Carl, your idea of a proper swing might be different from mine. A proper swing for me is simply a swing that's hit when I'm not moving, and it feels like I'm rotating around my center. It feels a lot better if I get those right, because I usually don't.
Sometimes I make a misjudgment and I lean into the ball a little or lean backwards just a little because I was too far or too close, so you're definitely right that I have problems tracking the ball and moving myself to it.
However up to now while I understood roughly where I wanted the ball to be when I hit it, I couldn't feel with my body how I need to move to get there for real, when a ball is coming at me with it's own arc and speed that changes over it's flight path.
I know I am CAPABLE of moving there because I had practiced it with self hitting, when I would throw the ball, move to it, then hit it. I'm not physically incapable of legs first, stroke second. Just when a ball is flying at me, I tend to reach first, then legs second. I can see the ball quite well actually, often it flies more or less exactly how I think it will, but I don't know what to "do" with the ball.
Now the catch is, I didn't actually have an intimate understanding of the difference between my self hitting footwork and my live ball footwork.
Now I think that because in my self hitting, because a ball is not moving at me, I don't need to "meet" the ball, so I just need to move to somewhere on the ground. I can understand that, and I move there with my legs, and then I hit the ball. I cannot hit the ball if I don't move there, so I must move there.
With a live ball, because I more or less know where it's gonna go, I try to "meet" the ball, or like you've said it before, get "behind" the ball. I'm not thinking "I need to move to point X that is next to the ball". I'm thinking "I need to get to the ball".
However I need to do a stroke as well, so I end up doing both at the same time or usually my stroke first as it's easier to move the hand first.
I only realized this a little later in the day. It was a pretty big revelation for me. Such a simple thing but I hadn't really thought about it. I didn't understand how low level shots could cause time pressure on me sometimes, but now I understand it's because I'm barely moving as well as I can. It FEELS like I'm moving because it's so unoptimal and thus a bit difficult, but all I'm really doing is falling into the ball.
So today I was just basically walking around, at least it felt like it compared to my stumbling, and everything was so much easier. I still did a LOT of leaning, trust me, but on balls that I have no business leaning, I tried to move to them with my legs. Maybe 20% of the time I moved how I feel is right.
I think now what I need to do is simple footwork drills. Start thinking of moving to the ball as needing to get to a point on the ground instead of TO the ball, and try my best to do it with my legs.
I know it's horribly simple, but this raised my game like crazy. I'm also re-evaluating my stance on cross-steps: they're mostly unnecessary at the speed and spin that I play at. I will try to eliminate all cross stepping from my game and substitute it with shuffle steps and one steps with better form. They are efficient enough and I can move surprisingly well if I move with my legs. I kind of understand NL's point on this, now.
I know it's a given, but the comments from the more veteran players here at TTD are absolutely gold. I don't think I'd ever have gained the little understanding I gained today if Carl wouldn't have brought it up and made me really think about it and try to find some objective view on what I'm really doing.
I must also apologize for all the nonsense I've said up to now: although I feel it was necessary. I'm too stubborn.
The good thing about this is that I understand so little, that when I understand very little more, it feels like I'm really making tangible progress. Maybe that's why it always sounds like I'm talking about miracles when I talk about my development: but trust me, I'm not. It's actually kind of fun to be at a low beginner level, there's very little straight out stagnation and plateaus.