The Strategy Zone:
The Swinging Volley

Nick Bollettierri with Lance Luciani

At the Academy, we started training players to hit Swinging Volleys in the late 1980's. People thought we were crazy! Taking a big swing was considered the worst mistake you could possibly make at the net. "It's impossible to control the ball when you swing at the net." We heard that over and over from the "experts" in tennis.

But you know what? It turned out we weren't crazy afterall. It turned out we were right. It turned out the shot wasn't impossible. It turned out that shott was vital. Monica Seles and a few other players proved that, and proved the skeptics wrong.

Over the years we have taught hundreds and hundreds of players to hit swinging volleys and hit them well. And now the conventional wisdom is the complete opposite. The swinging volley is now considered a standard shot that every player in pro and in junior tennis must develop. So let's see how to do that!

Swinging Volley Finish

In this series of articles, we've outlined our concept of how to build points through a progression we call "Control, Hurt, Finish." (Click Here.) In the previous article we took a detailed look at the groundstroke finishes. How does the swinging volley fit in? It's another basic finish option, and the preferred alternative in many situations.

The Swinging Volley is a dynamic finish shot that increases the opportunities to end points. By intercepting the ball in the air and hitting with a swing resembling a groundstroke, the player is able to generate a maximum amount of power.

Swinging volleys allow players to be more aggressive on high floating balls, and hit winners from further back in the court. Typically a player is able to hit winners from the service line or even further back, something that is difficult if not impossible with tradtional volleys.

When I say Swinging Volleys, I mean both the forehand and backhand versions. In this game where the huge majority of junior players hit with two-handed backhands, the swinging volley is a shot that should be hit off both sides.

The swinging volley is not just a shot for the pros. It can be especially valuable at the lower levels of the game. Why? Because it is a very effective shot against pushing style players who hit a lot of high, slower paced balls.

If players want to slow the ball down against you and put it up in the air, I say fine. Put fear into their hearts by coming in and knocking those balls off with some high powered swinging volley winners!

Technical Points

The swinging volley is basically a slightly more compact version of the groundstroke. The difference obviously is that you take the ball in the air before it bounces, but the technical swings are quite similar.

Let's go over the important technical elements. These are as follows: ball recognition, explosive early footwork, preparation and stance, and finally, the swing pattern itself.

Ball Recognition

Ball recognition is critical in exploiting the opportunity to hit a swinging volley. In the pro game, you often see a slight delay before the players come forward. This is different from a traditional approach sequence in which the player is already moving forward and committed to coming in.

Does this mean that the pro players are slow in reacting? It's the opposite. They are reacting virtually instantaneously to the opportunity presented by the opponent's next ball.

They may recognize the shot just as the ball comes off the opponent's racket. But in some cases they are moving before the opponent actually hits. They anticipate the next ball will be short enough and high enough for them to come forward. This is because they sense that their previous shot will force the opponent to hit a weak or floating reply.

Footwork

After recognizing the shot, the next key is movement. The top players seem to explode forward. The first two steps are critical. Watch how Ana Ivanovic pushes off her back foot and then takes two large explosive strides forward. These inital explosive steps are usually followed by a series of small adjusting steps to position more precisely to the oncoming ball.

Basically ytou hit the swinging volleys with your groundstroke grips. As with the groundstrokes, you also need the ability to hit swinging volleys off both an open and a neutral stance.

Watch how the players set up on the outside foot first. Now, depending on factors such as ball height and where they plan to go with the ball, they can hit open or step forward into a netural stance. Depending on how fast they are moving, they may also hit first and then land on the front foot, what David Bailey calls a Power Step. (Click Here.)

Swing Pattern

Compared to the regular groundstrokes, the backswings on the swinging volleys are often somewhat more compact. You can see this in the animation of Fernando Verdasco. Compare the height of his hand at the highest point in the forehand groundstroke approach versus the forehand swinging volley. But this can vary with the player and the individual ball as well.

As with the groundstroke, the swing is upward from slightly below the level of the ball. The shot is hit with great racket head speed and substantial topspin. John Yandell has measured swinging volleys hit with as much as 2500rpm of total spin. This equals the spin level of the some of the heaviest semi-western groundstrokes in the game.

That makes sense because the shot is hit between the baseline and the net. That makes the court shorter, and requires the player to drop the ball sooner to keep it inside the lines. Typically the contact height is around shoulder level, although it can be lower on shorter weaker balls.

Basic Patterns

Now let's look at how the Swinging Volley works in the context of points, as the finishing shot in our strategy sequences. The patterns are worth looking at because they are less familiar than the ways points are finished off the ground.

The most typical finish is to hit the swinging volley deep into the open court. The player hits a groundstroke drive deep down the line into to the corner, then comes foreward and drives the swinging volley crosscourt. But another option is to run the ball behind the opponent going short the other way.

Another pattern to create the opportunity to finish with a swinging volley is to hit a high looping shot against players who tends to hit loops themselves. Most likely they will loop back. Anticipating this, you can move forward and take the second ball out of the air and go to the open court.

Serves Points

You can also set up swinging volley sequences beginning with a serve, or with a return. For example, you can hit a wide serve to the ad court. If this produces a short high ball, immediately close and hit the forehand crosscourt swinging volley. On a wide serve in the deuce court, the forehand swinging volley finish can be down the line or inside out if the ball is near the middle. On a return to your backhand side, it can be a crosscourt backhand swinging volley.

Another option is to wait one ball and drive the short return into either corner, followed by a swinging volley going the other way.

On serves to the T, you are less likely to have the opportunity to move forward and hit a swinging volley on the first ball, because your opponent will tend to be more in the middle of the court. In this case, you can set up the swinging volley with deep drives to the corner, and then taking the finishing shot back the other way.

Return Points

You can also use your return of serve to set up the opportunity to finish with a swinging volley. To do this hit a return aggressively crosscourt, particularly on a second serve. Now explode forward and hit a swinging volley the other way into the open court. If the opponent handles your return, get around the next ball and hit an inside out forehand. Then close and hit the swinging volley back the other way crosscourt.

Another option: hit a deep down the middle return. When this forces a short ball hit a crosscourt forehand. Now move in and hit a forehand swinging volley down the line.

All these patterns are best learned as fed ball patterns. For example, you may hit the serve, but a coach or a partner feeds the second ball, and then the set up ball for the swinging volley finish. This is the best way to get repetitions that will prepare you to recognize and execute the patterns in actual play. As you get the feel for the court and the potential of this shot to end the point, you will naturally put together the combinations that work for you against a given opponent.

Next: Let's look at Finish Sequences based on Approaches and Traditional Volleys.