 Hey guys, so I had a few requests for a volley tutorial. Thanks to Tom G and to Live That Inspire for your suggestions. This is for you too and anybody else that wants to improve their volleys. In this video I will talk you through five tips that I like to use to improve your volleys and if you hang around to the end there'll be a bonus one too. Whether you're a doubles player or a singles player the volley is a crucial part in your game. If you play singles you don't hit as many volleys but when you do it's had a crucial time it's a chance to finish the point but if you're a doubles player you're going to hit those volleys in a lot more volume so being better at them is going to be a big part of your game. The nice thing about the volley is it's probably one of the most simple shots, however it's the most rushed shot because we have a lot less time to react. So these next tips will help you to be more efficient when you're at the net and more confident to get into the net with your volleys. So the first and most obvious thing to make your volleys better is to set up correctly. So firstly we need to know is the grip now for volleys we need to use the chopper grip. The reason we use the chopper grip is because it allows you to make contact with your forehand volley and your backhand volley without making the grip change. When you're at the net most of the time you don't have time to make any changes to your grip so a continental or chopper grip is going to be the most efficient way to volley on both sides. Once you've got the chopper grip you need to make sure that you're setting up with your racket head above your grip. So I like to use my spare hand, my left hand to hold the neck of the racket and that helps to keep my racket head up high. The reason we want the racket head to be above the grip is because we want to make contact with the ball above the height of the net as much as possible. It's much more difficult to make a good volley if the ball is dropping beneath the height of the net so holding that racket head up is going to help massively. And finally in your ready position once you've got the grip and the setup with your hands and the racket in the right position you want to make sure that you've got a nice wide base with your feet, a good knee bend and a good way to visualize this is trying to hide your grip underneath the net tape. So if you get into this position here it's going to make you nice and athletic and ready to count your forehand and backhand volleys. When you're in your ready position it's important to remember that your racket needs to be in a neutral position. I often see people looking quite casual at the net with their racket here but you can clearly see that the racket is on my backhand side so it's going to take longer for me to get my racket over to my forehand if it comes this way. So being in a very neutral position is going to give you an equal opportunity to take your forehand and your backhand volley. The second way to hit better volleys is to make sure that your racket face or your strings go to the ball first. Now when we're at the baseline we have a bit more time to react so we often focus on getting our feet into the right position as we take the racket back but when we're at the net volleying we don't often have the time to move our feet first so the priority is to get your strings behind the ball as soon as you can. As soon as you've done that your feet will follow so if the ball comes in to a comfortable position you can get your strings right behind the ball and step in through it. If the ball is slightly wider you'll see that if your strings go first your feet will naturally follow to help you to make a good contact on the ball and if that ball comes straight at you of course you want to get the strings behind the ball first so that you can then step away and make a good contact but when that ball comes in towards you you need to prioritize getting your strings behind the ball first. The third thing to consider in making your volleys better is going to the ball or meeting the ball. Now as I said before it's much easier to hit a good volley when you make contact with the ball above the height of the net it's incredibly difficult to hit an effective shot if your racket's dropping beneath the height of the net so make sure you keep your racket head up and to do that we need to make sure that we take the ball as early as possible. So if I'm stood back here and that ball's floating in rather than waiting for the ball to come to me with the risk of it dropping down low I want to come forward to meet the ball before it drops beneath the height of the net. The earlier you can take your volley in any situation the better so try to be proactive in going to the ball and hunting it down. A good phrase or word that I like to use with the kids when working with them is meet balls okay you've got to meet the ball don't wait for the ball it's your job to go to it so don't stand there waiting for the ball always expect it to come to you especially when you're playing doubles always expect it to come to you and go to the ball as soon as you see it do so. Tip number four for your volley is to have a compact swing. Now the reason we want to have a compact swing is again because we are limited with the amount of time that we have to react so if you have a big take back on your forehand or backhand volley by the time the ball is at you you're going to be meeting the ball late so by having a very compact swing and just taking your racket swing behind the ball and pushing it forwards you're going to be a lot more efficient with your time and you're going to be able to make a much better contact point. If you swing too big you're going to catch the ball late and it will spray out into different directions. A nice way that I teach the kids for this one is to try to avoid taking your racket behind your ear and past your nose so you've got to try and keep the racket within this quarter. Okay you'll see when I do my volleys in the demonstration that my swing is slightly bigger and that's just because I've got a bit more time and I'm trying to put a little bit more power onto the volley but you can still see that it doesn't have a follow through is very punchy and short so the more compact you can be with the volley the more control that you'll have over it. My final tip for having better volleys is to make more use of your non-dominant hand so for me that would be my left hand so as I mentioned in the setup you want to try to hold the neck of your racket with your spare hand to ensure that the racket head stays up but also equally importantly is when we swing to the ball our spare hand should be counter balancing and helping us to be more balanced through the shot on the forehand as we take the racket back to prepare behind the ball our hands separate so you'll see as I go to the ball my hands separate and as I go to meet the ball my hands will come together however on the backhand side we'll do the opposite so the hands stay together on the take back I'm guiding the racket back keeping it stable and the racket head up but as I meet the ball my hands will split so on the forehand side they come together on the backhand side my hands split and this will help me to keep a good center of gravity good balance and a little bit more energy and crispness through the volley give that a try so my bonus tip for you and your volleys is to squeeze the racket as you make contact now a very common thing that you hear coaches say to players is to have a looser grip and they're not wrong in general in forehands and backhands and serving it's very good to have a loose grip because it allows you to be very fluid with your swings and to get a little bit more energy and flow through the shot however when I hit my volleys I start off with a loose grip I prepare my racket with a nice loose relaxed grip because I don't want to squeeze my forearm too early but as I make contact with the ball that's when I'll squeeze and I'll have a slightly tighter grip as I go to meet the ball I feel that it gives me a little bit more force behind the ball and it makes me direct the ball into where I want it to go because I've got a lot more control over the racket head when I just squeeze at contact so give that one a try and let me know how you get on with it so there you have it there are five ways that you can make your volleys better plus the bonus one at the end now I don't need to go out there thinking about all of those tips all in one go because it will go horribly wrong but if you can just take one of those things take it on to the court next time you practice your volleys or the next time you're in a doubles match have a go let me know if you found any of these tips useful or if you've come across any other areas that you found that have helped your volleys in play thanks again for your video suggestions and if you are watching this and you have something in your game that you're not that happy with or you'd like to get better at let me know in the comments below and I will add it to my list of videos to me and if you are new here and you haven't subscribed yet click that button below and if you click the bell as well then you'll get a notification when my next video comes out so you can keep up to date with everything that I put on YouTube take care