Tennis Tip of The Week : Prevent Volley Body Shots!

When you’re at net, that is one of the best places to apply a heap of pressure on your opponent. The problem is, even though this is a known fact to a lot of players, a good percentage of those same players never venture up there.

Does that makes sense to you? Blatantly ignoring something that could give you a huge advantage? Of course not. But they’re not doing it on purpose of because they’re try to be masochistic and hurt themselves. Then what’s the problem?

They’re afraid… afraid of getting hit! They don’t want a Wilson or Penn tattoo on their thigh (…or worse) across their forehead. Now, this is understandable. Though it’s small and light, when it’s traveling at possibly 100mph+, it can really hurt!  And it’s for that reason that they panic.

Sound familiar?

Well, let me tell you, the only reason why you truly fear going to net is because you don’t know what to do if a ball DOES come flying at your midsection. So, you freeze. Then what? Exactly, BAM it hits you. I mean, nobody is usually “gun-ho” or 100% confident in something if you don’t know what you’re doing or you feel lost.

So, if you don’t know the correct strategy to defend against a volley that’s aimed directly into your mid-section, you’re bound to get pegged a few times. And then, your trips to the net will be even more scarce.

So, let’s fix it!

Follow the easy-to-apply strategy below to keep this terrible thing from happening during one of YOUR matches:

Volley Strategy 101:

When you’re at the net, and your opponent sent a real “screamer” into your ribs, you want to defend against it by using your backhand volley.  No ands, ifs, or buts about it. Then, simply block it into the open court. Now, why choose the backhand?

A) You’ll find yourself in a better position. You won’t have to contort your body in a funny position to where you look like a pretzel to in an attempt to make good contact. With the forehand, your elbow hitting arm will tend to dig too far into your chest.

And you’ll be essentially handcuffed, with a slim to none chance of succeeding on the next shot. Yea, in other words, shank city!

B) It’ll be easier to recover for the next not. By you being in better body position will enable to regroup in much better time. You’ll be able to get your feet under you and get your center of gravity low. This will give you a much stronger base and help you extend the point even further.

C. Less pain and wrist damage. When you use your backhand, your wrist is straight and streamlined and has very little friction.

But when you use your forehand, you instantly feel the muscles and the tendons pulling and bending in ways that don’t necessarily feel that comfortable to you. Hey, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t like pain in my game !

Now, after all of that… You still want to try using your forehand because it’s going to give you more offensive authority, just remember this warning.

WARNING: Hitting a forehand volley from this position is 10 times as difficult.

And if you’re extremely lucky enough to get the forehand volley back over the net, your body will be in such an awkward position, you probably won’t be able to finish the point out anyway.

All the best,

Brian Hall, Head Coach

P.S. If you have any suggestions for future tips of the week or have concepts
that you would like covered, simply reply to this post.