a common problem at the recreational level is the high backhand volley and here's what happens
with many recreational players when they attempt to hit a high backhand volley they will indeed
use the wrist and they will try to snap down on the ball in this way now interestingly if the
ball ends up being a little bit higher you indeed hit a backhand overhead what you would do in this
instance is get the elbow up towards the sky and then at the moment of contact you will need to use
the wrist on this particular shot however it's very important for you to understand that when
we talk about a high backhand Volley a shot that is hit at a much lower level so an overhead is in the
name is hit well over your head however when we're talking about a high Volley whether it be the backhand
or the forehand is hit at a lower point so you can I hit an overhead you have to indeed hit a
high Volley and what happens with a lot of players is when they hit a high back in volley they end up
using the wrist like this to get the ball down it's a very unstable shot that results a lot of
mistakes and here's what you have to do instead when you attempt to hit a high back in Volley
that is struck maybe slightly above your head all the way down to your shoulder level you can
categorize this as a high backhand Volley is that you don't want to use the wrist you want to allow
the racket head to be stable and what you want to do is hit high to low that is very much how
you should attempt to hit a high backhand Volley but you want to avoid the temptation to snap
down on the ball with your wrist not only can this cause injuries in the wrist it's a very dangerous
movement but also because you're changing the angle of the racket face so rapidly and you're
not hitting the ball as high as you would hit it on a backhand overhead the danger of missing the
ball into the net is very high so what you should be doing instead is going high to low with your
racket by keeping the wrist in a stable position just like any other Volley you want to hold the
racket a little bit tighter and just execute a high to low movement on the volley now the
depending on how close you are to the net this can be a straight down movement where you close
the racket face onto the ball this can work you see the Bryan Brothers for example hit backhand
volleys like that when they're close to the net however the further away from the net you are
the less likely it is that the ball will go over the net when you hit straight down on it and this
way this will depend on your body height and many other factors but generally speaking the further
away from the net you are you don't want to close down on the ball but you want to keep the angle
of the racket face where it's parallel to the net and then from here you want to execute the high to
low movement looking something like this and when you execute your high backhand Volley in this way
this is going to give you the most stability it's going to give you the highest probability of the
ball going over the net while at the same time getting more of a downward trajectory which is
very necessary when we're striking High volleys in general so the one common mistake that I see
at the rec level is when players snap the wrist on high backhand volleys especially for players
that have a weak forearm and a weak wrist this results in an extremely unstable racket head at
the moment of contact which can cause frame shots or wild mistakes in general so the solution is a
stable racket head and you get that by keeping the wrist firm and in place through the entirety
of the high backhand volley the swing path is going to depend on your proximity to the net
so you can either hit straight down on the ball like this if you're close to the net
and remember that the further back you are the less chances you have to hit the ball straight
down you want to keep the racket head Parallel net and execute a high to low swing path