Podcast #141: Learn how to stop missing so many easy volleys! (Part 1)
Announcer: Welcome to the Essential Tennis podcast. If you love tennis, and want to improve your game, this podcast if for you. Whether it's technique, strategy, technique, or the mental game, tennis professional Ian Westermann is here to make you a better player. And now, here's Ian! Ian Westermann: Hi, and welcome to the Essential Tennis podcast, your place for free expert tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game.
Today's episode of the Essential Tennis podcast is brought to you by TennisExpress.com. Thank you very much for joining me on today's show. As always, I appreciate it. It's going to be my goal today to give you information that can help you take your game to the next level. That's what the Essential Tennis podcast is all about, and that's what EssentialTennis.com is all about. Hopefully today's show does that for you. Before we get to today's topics, we've got a couple of really good ones to talk about. I want to remind you guys about iTunes. It's the best way, the easiest way by far to get the podcast each and every week. You can subscribe to the Essential Tennis podcast. Every single week when I put a new show out, it will automatically download if for you. I highly recommened that you download iTunes. It's a free download from Apple. It doesn't matter whether or not you're using a Mac or a PC. So check that out, subscribe to the show, and then you'll be sure to not miss any episodes moving forwards. Alright, let's go ahead and get down to business. Sit back, relax, and get ready for some great tennis instruction.
Alright. Before we get to our first topic on today's show, I want to spend a couple minutes telling you guys about Essential Tennis Platinum. I'm sure many of you guys went and checked out the video that I had up last week at EssentialTennis.com slash Platinum, so you have a good idea of what I'm offering there as far as tennis instruction, and giving you guys personalized feedback. I want to work with you guys personally to help you improve your games.
I'm putting up a new video this week and it's going to feature instruction. It's going to be a video that's focused around creating more power and creating more top spin on your forehand or backhand ground stroke. It's a video on which I'm going to be breaking down the stroke technique of a recreational tennis player, comparing it to a high level tennis player, and I'm going to show you how the kinetic chain works. How you guys are supposed to use your body correctly and in the right order using different parts of your body to hit a high level shot. So go check that video out. It's free. You can watch it anytime you like this week. It will come down this coming Sun. the 31st at midnight EST. So you want to go check it out before then so that you can at least get that free instruction.
Now as far as Platinum is concerned, basically what I'm offering here is the abillity for you guys to be coached by me personally. What the Platinum show, what the Platinum membership offers, is access to a weekly hoour long video show in which I analyze and break down the tennis strokes of members. So you guys can submit videos to me and live, I will break them down, compare your strokes to high level players, and archive it. Every single show is recorded and archived so you can go back and see exactly what you need to work on.
There's also a 1 hr. long weekly audio show, just like the Essential Tennis podcast where I answer your questions about mental toughness, or tactics, or anything else that you've having trouble with. I'll be there to help you. So as you make changes in your game– and that's what you need to do get better by the way. You can't improve your game without making changes. As you make those adjustments, whether it be to your tactics or to your technique, you want to know that you're making the right choices as far as what to change. You can search around the internet and try to find good, free information. There is a lot of it out there.
But the question is always: “Which piece of information do I listen to?” Because you guys know there's a lot of stuff out there. I don't want you guys to have to sit through hours and hours of stuff, and at the end of it not even be sure if what you're hearing or seeing is even correct or the best thing for you. So Essential Tennis Platinum remedies that. By giving you access to me directly so that I can help you guys and cut right to the chase, and tell you what you need to change that's going to help you the most. Now of course you could always go out and take personal lessons from a pro in your area. But to be honest with you, your local pros are probably not even using the technology that I am to help give you guys the information as clearly and as well. This especially pertains to the video instruction. There are some pros out there doing analysis on court. They'll show you your stroke and then compare it to another stroke. But very few tennis professionals do that. In my experience, it's the way that players can make the biggest changes in the shortest amount of time. You will see that when you go to EssentialTennis .com/Platinum this week and check out that free video that I have up.
Last thing that I want to say before we get to today's questions is that everybody who signs up for Essential Tennis Platinum this week before the 31st will receive doubles domination for free. If you guys aren't familiar with doubles domination, it's a doubles tactics. Like a complete overview of doubles tactics. It's a product that I released a couple of months ago. I'm re-working the product. It's going to include a lot of video the next time I release it. But you'll get my first release, my 1.0 product of doubles domination for free by signing up for Platinum. Platinum comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. So you can try Platinum out.
If you don't like it for any reason, ask for a refund. I will completely give it to you, no questions asked. And you can keep doubles domination. It's a $47 product. So I'm basically offering to give you guys $47 just to try Essential Tennis Platinum. So you have really 0 risk here. In fact, you're going to come out ahead no matter what! If it turns out Platinum's just not for you, no problem. I'll give you your money back for that first month. No questions asked. Keep doubles domination. You'll leave happy either way. [laughter]
But I truly believe that Platinum is an excellent product, and when you start working with me, you start giving me your videos to analyze, you start giving me your questions to answer that week so you don't have to wait 8-12 weeks the way it is right now on the podcast. So check it out Remember this offer only stands until this Sunday the 31st, at midnight. EST. Go check it out. Sign up, and I look forward to working with you personally on improving your tennis game.
Alright. Let's go ahead and get to our first topic now; our first instructional topic on today's episode of the Essential Tennis podcast. It comes to us from Jacob in England. He wrote and said:
“My regular tennis partner moves exceptionally quickly around the court. He tends to hit a lot of slow, sliced shots on both forehand and backhand sides. I generally have a lot of success rushing the net; however, I often have to hit slow, awkward shots that are just below comfortable smashing height, but above a comfortable volleying height. Maybe at about head height and just a little over that. If I try to hit an overhead, I will often end up clearing the baseline or hitting the net, but I also find it difficult to properly connect with a firm volley. What shots should I try to be hitting at this awkward height?”
Jacob, good question. This is a shot that recreational players very often struggle with. It's frustrating, because it seems like it should be a gimme. You know? It seems like this should be an easy shot. It's traveling slowly. It's high. As Jacob said, not quite high enough to hit an overhead, but definitely high enough that it's not a defensive shot. He's saying right about head height or so. So it's a shot that you should be able to attack on but if you don't do the technique correctly or if you're not in the right spot on the court, it can turn into unforced errors very quickly. That's the first thing I want to talk about, is positioning. How aggressively you can actually hit this shot totally depends on how close you are to the net, Jacob. A head high volley taken 2 steps from the net can be crushed if done correctly. We're going to talk about how to do it correctly. So if you're close to the net and you get that shot around head height, feel free to go ahead and be really aggressive with it, and essentially smash it. However, a head high volley taken from 2 steps behind the line really needs to be treated with respect. You can't just do whatever you want with that shot, because you're far enough away from the net that you have a much lower margin for error. You have a lot less court to work with on the other side, because the net is now blocking a large portion of it. When you're standing close to the net, it's easy to see the other side of the court and hit directly to it. And let's talk about that one first So I've got 2 different shots we're going to talk about. Crushing that shot and the respectful high volley. As I've titled it. [laughter] You want to be respectful on the ones where you're farther away. But let's talk about the ones that you have the opportunity to crush the ball on first. I very rarely condone this shot [laughter] when it's not high enough to be an overhead, which is exactly what Jacob is talking about. So it a volley. It's a high volley. And I very rarely am OK with students and members where I teach taking a big swing at that shot and being really aggressive.
