Podcast #141: Learn how to stop missing so many easy volleys! (Part 2)
But when you're really close to the net, and it is head high, I do want you to take care of business. I do want you to be able to put it away. So you're allowed to make an aggressive swing at the ball when you are that close. Making the shot is all about closing your racket face and having it at the correct angle. Jacob said when he tries to hit them aggressively, he will very often hit it way long or hit into the net so he makes both errors. Missing these types of shots is definitely common. The key is making contact with your racket facing towards, directly towards, your opponent's side of the court. When you're a few feet away from the net and the ball is head high, you want to close your racket face so that it is facing your opponent's side. It should not be facing forwards, or definitely upwards, but on the other hand, you don't want to close it so much that it's angled straight down into the net either. That's why making a swing is typically something that I don't ever recommend. That's because the racket face is moving around. The string face of the racket. When you make a swing with your racket and you try to hit the ball hard at that height, the strings are facing all different directions while you make that swing. So if you don't time that swing so that it's just right so that it's facing the correct spot on your opponent's side of the court, it could go in a very wide variety of directions. Which is obviously something that we don't want. So keep in mind that making that swing is going to make it more difficult to accurately know where the ball is going. So you better be sure you time it correctly at least a large percentage of the time. And you better be sure that you're close enough to the net to warrant that swing. That's probably the biggest thing that I want you to take away from this, Jacob. And everybody else listening.
You're only allowed to make that swing if you're close enough to justify it. If you are 2 or 3 steps inside the service line with a head high volley, you cannot swing at that shot. OK? You're not close enough. Next time you guys are on a tennis court, or maybe you're next to a tennis court right now, walk out onto the court right now. Stand on the service line. Take 2 steps forwards, and just stand there for a moment. I want you to look across to the other side of the court, and make a mental note of how much of the other side of the court you can see while looking over the net. Obviously if you look through the net, you can see the entire side of the other side of the court. But if you look over the top of the net, I want you to make a mental note. Walk out there and do this guys. Look at how much of the court you can see over the top of the net, and that's how much of the court you have to aim for when hitting an agressive shot. And if you guys are of average height 2 steps inside the service line, you can probably see from around the service line back on your opponent's side side of the court. I'm estimating there a little bit. I'm guessing that's probably about what it is. It's probably right around the service back. So you have half of the court to work with when hitting an aggressive shot from 2 steps inside the service line.
Now take 3 more steps forwards, and you'll probably be a little bit past the service box. Maybe even within arm's length of the net. Maybe a little farther away. And now look over the net and see how much of the other side of the court you can see. That 3 step difference is going to make probably like a 10-12 foot difference in how much court you have to work with on your opponent's side. That is significant! That's way more court to work with. So when you guys are playing your doubles points, you have to be very aware of where you're standing on the court, and that's going to dictate how aggressively you're able to hit your shots. Don't try to make this big swinging volley unless you're close enough that you can see most of the court over the top of the net. If you can't, you're going to make a lot of mistakes either 1.) by trying to avoid the net and overcompensating, or into the net by trying to hit avoid hitting it long and overcompensating. So you want to be close enough that you have a large area of court to aim for so that it's a consistent shot. Alright? So that's the first part of my answer Jacob, is having to do with crushing the ball. I don't mind it if you're close enough. Now let's about the second type of volley. This is the one that you really have to work on more. That is the respectful high volley. I title it “respectful” because you have to respect the shot! [laughter] Let's say you're on the service line or maybe even a step or so behind and you get that high volley around head height, you have to respect the shot. Even though it's high, and maybe it's slow, you can't just haul off and beat the heck out of it, because you don't have a lot of court to work with on your opponent's side. At least not when hitting the ball aggressively.
This is a shot that every doubles player needs to be competent at, is this head high or should high easy volley. It will cut out a lot of dumb, unforced errors if you can do this correctly while still pressuring your opponent. You should be able to take this shot and at least hit it firmly, and be able to pressure your opponent. But if you don't do it correctly, you're going to make a lot of mistakes. So the key to controlling where the ball is going to go is in controlling the racket face, which we talked about earlier. The way that you physically do that while you hit a shoulder high or head high easy volley from the service line is by using your core and your shoulder to hit through the ball instead of using your hand and your forearm. Accelerating your forearm and your hand quickly and aggressively is how you make big changes in the racket face. And that's what's going to make you inconsistent as you try to hit your easy high volleys. So you want to use the big parts of your body instead. They will help you keep the racket face steady and making more consistent shots.
So how do you do that? I want you to do this with me. If you're listening in a car right now, obviously that's not going to work. [laughter] Well, I suppose with bumper to bumper traffic go ahead and follow along, but if you're at home or on a walk right now, or doing chores around the house, go ahead and do this along with me here. I want you to picture you've got a net in front of you. Or maybe if you're on a tennis court, that would be ideal. Stand on the service line. If you're not on a tennis court, picture that you're standing on the service line facing towards the other side of the court. Alright? You've got your racket, you're in a ready position. Now I want you to turn to the side.. Turn your shoulders. You don't have to turn your stance, but you can if you want, and turn sideways 90 deg. to the net so that your shoulders are now perpendicular to the net. You're at a 90 deg. angel. I want you to put your hand up. Put your palm right in front of you so that your palm is right about eye height and it's facing towards the net. So that imaginary net, which if you're right-handed is now to your left after having turned to the right 90 deg. Put your palm up in front of you so that it's right about eye height and about even with the front edge of your body, the left edge of your body if you're right-handed. Now starting from this turned position with your palm flat out in front of you at eye height, I want you to rotate your chest forwards to face towards the net, and as you do that extend your palm out towards the imaginary or realistic net at the same time. Turn back again 90 deg. and rotate forwards again. I want you to repeat that a couple of times.
So your palm remains facing the same direction, which is towards the net. As you extend your shoulder and your hand out towards the net, and as you rotate your body forwards towards the net, your palm remains steady and facing the same direction. This is how you should be hitting your high forehand volley. It's just like this when you're not super close to the net. If you're close to the service line or within 2-3 steps of the service line in either direction. This is how you hit a high volley steadily and consistently and confidently.
You can still use this technique to hit through the ball firmly and relatively aggressively, but it's not nearly as aggressive as using your forearm and your hand to whip the racket back and forth and really create a lot of racket head speed. That's going to make the racket travel faster, but when you do that, your strings are facing all different directions as I mentioned earlier. So use the technique that I'm describing here. And hopefully you actually did that along with me so that you get a feel for it. Next time you go out and practice on a tennis court, remember that and use that for your high volley technique. At least when you're farther away from the net. Using this technique, you can still hit the ball firmly. But the racket face is under control. And that's the key. If you hit the net when using that technique that I suggested, open your racket face just a little bit more. If you miss it long, then close your racket face a little bit more. Angle your strings a little flatter, a little more towards the court if you're missing the shot long consistently. And that's pretty much it! So that answers your question Jacob, about those head high volleys. Practice. Go out. If possible, get a ball machine, have it feed you those shots over and over again, or get a friend to toss you some of those high volleys. Practice that technique when you're a little bit farther away and you want to make that high volley.
