well, Martina just said lead with the feet

[luvforty]

not with the arm for volleys.

so on this one I think Oscar is off.

leading with the hand is exactly most amateurs hit poor volleys.... i don't see what benefit can come with 'leading with the hand'.

[LeeD]

Wouldn't that depend on old school or new school? Just like for groundies?
Martina is definetely old school, where you move your feet for every volley.
Modern volleyers would like to move their feet for every volley, but sometimes the ball comes just too plain quick, and it's all hand to block off a winner.
Then you add volleying off hard backspin balls, and hard topspin balls, where a longer sweetspot/strikepoint is important, so bring back the feet.

[psv255]

Personally, I like a compromise between two extremes: leading with the shoulder. This always forces me to move forward to meet the ball (as I've had problems with hitting volleys to my side or almost behind me).

It also reduces unnecessary help from the wrist/elbow, which is a common problem with tennis players unaccustomed to hitting volleys.

[sureshs]

I heard that too. I think she was also talking about strokes in general - that it is a bad idea to rely only on the hands, the feet and body should be used.

I would certainly go with what a top player like her says.

[luvforty]

Originally Posted by psv255

Personally, I like a compromise between two extremes: leading with the shoulder. This always forces me to move forward to meet the ball (as I've had problems with hitting volleys to my side or almost behind me).

It also reduces unnecessary help from the wrist/elbow, which is a common problem with tennis players unaccustomed to hitting volleys.

i personally concentrate on the elbow, which is the Center of Gravity of the arm/racket unit.

the hand... well... just too 'out there'.

[slowfox]

Originally Posted by luvforty

the hand... well... just too 'out there'.

Unless your name is McEnroe.

[luvforty]

there is old school new school for volleys?

[tennisdad65]

Originally Posted by luvforty

there is old school new school for volleys?

definitely... every one new school sucks at the net
in the modern game, do not have time to move your feet like Edberg.. gotta develop hands like mac.

[Muppet]

Originally Posted by tennisdad65

definitely... every one new school sucks at the net
in the modern game, do not have time to move your feet like Edberg.. gotta develop hands like mac.

Mac's heavy racquet helped him knock in his volleys. That and genius.

[LeeD]

There's new and old school for serves, groundies, volleys, and every stroke.
New is adapting to make it work in today's better fitness, hard hit topspin shots, including more topspin lobs, dipping passing shots, and low slice teasers.
Old needs to deal more with fast incomers and heavy slice attempts.
And today's slower courts make a difference too....coupled with more powerful rackets that seem to aid groundies, but do little change for volleys.

[TroutSc]

From a new player perspective, what I see at lower level is bad footwork, standing flat footed, not having the racquet up and not catching a volley out front, but more of a last minute upward swipe to deflect the ball. I like when I hit a great heavy topspin ball from the baseline in dubs and know the net player is gonna to try to approach it in that way. Fun way to draw an error. I do plenty of that myself as well but I'm working on it

[slowfox]

Paraphrasing Rod Laver... he said for volleys he keeps the racquet work simple and is aggressive with his feet.

[Wegner]

Originally Posted by luvforty

not with the arm for volleys.

so on this one I think Oscar is off.

leading with the hand is exactly most amateurs hit poor volleys.... i don't see what benefit can come with 'leading with the hand'.

Good on pointing this out, so it can be clarified. The perfect technique is, for all strokes, moving to the ball and then stroking it. Moving implies several actions. Let's say you want to shake hands with a person and the person is ten feet away. You first move your body close to the other person, within reach and hopefully where you are going to be comfortable, then you find the person's hand with your hand and you shake it.

Since new people to tennis already know how to move the feet but not how to strike a ball perfectly with the volley, I teach them this aspect first: how to find the ball perfectly with the hand and racquet and the technique within the volley. It would be like teaching the person, since they already know how to move, how to shake a hand, how not to squeeze a ladies hand too hard, how to do it firmly but not overdue it, etc. The problem with teaching the feet first is that the person learns to adjust the stroke with their feet and lose the adjustment with the hands, which is the final touch.

With advanced players, and I had this case with a top junior player two weeks ago,because of the tendency of adjusting the feet for the volley rather than doing the final adjustment with the hand, at high speeds he lost precision. So I told him to keep the racquet close to his body (using the non playing hand as a restraint by holding onto the racquet longer than usual), first lean and slide the leading foot out, and then jumping with a cross over while finding the ball and firmly tightening up the grip at impact.

The results were extraordinary. He found that he had at least 50% more court coverage, more precision, more control overall, and more power as well.

So that is probably what Martina Navratilova was referring to. You move your body first, than you execute your stroke.

But she had great hands on the volley. So did John McEnroe, who, in my opinion, is the best volleyer ever.

By the way, this is in my first book in 1989, which ended up in Eastern Europe, and Patrick McEnroe told me it helped him fix his own forehand when he was ion the tour. And on my latest works as well.

I am glad you queried me on this, because many of my works have been misunderstood by posters in these threads.

[sureshs]

Martina was merely pointing out that the guy volleyed (twice in a row) with his hand disengaged from the body and kind of floating around. She wanted the arms tucked in closer to the body and the feet and body to be behind the shot, rather than it being all arm, and (I think) she generalized this use of feet and body to all strokes, if I caught her comments properly.

[luvforty]

thanks Oscar for the clarification.

[luvforty]

well, mac's volley fundamentals are really not different from the others, he just does it better.