Court Movement:
The Volley
By Bob Hansen
As in the backcourt, good movement at the net begins with the Initial Move on both the forehand and backhand volley. The Initial Move at the net is similar to the ground strokes. Let's look at the forehand first.
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Initial Move: Forehand On the forehand, the Initial Move starts with the feet: a push with the Inside Foot and a step with the Outside Foot to the ball. As we saw with the groundstrokes, the Outside Foot is the left foot, closer to the ball (for a right hander). The Inside Foot away from the ball is the left. The only real difference compared with the forehand groundstroke is that the shoulder turn is slightly shorter. |
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The forehand volley starts with a push with the Inside Foot, a step with the Outside Foot, and the shoulder turn to the ball. |
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Stances Now the player is ready to hit. He can step into the line of the shot with my front foot. He can also hit from this balanced, initial turn position. Watch the top pros and see that they frequently hit their volleys with this open stance positioning. |
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From the Initial Move, the player is balanced and ready to hit open or closed. |
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The Lunge Step On a wider ball, you simply increase the length of the first step to get behind the ball. If necessary, you can also take a lunging step to the ball with the front foot. Notice how much ground I can cover with just two steps: the longer step in the initial move and the lunge step. I stay balanced, and I also continue to move foreard toward the net on a diagonal to cut off the oncoming ball. |
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On wider balls, increase the length of the first step and add a lunge step if necessary. |
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To recover the Inside Foot replaces the Outside Foot as I return to the ready position.
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Recovery The recovery exchange also follows the same pattern as the groundstrokes. Watch how I exchange my feet and return to the ready position. This allows me to move either way from my opponent's next ball. The efficiency of this recovery pattern is probably even more importatn at the net than in the backcourt, because of the reduced time between shots. |
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Backhand Volley Now lets look at the sequence of the hit and the recovery on the backhand volley. The pattern and sequence should start to seem familiar at this point, with the same elements as the groundstrokes and forehand volley. Again the Components are:
Watch in the animation how I exchange the Outside Foot and the Inside Foot to begin the recovery. |
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The Initial Move, the hit, and the recovery on the Backhand Volley. |
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Open Stance Again I have the option of hitting off the front foot or hitting open stance. To reach wider balls, as on the forehand, I can increase the size of my first step and add a lunge step if necessary. Next we'll look at how to speed up our first move, our overall movement in the transition to the net, and especially the return of serve. |
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In fast exchanges you can hit the backhand volley open stance
after the Initial Move. |
