The Net Game

THE VOLLEY AND OVERHEAD SMASH.


We recently discussed the serve as being the opening shot in tennis. Your net game, by contrast, is or should be the heavy artillery of tennis. When executed correctly it will crush your opponents defense. It takes good hand-eye coordination and quick reflexes to stand in and face your opponents shots, but the reward of many  point-winning strokes will be yours as you develop this aspect of your game. In today's singles game, play has become so fast with such hard groundstrokes, that rushing the net is difficult, yet very rewarding if done correctly. Look for opportunities to close on the net as a result of shots that stretch your opponent. When you have made a good approach shot, get in to the net quickly and be ready to defend your position. As you close in on the net, you create great angles where you can hit the ball that your opponent cannot get to, no matter whether the shot is a volley or a smash.

A volley is described as any shot where the ball is contacted before the ball has bounced. A smash is a shot that is hit from the overhead position, similar in motion to the serve.

Once you are at the net, be prepared to meet any balls hit at you. If the ball is hit to your right, step across with your left foot. This turns the body so you are in a position to hit a proper forehand volley. If the ball is hit to your left, step across your body with your right foot. This now lines you up to hit a backhand volley.

How you strike a volley is basically determined by two factors; how high or low the ball is approaching, and how fast the ball approaching? On low shots and on hard shots, keep the racket out in front of you and block the ball back. Be sure to keep your eye on the ball and watch it all the way into your racket so that it meets in the sweet spot. If your opponent's shot is approaching at about waiste high with medium velocity, keep your racket out in front and "punch" through the ball. Try to resist the urge to swing too much, just punch it. Balls that approach up around head height or so may be hit with a little more swing if you have time, but again it is better to get the ball back than to try a kill shot and have it go long because of too much swing.

In today's game, you will occasionally see a swinging volley, but in most cases you will produce a volley with much better control with minimal swing.
You will hear much talk of "chop" volleys. A chop stroke is one where the racket travels from above the line of flight of the ball, down and through it, and the angle made behind the racket is greater than 45 degrees, and many approach 90 degrees. I say that no volleys should be chopped, for the tendency is to pop the ball up in the air off any chop. Slice volleys if you want to, or hit them flat, for both these shots are made at a very small angle to the flight-line of the ball, the racket face travelling almost along its plane.

When executing a volley, whether the ball is struck from high or low, the wrist should be locked and absolutely firm. The wrist should always be below the racket head, which allows for bracing the racket against the impact of the ball. If you have heard the term "dropping the racket head", that means you have allowed the wrist to weaken and the racket head has dropped below the wrist. This will usually result in a weak return attempt. Allow the force of the incoming shot, plus your own weight, to return the ball. Do not try to "wrist" it over. The tilted racket face will give the needed angle to the return the ball by glancing it off the strings, so no wrist turn is needed.

Low volleys should never be hit hard, and considering the height of the net, they should usually be sharply angled, to allow distance for the rise that is needed to clear the net. When a ball is met at a higher plane than the top of the net, it may be hit hard. The stroke should be crisp, and decisive, but it should stop as it meets the ball. The follow through should be very small. Most low volleys should be soft and short. Most high volleys require speed and length.

The "drop" volley, or sometimes called the "stop" volley is nothing more than a shot blocked short. There is no force used. The racket simply meets the oncoming ball and stops it. The ball rebounds and falls of its own weight. With this shot, if you see it in slow motion, you may actually see the racket rebound a little away from the ball just after contact. This is sometimes referred to as having soft hands. There is little bounce to such a shot, and that may be reduced even more by allowing the racket to slide slightly under the ball at the moment of impact, thus imparting back spin.

When executing a volley, try to "punch" your volley straight and hard to the opening in your opponent's court. Leave as little time as possible for your opponent to recover.

A net player must have good ground strokes in order to get into the proper net position. Do not think that a serve and volley will be enough against first-class tennis.

Attack with your volleys. Make the volley an offensive shot whenever possible. The only defensive volley should be the one at your feet as you come in. It is a mid-court shot. Volleys should win with placement more than speed, although speed may be used on a high volley. Always look for the largest openings on your opponents side and be aware of angles that will take time away from your opponent.

The overhead smash is closely related to the volley, yet a volley stroke is not used here. It is the long range terror that should always score. The rules of footwork, position, and direction that govern the volley will suffice for the overhead. The swing however is different. The swing should be very similary to the slice serve, with the racket and arm swinging freely from the shoulder, the wrist flexible and the racket imparting a slight twist to the ball to hold it in court. The overhead is usually a point winner because of the speed of the shot. Again, you are taking time away from your opponent. Like the serve, it's important to keep your eye on the ball through contact and not allow your non-dominant side to pull down or collapse before contact. This will usually result in pulling the ball down into the net. This is a shot that requires just the right timing, so practice, practice, practice. If you watch the pros warm up, you will always see them take a few practice overheads before play begins. You should do the same. Have your warm up partner hit a few high balls so you can get the feel of moving into position, concentrating on the ball and connecting with a good fluid motion so the ball strikes the other side of the court as intended. If you can't do it in practice when there is no real pressure to perform, then you probably won't be able to do it in a match when you really need to.

The overhead is primarily a doubles shot, because in singles the chances, of passing the net person, are greater than lobbing over their head. In doubles two people cover the net so easily that the best way to open up the court is to lob to the back of the court.

Closely connected to the overhead since it is the usual defence to any hard smash, is the lob.

Just for clarity, allow me to define a lob. A lob is a ball that is hit high with the intention of it landing between the service-line and the baseline. An excellent lob should be within a couple of feet of the baseline. This type of shot will force your opponent back from the net and give you the opportunity to take control of the net position so that ideally you will be able to put away any returned shot.

Lobs are essentially defensive. The ideas in lobbing are: to give yourself time to recover position when pulled out of the court by your opponent's shot; to drive back the net person and break up their attack; to tire your opponent; occasionally to win cleanly by placement.

There is the chop lob, a heavily under-cut spin that hangs in the air. The chop lob, which is a decided under cut, should rise from 20 to 30 feet high and must go deep.This, is the best defensive lob, as it goes high and gives plenty of time to recover position. The stroke lob or flat lob, hit with a slight top spin. This is the point-winning lob since it gives no time to the player to run around it, as it is lower and faster than the chop. In making this lob, start your swing like a drive, but allow the racket to slow up and the face to tilt upward just as you meet the ball. This shot should seldom go above 10 feet in the air, since it tends to go out with the float of the ball. And finally there is the top spin lob, which is struck somewhat like the stroke lob, but with the racket face slightly more open and much more low to high racket movement to impart top spin. The trajectory is usually a little higher than the stroke lob, but not as high as the chop lob. Because of the top spin, the ball will really dive down into the court and then accellerate off the court upon impact. An effective top spin lob will win many points because your opponent will be fooled into thinking the shot is going long, while the top spin will cause the ball to curve down quickly. Again, this is a stroke that will require considerable practice, but will yield great dividends.

It is better to lob out and run your opponent back, thus tiring him or her, than to lob short and give your opponent confidence by an easy kill. The value of a lob is mainly one of upsetting your opponent, and its effects are very apparent if you unexpectedly bring off one at a crucial period of a match. This can be very demoralizing for the opposing side.

For more tennis tips, check out my friend Brent Abel's site.
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