Ultimate Fundamentals: Backhand Volley

[seano]

In my opinion, volleys are situational and depend on:
1) Type of ball you are receiving - hard or soft, line drive or more arc.
2) Court position - close to net or further away.
3) Objective of volley - finish the point or hurt your opponent. Are you trying to be offensive (add pace), neutral (maintain pace) or defensive (take away pace).
4) Contact point - close, medium or in front.
5) Footwork will vary depending on these factors

Examples:
When close to the net and hitting a hard drive, volley with your hands. Grip pressure is important. Firm grip to block volley and maintain pace. Soft grip to have touch and take pace away. To add pace, relax the grip, let the racquet get behind the hand, then squeeze right before impact with the bottom 2 fingers (power fingers of the hand). Contact is more in front if you want to add or maintain pace, closer contact to take pace away.

High mid-court volleys, if the ball is high (arc) and softer and you want to add pace, you'll swing more and use your elbow. Keep your elbow up, to keep the motion more level and add slight supination of the forearm (BH volley), as you swing forward. The swing becomes more high to low when you let the elbow drop (losing pace). You are trying to develop racquet head speed before impact. Aggressive footwork

Low mid-court volleys, volley from the shoulder. Hard ball - use the pace of opponents shot with firm grip and move forward with control. Contact is closer. Slower ball - maintain pace and you can control the height/speed/distance by using side spin. Contact more in front.

[don_budge]

It's tricky as a coach. I have faithfully pulled the Sedgman clip out to show juniors how to volley but they don't get it. They cannot bring themselves to give the older guys any credit. The younger coaches don't help as they always cite today's tennis as the most advanced.

I learnt my volleys against a wall. I spent hours doing it. It's great way to learn because a big backswing isn't possible if you stand 8 feet back and volley at pace...cures the disease completely. I wonder what Frank did? Wouldn't you just love to have the chance to ask him that? Was it taught or self-learnt, or both?

I found an article about Frank. It was a wall after all!! How to become a great volleyer...find a bloody wall!

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/t...ts-183098.html

Super article...great find. Thanks Coach Stotty.

"He spent his days volleying tennis balls against the wall; volleying became his first instinct, a style of play encouraged by Harry Hopman, long-term Davis Cup captain."

The coach is Harry Hopman...in the don_budge coaching paradigm. He was tough and crusty. Harry Hopman was. Knew his way around the court and around his player's heads. Volleying was in Sedgman's DNA and this is the way to teach it...from the beginning. Don't pay any attention to what the other numbskull's are doing for crying out loud. Teach the game of tennis...teach the whole game and it begins at the net and works it way backwards. Not the other way around.

The Wall. You cannot underestimate what there is to be learned from trying to knock that silly thing down with millions of practice strokes. Sedgman's volleys were cast in brick and he certainly never lost that feeling as evidenced by the spectacular volleys in these antique videos. Great stuff. Harry Hopman is the coach.

[EdWeiss]

Stotty, I remember reading many years ago that Sedgman practiced his volleys against a wall and he gave great credit to that in developing his volleys. If I recall correctly, he said he stood a fair distance away from the wall when he practiced his volleys and thought that was important. I think I may have read that in his book on tennis - I just ordered a copy on Amazon and when it arrives I will review the book for that point and any other interesting points.

BTW, when I was in college I played a 21 and under tournament at Merion Cricket Club outside of Philadelphia. The tournament ended on a Friday. That weekend, they were holding a Masters tournament and Sedgman was competing in it. The participants in the Masters tournament got there earlier in the week to practice. I was in the locker room and who is there but Frank Sedgman. Basically, almost none of the kids in the 21 and under tournament knew the history of tennis but I was crazy about tennis and knew its history. I saw Frank and mustered the courage to introduce myself. I remember asking him about his physical training including working with Stan Nicholls who was a trainer that Hopman used for the Australian Davis Cup players. Frank was super nice and answered all of my questions - class gentleman all of the way.

After I met Frank, I was hanging out at the courts and Torben Ulrich, the zen tennis master, was looking for someone to hit with. I volunteered and we hit. I was totally excited but somehow able to keep it together. We both go to our respective baselines (no short court warm-up back then). On the very first ball, we rallied it something like 70 hits - he had such great control it was easy for me to keep it going. After I finally missed the ball long, Torben walked to the ball we had just rallied and took the ball in one of his hands and then walked up to one of the net posts and placed the ball on the ground right by the net post and said to me "we will let the ball rest"! Only Torben would say that.

