Question about volley

[phoenicks]

When I volley, should I open my body to the net all the way or stay sideway using a closed stance? What if time doesn't permit during a fast exchange???

[WildVolley]

Usually it is best to use a closed or neutral stance, but you don't always have time. If you serve and volley a lot, you'll hit a lot of volleys from the open stance.

Turning your shoulder and controlling the racquet head with your shoulders and hand is more important than the position of your feet.

[Uncle Emmitt]

agree with wv. always if possible get a slight shoulder turn 30-45 degrees approx.

[Nellie]

What you will find with experiance is that it is faster to keep your hands forward and turn your shoulders to hit the volley. Keeping open, but taking back the racquet is often slower, and simply leads to bad volleys.

[CoachingMastery]

On backhand volleys, assuming you are using a continental grip, you will want to stay more sideways than on forehand volleys using the same grip. This is because the hitting shoulder is behind you on the forehand side. On the backhand side, the hitting shoulder is in front and any open position will force you to have to lay the racquet back more relative to the target as you open up more. The stance among most top players for most volley situations is more closed on backhands, (obviously), but can be neutral or even open as long as your upper body gets sideways.

One of the worse examples of teaching tips is "hit the ball way out in front of you." While the phrase is actually correct, it is interpreted (and offered, usually) wrong! Contact for both the forehand and backhand volley using the continental grip is to the player's side, usually right off their front knee. NOT way out in front "towards the net" as most player interpret this phrase.

It is out in front of the player...but they are sideways at contact. The arm is nearl parallel with the net...NOT perpendicular as in reaching towards the net or target with the hand. With but a few exceptions, you will see this in every pro or skilled player's volley technique.

Only if you are using the more elementary eastern grips on the volley would you actually reach forward towards the net to hit the volley. This is because the eastern grips tend to set the racquet back at nearly a perpendicular angle to the forearm and the player MUST bring the racquet around and forward to get the string bed back square to the ball. (One of the reasons players who use eastern grips can't hit finesse volleys, angle volleys or drop volleys...they have to swing forward to get the strings facing the target...almost impossible for them to decelerate this swing to create a sharp angle or to soften a ball.

[LubbockAg]

One of the worse examples of teaching tips is "hit the ball way out in front of you." While the phrase is actually correct, it is interpreted (and offered, usually) wrong! Contact for both the forehand and backhand volley using the continental grip is to the player's side, usually right off their front knee. NOT way out in front "towards the net" as most player interpret this phrase.

One of the best tips I have read in a while!

[bhupaes]

Dave, although this post is about volleys, could you comment on whether this tip (contacting the ball in front of the body, which is turned sideways) applies to ground strokes also - forehands and two handed backhands. When I see Federer's head turned and fixated on the contact point for a forehand, it looks like he's contacting the ball way to the side and not way to the front. Thanks!

[CoachingMastery]

Dave, although this post is about volleys, could you comment on whether this tip (contacting the ball in front of the body, which is turned sideways) applies to ground strokes also - forehands and two handed backhands. When I see Federer's head turned and fixated on the contact point for a forehand, it looks like he's contacting the ball way to the side and not way to the front. Thanks!

The grip will have a lot to do with the contact point for groundies: The more western, the more out in front (towards the net) on the forehand. For typical two handed backhands, the contact point is very nearly where the backhand volley is. This is because most top two-handers have a continental grip on their dominant hand. One of the prolific excetions to this was Courier: he used a strong eastern backhand grip for his dominant hand and basically hit his two-hander the way a strong one-hander would swing, much more out in front towards the net than typical two-handers do. If they use a one-handed backhand, with a strong eastern backhand grip, then that contact point will be well out in front of their front leg. Slice backhands are hit more off the front knee just like volleys. Fed's forehand sometimes is not much more than a strong eastern forehand grip, although he can be more of a semi western player at times, it seems. Thus, his contact point will be more to his side than say a Nadal forehand where he uses a more western grip.

That help?

[bhupaes]

That helps a lot, Dave - thanks!

[phoenicks]

Thanks a million Dave, you have definitely clear up my confusion, so let me summarize,

1) staying side ways, with BH volley closing body more than FH volley.

2)hitting the volley slight in front of the body, but not too front, just slightly in front of the knee.

[CoachingMastery]

Thanks a million Dave, you have definitely clear up my confusion, so let me summarize,

1) staying side ways, with BH volley closing body more than FH volley.

2)hitting the volley slight in front of the body, but not too front, just slightly in front of the knee.

You got it...assuming we are all using the continental grip!

[phoenicks]

You got it...assuming we are all using the continental grip!


Yeah, I am still sticking to continental grip despite all the failure and frustration I have with my volley. After I've read your insightful post on how long to get to 5.0 post here, I've decided to get all the foundation correct, and luckily I have a good pro in my school now giving great instruction that changed my strokes a lot for the better.

[CoachingMastery]

Yeah, I am still sticking to continental grip despite all the failure and frustration I have with my volley. After I've read your insightful post on how long to get to 5.0 post here, I've decided to get all the foundation correct, and luckily I have a good pro in my school now giving great instruction that changed my strokes a lot for the better.

While everyone has some limitations, those who learn what I call an advanced foundation are given the opportunity to reach higher levels of skilled tennis; reach their true potential. The continental grip is just the start for volleys, serves, and overheads as well as slice backhands and backhand dropshots, and the dominant hand on two-handed backhands. So, needless to say, it is a pretty important grip.

Which always makes me shake my head when I hear, see or read about how pros are teaching the eastern grips with the intention of changing the student sometimes later. It is never easy and many times impossible.

Good luck and stick to your convictions knowing you are moving closer to your goal of becoming a very skilled player!

[skiracer55]

Usually it is best to use a closed or neutral stance, but you don't always have time. If you serve and volley a lot, you'll hit a lot of volleys from the open stance.

Turning your shoulder and controlling the racquet head with your shoulders and hand is more important than the position of your feet.

...is right on the money, and I think what WildVolley says is a great short form of that. One of the things I think we'd all agree on is that you have to take a holistic look at the volley...or any other stroke for that matter. One thing we didn't talk about so far in this thread, for example, is the volley stroke itself, which is a short stroke through the ball (not down) with very little backswing. Or, as my former coach Dave Hodge (one of the National Team coaches for tennis Australia) used to say: "The best volleyers in the world take very little backswing...and they take too much backswing."

My current coach, a former #2 player at University of Colorado Boulder, tuned me into something on the volley that really helped my stroke and the contact point. And that is the ready position for they volley. Okay, you did your split step, you're now balanced evenly on the balls of both feet, racket head up and racket face out in front, which is key. I had a bad habit of having the racket head up...but the racket face was way too close to my chest. Try doing the ready position both ways, then turn your shoulders and see where your racket face ends up. If your racket face is hugging your chest, guess what? Almost automatically, you'll take too much backswing, and that'll make your contact point late...which is why you don't want to take too much backswing.