In Beach Tennis, the court is both your best ally and your worst enemy. Unlike traditional tennis, sand is an unstable surface that absorbs your energy instead of returning it. To perform well and avoid rapid exhaustion, managing your footwork is particularly important.

Ground anchoring: priority number one

On sand, sliding is not your goal—it is your constraint. To stay solid:

• Widen your base: Always keep your feet wider than shoulder-width apart. This lowers your center of gravity and increases your lateral stability.

• Bend more: Your knees must be constantly bent. If your legs are straight, you lose responsiveness and risk unbalancing your torso with every ball impact.

• The heel as a pivot: To change direction, do not try to "push" with the front of the foot, which would cause you to sink into the sand. Use a broader impulse by anchoring your entire foot to create leverage.

The "shuffle step" vs the "hop" technique

In Beach Tennis, traditional running is inefficient.

• Favor small steps: The key lies in frequency rather than amplitude. Quick, small steps allow you to constantly adjust your positioning without digging craters in the court.

• The dynamic hop: Between each opponent's shot, adopt a light bounce (split-step). This keeps your muscles under tension and allows you to trigger an immediate push as soon as you read the trajectory.

Saving energy to last

The sand always wins if you force it. The key is economy of movement:

• Anticipation: The earlier you read the opponent's shot, the less you will need to make big sprints. The best footwork adjustment is the one you do not need to correct.

• Body weight management: Transfer your weight forward when hitting. If you are on your heels, you will systematically end up unbalanced backward, making the next recovery step much slower.

These fundamentals will allow you to suffer less from the sand during your games. Once your footwork is stabilized, your volley game will gain precision and your match endurance will be much better.