Welcome to another volley session today. Today we're focusing on the backhand volley,
and specifically the backhand volley that's between the hip and the shoulder. We will have
other videos that focus more on the higher volley and the lower volley because they are
slightly different animals, and I think they need a little extra focus. So backhand volley,
same grip, of course, we have our continental grip, how do I find it? underside of your index
finger knuckle and the meaty part of your palm want to be on bevel number two. If you want a
little bit more of a detailed explanation go back to the forehand volley video that I just posted a
couple of days ago, and I'll spend a little bit more time on the grip in that video. My name
is Meike Babel, I'm a former top 30 WTA pro, 19 times Grand Slam competitor. I played the Fed cub
for Germany and specifically for doubles. So my volleys were pretty solid, and I absolutely
love teaching them. So if you liked this video, go ahead, let me know in the comments. If you
haven't done already, please subscribe. And let's get started here with how we have better volleys.
So again, in my ready position, athletic ready position here, shoulder width a little lower here
don't want to tip over don't want to fall back. And the left hand for me as a right hander
wants to be on the throat of the racket, because it actually really helps me turn.
Now there are a lot of two handers now and I'm perfectly fine with that. What you do then,
in your ready position is you can do two ways, you can have it on top of your right hand, or you have
it on the face of your racket on the sorry, on the throat, just the racket and then slide down. So
there's two versions of that. I'll start with the one hander, and then we'll go over the two hander.
So in my ready position, I'll naturally favor the backhand a little bit and most all right handers
do. So now when I'm seeing the ball coming to the left side of my body, what I want to do is I box
out, I like to call it boxing it out. Because my left arm really helps me turn here a little bit,
my wrist, again is fairly firm, and I leave my wrist below my racket face, or in other words,
the racket face needs to stay above the wrist. And you see that as opposed to my forehand volley, I
have a little bit more of a bend in my elbow. And I'm still turning slightly, because that allows me
better to drive off from my outside leg. So I'm in my ready position here. Again,
I don't want to leave the racket face out of my field of vision here. If I'm looking slightly
out to the side here and I don't see it at all, that's probably too far back. So from the side,
this is probably the furthest you want to take it back. But the key thing is again, that I have my
wrist in front of my chest, right, if I reach all the way across, I know that it's way far
too far back, again out here. And again, my left arm helps me to stabilize the racket.
And as I then bring it forward, my left arm actively goes back because it helps me to balance
the motion. So I'm here turning and I'm striding forward. So from the front, right here
one more time. So again, I keep my wrist fairly stable, I want to lead with the lower edge of my
racket just like I do on the forehand, and then I extend forward and I want to hold that for a
millisecond to prevent my wrist from dropping. So let's get into the footwork. It's the same
idea as on your forehand volleys. So again, if you missed that one, I just posted that
video about two days ago. So maybe if polish up your footwork on that and then you can integrate
the same patterns on the backend. But here we go. Again, I want to get the energy from
my volleys out of my legs. I'm not gonna hit a very controlled volley if I swing at that ball.
So I got my ready hop. And the ready hop or split step happens when my opponent either on the net or
at the baseline is making contact. I want to be on top of my split step. Because while I'm up there,
my brain computes where I have to move, and as I'm landing I can already bound to whichever
side I need to go. So if I see my backhand, I have my split step and you see how my left
step, my left leg already sets out and if the ball is just hanging around here
I'm setting my left foot My left leg behind the ball. And that is where I'm driving off of.
that is where my energy comes from. I'm not taking a whole big swing,
I might do that on higher volleys. And again, I'll make an extra video for that. But you
see here from the side, this is where the magic happens. So one, two, that is how I'm hitting a
firm and aggressive volley and it comes from my left leg, striding in, let's talk about the
placement because that also comes from your legs. If I'm going to your left here, or our left, now,
what I do is I just turn a little bit more, and then I'm avoiding what a lot of times
we as coaches teach a cross step. Because I want to send the ball this way, if I'm stepping across,
I'm kind of unbalanced here, I want to actually step forward to my target. So I'm here
and I stepped forward and you now see that my racket face is squared up to where I want to go.
One thing that I'm noticing is that a lot of players
kind of just stab the racket forward. And that to my mind also has something to do with the
cross step. my racket face now points this way. So you really have to make sure that you turn
and then step towards your target. If I want to go cross court, exact same movement,
only that I didn't turn quite as much. And again, I'm coming from my outside leg.
If I have to move more now, no, not every ball will be juicy right here. So we actually have
to move, I want to keep moving to the ball and then get my outside leg behind the ball,
and then stride again. So it's a rhythm of split, one, two, that I have in there, just sometimes
with a different sequence, I might have my split step Move, Move 1, 2. And again, those smaller
steps and/ or strides to the ball are there for me to stay balanced, so I'm not leaning over the
ball and hitting down on the ball. Alright, racket position, as I'm hitting the ball, I always want
to lead with the lower edge of my racket. So in my ready position, I already want to have that
racket tilt, right and you don't want to have to open Of course, because then you just undercutting
the ball too much, and it just floats. So you have to experiment that how far you close it so that
it's still open though, lower edge of the racket leads turning here and as I'm hitting the ball,
it continues to lead. So I don't want to come over the ball. If we're now going into a two hander,
everything stays pretty much the same thing. The only thing that I see a lot more with two handers
is this because the left hand gets a little too active. So you have all the same components. I
got my ready, hop, I got my turn. You see how far or not far I'm taking my racquet back.
I'm loading my outside leg and I punched through, extend through. Same thing from the back, here and
here. But because a lot of times the left arm is so active, the left hand is so active, we kind of
dump that ball into the net here because the tip of the racket is not out to the side,
but more up here. So make sure if on both sides, forehand and backhand and with both hands whether
you hit a two handed backhand volley, or one hander that the tip is facing out to the side.
All right backhand volleys. Let's look at
my racket work and let's look at the footwork. So these are some nicer ones so I don't have to
do as much yet. But I'm working on my split step outside leg and then driving forward.
Alright, let's do one, split. One, two. Split. One, two.
I'm going cross court. Whoo, I can move better.
Alright, split One to One more time. So again, you see that I'm not taking a big take back.
And I'm really just trying to work with a quick movement here. That also is a little
bit more from shoulder to shoulder. Yes, there is a little bit of a down movement,
but I'm not hacking down on the ball. Because a lot of times as coaches we also say high to low,
and to my mind that kind of leads to doing this. So make sure you're extending
or punching through whichever word you want to use, and then you hold your racket a little bit.
All right backhand volleys where we actually have to move a little bit more. Again, let's split
step, setting and then I'm moving until I have my outside like behind the ball,
and then I can really penetrate through that ball. So let's give it a whirl. So Move, move, move,
split Move, move, move, you're just seeing that I'm stepping
a little bit more over from going down the line or not quite as much If I'm going cross court.
Let's do two more times. I keep moving forward. I was lucky that I get that
with one step. So moving move. And again, outside leg behind the ball.