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TennisOne Lessons 
Developing Your Touch at the Net David W. Smith, Senior Editor TennisOne Perhaps one of the most telling cues I use to determine the volley prowess among players is their ability or inability to create touch and finesse at the net.
At the club level, at the net, men and women are often faced with a soft, low ball with their opponents back behind their own baseline. Watch what many—if not most club and recreational players—do: they volley the ball back deep to the baseline…right where their opponents are waiting. And, notoriously, these net players then see a lob go over their head or they get passed down the middle. The idea of winning tennis is generally to hit shots where your opponents aren’t. That is, if your opponent is off the court to the right, we generally want to hit the ball to the open court on the left. (Unless, of course, we suspect our opponents are already running in that direction and then the goal would be to hit behind our opponent.). When I watch a typical 3.0 or 3.5 doubles match, I see two things that clearly define these levels of play: One is usually a fairly weak second serve. The other is the inability to hit sharp angle volleys for winners. Regarding the serve, obviously I could—and have—written extensive articles that cover the development of an effective second serve. So I won’t cover that in this article.
The angle volley, however, is one of the easiest shots to hit…that is, when certain criteria are met. The problem for many beginning to 3.5 level club or recreational players is that they developed their volley patterns using problematic technique. Yet, with a little understanding and a little practice (perhaps more for some of you than others), you can develop the skills necessary to hit the sharp angle volley. But, more importantly, by learning the technique to execute a sharp angle volley, you are also learning the volley technique that is literally used for nearly all skilled volleys. In other words, by learning and mastering the sharp angle volley, you open the door to reaching higher levels of skilled play at the net. Grip Issue The number one problem for players who can’t execute a sharp angle volley is the grip. Many 3.0 to 3.5 level players learned to volley with their groundstroke grips, namely the eastern forehand and eastern backhand volley. Sadly, we still have some ignorant pros teaching these grips for the volley with the belief that the player can someday make the transition to the more advanced continental grip. However, as many long-time 3.0 or 3.5 level players who learned this way can attest, it becomes increasingly more difficult to make this necessary transition to the more advanced grip as they play more tennis using the ineffective eastern grips. Why are the eastern grips so disadvantageous when learning not just sharp angle volleys but more effective volleys from both an offensive and defensive standpoint?
The first reason is the grip change needed to go from a forehand to a backhand volley is difficult to do in the heat of a quick exchange. Many players who use the eastern grips tend to do the old ‘wiper’ volley move…basically hitting forehand and backhand volleys with the same side of the racquet face! Some might argue that there is time to make this grip change…after all, don’t we make significant grip changes between forehand and backhand groundstrokes in the blink of an eye when returning very hard serves? Sure, but the ball is traveling over 75 feet and bouncing on the court within that time. It has been shown that a serve slows down by nearly 50% by the time it actually reaches the opposite baseline. However, a hard groundstroke hit towards us at the net can be traveling nearly as fast as some serves, but we have half the distance to react to this ball, (assuming the groundstroke were hit from the baseline and we are near the net), and the ball doesn’t hit the ground first. (As I said, contact with the ground (friction) slows the serve down dramatically.) Thus, we have less than half the actual amount of time to react while at the net than we do when returning a fast serve. Add the difficulty when two or four people are at the net and you have exponentially even less time to react to the ball.
Yet, it isn’t just the reaction time that makes the eastern grips less effective at the net. It is also the angle of the racquet that these grips set up that limit the ability of the player to execute a sharp angle volley. The eastern grips tend to square the racquet to the net. When a player then turns sideways, the racquet is then turned nearly 90 degrees to the side. Thus, in order to bring the racquet towards the intended target, the racquet must be swung forward. If we are looking to hit a sharp angle volley with finesse and touch, swinging the racquet won’t forward accomplish this. This is why players who use these grips end up having to hit deep. When they try to angle the ball off, they invariably hit it too hard. When they try to limit their swing, they can’t get the racquet angle set for the sharp angle. Thus, they end up hitting a very mediocre angle volley that opens up their court for their opponent to pass them. When this happens enough times, the player then resorts to a less defensive shot, the deep shot. Continental Grip Using a continental grip, when in the ready position, the racquet is truly neutral, that is, it is centered at an equal-distance between the forehand and backhand volley. From this position, if all we do is turn our body slightly, this movement literally sets the racquet face at an angle for the sharp angle volley. There is no need to move the racquet or swing the racquet to gain this ideal angle. All a player has to do at this point is “find the ball.” If the player makes contact with the strings and does nothing else, they will indeed hit a sharp angle volley. As I mentioned, learning to hit the sharp angle volley will help players learn to hit other, more effective volleys. If a player now wants to hit a deep ball, all they need to do now is turn their body a little more. Now the racquet face is set to hit the ball deep. By driving from this position slightly towards the ball with the legs, (again, with minimal or no swing), a player will drive the ball deep with power and control. The angle of the racquet face when using the continental grip is naturally slightly beveled open. With this grip, players can use finesse as well as power in their volleys. Adding a small amount of underspin to the volley for the angle volley, we can take pace off the shot, adding an additional amount of effect to the shot. (Effectively, killing the speed of the shot.) Being able to add underspin even on a hard, deep volley allows the player to be aggressive with the shot without losing control. Adding spin, especially when faced with a low ball that must be hit up to clear the net, allows you to hit the ball with a firm stroke. Players who only hit flat volleys find they usually have to decelerate the racquet in order to control this kind of ball, effectively “dinking” the shot to control it.
When players gain more and more comfort and confidence with this type of volley technique, the door opens up to being much more aggressive, with a wide variety of options available (driving volleys, drop volleys, sharp angle volleys, volley lobs, and out-right put-away volleys). It also allows the player to defend more difficult shots hit by more advanced players. , In other words, it also allows us to become more advanced ourselves!
Conclusion As you can see, the difference between the eastern grips and the continental grip for the volley can make the difference in becoming a more effective player and a more advanced player. Typically, players who stay with the eastern grips tend to stagnate at lower levels. For those who indeed are using the eastern grips, you will need to spend some time doing drills and playing with the continental grip before it becomes more comfortable. It is common to see players revert back to the comfort and familiarity of their eastern grips especially in competition. Thus, such action prohibits the acquisition of the continental grip—and thus, higher skill levels—ending up causing these players to stay at the level they probably have been for years, if not decades. So perhaps it's time to examine your own game and step out of your comfort zone. This simple change in technique could very well result in a whole new level of play.
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