Tennis-Backhand 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 will demonstrate the forehand and backhand volley. So we have our continental grip, we are in our ready position waiting for the ball. We see it is going to be a backhand, so we pivot on our outside foot, pivot and turn your shoulders, pivot and turn your shoulders to here. Try to think of it as turning your shoulders rather than think of it as taking the racquet back. When you start thinking of taking the racquet back most people go too far and they end up doing this. That is too far.

So just rotate, pivot and rotate to here. If you can still see the racquet out of the corner of your eye that is good, if you can't, that is too far. It is going to become a swing. You don't want a swing when you are up here at the net. It is tougher to make contact with the ball cleanly if it is a swing. You want to keep it simple. Just turn and punch it. So just here, you can see that my hand is still in between my shoulders. It has not gone back here past my back shoulder, that is too far. Keep it here, pivot, turn your shoulders.

Now we have prepared, now we are ready to step in and hit the volley. So we have rotated, we have pivoted, now from here we want to transfer our weight forward on to your outside foot, forward and it is just a punch, turn your shoulders and just step and punch. Your follow through is very brief. Notice how I am not swinging, I am just punching it. Notice that, that was a low ball. On low balls you always want to keep the head of your racquet above your wrist. Even it is low don't dip it down here, it is more likely going to go in to the net. Up and then you bend with it, punch. That is your backhand volley.