked about earlier. And if you want a specific drill to do with a partner that will get you moving right in no time, click here.

Well, that’s a wrap… so let’s recap what we learned this week:

• Having good footwork allows you to hit more comfortable by giving you space and time

• Shuffle side to side at the kitchen

• Use a drop step when the ball is deep and wide so you can hit at the peak of the bounce, avoiding a short hop

Thanks for reading! We hope you can put these tips to good use the next time you’re out on the courts.

Reply to this email with anything you want to see in our future newsletters 😄 

- Your Friends at The Pickleball Clinic