2 Ball Volley Drill
By John Yandell
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Lots of players talk about wanting to go to the net
more, but often they do more talking than volleying. The biggest problem
in changing your game is developing the confidence to actually try the
changes in matches. With the volley, it’s tough to get enough successful
repetitions to really feel a significant boost in your belief that you can
volley effectively. This is because there are so many ways to end a point
at the net that do not include a successful, aggressive volley. The
defender may hit a passing shot or a lob, or make an error trying either.
The volleyer may be forced into an error by a hard groundstroke or a well
placed low ball. So it is difficult to establish a pattern of success and
without this pattern and the confidence associated with it, you may find
yourself hanging back at the baseline even when the most obvious
opportunities to attack arise.
Developing Confidence Using the Ball Machine
How do you develop the feeling of coming in and
sticking a solid, winning shoulder high volley when exchanges can be so
intermittent? I feel the only
real answer is the ball machine. Why the ball machine? Even a good
teaching pro has trouble feeding a series of balls to exactly the same
spot, and in live drills, your pro may hit the same winners or make the
same errors you see in match play. What you need are clean, high
percentage, multiple repetitions - hundreds and hundreds of them - and
here is how to get them!
2 Ball Volley Drill
Here is a simple drill, using a Playmate ball
machine which has become the tennis club standard. Most other machines,
however, can be set to throw the same patterns.
Plug 2 adjacent ball holes in the Playmate and
leave the other two adjacent holes open. Start with your toes at the
service line in a ready position. Set the machine trajectory to throw a
low first volley at about knee level. Hit the first
ball, now close
the net, split step, and hit the second ball, which will automatically
come at about shoulder level. Tweak the interval control on the machine to
give you just enough time to hit the first ball, close and hit the second
volley. Now back pedal to the service line. You’ll get another 2 ball
series almost immediately.
This continuous repetition of makeable volleys
is fantastic for your confidence. You can hit literally hundreds of first
and second volleys in about a half hour.
Begin with two forehand volleys, then repeat with
two backhand volleys. After that, set the machine to oscillate and throw
one on each side. In general, you’ll hit the first volley down the line
and the second into the open court, but you can also experiment on the
more daring crosscourt first volley. Set goals such as hitting 10 perfect
2 ball sequences. Now speed up the machine to shorten the interval between
balls. Pretty soon you’ll start to feel it and with that comes the
confidence that you really can volley. |