all right now i want you to close on the volley you after every volley you're gonna
go back around the cone okay here we go come on close close close aggressively
again come close close aggressively okay hold on one second what i want you to do is when you when
you hit the volley i want you to continue going for at least one step or two steps afterwards
so you go hit one two and then recover because when you stop suddenly often you'll be a little
bit too far away from the ball also when you're running very fast you stop there's a tendency
to lose balance so by going transitioning through a volley like this a closing volley
off a ball that doesn't have a lot of penetration you're able to keep your balance and control the
hand a lot more one or two steps through the ball after contact you can count in your head here we
go come on one two there it is and again contact one two there it is that's it contact one two come
on keep going good aggressive put away volleys come on contact one two that's it again get in
there good contact one two close close yes sir two more come on contact one two that's it last one
and then excellent work nice it okay if i did three steps naturally
yeah three steps is fine if you ever watch rafa the way he closes he always takes like these super
small steps after the volley when he's closing that's where you have to do it you have to do that
whether you're taking one two or three steps doesn't matter it doesn't have to be any number
of steps as long as you continue to move after contact that's going to balance you out a lot
more it's going to be it's going to give you the ability to control your hand a lot more
when you suddenly stop you don't end up going like this this is one of the most common ways
people mess up a volley in transition okay so i'm going to give you a high ball you can hit
an overhead or a high volley depending on the ball and then next one you're going to close just like
we did here so we're kind of moving up and back you know how to hit a backhand overhead
uh you showed me last time i did okay good all right close overhead
come on close get up there go go go overhead pop this one come on get
behind the ball get behind the ball quickly behind the ball behind the ball you want to put
these away come on get in there don't allow the ball to drop get behind it close fast
get behind the ball rip and volley get in there quick go go and get behind it
okay here's the problem you're allowing the ball to get behind you so when the ball is
behind you you got no overhead so when you allow the ball to get behind you now you can't hit it
hard from back here so you got to do it like an improvisation something like this or if you're
like rafa manages to go like this you know and put it away but it's very difficult to do so what you
have to do when you get a lob is you have to get stay behind the ball does that make sense yeah
and when you can hit it in front of you you can absolutely rip it so the footwork has to be super
explosive you got to move back with lightning speed okay all right close stay behind the ball
and rip better close explosive get back there quick and again close come on get back there quick
come on i want to see you rip the overhead come on rip the thing go better get in there quick
and rip the overhead two more come on get in there
absolutely demolish this one better all right now we're gonna reverse this we're gonna do a
forehand close and a backhand overhead if you can run around the backhand overhead do it it's okay
okay you have to you have to decide whether it's okay to run around or not some you can't others
you will be able to right you have to see okay all right forehand close get in there quick
backhand overhead all right close fast get in there good it's not bad
watch that ball get the elbow up on the backhand overhead turn completely sideways like this
get the elbow up and now look you're going to straighten the arm and this is one of the only
shots in tennis where you can use a little bit of wrist you're going to wrist the ball down like
that why because you can't bend the arm backwards so there's got to be some kind of power applied to
the ball and the only way to do that is with the wrist so you get a little bit of power from the
extension but then you have to continue with the wrist a little bit like this this way okay come on
elbow up turn completely sideways come on a little bit more wrist wrist it good
come on i got four more wrist that i love it backhand overhead come and get in there quick
go all right so there was a bad shot selection there i don't think you could have done a forehand
overhead it was too much the ball was too far over there you couldn't get around it so this was the
wrong choice you would have been better off doing a backhand overhead let's do four more okay okay
here we go close on it quick backhand overhead come on better close on it fast match point
all right caught a little bit of top of the frame but not bad it's definitely a shot that you need
to possess you might not see it that much maybe it's like you get one or two per match
but what if it comes at like match point you know a super important stage or like
six all in the tie break then you would have wished you had a backhand overhead you know so it's
always good to have a complete repertoire of shots that's right all right let's pick these
up okay i feel like and i told you this i told him this the first time i saw him
i feel that while he's a pretty good athlete that a little bit of explosiveness is missing
so i know he told me that uh some coach told him not to do any um any uh too much too much cardio
because he's too skinny yeah that's ridiculous he needs to he needs to do a lot of running
a lot of running otherwise he won't be able to he won't be able to improve his footwork
okay now not necessarily jogging but like doing court i have a video that i made with like great
great i told him great um kind of specific running whether doing stairs yeah you know stairs
at the at the stadium yeah whether you're doing on the beach tennis specific workouts whether you're