[stotty]

Stotty, I remember reading many years ago that Sedgman practiced his volleys against a wall and he gave great credit to that in developing his volleys. If I recall correctly, he said he stood a fair distance away from the wall when he practiced his volleys and thought that was important. I think I may have read that in his book on tennis - I just ordered a copy on Amazon and when it arrives I will review the book for that point and any other interesting points.

BTW, when I was in college I played a 21 and under tournament at Merion Cricket Club outside of Philadelphia. The tournament ended on a Friday. That weekend, they were holding a Masters tournament and Sedgman was competing in it. The participants in the Masters tournament got there earlier in the week to practice. I was in the locker room and who is there but Frank Sedgman. Basically, almost none of the kids in the 21 and under tournament knew the history of tennis but I was crazy about tennis and knew its history. I saw Frank and mustered the courage to introduce myself. I remember asking him about his physical training including working with Stan Nicholls who was a trainer that Hopman used for the Australian Davis Cup players. Frank was super nice and answered all of my questions - class gentleman all of the way.

After I met Frank, I was hanging out at the courts and Torben Ulrich, the zen tennis master, was looking for someone to hit with. I volunteered and we hit. I was totally excited but somehow able to keep it together. We both go to our respective baselines (no short court warm-up back then). On the very first ball, we rallied it something like 70 hits - he had such great control it was easy for me to keep it going. After I finally missed the ball long, Torben walked to the ball we had just rallied and took the ball in one of his hands and then walked up to one of the net posts and placed the ball on the ground right by the net post and said to me "we will let the ball rest"! Only Torben would say that.

What great experience to have aged 21. I am glad you found Frank a nice man. I was hoping he would be. I find his volleying ability so outstanding it would have been heartbreaking to hear he wasn't a good guy.

Many classic players used a wall to practice against. So many biographies cite a wall as a key practice partner. I bet the modern player hardly ever uses a wall.

I have heard about the legendary Torben Ulrich. and the things he came out with. He must have been quite a character.

Here is a mother Sedgman clip. You need to go to 0:30 to get a birds eye view. The volley at 0:52 I find interesting. A good friend of mine, who had seen Frank many times in his heyday, said Frank could pulverise an easy forehand volley like no one else.

http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/...tage/594668413

[don_budge]

Stotty, I remember reading many years ago that Sedgman practiced his volleys against a wall and he gave great credit to that in developing his volleys. If I recall correctly, he said he stood a fair distance away from the wall when he practiced his volleys and thought that was important. I think I may have read that in his book on tennis - I just ordered a copy on Amazon and when it arrives I will review the book for that point and any other interesting points.

BTW, when I was in college I played a 21 and under tournament at Merion Cricket Club outside of Philadelphia. The tournament ended on a Friday. That weekend, they were holding a Masters tournament and Sedgman was competing in it. The participants in the Masters tournament got there earlier in the week to practice. I was in the locker room and who is there but Frank Sedgman. Basically, almost none of the kids in the 21 and under tournament knew the history of tennis but I was crazy about tennis and knew its history. I saw Frank and mustered the courage to introduce myself. I remember asking him about his physical training including working with Stan Nicholls who was a trainer that Hopman used for the Australian Davis Cup players. Frank was super nice and answered all of my questions - class gentleman all of the way.

After I met Frank, I was hanging out at the courts and Torben Ulrich, the zen tennis master, was looking for someone to hit with. I volunteered and we hit. I was totally excited but somehow able to keep it together. We both go to our respective baselines (no short court warm-up back then). On the very first ball, we rallied it something like 70 hits - he had such great control it was easy for me to keep it going. After I finally missed the ball long, Torben walked to the ball we had just rallied and took the ball in one of his hands and then walked up to one of the net posts and placed the ball on the ground right by the net post and said to me "we will let the ball rest"! Only Torben would say that.

EdWeiss...fantastic post and thanks so much for sharing. Priceless...eh what? How about the Frank Sedgman? Stotty's love of the Sedgman volley. Like a school boy crush. And you...meeting the great Aussie icon. I think tennis_chiro has some Sedgman connection too. But anyways...Edweiss. Here is an assignment for you. This talk about walls and volleys really resonates with me. Then you go and throw Torben Ulrich into the mix. What an enigmatic character. Once in a lifetime. Ulrich made some sort of movie about "The Wall". What can you tell us about that? How do we get a copy? Surely this creation of the old Zen Master would shed some light on the mysteries of the universe. Hmmm...

http://www.torbenulrich.com/filmvideo/filmvideo4.htm

[don_budge]

http://www.untye.com/Films/Before-The-Wall/Watch

[bottle]

Great film(s)

By the way...to quote my favorite novelist of the moment Robertson Davies on somebody very unlike Torben Ulrich: "He was a strong man in business and politics, but those are external things: only a fool gives his soul to them."