Developing A Return of Serve Split Step

Many times we are waiting for the return of serve standing flat footed and in a stagnate position. By using our split step prior to make the return we will begin to move and be more dynamic in our motion and stroke to begin the point.

A split step is a ready step that gets you into a balanced and ready position. You make a small jump forward and land with both feet approximately shoulder width apart and up on to your toes. Your hands should be in ready position with both hands on the grip for two handed backhand players or your dominate hand on the grip and non-dominate hand on the throat for one handed backhand players.  This way you are ready to take both a forehand and a backhand without having to slide your non-dominate hand around wasting precious time. For information, see the Split Step Lesson.

You should begin your split step when your opponent makes their serve ball toss and land balanced on both feet at contact of the serve.  This way you are ready to change directions, either forward, to the right, or to the left once you identify which way the serve is going.  When ever possible, you should make sure that you attacking the ball on the return moving forward in order to get your entire body weight behind the ball to create power.  This will allow you to take a small back swing, causing faster reaction time, and still get the power needed to try to take the offense in the point right away.

To learn to make a return of serve split step, it will take time and practice.  The best way to practice is to start out with a full length mirror in your house or where ever you can find one.  Make a step forward and then a split and see if it looks proper.  I use this method with many of my students both tournament level and beginners to allow them to see what they look like and identify any corrections that should be made.  Once you have your form down, it is now time to take it to the court.  If you have a ball machine with a lift to simulate serves then that is fantastic, but most don’t. I that case you will have to find a friend or practice partner that hopefully needs practice on their serve.  Be sure to practice both the ad and deuce side returning and use both your forehand and backhand with down the line and cross court returns. Keep with one stroke and one target for a series of balls and then move on to the next. Once you have your patterns down then and only then should you start mixing up your return targets.