Tennis footwork drills that carry into matches

1. Have a partner clap at random gaps of one to three seconds. Hop so you land on the clap. Do 20 reps.
2. Have your partner feed from the service line. Hop on their forward swing, land on contact, then go. Do 20 balls.
3. Film 20 rally balls from the side on a phone at 60 fps. Count the frames between the contact sound and your landing.

1. Split step. After you land, your partner points left or right. Fall, push, take three steps, come back. Do 10 each side.
2. Repeat with a ball fed to the corner. Hit and recover. Do 10 each side.
3. Film from behind. Count the starts that begin with a step away from the ball.

1. Your partner hits ten serves to any target. Call wide or T out loud before their contact. Don't return. Count your right calls.
2. Take ten more. Call it, split as they strike, and take one step the called way. Your partner scores.
3. Play ten live returns. Your partner notes whether your first step came before the ball crossed the net.

1. Have your partner hit twenty serves at three-quarter pace. Don't swing. Start your hop as their racquet meets the ball and land just after, while they count landings that come early or late.
2. On the next twenty serves, call "T", "body" or "wide" out loud before contact.
3. On twenty more, take only the first step, to the side you called, and let the ball check you.

1. Your partner alternates slow deep balls and fast wide balls, unannounced. Call "open" or "step" aloud before contact, then hit. 20 balls.
2. Your partner feeds wide with pace. Hit open, push back off the outside leg and split before the next feed. 10 on each side.
3. On clay only: walk-slide to a cone, then jog-slide, then slide into a fed ball. 10 of each.

1. Your partner stands at one of three marked spots on their baseline: deuce corner, centre, ad corner. Before each feed, place a cone where you think the bisector is.
2. Rally cross-court. After each shot, touch the cone before your partner makes contact. Your partner counts.
3. Play live points. Your partner counts the recoveries that finish on the cone side of the centre mark.

1. Run three timed spider drills from the centre mark: baseline corners, the service-line sideline points and the T, back to centre between each. Take full recovery and log your best time.
2. Run the reactive version: your partner calls the target after your first step. Do 8 to 10 reps and recover to centre each time.
3. Add the ball: your partner feeds to a random corner. Hit, then cross-step, shuffle and split back to your recovery spot. Do 8 to 10 balls.

You needYour phone · Two cones

1. Record a voice memo of yourself calling 'left' or 'right' at random gaps of two to five seconds, twenty calls in all.
2. Stand at the centre mark. Play the memo. Split on each call and take three fast steps toward the called side, then return.
3. Film from behind and count the starts that began with a step away from the ball, a false step.

The first step toward the ball, cued by a signal instead of a partner.

You needThree cones

1. Put a cone on the centre mark and one about a metre either side of it.
2. Shadow a cross-court forehand from near your deuce-side sideline, then recover to the cone on the side you hit from and split. Do the same from the other side.
3. Time yourself with a count of three: hit, recover, split.

Recovering to the middle of the opponent's options, not the centre mark.

You needA basket of balls

1. Drop-feed balls a step to your forehand side and hit with a step-in, neutral stance. Ten balls.
2. Now drop-feed two big steps wide and hit from an open stance, pushing back off the outside leg. Ten balls.
3. Mix them: call 'step' or 'open' before each feed, and hold your finish for a count of one.

Choosing the stance from where the ball is, and staying balanced.

You needYour phone as a stopwatch · 5 balls or cones

1. Place a ball on each baseline corner, each service-line sideline point and the T.
2. From the centre mark, fetch each ball and bring it back to the centre, one at a time, as fast as you can. Time it.
3. Rest fully between runs. Do three timed runs and log the best.

Court speed, measured the same way every time so you can see progress.