doing like court sprints right he needs to do that like at least three to four times a week if if not
every day right now i would make that a priority so you're saying running on the treadmill is not
uh no he doesn't need to jog or run long distance short sprints up the hill explosive staircase
i'm gonna send you a link on your text and just copy these drills yeah
because he is actually going to bulk up from those drills he's going to get bigger muscles because
whoever told you you're going to lose weight from running it's true but it's only partially true if
you're mentioning it the long distance yeah but we don't we don't want you to do that unless you have
problems with stamina do you i don't think so yeah so if you have problem with stamina then
you do have to do that as well because players do that as well don't like a lot of guys run
long distance doing tennis because that's how you build up long like long-term endurance if
you really want to improve your explosiveness it's going to take like a lot of hard work everything
back to me except uh when i tell you not to when i tell you go the other way all right here we go
come on no mistakes come back to me
go go go go go and volley the other way go the other way come on keep closing
keep closing go the other way other way cover this one
okay number one rule when you're running down a lob don't let the ball get in front of you
okay let the ball stay next to you that way you can hit a forehand because there you can
only do like tweener or this it's not good either one so let the ball come next to you
go go go okay come on go go react and back up
get in there go come on and now volley other way
i'm gonna go the other way no mistakes put that ball other way backhand overhead lob
come back to me control that shot come on more top spin on the backhand go up more top spin
on the backhand up i want you to put a little more spin on the backhand okay higher over the net good
come
good better forehand
get in there other side and now attack it go get in okay both things the forehand
and the volley you can do a lot better forehand make sure that the first thing you do when you see
that forehand you stick your racket to the side okay make sure you settle yourself a little bit so
you're not running into the ball too much you got there with plenty of time settle yourself a little
bit slow down your body so you're not running through like a train okay then hit the forehand
then continue to the net and then of course transition volley you're gonna do contact one two
or three like you said today even three steps okay continue moving through let's back
up mean does it have to be with just this hand or can i do with both no just
because you're gonna be running right so you can't run like this
you're gonna be running like this yeah you keep the racket here the ball is in front of you you
go here like this run and then once you're at the ball you're eliminating one whole step
of the shot and you're making the shot more fluid more continuous come on
back up back up back up backhand
volley
go down the line close in excellent work nice job
come on come on get up up up
and attack it get in there and put away go close nice work last round here we go come on
run come good forehand attack it go and match point
one more time come on i'll do a whole another set because the volley was not clean back up
forehand
back to me come on back to me good
get in put away oh you popped it up another set back up
don't run under the ball next to the ball come on
good on the run come backhand come on
get in there come aggressive
attack another round you got to make the shot if you don't make the shot hey fight fight fight
come on no giving up over here
come down back to me back to me come on don't worry about that backhand forehand come attack it
and put away okay here's the thing that i want you to understand when you do all the hard work
and you're grinding back there you're doing tons of baseline shots you're hitting 10 15 20 baseline
shots to finally get the opportunity to put the ball away and then you either make a mistake or
you pop the ball up and lose the point there's nothing more frustrating than that so this is why
put away shots have to be practiced and mentally you have to treat them like the most difficult
thing in the world don't underestimate it most players get nonchalant when they have an easy ball
they lose all their intensity and they end up making a mistake or they they get a weak
ball to the opponent and they pay the price so treat it like the most difficult ball in
the world okay always like good work one thing i noticed shot selection on the run i feel sometimes
there's a two couple of different ways you you make the mistake one way is where you're you're
kind of playing a defensive shots like a little flick top spin shot or you're doing squash shots
but a lot of times you're taking too big of a cut you're going a little too flat too hard so
when you really get pushed on the baseline you're playing real defense this way you got to work with
more height height over the net you put the ball you know the backhand you just put it a little bit
higher you still hit it hard or just go a little bit higher because that's going to neutralize the
ball it's going to give you more time to get back to the middle but most importantly you will not
miss because when you go hard from the wrong situation you may make a lot of mistakes yeah
all right all right and the other thing that you're doing is just too defensive the other
guy's going to kill you so if you're just tapping the ball back or sliding and doing squash shots
the other guy's going to kill you remember the squash shots have to come out on their on their
own right okay they don't have to be planned ahead of time there's the like last ditch effort to get
the ball back in play and it'll happen completely by itself you always have to have the intention
to hit the ball but when you do hit it you hit it with a lot of margin higher with more spin