The most decisive factor in the ability to volley lies in correct position. Almost equally important is the method of reaching that position. They are far from the same thing.
I know many players who, once planted at the net in position, volley very well, but if they have to run in to position, they miss three quarters of their volleys. This is due, first, to their lack of preparation on the way, and, second, to their coming in on the wrong line. Such a player can volley on his partner’s service in doubles, but not on his own, and he is always in trouble in singles.
The correct volley position is six to ten feet from the net and about two to three feet to the centre side of a straight line, drawn from the point your opponent is hitting his shot straight down your court parallel to the sidelines. There is nothing difficult about remembering that, but to reach it in time, and hold it, is a quite different thing. Let us take the situation where you have reached correct position, and see what you have to do to hold that position.
You make your first volley cross-court from your forehand, so that your opponent plays it at a point four feet inside his sideline. You were standing about halfway between the centre line and the sideline on your right side when you hit your volley and about eight feet back from the net. Obviously you must change your position or get passed, since the whole backhand side of your court is open and the ball is over there. The point is, how far over do you go? Most players move into the middle of the court on the centre line and think they are covering the court.
They are wrong. The straight shot, which is the easiest passing shot, is still wide open. The correct move is well beyond the centre line to a point about seven feet inside the left sideline and still about eight feet back from the net.
By making this move, you have really covered the straight shot and can still cut off any cross-court shot except an almost perfect one. If your opponent makes the perfect shot, give him full credit for it and don’t worry about it.
He won’t do it often. Always play the percentage position, the position that can reach the majority of your opponent’s attempts to pass.
At the net you seldom have more than two thirds of your court to cover. There is the straight third in front of the ball, and the middle third in front of a cross-court that an opponent can hit into with little risk. However, the remaining third, on the extreme side of the court away from the ball, is so difficult to hit into with a passing shot that clears the net that you can afford to give your opponent the few shots he will win with, in return for the greater number of errors he will make attempting to do so. Therefore, your position must always physically cover the straight shot, mentally you must be prepared for the middle third shot, and forget all about the very sharp-angle third.
To do this, in coming to the net from backcourt, always follow the line of your shot, but stay just to the centre side of it. You move to position about halfway up the swing of a pendulum that has its apex at the baseline of your court, and the swinging end of the pendulum is your opponent.
The greatest error the average player makes is thinking that he must cover his whole court as he comes in. The only time that is true is when the advancing shot is hit down the centre of your opponent’s court, since on that shot the passing shot angle is not difficult for him to make, and there is practically no reason for him to make an error. If you are coming in to the net, as I pointed out in connection with the advancing drive, don’t hit down centre but definitely hit into a corner of the court, or on a sharp angle. In so doing you at once can put out of your mind about one third of your court as territory you must cover.
When you make the advancing shot, move in along the line of your shot, steadily, but not so fast that you cannot turn or stop easily. Prepare to volley on the way in.
Many players forget this most important point, and arrive with their racquets hanging. Actually, you should carry your racquet with head up in front of you, and reach forward to the ball to volley it. Too many players reach the position in time to volley but let the ball come too deep to them and volley it at the side of the body instead of before it has reached the body line. A Iate volley has a tendency to pop up in the air and carries no pace on the shot. Do not let the ball come to you, but go out with your racquet and meet it on its way.
There is another common error among volleyers: attempting to do too much with their first volley if they are caught too far back, and are not really at the net. They try to make a kill from mid-court and miss. The correct way to handle the advancing volley, played from mid-court, is to block it deep and continue into correct volleying position for the kill on the next shot.
When I urged you to go out for your kill at once on the volley, I meant “at once” after you are in correct position for it. No shot you make has a good chance for a dean kill unless you are in a correct position. Many players make too great an attempt to volley short, slow, deceptive returns as they are coming in. They plunge at the ball, volley it off their shoestrings, and usually miss it or pop it weakly.
If they used their heads, they would have stopped, let it bounce, and driven or chopped it deep and then moved into the volleying position. They probably were moving forward too fast and couldn’t stop. Once more, let me urge you always to move so you keep your weight and balance under control. Do not rush, hurry, plunge around, and jump like a puppy just out of a lake and all full of the glow of well-being. Make every move tell, and make it for a definite purpose.
There is too much tennis played today that has no thought behind it or directing it, and nowhere is that more true than in the advance to the net. When you watch such players as Henri Cochet, Fred Perry, Donald Budge, and Bobby Riggs go in to volley, you feel that they practically walk into position. You get no impression of scurrying, scrambling, or digging, as you do from players like Bobby Falkenberg, Jimmy Brink, Carl Earn, and scores of the present juniors.
If you leave an opening as you advance, do it because you’re trying to get your opponent to hit for it so you can pounce on it, not because you have simply overlooked it or because you are rushing so you can’t cover it. On the other hand, don’t loaf in so lazily that you are caught at your feet by your opponent’s shot, and forced to half-volley the ball.
The volley as I have described it and its use so far is the solid, fast, deep, blocked volley which is used the vast majority of times. However, there is another volley, the soft, drop volley with backspin, which is very valuable, though secondary to the blocked shot. It plays the same role to the block volley that the slice does to the drive-as variation, and to surprise and disconcert your opponent.
This volley is hit in the same way as the block, except that the wrist is loosened slightly, and a little chop is imparted to backspin the ball. It is almost like a “tap” against the ball. The racquet head passes down and under the ball, and the bounce is low, and has “drag.” The shot, to be effective, must never go more than ten feet into your opponent’s court, and preferably at an angle. The shorter the shot and the sharper the angle, the better.
This volley, like the slice, is most effective on day and grass, has very little value on hard courts like concrete, and has almost none on wood. Any surface that causes the ball to bound high and forward practically nullifies its use. The delicate “touch” variety of volley is definitely secondary in importance to the volley that carries pace and depth from a flat, solid racquet, but both are needed in the equipment of a real tennis player.