In today's lesson i'm going to teach you volley and overhead. You know what volley
is? So volley is hit close to the net and
it's a shot that's taken in the air kind of like volleyball.
You know. So if the ball bounces that's considered a ground stroke okay
there's another thing called a half volley but don't worry about that we'll
get to that later. So i'm going to teach you how to take the ball
out of the air when you're close to the net. You want to try a few?
All right. So stand right there close to the net now i'm going to feed
you some balls go right in the middle okay let me see.
Actually you're doing really good volleys you're doing a lot of things
already correct without ever having uh played on these shots but one thing
that you're doing badly you're doing what i call the windshield wiper so when
you get a ball on this side you hit it like this
and when you get one on this side you're going like this you know like a
windshield wiper on the car so the first thing we have to change
we cannot hit volleys with a forehand grip now you remember the backhand grip
that we used yeah forehand is that remember backhand
turn your hand that way and i point the racket towards me okay
let go the racket and just put your hand on top right on
top like that there you go that's called the continental grip and
the great thing about this grip is you're gonna use it on your two-handed
backhand on your volleys your overheads and all
the other kind of specialty shots that you're going to be hitting
the only time you have to change your grip is for the forehand so on the
volley it's very important that you use the continental grip and now when the
ball comes on this side you're going to use
one you change it to a forehand grip okay so when a ball comes on this side
you're going to go like this and you're basically going to do the
same thing you just did you're going to deflect the ball back
you know what i mean by deflect it's kind of like block
you basically let the ball let the ball bounce off the strings and come back now
when it comes to the backhand you can use the other hand to support eventually
it might be better off if you did just one hand but you have to use the other
side of the racket you see so you're using this side of the racket on
the backhand volley now let go and using this side of the racket on the
forehand volley right and in the middle you're in a ready position like this
okay and so here also just just deflect yes block it for now no force no force
okay just let the ball bounce off the strings let's see what happens okay now
i'm gonna feed it really gently you're gonna go back into my hands okay
here we go forehand first now what i'd like you to do is just set
the racket right away that way we don't have to do it out of the ready position
and i keep your elbow in front like this and now i'm going to throw the ball
you're just going to let it deflect off your racket and come back to
me put it right there right away put the elbow in front a little bit yeah
and you can keep the racket closer to your body it's going to feel better
there okay okay and just come back to me there
it is okay not bad good come again
Now you have a tendency not just you but players in general have a tendency to
start straightening the arm and it becomes more difficult when the
ball is further away so keep the arm bent
but just get the elbow in front of the body see the body here yeah you don't
want anything between here okay like this and just deflect it back okay
nice ah you change your grip to a forehand go back to continental
i notice everything i'm watching you very closely
good come again good again nice all right now do backhand side
back inside you don't change the grip you keep the elbow in front don't turn
too much stay a little more open like this
okay a little bit like a little bit more turn there you go perfect it's like a
quarter turn okay and you come back to me okay if you go
like this if you snap the wrist a little bit
it's going to go crooked there you go that's good
good again nice just deflect okay again it's all right
another one good again good good
good nice and straighten the racket now you already see how
how directional control works in tennis if you make contact like this
you notice the balls are going crooked right so if you want the ball to go
straight you got to keep the racket straight okay
you have to break the wrist you have to extend the wrist backwards
on this side it's going to be your left hand on the forehand side is going to be
the right hand okay
here we go okay that went up a little bit maybe close the racket face slightly
good okay now go in the middle we'll try forehand and backhand okay
so the ready position is going to be slightly down with the upper body go
down a little bit a little bit more there you go and get in your knees a
little bit bend your knees and get on your toes
like that now the ball's going to come you go forehand here one hand remember
and then back to the ready position and backhand here it's important to be really
ready at the net because the ball is going to be coming fast
you don't have a lot of time because you're close to the net
not completely on the toes like you know like this but but a little bit more with
the weight forward yeah here we go and again backhand
good forehand come good backhand nice forehand and try to minimize the
movements of the racket you just deflect the ball back in other words you block
it back you let the ball play the racket good
come again nice okay now i want to try something
because there is a disadvantage to having a two-handed volley it's not
wrong to do two hands on this side but you know volley oh well volley i'm not
saying it right it's v-o-l-l-e-y okay
how do you say it volley volley we're both saying it's wrong
it's actually volley with an o now go ahead and put the racket on the side see
there's less reach let go off the left hand let go left
hand see now you have more reach with one hand yeah
so it's an advantage to do one-handed backhand volleys even though yeah
even though you have a two-handed backhand back there so let me try that
real quick so go ahead and do with one hand
let go of the left hand let me see what that looks like
if you're strong enough you might be able to do this right away
does that feel weak yeah yeah most players are a little bit weak with their
wrist when it comes to the uh one-handed
backhand volley. So what i recommend now maybe we add this
later as you play more tennis but for now
we'll stick to the two-hander and we'll change it down the road okay
and forehand good backhand good
wow what do you think easy right yeah okay let's make it harder oh no stand
behind this cone right here i'm going to feed you short
you're going to run up with the arm already set up like we practiced you're
