Side wall revisited again-okay the video is rolling and athletes are running around hitting the ball and having a great time. The number one issue that keeps people from performing at a higher level?
Well, hard to rank but I would start with not using your lower body. Stepping to the side wall seems natural for most players and it is a way to attack a drive serve, But when an experienced athlete sees this, all they have to do is lob. Without the pace behind the drive serve, the side wall stepper cannot return the serve effectively. (to be fair there are some great racquetball players who employ this out-dated footwork, but I firmly believe they would be even better with more modern footwork.)
One more thing about this–you will step over during matches and should but you should strive to do so sparingly because of the limitations of the offense you can create from this position.
Nadal, Sharapova, and other top tennis athletes employ footwork experts to work with them so they have more parallel footwork. Baseball hitters work to stride forward, not to the side. First thing I do with new players is to get them aware of this and to incorporate better footwork into their game.
Can one eliminate all steps to the side wall? No and nor should they. There are shots and times when desperate times call for desperate measures and it is just getting the ball back to the front wall. Let’s work to keep these side steps at a minimum!