Where Does My Power Come From?

[Zefer]

More of a question...

When I volley (volleying being the best aspect of my game) I get massive levels of power. Pretty much no one ever get one of my clean hit attacking volleys back and wins the point. My question is: on a volley, where does the power come? How come I take a ball at 20 MPH and return is at 60 MPH ? (Not bragging or anything just really curios as to how I get so much power and speed on a volley compared to every other shot)

 

[Heroesque]

If your volley is "special", then I'd suppose you'd have to post a video or something.

 

[Zefer]

Not incredibly special compared to most of you guys. But for my ability (3.5~ NTRP) it's much higher than average.

 

[Zachol82]

More of a question...

When I volley (volleying being the best aspect of my game) I get massive levels of power. Pretty much no one ever get one of my clean hit attacking volleys back and wins the point. My question is: on a volley, where does the power come? How come I take a ball at 20 MPH and return is at 60 MPH ? (Not bragging or anything just really curios as to how I get so much power and speed on a volley compared to every other shot)

Why you get more power from a volley:
1. You get more power from a volley because you're taking the ball before it bounces. The ball loses a lot of its pace and energy after it hits the ground.
2. There is this thing call wind resistance. The further the ball has to travel, the more it slows down simply because of wind resistance. By volleying, you're at the net, therefore effectively cutting down about half the distance that ball would have to travel to reach the baseline.

Think about it this way. If you're hitting against the wall, the wall doesn't move forward or anything, it doesn't step in and transfer its weight into the ball, yet it still returns your shot at a pretty fast pace with a lot of power. Same concept applies for volleying. If you just hold your racquet out and your stringbed meets an incoming ball, that's practically the wall. However, as a human, we can step into our shot as well as leaning our entire body into the shot, thus generating a lot of power.

Anyone who can volley cleanly should be getting a lot of power for way less effort than if they hit a ground-stroke.

 

[sruckauf]

My $.02

Effective power on volleys, is the result of a few things I can think of:

1. Good position in relation to the ball (not reaching, firm wrist, etc.)
2. Good balance/form (bending at knees/not waist, racquet head above handle)
3. On-time racquet preparation and take-back
4. Correct footwork (split-step, etc.)

 

[Wes_Loves_Dunlop]

Unless you hit a swinging volley, I dont really see how you can hit a 20 mph volley into a 60 mph shot.
You probably just think that because it is such a little distance between you and your opponent.
The reason the shot requires much less effort is because your straight elbow causes a wall like effect. The ball gets blocked back, and almost no energy is lost when hitting a volley with proper techinque

 

[Jay_The_Nomad]

More of a question...

When I volley (volleying being the best aspect of my game) I get massive levels of power.

The power comes from your opponents racquet.

When you take it on the volley, the ball still retains the energy it would have lost through bouncing off a surface.

Oh and of course, a clean hit helps.

 

[kiteboard]

I hit 60 mph volleys every day I go to net. It's just a matter of technique, and fluidity, and early prep, and intention, and good footwork, and good string, and a leaded stick, and lots of practice, and quick hands, and quick feet, and attacking intention, and stomping your foot, and applying mass/velocity, and locked wrist at the point of attack, and a coiled attacking wrist, and an easy sitter or a ball above the level of the net.

 

[Bud]

If your volley is "special", then I'd suppose you'd have to post a video or something.

:lol::lol::lol:

 

[albino smurf]

volley or rally? I doubt you're tripling the speed of a shot with a volley.

 

[Wes_Loves_Dunlop]

I think he just thinks its 60 mph because as compared to the baseline to baseline rally, the distance between his opponent and him is much shorter. Thus he thinks the same speed ball is faster.

I think his brain is special

 

[albino smurf]

I wonder what a ball hit 20 mph looks like? I guess if you are playing a newb and they are just dinking it back to net you could easily just crush volleys and get the results he is speaking of.

 

[halalula1234]

thers this vid that told me it comes frm leaning ur weight into the opposite foot of ur dominant hand

 

[Slazenger07]

Being able to punish a 20mph shot isnt anything special, at my level its a piece of cake.

 

[Ken Honecker]

I'm much rather have the ability to punish those pesky 100 MPH shots that seem to slip over the net every now and then.

 

[Can't think of a name]

it's probably from you stepping into the volley instead of letting it be "blocked" by your racquet, which is what most tennis instructors teach at lower levels. But then again I don't have any video to base it off of

 

[albino smurf]

I'm much rather have the ability to punish those pesky 100 MPH shots that seem to slip over the net every now and then.

They'd be getting volleyed back at 300 mph!

 

[darthpwner]

Pros only volley around 40 mph. There is no way you can hit 60 mph volleys. You probably take a really big swing. Besides, power is not the most important thing for volleys. Angles are.

 

[Tim Tennis]

Pros only volley around 40 mph. There is no way you can hit 60 mph volleys. You probably take a really big swing. Besides, power is not the most important thing for volleys. Angles are.

I would have to agree with that.

 

[pyrokid]

This is why you never estimate/exhaggerate on the internets, Zefer.

 

[Blake0]

More of a question...

When I volley (volleying being the best aspect of my game) I get massive levels of power. Pretty much no one ever get one of my clean hit attacking volleys back and wins the point. My question is: on a volley, where does the power come? How come I take a ball at 20 MPH and return is at 60 MPH ? (Not bragging or anything just really curios as to how I get so much power and speed on a volley compared to every other shot)

Volleying at 60mph? pretty amazing

Most of the power comes from your legs and stepping forward aggressively. If you watch pro's play, they get massive power with almost no backswing. They keep their hands in front, and volley out in front while using their legs to get power. Sometimes on put away sitter volleys they may take a slight backswing.

 

[Zefer]

Sorry, when I said 20MPH to 60MPH I was just using it as an example of how the speed is increased. I have no idea about the speed of shots, etc, just saying it look at least 3x times as powerful as the incoming ball was.
Thanks for the replies anyway!

 

[mucat]

Some people are just cool and full of awesomeness. Explanation is not needed. Just keep doing what you are doing. One day, you will be like all the TW posters here, with hot model girlfriends and cool sports cars.