  Consider the group $\Ham^c(M)$ of compactly supported Hamiltonian
symplectomorphisms of the symplectic manifold $(M,\om)$ with the Hofer
$L^{\infty}$-norm. A path in $\Ham^c(M)$ will be called a geodesic if all
sufficiently short pieces of it are local minima for the Hofer length
functional $\Ll$. In this paper, we give a necessary condition for a path $\ga$
to be a geodesic. We also develop a necessary condition for a geodesic to be
stable, that is, a local minimum for $\Ll$. This condition is related to the
existence of periodic orbits for the linearization of the path, and so extends
Ustilovsky's work on the second variation formula. Using it, we construct a
symplectomorphism of $S^2$ which cannot be reached from the identity by a
shortest path. In later papers in this series, we will use holomorphic methods
to prove the sufficiency of the condition given here for the characterisation
of geodesics as well as the sufficiency of the condition for the stability of
geodesics. We will also investigate conditions under which geodesics are
absolutely length-minimizing.
