New students want to fix their strokes. I want to fix their feet.
This creates a small amount of friction in the first few sessions. By session four or five, most people understand why.
The position creates the shot
Every technical problem I've ever diagnosed in a student's groundstroke — late contact, pushing the ball, lack of topspin, shanking wide — was ultimately a positioning problem. If you arrive late to the ball, you contact it behind your hip. If you're too close, your arm folds. If you're too far, you reach and lose structure.
The stroke mechanics might be fine. The feet put them in the wrong place.
What I drill obsessively
Split step. Every single shot. Without exception.
The split step — a small hop that lands just as your opponent contacts the ball — loads your legs and eliminates reaction delay. Most recreational players skip it. They're standing flat-footed when the ball is already in flight, which means they take their first step a fraction of a second too late. At any meaningful pace, that's the difference between arriving early and arriving late.
I will stop a session mid-rally and restart from zero if a player skips the split step. That's how important it is.
After the split step: the first step. Most players make it too small and in the wrong direction. I teach the "jab step" — an aggressive first step directly toward where the ball is going, not a shuffle, not a crossover. Get to the ball fast. Adjust on arrival.
The footwork drill I love
Cones at four positions around the service box. Player starts at center. Call out a cone. They sprint to it, shadow swing, return to center. Repeat for 90 seconds.
No balls. No strokes. Just movement and positioning.
After three rounds of that, their court movement during the actual hitting session is visibly different. Not perfect. But different.
The body has to learn to move before the arms can learn to hit. Footwork first, always.