Forehand Volleys – Step 2
The second step of the forehand volley is the forward swing to contact. Once you have pivoted and turned your shoulders and laid your wrist back, you swing forward by 1) stepping forward into the court with your inside foot and transferring your weight to that foot and 2) swing forward with your tennis racket and your arm to your contact point, which will be out in front of your body. You do these two things at the same time. The key to swinging to contact on the volley is that the arm and racket swing forward to the tennis ball by driving forward together as a unit from the shoulder. What you can also see at 0:45 in the video is that there is both a forward and a downward component to the swing path of the tennis racket. It’s important that when you hit your forehand volley that you swing down slightly, but you do not want to chop down on the ball. This will put some backspin on the ball and give you a little extra control.
Finally, once you make contact with tennis ball, you will have a very short follow through. The racket stops much sooner on a volley than it does on a forehand groundstroke. In fact, it might be dangerous to actually try to focus on the follow through element of your forehand volley when you are first putting the shot together. Instead, focus on driving the racket and arm foward from the shoulder as a unit, and let the follow through take care of itself at this point.
At 1:25 in the video, Frank has completed his preparation. He swings forward to the tennis ball by stepping into the court with his inside foot and driving the tennis racket forward with his arm as a unit from the shoulder. As he swings forward he also swings slightly down on the ball, but he’s not chopping at the ball. He makes contact with the tennis ball out in front of his body. After he makes contact, he has a very short follow through as the racket recoils slightly. Again, the key here is that Frank is focusing on driving his arm and racket together to contact as a unit from the shoulder.
{ 15 comments }
hi iwill be back
brillant site!!! Absolutely brilliant!!! Thank you so much FYB!!!!
What’s going on? Your website used to be so user friendly. Not so anymore. I can’t even find your login page. Why?
hi will, the videos just push my volley onto another lvl, amazing! I talked to my coach friend about it, however, he told me that i should go “forward and then downward.”???
Hey Leo — what do you mean… forward and then downward? Are you referring to the swing?
yes, because the video above says the swing path should be “go forward and then downward.”
The swing has both a horizontal and vertical component. Exact mixture depends on what you’re trying to do.
hi iwill be back
you guys are crazy
you guys are weird and….crazy
STop fighting.
Hey Will, why does that advertisement come up every time I start the video?
The idea with volleying is cutting on time and relying on that effect to outplay your opponent. A good shot hit with top spin will grab and kick; if you look at clay you will see it and on most hard courts, the sand mixture of the acrylic will allow a quite noticable effect. However, what happens when you are playing at Flushing Meadows or on a very fast grass court is that the ball instead of grabbing starts sliding onto the surface upon contact; the faster the court, the lesser pace you need to get this effect.
With a slice shot – where you put backspin – the ball stay relativly low because of that: the spin makes it harder for the ball to catch on the surface, therefore, it slides.
A volley is basically a slice shot hit in the air as near as possible to the net and the idea is to make sure your volley is firm enough whiel staying relativly low to limit your opponent's time and also to force him to lift it in case he gets to it.
This is why your swing path must force the volley forward and down; you need it to push it with backspin.
where did the video go? can only find the text currently.
I am experiencing the same, since a week, it holds true for all videos
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