Beginner Tennis: Volleys

Video Transcript

"Okay, a volley, it's one of those under-practiced shots in tennis. All a volley is, is you take a ball before it bounces, so obviously if a ball bounces like this, that's a ground stroke. But if the ball is in the air and you hit it, that's a volley. There's two volleys: there's the forehand volley and the backhand. Here's the forehand volley, here's the backhand volley. We use what's called the continental grip. So it's like a shake-hands grip, then you just slightly turn it. And you use it for both sides. So if any of you ever watch any pirate movies, there's your backhand, there's your forehand. So it's as if you were sword fighting with somebody, and in a sense you are. Instead of hitting each other, you're hitting the ball. But let's step over to the wall and I'll show you how to hit the forehand volley. So you take the ball, you take the racket, you open the face, and you just block it against the wall, and that's a forehand volley right there. And then I click over to the backhand, and we hit a backhand volley. And then you can hit both of them. Now the wall forces me to move my feet. It forces me to prepare my racket, so you see I hit the ball, I can't have the racket just drop dead. I've got to hit it and be ready for the next one. Hit it, be ready for the next one. So the volley is a very important stroke, and in the next segment we're going to demonstrate how to actually use it in a game situation."