Learning to volley is a very crucial skill if you want to take your game to the next level. The reason being is to get to the next level means you're going to probably have to move forward inside the court. 

I know so many players that don't think volleys are important and they think they can win every ball or point from the baseline, and that's just not true. You got to move forward. You've got to learn to take it time away from your opponent and learning how to volley is the way to do it. 

Now, one of the biggest misconceptions that a lot of players have when they're volleying is they think they need to swing to have crisp and solid volleys, and this just isn't true. The thing you want to understand is how to use your body, because by using your body, you're going to have shorter swings and be able to react much quicker when you don't know where the volley is going to come. 

And this is why having the right mechanics will allow you to volley. If you get a forehand or backhand without having to worry about what side the ball is going to come to. So now let's get to the four main concepts you need to understand. 

They have great solid and crisp volleys. Concept number one is you have to have the right grip, which means a continental grip. Now, the benefits of having a continental grip is that you'll be able to hit a forehand and a backhand volley without having to change your grip.

So many players I see are constantly trying to switch grips to get or get ready for a shot, and it's just not possible because they don't have enough time or they have one grip. But then they're late on the next one. 

And that's why having the right volley grip, which is the continental grip, will serve you in a way that you can hit forehands and backhand volleys without having a switch. So let's learn what is the continental grip. It's really easy. Think of your racket like a hammer. I would hold the hammer in front of me and grab the top. 

This allows me to take the nail and chop down or pull down. This is the same grip you want for your volleys. Again, having this grip allows you to hit forehands and backhands. Another way of finding it is taking this pad right here that you can push on and you're going to have a flat and another flat. 

If I'm counting to the right and I'm going to put that level right on top of that second flat to the right, which should feel exactly like you're using a hammer, and that's the continental grip. 

Concept number two is the take back and step now before we even can get to that take back and step, we've got to talk about having a great ready position, which really means having the racket in front of you.

Just like this and making sure you have plenty of room with your arms in front, what you want to avoid is having your arms and elbows close to your body. What this will do is put you in a late position when we talk about that take back, so we want to have your arms out in front of you. 

Just like you were typing on a computer and making sure that your racket isn't directly straight in front of you, just like, but it has a little bit of curve here. Now the reason for this is that if any ball comes from here over, I'm going to use my backhand volley to hit it. 

But if it comes from here over, I'm going to turn and use my forehand volley and hit it by having it in this position. It really helps you if you get any balls to come to your body or your backhand side, you're just a shoulder turn away. And speaking of shoulder turn, this is exactly what we want to do to take the racquet back.

The racket take back is from the shoulders, so meaning that if I get a forehand, all I'm going to do is turn my shoulders here. If I get it backhand all I'm going to do is turn my shoulders here. So it's really just like a ready position in another direction. So what I mean by this is if I'm in a ready position just like this and I open my racquet face just a little bit until to open, guess what? This is the position you want to get to.

Same thing if I'm going to ready position facing this right and I tilt my racquet back. This is the ready position you want to get to how we do this combined with your feet. It's just turning your feet and turning your shoulders.

 So my foot is going to turn in this direction, boom and my shoulders are going to turn with it. If I was hitting a backhand again, foot and then turn, so you can see we're using what we call the outside leg. So if I'm hitting a forehand, it's going to be my right leg turning with my shoulders. If I'm using my left leg, it's going to be my left leg, turning over my shoulders and suddenly you see how you can be so much quicker just by using your shoulders to get the racquet back.

 And this is what's so important to make sure you have crisp and solid, reliable volleys. The third concept is going to be the swing, and I hate saying the word swing sometimes because a lot of players think, OK, once I turn, I need to swing at the ball. It's really not a swing, more so a pull. 

And what I mean by this, if you take your hand, imagine that there's a rope here and I'm pulling it forward. This pulling action is what I want to create in my racket.

So as I turn, I'm going to be pulling the racket forward and this pull action from my shoulders is what provides the power. This is using big muscles compared to swinging with my wrist, which is a much weaker muscle.

 So up until these three steps we have continental grip, we have a turn and then we're going to pull forward. Now, as we pull forward, we're going to pull through the ball and pass the contact. So if we think of it almost like a sandwich, you have the start, you have the contact and you have the end. And so this is kind of our volley sandwich here. 

We want to take the racquet back to the start, make contact and swing, pass that contact. Now we're ready for the final part of your swing, which is the most important part, which is the racquet face at contact. The racket faces the sole thing that's going to determine where the ball goes at contact. 

So if you're missing volleys and they're going along, what that means is when you're making contact your racket face is to open. Now, if you're missing balls, internet means your racket face is to close by paying attention and adjusting the racket face, according to the ball you want to hit. You can have pinpoint and crisp volleys, and this is hugely important. 

