The Myth of the Recovery Step: Forehand

What is a recovery step and when should it happen? Movement is critical at the highest levels of tennis, and at all other levels as well. The modern game, played now primarily in the back court, is a continuous flow of motion, out to the shot, through the shot, then back in the direction of the next shot. The recovery step is part of this continuous flow on a high percentage of balls. This is the step in which the foot closest to the ball swings around the body to the outside, plants, and then pushes back to the middle, usually with a crossover step or even two crossover steps at the high levels. The old paradigm of moving to the ball, setting up in a stationary stance, hitting, then shuffling back to the middle to a stationary ready position no longer applies. If it ever did. But a common myth in coaching is that, because of the speed of the game the recovery step should start as early as possible and can actually be viewed as part of the forward swing. According to this theory, the outside foot should begin to swing around as the body rotates into the…