Sidestepping Backhand Blues

One of my athletes is playing in a tournament and they get advice. The player is telling my athlete to step to the side wall to hit a backhand. My athlete tries to explain they are coached by me and so do not like stepping toward the side wall. The athlete giving advice explains they have been to XYZ's camp and XYZ says any player coached by me has bad footwork and I do not know what I am doing.

XYZ camp disciple also explains the feet should be parallel on the forehand but not the backhand side of the court. I could go on with this but the simple question I always have is "Why would you employ different footwork on one side of the court and not the other side?"

My coaching gets misunderstood because it is not the stepover that gets players, it is the weight distribution as a result of the stepover.

What is even more confusing to lower level players (like the one saying my players have bad footwork) is that stepping over and hitting a backhand makes them feel all warm and fuzzy. They are able to achieve instant success. But at what cost?

Hip injuries, shoulder injuries, and lower back injuries soon follow and a lack of accuracy occurs also.

By doing the side-step on the backhand side an athlete is using their momentum, and dominant side to hit the ball, not their legs and lower body.

Professional athletes pay trainers thousands of dollars to reinforce this. I'm giving you this info for free to prevent injury! As amateurs we can learn from this and play pain free.