There is no one racket face for the volley because if I get a low ball that's below the net, I'm going to want to open the racket face to make the ball go up if I get a higher ball.

I may want to close my racket face or have it vertical to make the ball go down into the court. And this is why understanding the racket face is so important. If we put it all together, we have our grip and we're going to turn with our shoulders and feet. 

And then as we pull forward, we're going to go forward with our legs just a little bit to put a little bit more momentum into the ball. So if I was doing a forehand turn and forward, if I'm doing a backhand turn and forward. 

Notice how both swings go past the point of contact and it's very smooth and fluid. It's not jerky, but it's just a nice pool, timing the ball as it comes into my contact zone. And so if you're wondering where is my contact zone, the contact zones in the center of my chest  And so if I'm hitting the ball this way so you can see it, I'm turning.

 This is the center of my chest. I'm making contact and going past that on both sides. You want that contact generally right around the center of your chest to the front of your shoulder. So forehand center of the chest, OK? And then on the backhand, you're going to be going centre of the chest and out, and this is how you can have reliable volleys.

Now it's time to take action. Get better technique on your volleys. The number one thing we're going to focus on is making sure you're taking the racquet back using a shoulder turn by using a shoulder turn. That's pretty much 90 percent of the volley. 

Using your shoulders to take the racquet back not only will get you and prepare you for hitting the ball, but it also will have you reacting faster.

 So really quick review is holding the racquet on front when we're holding the racquet out in front here. Notice how my elbows aren't close to my body. They're actually out in front. Analogy I like to use. It's like thinking like you're using a typewriter or a computer and making sure that your elbows are in front.

 From here, all we want to do is focus on a shoulder turn. Now, notice the angle of my racket while I'm holding it. Right now, I'm going to do a slight shoulder turn and a slight shoulder turn with that shoulder turn. My toes are going to turn to help. So just doing this as a quick demo, have the racket in front, and all I want you to do is turn and notice how it's a very slight turn.

 It's not a big turn. And then on the backhand side turn. So each time I'm an outside leg, I'm going turn and then on my backhand, I would go turn. It's a very subtle, a way of thinking about it. If you put your arms out just like this, you shouldn't really turn any more than that. And so what you want to do is have a ball machine, have a friend feed you a couple balls.

I would recommend just start off with one side at first. So we're going to do a couple forehands, probably about three or forehands and then three backhand, and they're going to go side to side about four balls.

 And this is a sequence you want to use to get better twitcher volleys. So right now, I'm going to just do a simple split step and turn and get ready to hit my forehand volley. So split, step, turn and notice how at contact is just another small turn. So we're using our shoulders to take the racket back and we're using my shoulders to push through the ball.

It's not a huge swing. Again, I would do a two more. Really simple, and from here, I'm going to do the exact same thing on my backhand side, which is just the turn. So again, I'll start here, turn. And turn notice on the backhand, there's a little bit of release. 

And even if you have a two-handed backhand, this works the exact same way. I'll keep both hands on and all I'm going to do is turn. And turn now as far as footwork, all I want you to think of outside leg and then shift forward if you want to know more about the footwork. Make sure you check out the movement video for the volleys and that'll help you go into more detail about the movement.

 Now we're going to go side to side and again, I'm going to turn and hit the volley and come back to the ready position and then turn it my backhand volley and come back to the ready position. To turn.Ok. Turn. Turn.

Turn, and you can see how all of my volleys have very nice short compact back swings that I can react really quick. And this is why it's so powerful by just turning my shoulders, I'm much faster than taking my arms back. 

Not only that, by turning my shoulders, I'm using big muscles that can contribute to having a solid, more powerful volley. If you need it, but not only that, if you just use your arm, you're going to have weak volleys that fall apart, especially when people hit the ball harder at you and you don't want that.

So in summary, number one, you got to have the continental  grip. The reason why you want the continental grip is because it's going to allow you to hit both forehands and backhands without having to switch grips. 

Number two, you got to have the right take back just by turning your shoulders. You'll prepare for both sides, and this also provides you the quickest way of getting the racket ready for contact. 

Number three, it's the swing, or it's really the pull you want to focus on pulling forward on both sides instead of swinging. The reason you don't want to swing is because you have all these potential different contact points that are going to send the ball in different locations by pulling instead of flipping. You have a consistent racket face of contact, meaning you can control the ball and send it in the direction or how high or low over the net you want it.

And this is why it's so important to make sure you can control your racket face, which is the final most important step. Controlling the racket faces the single element that's going to make sure the ball goes where you want it. So the more you can focus on controlling your racket face at contact, the better and more consistent your volleys are going to be.