going to put the elbow in front you know keep the racket here the wrist
is going to be bent back you're going to run up and then just deflect alright
ready forehand come you're going to have to
run fast because the ball is going to be very slow so the first
two or three steps are very explosive and then kind of slow down closer to the
ball okay
don't take your racket back like this keep your racket in front like this
that's all you got to do just deflect good job
good and go come get up there nice one yes
let's try backhand same thing set the racket already on that side
and you're gonna go this way come come forward come get good come come
come come what's happening is you're not uh you're
not moving through the ball you're stopping too early and then
you're reaching like this yeah i'm not sure where i am
just keep i know just keep going okay you got to try to get as
close to the net as possible and go much better see that extra one or
two steps afterwards helps you to keep the balance
angle good remember you shouldn't try to extend the arms like this keep the
elbows a little bit closer to your body it's going to give you a better feel
huh very nice all right now let's do forehand and backhand so do
one forehand come back there ready position and then backhand forehand
good backhand good forehand nice and backhand side come on
good. So you already learned how to volley from a stationary position
and you learn how to volley moving forward it was really good job but now
don't be scared but i'm going to hit the ball harder to you and you're just going
to stand here and you're going to deflect the ball back because that's the
reality when you come to the net people are going to probably hit it a little
bit harder than i was just now
don't swing see what happens if you swing you lose control immediately
that's why it's important to just freeze the racket okay block the ball
good nice nice good job how was that was that
scary yeah right so if you are into that ready
position if you keep your elbows in front it makes it a
lot easier to react so you have to remember to be ready at the net you feel
like standing straight up then it's even more difficult to react
yeah all right so one more thing we do on the volley is what happens when you get
a low ball and now this turns really into a very athletic type of volley
where you have to try to bend because what you don't want to do
is keep your legs straight and bend the upper body because now you'll volley up
so when you get a low volley you have to go into a lunge you know what i mean by
lunge and then you have to get the body down
so that the racket head doesn't drop too low
that the racket head remains level and then you can still hit a quality volley
so back up a little bit try to get as low as possible
wow very good do it again ready position and lunge nice and again lunge
good again lunge wow okay now backhand same thing okay
ready position and you're gonna lunge and get as low as you can
oh you went a little bit down with the upper body there here we go
not on the backhand and it's gonna be more difficult the more natural way is to
do it with your right leg try it try one with your right leg try
you see it's more difficult yeah with the left do it with the right
with the dominant leg now go ahead and ready position
nice if you remember on our backhand lesson you also wanted to hit all your
two-handed backhands like this remember
so you have some kind of natural preference to do it off this leg
you have to break that and do it the other way around you have to
it feels kind of straight so yeah on the left side use your right leg okay
do it again ready position better yes yes you see now you get better
angles to work with a really good job on the volley but now what do you do when
you're at the net and somebody gives you like a high ball right
I scream. okay you have to do something called
an overhead so this shot is kind of self-explanatory and what i noticed when
we were doing overheads in the beginning
okay try again another one just like the serve you have the
tendency to be open towards the ball so you see a ball
and this feels very safe to beginners to kind of face the ball and do a shot like
this so you have to break this natural habit
that you have and turn sideways just like you did on
the serve so go ahead stand right on this line the ball is going to be coming high
as soon as you see it's high it's over your head you're going to turn like this
and put the racket in the trophy remember the trophy
right remember same grip still it's the continental grip you're going to be
right here to get this tilt of the shoulders you put your left
arm up towards the sky and now you see your your chin is going to go over your
shoulder you're going to be staring at the ball
with your chin over the left shoulder like this so you need a full turn like
this racket is down on this side left arm is up that's your ready
position for the overhead when the ball is very close that's when you take a
swing at it and you're going to swing down on it you're going to hit it hard
into the ground over the net of course
okay the mistake that you're doing is very common so what i told you before
you're very comfortable opening up so now you're setting up like this but
then you're opening up too early and waiting for the ball like this
i want you to really wait like this it's going to be really weird
wait like this until the ball is very close and then when you accelerate
you're actually going to rotate into the obviously you're not going to hit it
like this you're going to rotate into the ball
like that okay okay go ahead and get set
go again
So first of all you're doing a really good job on your overhead but
one mistake you're still going too early like this i
want you to look where i'm accelerating from on the overhead look
see my racket is in the trophy right yeah look here
you see how it's accelerating from here look you can't see it because it's
accelerating fast so you're doing this watch
right here you see how the racket is waiting here
don't wait like this accelerate from here look
so you're doing it because you want to make sure that you make contact with the
ball so you put the strings flat like this
because you mentally the image is like the strings out towards the ball
and you know you're going to make contact but if you wait here you're
going to accelerate much longer and much faster therefore
your range of motion is going to increase
so your racket's going to go in here out here and then into the contact
Okay now we're gonna do the ultimate test
uh we're gonna do everything we did today a forehand volley a backhand
volley and then an overhead forehand good backhand
overhead
much better all right let's do a racket tap
awesome awesome job