Tennis Footwork & Movement Practice Plan for 13 to 15 Year Olds

Coverage patterns run reactively, the sport's interval engine trained on purpose, and landings that guard the growth-window knees. Movement is the trainable gap.

Build-up runs, shuffle widths, clap-splits at random timing, then loading: tuck jumps sticking the last, five lateral bounds per side stuck two seconds, three broad jumps stuck. The landings open the session because the session runs on them.

The five-point fan (both wides, both mid-angles, short center) run two ways: twice PLANNED (the order known, best time logged) and four times REACTIVE (each next point called only as the previous is touched, time logged separately). Full rests. The reactive-minus-planned gap is the honest number: it shrinks as reads and transitions sharpen, and it is the number that plays matches.

Pattern reps with mode calls: "DEFENSE!" (deep diagonal retreat, brake, recover) and "OFFENSE!" (the step-in: forward diagonal attack to an imaginary short ball, split, continue in). Eight switches, random order. Modern tennis is this exact switching, and the feet must own both directions of travel with equal fluency.

The sport's shape, trained honestly: 8 seconds of maximal pattern movement (side-to-side touches), 15 seconds rest, ten rounds; then 3 minutes easy walking; then a second set of six rounds on the fan pattern. Touches counted per round, logged, the falloff across rounds tracked. This falloff number is third-set tennis, measured in a driveway.

The insurance block, non-negotiable: five single-leg lateral bounds per side stuck (knee over toes, no cave), five forward hop-and-sticks per side, three fall-and-catch reps per side. Distances chalked, dated. Teenage tennis is played on one leg at a time more than any court sport; the leg that lands strong hits strong.

Three simulated points, movement-only, called live by the partner ("wide forehand! defense! short ball, offense! wide backhand!"), each 6 to 10 seconds at match effort with rally-honest rests between, every link graded (splits, brakes, crossovers, eyes). Then the ledger read aloud: fan times and the gap, interval counts and falloff, bound distances. Two easy shuffle-widths to flush, done.

What to watch today: the split step surviving fatigue. It is the first thing teenage legs abandon in round eight, and its absence is invisible until the next direction change arrives late. Grade the split in the ugly rounds specifically: the player whose hop survives exhaustion has bought the third set already.