Hey guys in today's video I'm going to show you the top three worst volley tips
and explain why they will not improve your volley and what you should be doing
instead. And one tip that could cause harm on your volley is to not take your
racket back. See this tip is okay if there's a lot of pace coming towards you
then indeed you shouldn't take your racket back because there's not a lot of
time and you can simply block the ball back in play.
But what do you do when there's no pace coming at you?
Well then indeed you do need to take your racquet back but it's not a normal
take back like you would have on your forehand or your backhand. It's what I
call a lag. So this is how it's gonna work. So just imagine me volleying in this
direction. So I'm not gonna take my hand back as I'm doing this take back.
I'm simply going to lag the tip of the racket behind my hand and now from here
we're going to go into the contact and then freeze the racket.
On the backhand it's going to look the same way. We're gonna lag the tip of the
racket behind and now we're not going to take our hand all the way back like this.
Simply lag the tip of the racket behind and they then go into the contact in
this way.
It's very important to have stability on the volley and the best way to achieve
stability is to simply freeze the racket at the moment of contact this is how the
best vollyers in the world execute their volleys and now if you didn't take your
racket back and you also froze the racket of contact on a ball without any
pace you wouldn't be able to get any power.
And what would happen is that the ball would just sit there in the middle of the
court and it would be a really ineffective volley. So on balls that do
not have enough pace you can freely take the racket back just make sure that you
don't take your hand all the way back simply lag the tip of the racket behind
your hand and they go into the contact. This is indeed how the best vollyers in
the world volley. If you take a look at Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal on the
vast majority of their volleys you're gonna see that racket lagging behind the
hand on the forehand and on the backhand. Another tip that can cause harm on your
volley is to step into the volley whether it's a forehand or backhand. If
you do this regardless of the circumstance of the ball you're gonna
run into a lot of problems. Let's assume the ball is coming with a lot of pace.
Now it makes absolutely no sense to step into a ball like that. We are simply
going to wait for that ball and we can deflect it back in play and we might be
moving laterally across the body like this or we might be moving laterally
across on the backhand but we really do not have to go towards a hard ball like that.
And now here's where the problem starts with this type of tip. If you get a ball
that doesn't have any penetration and you simply step into the ball like this
and then get stuck you're gonna get a lot of problems on your volley.
And what all balls without penetration have in common whether it be low slice
or kind of a dipping topspin ball or a flat dink shot that's very slow is they
don't have any penetration and you're likely not going to be able to be in the
right position with just one step. So what you need to do on balls like that you
need to transition through the volley. So one step is not enough you need to
continue going through the volley with at least two steps. So it looks something
like this yes you will be stepping in initially and that step is going to
occur in transition where the contact is made so in other words I'm gonna make
contact and then land but then make sure that you continue going so we can keep
your balance.
Players will find themselves often too far away from the
ball when they step in and they end up reaching for the ball like this.
So making those additional steps will help you to be in a better position when
executing your volley. And this is indeed how the best vollyers in the world execute
their volleys. They're not simply going to step in like this and then freeze
they're always continuously moving and enabling themselves to be in a perfect
position. If you do this type of step you're often at the mercy of the
incoming ball and there's really no way to adjust your footwork and you end up
improvising your volley and making a frustrating mistake. And the worst
volley tip is to hit through the volley. Whether it be a forehand volley or a
backhand volley.
This is possibly the number one mistake at the recreational level and players
often are spraying the volleys long if they indeed hit through the volley. What
you have to do instead is the exact opposite. You have to realize that the
volley is a deflective shot. We are deflecting the ball back in play.
So what you have to do is whether you're lagging the racket behind or not you
have to picture a freezing of the racket at the moment of contact on the forehand
and on the backhand
If you do this you're gonna see an immediate improvement in your volley
control and interestingly you actually are going to get more power as well. If
you take a look at the best volleyers in the history of the game players such as
Navratilova, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Patrick Rafter or Stefan Edberg you're
not gonna see a hitting through the ball something like this or in the backhand
hitting through the ball in this fashion. What you'll see is a freezing of the
racquet head at the moment of contact. It might not be visible in real time it
might only be visible in slow motion because what happens on the volley is
that let's say the player lags the racket behind and comes into the contact
the freezing occurs right there but then once the ball has left the strings the
racket will often continue going across the body like this and it's very similar
on the backhand the player will lag the racket behind will freeze it at the
moment of contact and the racket often continues going across the body like this.
To really understand why this is crucial you must realize that the volley is a
deflective shot this is where we get most of the control and this is where we
get most of the power. You have to put this also in the context of how volleys
are executed in a real match versus practice. The reality is if you're
volleying in a practice situation for example the coach is feeding you balls
and you're at the net hitting it to an open court
you can get away with a lot of bad technique you can get away with
taking a backswing, you can get away with stepping in like this and you can
even get away with hitting through the ball like that
Once the match situation occurs and you're trying to do this while
transitioning to the net or you're laterally stretched out and also you
have to make sure that you hit a really good quality volley or you're gonna get
passed now things get a lot more difficult and in fact it's so difficult nowadays
with so much power at the pro level that volleys are becoming extinct. So it is
therefore crucial that the volley technique is correct and if you have the
wrong volley technique, if you're executing any of those three tips that
we mentioned before you are going to be committing a lot of
volley mistakes. So to summarize what you have to do on your volley is you have to
realize what kind of ball is coming at you. So if it's a ball with a lot of pace
you really only have to deflect the ball back in play. If the ball doesn't have a
lot of pace you can lag the racket behind and take a little bit of a backswing.
When it comes to stepping in you have to realize again
what kind of ball is coming at you. With a lot of pace it's unnecessary to step
towards the ball you can simply wait for that ball and deflect it back in play.
If it's a ball that you have to close in on in transition you can't do it with
just one step you have to do it with multiple steps and my tip is that you
take at least two steps after making contact with the ball.
And most importantly do not hit through the ball on the volley. While you might be able to
get away with this in easy matches let's say or in practice situations when you
really get pushed at the net and you have to come up with great volleys this
will not work and you will commit a lot of mistakes. What you should do is the
exact opposite. Do not hit through the ball but simply freeze the racket at the
moment of contact deflect the ball back in play. If you combine this with
lagging the tip of the racket behind it will not only get more control but you
will also get more power.