what grip do you use for volley?

what grip do you use for volley?

  • continental for FH and BH

    Votes: 74 89.2%
  • Continental for FH and eastern for BH

    Votes: 1 1.2%
  • Eastern for FH and BH

    Votes: 4 4.8%
  • Eastern for FH and continental for BH

    Votes: 4 4.8%
  • Continental for FH and other (SW or W) for BH

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (SW, W) for FH and BH

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    83

dman72

Hall of Fame
I try to use conti on everything, but my volleys suck anyway.

The only time I switch grip is on a very high floating backhand volley... I try to switch to more of a backhand grip on those.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Of course, conti once inside NML.
For those high slow balls, use conti. You can serve with conti? Smack it! You can't hit harder than with conti, and when close to net, you don't need topspin on those high slow balls.
 

Roy125

Professional
I use a conti for all volleys...except for swinging volleys where I use my regular topspin grip (eastern on both strokes).
 

tennis-kid

Rookie
I don't know how to use conti for FH volley. It looks uncomfortable. How can you carve with conti for FH volley?
I wonder what grip most pros use for volley.
 

Fuji

Legend
Pure Conti all the way! It's the only "proper" way to volley, or so I was taught as a youngin! It gives you the ability to peel off slices, drop shots, and to bleed pace off any shot given at you. Close the face slightly, and your able to pound in any winner! :)

It's such a multi purpose grip! I always serve Conti as well, so I don't have to do any grip change to move from serve to volley.

Last match I hit a volley with my FH grip, (SW), and it went straight into the net. Probably one of the ugliest shots I've ever hit in my life! :lol:

-Fuji
 
I don't know how to use conti for FH volley. It looks uncomfortable. How can you carve with conti for FH volley?
I wonder what grip most pros use for volley.

Most pros use conti for both. It feels uncomfortable at first. We make kids walk around and use conti for tons of drills when they first start, hitting the ball up in the air, down, you name it. You stack the odds in a players favor, conti for volleys because more good players do so than with other grips.
 

Caesar

Banned
Most people who find conti difficult for volleys aren't using the 'human racquet' properly. The weakness of the grip shouldn't matter too much because you're not really swinging at the ball - the punch comes from your footwork.

Conti allows you to get the racquet in place quickly, and focus all your efforts on getting your mass moving effectively.
 

BurnNotice

Rookie
I have a friend who uses eastern forehand grip for everything.

No seriously, Serves, forehands, backhands (one handed too, looks kinda weird) and volleys and overheads. He never changes grips lol.

I personally use Conti for volleys as that's the way I was taught
 

fuzz nation

G.O.A.T.
I have a friend who uses eastern forehand grip for everything.

No seriously, Serves, forehands, backhands (one handed too, looks kinda weird) and volleys and overheads. He never changes grips lol.

I personally use Conti for volleys as that's the way I was taught

I know what you're describing there in terms of using a forehand grip for everything. It's certainly unfortunate looking, but as a part time teacher and coach, I can only look at someone playing like that and think "job security"... HA!

OP (tennis-kid), get busy learning to volley everything with a continental grip. As you get better and the action heats up, you'll need to hit reaction volleys with no time to change your grip. That's where continental will save you, but even when you need to put extra zip and mustard on more routine volleys, you'll accomplish that more with your forward move through the ball than with a swing of the racquet. That's why some of us encourage the thought of volleying with your feet. That's where the energy is up at the net.
 

TennisCJC

Legend
Real volleys - not that swinging topspin crap from mid-court - should have a touch of underspin, and the conti grip lends itself to underspin without any manipulation of the wrist. With conti, just put strings in front of ball and they tend to be slightly open for underspin. Conti rules for volleys.
 

sphinx780

Hall of Fame
It's worth your weight in gold to learn the conti on both sides.

An opponent that notices you using different grips on your volley will do what they can to engage you in a rapid fire succession at net until you run out of time to switch.

More so important when you play doubles as game style in singles can keep this from being a big issue.
 

BurnNotice

Rookie
I know what you're describing there in terms of using a forehand grip for everything. It's certainly unfortunate looking, but as a part time teacher and coach, I can only look at someone playing like that and think "job security"... HA!

OP (tennis-kid), get busy learning to volley everything with a continental grip. As you get better and the action heats up, you'll need to hit reaction volleys with no time to change your grip. That's where continental will save you, but even when you need to put extra zip and mustard on more routine volleys, you'll accomplish that more with your forward move through the ball than with a swing of the racquet. That's why some of us encourage the thought of volleying with your feet. That's where the energy is up at the net.

Actually he's a very solid 4.5 player with a very strong forehand, whatever works for him! lol :)
 

tennis-kid

Rookie
I have a friend who uses eastern forehand grip for everything.

No seriously, Serves, forehands, backhands (one handed too, looks kinda weird) and volleys and overheads. He never changes grips lol.

