forehand volley help

[dminh01]

COuld you tell me how to hit a correct forehand volley which has struggle me for couple of month. On the backhand side I can easily hit the volley with good underspin but on forehand side I only know how to block it but can not apply the underspin to it and control the ball well like my backhand side.It sould be very nice if you could provide me a slow mow video of the forehand volley too.
Thanks very much John Yandell

[johnyandell]

This clip by Taylor is almost perfect. Watch that the preparation comes from a unit turn--the shoulders turn at 45 degrees or so to the net, and the racket comes with them. Very minimal backswing! Underspin is widely misunderstood on the volley. Watch that Taylor's racket is slightly open--but this is a natural function of the continental grip. With the slightly open face, he pushes the racket thru the line of the shot. Ironically a lot of players lose control of the forehand volley by trying to hit radically down and under the ball to generate underspin. They think this will give them control and it's the opposite. Any of Taylor's or Pete's or Henman's volleys in the Stroke Archive are great too. At times the line of the shot is different, but the elbow bend and mild wrist layback are more or less the same.

I'd recommend going to Classic Lessons and reading Scott Murphy's volley articles. They are great.

[johnyandell]

Here's another one of Federer showing the mild underspin with the hitting arm straighter and the contact a little more in front. You would open the face more at the start on a low ball, but try to hit thru with the angle set just like this one.

[dminh01]

thanks very much
however I still do not understand the point you mean by hitting through the ball on volley.Do you mean by contact it at 90 degree and push it forward?? Howabout the angle of the racket when contacting the ball??Please help since I read the article already but still feel confuse. Becuase when I hit the backhand volley I feel it is easier to put a bit underspin because if I contact the ball 90 degree and push foward the ball feel very heavy
thanks again JY

[johnyandell]

dminh,

I think what you need to do is video your forehand volley, and send that in. It's very difficult to understand the descriptions you are giving. Based on my experience I'm virtually certain there are other technical issues that are causing your problems, not a lack of "underspin." But I'm not psychic and can't magically see what you are actually doing. This is why is it difficult to solve technical problems with words.

I also suggest you yourself look thru the archives as I suggested. Here is one more movie. If you look at the angle of the racket face you can see that it is slightly open and moves through the shot at that angle, the opening of the racket face after the hit happens naturally. If the ball feels heavy it is almost certain that you are not turning, have the wrong arm position, too much backswing and/or late contact.

John

[ignite]

I think what John means by hitting through the line of the ball is that if the ball comes at shoulder height, make contact at that height and then hit through at that height.

Make sure you have a continental grip, because I know I volley with a eastern backhand grip and produce good slice on that side, but not so good on the forehand.

Or as John said, video it and give us a look at whats going on.

Anthony

[lukman41985]

Ignite,
If I could disagree with you: I think that hitting through the line of the shot implies that the swing path (I hate to use the term swing when referring to a compact stroke such as the volley) is less curved, and more linear so that if you are aiming at some part of the court, say deep crosscourt on a forehand volley, contact would be on the line between your target and where you are standing, and you're follow through would point nearly at where you wanted the ball to end up, but just inside this line. On every swing/stroke, the racquet is swung on an arc (see Federer forehand article). However, hitting through the line of the shot implies that the curve is less severe. I'll go ahead and quote John here because my paraphrasing borders on plagarism--from page 2, part 1 of "Roger Federer and the Evolution of the Modern Forehand: "'Hitting through the ball'" is a powerful teaching key, but what it really means is that this curve is flatter or less severe, so the path of the racket and the ball are closer for a longer period." Ignire, now that I think about it, height definitely has something to do with it because the whole issue pertains to swing path--vertical movement (height) and horizontal movement are the two components of swing path. Sorry about any confusion!

[dminh01]

yeah you right.I think I better send a movie clip. Could you tell me I can post a movie clip into this article
thanks JY, I know you are busy

[johnyandell]

Right now, no. although we are working on a secure FTP area for the site. So you need to either send me a tape, a CD or email me an AVI file or a QT file.