Been doing some thinking the past couple of nights (well, mainly last night after my singles play) I've been shown two types of footwork (this is assuming one has done the split step with racquet foot half to one step fwd of non rac foot) to get to the front court One is to lead with the rac foot, chasse and then lunge; the other is lead with non rac foot (after the split), and then lunge with rac foot. I've had a habit of doing the chasse; but when i thought about it last night, it seems that chasse is just a wasted step to cover the same distance? I'm sure there's a point to it, otherwise it wouldn't be taught, so I guess my question is when does one use which method?
Chasse is faster but covers less court (more like 1.5 steps) while cross over is slower (needs body turn) but covers more distance (2 steps).
Good points above. Also keep in mind the best footwork is whichever one that gives the best body balance for post shot recovery.
As said above, a chasse is generally quicker to execute than a full running step. Thus, if you can anticipate the direction the shuttle will come and you can reach it early using a chasse, thats good. However, generally a chasse doesn't allow you to cover the same kind of ground as the cross over (running) step. Imagine you are playing singles. You do a singles high serve. You wait at base. Your opponent hits a fast sliced drop to your backhand side which would land around the service line. You should use a cross over step to cover the large distance quickly to take the shuttle early. You play a net shot. You stay slightly closer to the net because your net shot was reasonably tight. Your opponent plays back to the net. You perform a quick chasse step to take the shuttle as early as possible, and play a tight spinning net shot. You stay close to the net. Your opponent plays net back, and you jump forwards on your racket foot (one jump, taking off from one foot and landing on the same foot) to play the kill. That rally demonstrates all three types of net footwork,and hopefully gives an idea of when you might use each in singles.