Yip thats me, go for everthing, dives, rolls, skinned knees and elbows. Frantic. No jumps though. My footwork on forehand is wrong, maybe too square. Though the better the quality of shot the more time you have for the next shot, more relaxed. Virtuous circle if your the better player.
I have taught a couple variations of the split-step to older tennis players. I call these geriatric split steps -- however, one variation that I came across had already been dubbed the fatso split step (for overweight players) . Another geriatric variation is a split-step alternative that I learned some years ago from a badminton coach (Bill Pickthorn), who did some coaching for the US National/Olympic team. It involves a quick/sudden bending of the knees (lowering the body) at the proper time instead of executing a jump or a hop. Timing is important for this movement. The movement happens as your opponent is making contact, is just about to make contact, or has just made contact -- experiment to see which of these works best for you. Quickly bend your knees to "unweight" the body. The knee bend not need be huge -- timing is more important than a very large knee bend. As your body lowers, your weight should be on the balls of your feet -- not on your heels or your whole foot -- the heels may or may not actually come off the ground. My preference is for the former -- weight on the balls with the heels slightly off the ground. When this movement is performed quickly and at the proper time, the muscles are temporarily primed for a quick movement to intercept the shuttle. Like a conventional split step, this alternative action employs a Stretch-Shortening Cycle (SSC). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stretch_shortening_cycle http://www.scienceforsport.com/stretch-shortening-cycle/
@eelvis @Gollum, I noticed that The Badminton Bible refers to a split drop. Sounds like a variation of the split step than emphasizes the sinking/lowering of the body rather than the upward jump. Not unlike like split step variation I talked about in the post above. Is "split drop" a common term on your side of the Pond? Canadian coach, Anna Rice, refers to the movement as a "prep jump" (after the 1 min mark in the vid below).
Split step, split drop, prep jump, "step one" by LJB, pre load jump These are all terms for the same thing - the "loading" of the legs prior to explosive movement. Some people achieve it in different ways, but it usually involves the widening of the distance between the feet (hence use of the word "split") and the loading of the legs by bending slightly at the knees (hence us of the word "drop"). Many people achieve this naturally by doing a little "hop" in the air (hence use of the word "jump"), but some just bend the knees and widen the base, particularly when short on time. I wouldn't say "split drop" is particularly common. I have only ever really heard it referred to as split step by coaches, but I have heard all the variations at some point.
When I originally made that content, the term "split drop" was standard, at least with Badminton England (i.e. that's what was in the coaching manuals, etc.). They later changed it to "split step". I prefer that, so I used it when making new content (here's our split step video). There may still be some references to "split drop". I should probably do some housekeeping, although it's a low-priority task -- especially when I'm looking to replace the older content anyway. With the amount of content that we're starting to build up, I probably ought to write myself a search feature for finding stuff like this.
