Mythbusters: Volley Technique Is Very Overrated

Although it was over 30 years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the closest I have ever felt to being knocked out unconscious.

Legendary Long Island coach Adrian Chirici and I received a doubles wildcard into the Hamlet Cup, an ATP Tour tournament that used to be held in Commack. Our first round opponents were Magnus Larsson, who was a top 50 ranked player at the time, and Karel Novacek, who reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open one week later.

In Adrian’s first service game he spun a second serve with me standing at the net. Larsson went full Eastern grip and hit the hardest down-the-line forehand I have ever seen, before or since.  Less than a second later his return hit the back fence on the fly and I was on-the-ground, flat on my back after my successful attempt to get out of the way of the ball.

Whatever message they wanted to send, it was sent and received. Other than the fact it was embarrassing to go down to the ground in a pro match with a crowd on a shot that didn’t even hit me, it was needless to say, not a sign of respect! It could have been to intimidate us or they could have been annoyed that the hometown crowd was pulling for us. I’m still not sure.

We lost 6-4, 6-3 but to be honest, I was really, really happy with how I served and returned that day. But from that first return Larsson hit on, my volleys were garbage the rest of the day.

The irony of this was that year I told my coach that unless I had a huge tournament coming up that week, I wanted to spend 90 percent of my time in lessons working on my volley. I had committed to a college and thought this would be the best way to turn my weakness into a strong shot long-term. He fed me ball after ball to improve my technique. Over the course of that year, I started volleying better in junior tournaments and I felt strong at the net.

Until…that professional Larsson guy took my courage, aggressiveness and confidence away with that one shot. Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”  This couldn’t be more accurate. That day, I went from having technically sound volleys and wanting the ball to someone with technically sound volleys who was on his heels and protecting his alley like a guard at Buckingham Palace. In my fear, I comically decided it would be the end of the civilized world if they passed me in the alley but really, I didn’t want to get hit so I wanted to hide there.

It didn’t hit me so much until I became a coach. Volley technique is overrated. That’s right, I said it. Volley technique is overrated. Confidence, enjoyment of “the net experience” and aggression are equally important, and when I say equally, I am not exaggerating. This isn’t the same thing as saying the game is 90 percent mental. Where, yes it’s true that between two equally skilled players, the better player mentally wins, but Tom Brady, who owns the mental game, is not beating Nick Krygios.

Sorry, I digress. Although the aggressive/technique conundrum applies at all levels it is really exposed at country club level co-ed events. Often the women are the more frequent tennis players and the men more frequent golfers. The women are better technically but the husbands come out for these events and they love the net. They love crossing, slamming and finding the ball at the net with some of the wackiest volley grips possible. Quite simply, they are maniacs.  The women have much better volleys technically but when the men start getting aggressive, the better playing wives back off the net, wait on their heels and in the ultimate deference to net supremacy decide they want to play at the baseline.

I have also seen D1 women players with Western volley grips dominate their court because they like being aggressive and aren’t afraid of the ball. I have a pet peeve when somebody who took a few lessons tells me their former coach told them it is important to step across on the volley and that he or she fed them balls so they can work on it. Do you really have to step across to hit a good volley? What if you are running for it and have to hit it off the foot that didn’t cross (most of the time). Or that the ball is hit to you fast enough that you don’t have time to take a step.  This even happens at the pro level. What I don’t like is when a player reaches out wide and only moves one foot and lifts the other leg up to hit the volley like tipping over but once again, this is mindset. If you want the ball you are going to run to it.

At the high performance level this means do you volley from your heals or turn away from the ball for your backhand volley when it’s not friendly fire from a coach feed?  Do you cross in doubles or are you afraid of getting passed in your alley.

I am not saying volley technique should be completely ignored but dead-ball technical work should be 50 percent of your volley work. Practice volleys by having a coach fire balls toward you, doing quick volley drills where the ball can’t bounce for either player or game-based volley drills to add the component of volleying under pressure. Just like hand-eye coordination is a talent that can be improved with practice, natural aggression at the net falls under the same category. Most if not all the time someone does get hit by an opponent’s shot, they are fine for the next point and it becomes a funny story a couple of years later.