TennisOne Lessons

Forehand Topspin Swinging Volley

Tom Downs

Seeing players move forwards and  taking balls out of the air with aggressive forehand topspin swinging volleys has become more and more common on both the men's and women's professional tour. It is true that bigger forehands equal shorter points, as the racquet speed on a forehand is greater than that of a backhand. The same can be said for forehand swinging volleys. Players will run around their backhands and hit forehand swinging volleys when they have the option to do so. They can generate great racquet head speed by using their whole body correctly, and for many players, it is a more natural and aggressive option than an overhead or a high forehand volley. Lets take a detailed look at this shot, as it should be a vital part of every club players repertoire.

Grip, Contact Point and Swing

A majority of players at all levels of tennis use the semi western forehand grip. More players are starting to use a hybrid grip, meaning that their index base knuckle is positioned between an eastern and semi western forehand grip. Roger Federer is a player who uses this grip effectively to execute forehands and topspin forehand swinging volleys. The western and eastern forehand grips can be used, but to really hit this shot with hard penetrating pace and topspin, the best grips are the semi western and this hybrid grip.

Click photo: Federer uses a hybrid grip, meaning that his hitting hand base knuckle is positioned between the eastern and semi western grip. His hitting hand accelerates up and through the ball in an inside to out swing pattern from the slot, and his hitting structure is straight arm which means that his contact point is further in front than players who hit with a double bend forehand hitting structure. His racquet face is slightly closed at contact, which indicates that he is hitting the forehand swinging volley with hard penetrating topspin.

The important thing with the swing is to make sure the hitting hand accelerates up and through the ball using an inside to outside swing pattern from the slot. This pattern is the same as one would use for a traditional topspin forehand grounstroke.

Many club players try to hit hard and flat forehand swinging volleys with very little margin for error. If we take a look at Federer's contact point on a forehand or a topspin forehand swinging volley, we see his racquet face is slightly closed, as a result of accelerating his hitting hand up the back of the ball. He may cover the ball slightly, but this indicates there is enough hard topspin on his forehand. We see the way his forearm and wrist are pronating into the ball and his hand is incredibly loose and relaxed through the contact zone.

Federer hits a straight arm topspin swinging volley which means that his contact point is further in front than players who hit it with a double bend hitting structure. For those that have a double bend hitting structure, meaning there is a bend in both the wrist and elbow at contact, the contact point will be about a length of the forearm in front of the body.

Click photo: Unlike Federer (above), Dementieva uses more of a double bend hitting structure on her swinging volley, therefore, her contact point is not quite as far in front of the body.

The common mistake club players make is that they move up to the high floating ball and then turn their body and step back with their outside leg so that their body weight is going backwards and this causes them to load the weight on the outside part of their outside leg. This means the body momentum required to make this shot penetrating has been lost.

Players need to move up to the ball and turn and load the weight on the inside part of their outside leg so their body weight is centered as they go forwards and up and  into the ball. Sometimes this mistake is caused by inefficient ball judgment or inefficient footwork, but mostly it is just a bad habit, as I see players do this when they are in good position also.

Players should learn to execute the swinging volley from a neutral stance, a semi open stance, and a full open stance. Roger Federer is a player who hits this shot very well off of all stances. Knowing what stance to use for which type of ball is situational. When we have time, we can use either neutral or semi open so that we get more body weight going forward and into the shot toward our intended hitting target. We would use an open stance if we have to move a little further to the right to hit the shot. If we intend to hit down the line and have time, I prefer the neutral stance, and if we have time to set our feet and we want to hit crosscourt, I prefer the semi open stance so that the hips and shoulders don't get locked during the forward part of the swing.

Click photo: Berdych is one of many professional who will move forwards and hit his big topspin forehand swinging volley after eliciting a weak reply from the opposition. Berdych does this by hurting his opponents with big penetrating groundstrokes and then moves forwards and looks to finish points with this shot in the mid court area. Like majority of professional players, Berdych will often move around his backhand and hit the forehand topspin swinging volley, as this is a more aggressive option than hitting a backhand swinging volley.

When to Use This Shot?

The forehand topspin swinging volley can be both a put away shot and a set up shot. After punishing the opposition with penetrating groundstrokes, and eliciting a weak reply in the form of a high ball, we can move forwards and hit the swinging volley and look to finish the point. I do not have any general rules or guidelines as to where the majority of topspin swinging volleys should be hit. However, I do believe that club players should work on hitting this shot deep to both corners and be able to execute angles. Players should work on hitting this shot from both the midcourt and short court areas. I also strongly suggest working on executing inside out and inside in topspin swinging volleys.

A lot of players on the WTA Tour and a few on the ATP Tour actually prefer to hit the forehand topspin swinging volley instead of an overhead. We see Wozniacki doing this a lot and on the men's side, Andre Agassi comes to mind. For these players, and for many club players, this shot is more natural and more comfortable.

Drills

I believe in simple progression drills, so the first drill I like to work with players on is a drill where I stand on the same side of the court as the player on the service line in the middle. The players stands on their forehand side of the court. I simply toss the ball fairly high out to the right and they have to move to the ball, make adjustment steps, set their feet ,and execute the swinging volley. I mix up the heights and speeds of my hand feeds so they can practice adjusting to the ball.

I then do this same drill but with my player on the other half of the court, so they can work on the inside out and inside in topspin swinging volleys. I like to do the this drill with my player hitting the topspin swinging volleys with neutral stances, semi open stances, and full open stances.

Following the hand toss drill, I move to the other side of the court and feed my student topspin swinging volleys. I start them in the middle of the no-mans land area (the halfway point between the baseline and the service line) and feed the ball right to them so they don't have to move much. The next progression drill is to make them move and then hit.

Click photo: A great way to work on the topspin forehand swinging volleys is to start on the same side of the court as the student and hand toss a ball. Then have them hit inside out and inside in topspin forehand swinging volleys from their backhand side of the court. Following these drills, move to the other side of the court and feed easy balls to the student, then feed the student balls so they have to move a few steps to hit the topspin forehand swinging volley. From there the drills should become increasingly more difficult.

 

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Tom Downs

Tom has and extensive coaching background, and has been a member of the Institute team for several years. He has served as our Head Staff Professional, and is currently the Traveling Coach for Institute players. He has traveled with several of our Tour players including Laura Granville and Carly Gullickson, who won the US Open Mixed Doubles title in 2009.

Tom has worked with junior and other professional players, including Sam Stosur and Rennae Stubbs, at all 4 Grand Slam events, as well as other major tournaments around the world. Tom graduated from the University of South Florida in 2005 with a degree in communications. As a successful junior player, Tom represented Australia, and was consistently ranked in the top 10 in all age groups in Australia. He played college tennis at South Carolina State University and was a member of their conference championship team in 2004.