Sand Two-Step Approach

Steps

1. 01Shadow the approach with no ball: two steps only, left-right for a right-hander, planted wide and at the same moment rather than rolled heel to toe.
2. 02Keep the chest taller through the plant than you would indoors. Sinking low to load only digs the feet in and costs height.
3. 03Swing both arms back on the plant and drive them up hard, because in sand the arms supply the lift the floor will not.
4. 04Add a tossed ball and hit 10, landing on two feet, then check your own footprints: the plant marks should be even, not one deep and one shallow.
5. 05Take 10 more from a partner's set, keeping the same two steps and the same tall plant.

Common mistakes

• Running a full indoor approach, which buries the last step and kills the jump.
• Loading deep as if on a hard floor, so the surface swallows the push-off.
• Landing on one foot, which in soft footing is how ankles roll.