LOL That is so funny. As long as he wins that's matter
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
I have a solid 4.5 doubles friend who uses strong W for every shot, and he's a volleying demon. Of course, he has shoulder and elbow issues, which keep him from playing singles effectively...:)
And he hits great low backhand volleys!
 

dman72

Hall of Fame
If you look at Nadals slice his racquet is damn close to an eastern forehand grip. You can hit wicked slice that bounces back over the net with that grip, but you can't penetrate the court at all obviously.
 

davced1

Hall of Fame
I use continental for backhand volley and continental but slightly more towards eastern for forehand volley.
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Primarily conti for low / med volleys and semi-conti for high / med volleys. Both sides. I believe that Pat Rafter did this. He often hit his volleys with a semi-conti (Aussie) grip except for low volleys, where he'd use a regular conti.
 

MoxMonkey

Semi-Pro
I use to think I used a continental for both, but i think I shift somewhat towards eastern on BH, not a whole lot, kind of a 'strong continental'
 

Crocodile

G.O.A.T.
Generally they are both meant to continental but with a slight difference, the backhand volley is true continental where your hand is right on top of the 11 o’clock ridge whereas on the forehand volley you move a fraction towards the forehand so you are not sitting on the ridge.
The reason for this is because on the forehand volley you want to feel the volley through the hands, so if you go on the ridge you will be too locked in and lose that progressive feel.
On the backhand volley you want true continental so you can control the volley through the strength of your shoulder.
So be carful you don’t get locked into a full continental on the FV
 

HuusHould

Hall of Fame
The only (bread and butter) volley I more often than not deviate from the conti grip on, is the high bh volley. I just find it too difficult to hit away from my body with conti, so I go slightly toward an eastern bh. Very low volleys and drop volleys Ill also open the grip slightly. Drive volleys of course as well. (I'll go the orher way).
 
Last edited:

CAREDDINGTON

Semi-Pro
Hmm. What do you mean no range of control?
If you use continental then you need no mental awareness(if it is a reflex shot) to hit the ball, as long as you keep the racket level or a little down off plane, and not swing, you are fine. With eastern fh or bh grip you run the risk of the ball going out if the fh is coming 75 mph+ because of the natural tendency of the angle of that grip. You also will need to hit the ball farther out to the side with that grip. Make sense? If it doesn't I could find a video.
 
Last edited:

CAREDDINGTON

Semi-Pro
Eastern fh and bh opens the racket up 60 degrees farther than it was before(based on continental). Small variation makes a difference.
 

Shroud

Talk Tennis Guru
Let's put it like this, what do you gain from a more open face grip on a volley?
Only the fh is more open. BH is more closed. I don't have to change grips from serve to volley. Sure, its not a huge deal but it helps. Also with such an open grip on the fh, you can make contact well behind the body especially when some one is trying to drill you.
 

CAREDDINGTON

Semi-Pro
Only the fh is more open. BH is more closed. I don't have to change grips from serve to volley. Sure, its not a huge deal but it helps. Also with such an open grip on the fh, you can make contact well behind the body especially when some one is trying to drill you.
Interesting. You serve with eastern fh, too? If you do you are losing at least 40 percent of the power you could have. In order to hit the ball in with that grip you have to hit it more above your head and not in front of you, loss of leg drive and shoulder rotation.
 
Last edited:

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Let's put it like this, what do you gain from a more open face grip on a volley?
It might be easier on his shoulder / arm, particularly on high balls. For me, I also feel that I can hit a bit more aggressively, on high balls, with an Aussie (semi-conti) grip than a standard conti grip. This could be the reasons that Pat Rafter used this grip for many, if not most, of his volleys.
 
Last edited:

Shroud

Talk Tennis Guru
Interesting. You serve with eastern fh, too? If you do you are losing at least 40 percent of the power you could have. In order to hit the ball in with that grip you have to hit it more above your head and not in front of you, loss of leg drive and shoulder rotation.
I mostly hit kick serves and so cheat a bit with the grip. So no eastern Fh to serve. I actually can serve pretty well. For a rec player who hangs out on TT that is.
 

gmedeiros321

New User
17djokovic.jpg

It don't seems continental for me. I use continental grip for both volleys, but I can't be aggressive with either, especially with the forehand side. I'm going to start using this Djoko grip.
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
17djokovic.jpg

It don't seems continental for me. I use continental grip for both volleys, but I can't be aggressive with either, especially with the forehand side. I'm going to start using this Djoko grip.
Djoko grip? Is it an Aussie (semi-conti) grip? I noticed, nearly 20yrs ago, that Patrick Rafter, a much better net player than Novak, employed an Aussie grip for medium & high volleys on both Fh & Bh. For low balls, he appeared to use a standard conti grip — since the Aussie grip can be awkward for hitting low balls. I developed this habit since the mid/late 00s
 
Top