Footwork advice

For free or cheap? Lose weight, jump rope, run sprints. Some of the best defenders I have played with at any level were former football players. No matter how shit they were with a racket you could not get a ball past them.

Squats, step up’s, etc with weight. I’m fortunate enough to have been getting lessons 2x/wk, and my footwork has improved a lot. It feels like it’s 20% mental and 80% my thighs - like a crab scurrying sideways :) When I watch better players (like my coach) they anticipate where to move earlier (mental) and also move quicker/more efficiently. Exercise will help with the later, but the mental part is only going to come with lots of experience

If your footwork is bad specifically on defense, it could be a byproduct of poor positioning. You want to be at the meeting point between the notch in the 2 side glasses and the notch in the 2 back glasses as if you made 2 lines to make a square in the corner and stayed at that meeting point. This is tucked into the corner a lot more than most players (esp beginners) think you should be but it's the right spot. This guarantees you cover the corner and although you may have to move faster or anticipate on balls down the middle you should be able to get to those too unless it's a very good shot by your opponents plus your partner covers some of the middle too.

I think all the people here talk about positioning a lot, but you maybe you mean you have "heavy" feet. I have the same (quite tall). I think your calves, hip hinge power, hamstrings etc. need explosive power and your achillis tendon needs to be able to transfer the load quickly and become extremely springy, like basketball players. but that's just my 2 cents.

Play football, most if not all European athletes played it as kids.

I think a lot of footwork also comes down to fitness and court intelligence. Often if I have a shot with lots of spin from experienced players I find myself more stuck in the mud, not because I’m lazy but because it requires more processing power to understand how to position myself for the ball. When I play against more my level or under I suddenly am moving fluidly because I know where to go and am better at anticipating. I don’t have that luxury against players with 1.000+ more hours than me. But sessions with a ballmachine or 1:1 with your partner or group training can help with tips for your footwork. I got amazing tips in group sessions on jumping more for vibora I can’t reach. I thought I was supposed to stay grounded. Was 5x better on overheads in 1.5 hours. In the en, reps reps and reps with good players will require you to develop more efficient footwork.

Personally I just watch a lot of high level padel and focus on how the players move. I think just doing that and thinking about how it would feel on the court helps me improve. Aside from that sometimes off peak hours coaching can be surprisingly not that expensive, and you will improve a lot faster with a proper 1-1 coach compared with just playing games.

I'm relatively fast player but my footwork is shit. It makes me slower on certain balls than I actually am. I would say learn the splitsteps by focusing on those on a lower level match. In a competitive matches you cant develop those as the match requires all of your attention. Regarding the overheads, you can practice the correct movement pattern at home. I used to run backwards when I was beginner, but I decided to practice sidestepping at home. It worked quite well! Now I am developing a habit to cross step on overheads. I practice this at home, then during warmups I get few repetitions.