Footwork
My motto for getting really good at footwork calls:
“The more you practise the luckier you get”.
The following is also very important:
- Umpiring a lot of games – especially games where the players are not very skilful because there you will find more potential footwork infringements.
- Watching videos where you can rewind in order to “see” the footwork infringement.
- Working hard on your positioning so that you always see the player with the ball.
- Quickly scanning off the ball in order to see if players are available if you want to call advantage, but then not to sustain looking off because you might miss the dragging of the landing foot as the player pass the ball.
- Do your vision exercises to see more
Examples of Footwork Infringements:
Cath/Step/Release/Step
The Player grounds their left foot making it the Landing Foot. Landing Foot still in contact with the court. The player grounds the right foot.The player lifted their left foot and re-grounded it – Footwork!!!
Pivot
A movement where the player with the ball swivels either on the heel or on the ball of the landing foot while this maintains contact with the ground.
Learn from a coaching perspective to train your eyes to access if it is Footwork or Not!!!