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The Volley, common problems and helpful solutionsThe volley is the least complicated of all shots in tennis when done technically correct. You line the racket up at the oncoming ball and block it back. You don’t normally need to create pace because if you hold the racket with the correct grip and step, you have more than enough pace from the ball that is hit to you. Putting volleys away is about placement not power. If a player hits a volley 90 miles an hour at Rafael Nadel from the net he still has a good chance of getting passed. If he places the ball at even 30 or 40 miles an hour away from Rafa, the ball will not come back. It isn’t the speed that won the point but the placement. When you play doubles and hit volleys at your opponent, they normally come back, play the ball into the open court and it’s a winner.
Many of you have trouble with the volley because you try to hit all volleys with a forehand grip. You need to either use a modified Continental grip or change grips because a forehand grip simply doesn’t work for the backhand volley. The other fact is that Professionals set the racket into the correct position with the non-dominant hand. Many recreation players don’t use the non-dominant hand to set the racket up which then also allows you to use the wrong side of the racket to hit backhand volleys. If a player uses the wrong side of the racket to hit backhand volleys, it only works on high volleys. In Professional tennis about two thirds of all volleys are backhands. Most recreation players try to hit everything as a forehand volley. Why are two thirds of all volley’s in professional tennis hit as backhands? Because everything hit at the body is a backhand volley not a forehand volley! If you want to really improve your game, you need to improve your backhand volley either by learning to use a modified continental grip or changing grips, and learning to hit volleys at the body as backhands using the correct side of the racket for the backhand volley. The other important point is the use of the off or non-dominant hand. No one said change is easy but it’s sure a lot better and more fun than struggling with a weak or non-existent backhand volley. |
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