Tennis-Forehand Volley

Frankie Dell: Hi, I am Frankie Dell. I am a professional tennis instructor and you are watching how to play at the net. Next I'll demonstrate the forehand and backhand volley. We are waiting to hit a volley and we see that your opponent has hit the shot and it's coming to the forehand side. So now let's begin our forehand volley backswing or our preparation. We are in our ready position. We have our continental grip. We pivot on our outside foot, pivot and just turn our shoulders, pivot and turn your shoulders. Think of it more as turning your shoulders rather than taking the racquet back. We don't want to racquet back, then it becomes a swing and while we are up at the net, we don't want a swing. It should be more of a punch, the volley should punch. So we are pivoting and we are turning our shoulders keeping our hands in between my shoulders. See how my hands are in between the shoulders? They are not back here.

Now it's beyond my shoulders, now it becomes a swing. So pivot, turn your shoulders, there is the hand, racquet remains up, pivot, turn. Like in if I am looking across the net I can still see the racquet out of the corner of my eye, which is good. Now I can't, that's too far. Now it's going to become a swing. It's easier to time the ball if you keep it simple and just take the racquet to here. This becomes a swing and it's harder to time, pivot, turn your shoulders. We have turned our shoulders, we are ready to step into the ball. So from here, we will step with our inside foot and come forward. Your arm and your racquet should move together, not independently of each other. Arm and racquet coming together and not one before the other like the racquet coming and then the arm or the arm then the racquet. They should move together. Step forward and both come forward. You want to have a downward, outward movement. Downward and outward, step and your follow through is brief. Also, you want to make sure that the racquet head always stays above your wrist on the volleys. So you say what if I have a low ball? You don't want to dip your racquet down like this. It's most likely going to go on the net, always keep it up here. If it's a low ball then see, the racquet head is still above my wrist. I am still able to hit the ball up and that's how you hit the volley.