There are two types of movement in top spin 4:
1. Moving your player while the ball is traveling from your side to your opponent's side.(away from you)
2. Moving your player while the ball is traveling from your opponent's side to your side.(toward you)
The players in topspin 4 can be doing one or the other of these two things:
1. "Free movement" which means you can move wherever you want like you can before returning serve.
2. "Locked onto the ball" which means he/she moves directly toward the ball or where you need to be after the ball bounces on your side.
The players movement is fastest after locked on to the ball, much faster.
When your opponent is about to hit the ball you want the player to lock on to the ball as soon as possible. You do this by pointing the dpad/analog directly at the ball when ur opponent is hitting the ball or just before they hit the ball. So you want your player to lock on to the ball on their side of the net. If they are hitting from the left point the dpad/analog up and left. If they are hitting from the right press up and right on dpad analog. Straight up if they are hitting from the middle. After locked on then point where you need to be to hit the ball.
Sequence of controller steps
1. Hold the Dpad/analog to get in the best position(this is free movement),
2. Briefly let go so you aren't pressing any direction, (this ensures free movement turns off)
3. Point in the direction of the ball as your opponent hits the ball (this locks the player to move toward the ball)
4. Point in the direction where you need to be to hit the ball, out of the air, or after the bounce.
These are the difficulties of doing this:
1. You have to pay attention to when your opponent hits the ball,
2. If you hold up too long your player will move into the court,
3. And most difficult you must balance moving back into position so your opponent doesn't have an open court with making sure you point at the ball when your opponent is hitting, it's hard to do both.
Hint: you can point at the ball as right before your opponent hits their serve.