Depth, power, velocity on Volleys

[Tikiman53]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9qQbRitBRE

So I was watching that, and I was amazed. Their volleys are amazingly effortless, yet they all have great depth and speed. How would you achieve that? Especially on lower shots. Is it looseness? Even when I'm as loose as I can be, my ball is nowhere near that deep or strong. I'm not saying I'm expecting myself to hit a Bryan bro volley, but my volleys are a lot weaker.

 

[40lovebaby]

I think the answer lies in the drill itself, and many others that they do.

Each Bryan Brother has a counterpart with whom he volleys with all day long, so they see a quality incoming volley 1,000's of times, and hit 1,000's of volleys.

How much practice and what type of practice do your volleys get?

You may want to try this drill with a partner who also wants to improve his volley.

To me, the drill is great for both players - the net player gets to hit all kinds of angles and deal with shots that barely clear. The person at the service line though is forced to hit a higher quality volley to keep it low, and from that position you will learn to hit with power, as well as hit both low and high volleys.

 

[Element54]

some serious volleying here

 

[Nellie]

I always thought that the Bryans did not use "textbook" volleys in that they swing a lot to get more velocity. It really works for them, so I don't know I am just an old man being left behind as preferred technique evolves.

 

[Rickson]

You can't expect to volley like the Bryan twins.

 

[batakdepores]

Let's face it, the majority of today's players are baseliners. You may only have a few friends who either currently volley at your level and even fewer friends who wants to learn or improve their volleys. Therefore, you're stuck with learning how to volley against baseline groundstrokes as opposed to volley against volley like in the video.

In my opinion and experience:

1. Staying right in front of the net while getting fed groundstrokes is not going to improve your volleys. It'll improve your blocking though. Actually, the more a player back toward the service line, the more volley "form" he has to perform AND the more advance the volleyer, the more he can do it further away from the net (just like the Brian brothers).

2. The more you are trying to volley while trying to keep the rally alive (that means don't hit winners or even hard to return shot), the more control you have of your placement/depth of your volley. Even if you get high volley (like in the Brian's video), you put it back as if you're feeding the next shot to your counterpart. Of course, since repetition is the key, you have to start at a pace where you can sustain at least 12 shots exchange, even if it means going down 50% of your best pace.

What I noticed with the guys who post their videos, especially to show their volleys (since we're talking about volleys) is that they are too caught up in trying showing their best stuff that is most likely will not going to show their form nor will it happen in an actual match (friendly or not).

 

[LuckyR]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9qQbRitBRE

So I was watching that, and I was amazed. Their volleys are amazingly effortless, yet they all have great depth and speed. How would you achieve that? Especially on lower shots. Is it looseness? Even when I'm as loose as I can be, my ball is nowhere near that deep or strong. I'm not saying I'm expecting myself to hit a Bryan bro volley, but my volleys are a lot weaker.

I guess I am not seeing what you are seeing. I would not describe their volleys as "effortless", in fact they (as some of the best volleyers on the planet) are taking much bigger swings on the ball than I do or just about anyone I know. They can do this because they are the very best. If I tried to do that, I too would have tremendous pace on my volleys but I would miss too many for my style of play.

If you raise your consistancy (control, touch) then you too can increase your backswing on your volleys and take advantage of the pace benefit. But if you raise your pace without improving your consistancy, all you will get is well struck shots out or into the net.

 

[TonyB]

I agree that there's really no point in trying to emulate the Bryans. Not many other pro doubles players volley like that, either. Plus, they have developed that style over the course of THOUSANDS of hours on court, hitting volleys for more than 50% of that time.

Recreational players just can't compete with that. And unless you're a very natural-born volleyer, you're probably asking quite a bit too much to be able to even come close to their style of play or volleying effectiveness.

Best bet is to focus on the essentials: proper footwork, body weight transfer, grip positioning, shot selection, and eye focus. Whatever "style" you want to apply to that will happen naturally over time. That is, maybe you'll develop more of a swinging motion eventually, leading to more power. Or maybe you'll do more "touch" volleys and learn angles and proper placement rather than power.

I've seen dozens of Byrans matches and I'd say that there are a good 25-30% of their volleys that they could use angles and placement rather than power, but that's not their game.

Watch a player with a different style, like Mark Knowles (probably the best and most consistent deuce-court player I've seen in the last 5 years or so). He relies more on touch, control, and angles rather than power. Watching him take a power driving forehand and dead-ball it at a sharp angle just makes me shake my head. He has amazingly soft touch at net.

 

[40lovebaby]

One area that you can really benefit from the drill, besides the idea of doing the drill yourself, is watch their footwork. They are both light on their feet, and you'll notice that for the vast majority of their volleys, they have their weight balanced and into the shot. There is an example of one of them (couldn't tell Bob or Mike) where they are running off the screen, and that is the weakest volley of them all.

Footwork is so important to the volley - I would focus on getting your weight into every volley before I'd increase my backswing.

Like I said, just doing the drill frequently will be enough to greatly improve your volley, and with confidence you will strike them with more pace.

 

[tennisdad65]

For volleys, the only pro you ever need to emulate is Edberg .
Find out what drills etc.. Edberg did when he was growing up/playing..

Mac was great but too unorthodox to emulate and I doubt he did any drills anyways.

 

[smoothtennis]

I agree that the Bryan brothers get away with a LOT more swinging that is recommend for the rest of us humans. I wouldn't try to emulate their volley technique.

Mac is another excellent example here. Admire the insane talent and touch, but don't try to copy the technique.