Tennis Volley Lesson - The Foundation of Being A Solid Net Player

https://www.top-tennis-training.com/ Tennis Volley Lesson - The Foundation of Being A Solid Net Player. In this video lesson, Coach Simon of Top Tennis Training is going to break down the foundations of becoming a solid net player, someone who finishes off points at the net on a consistent basis and whose opponents fear them coming into the net. After we released video one we had quite a few comments online from people who were not convinced they could actually win points at the net on a consistent basis. Some of the comments were “No-one comes to the net anymore” and “technology makes it impossible to attack like in past generations” So I found a few clips from this year’s French Open, now clay is the hardest surface to attack the net on but you’ll see Federer, Djokovic and even Nadal finishing off points at the net. Now I’m not saying that you should rush the net after every serve or run in blindly all the time, of course you need to pick the right shots to come in on and calculate when is the best time to sneak in, as we see the pros doing here, but it’s having that mindset that will allow you to finish the point at the net. If you’re looking for those chance balls, you’ll find them. If you’re happy to sit back and grind all day then you won’t be actively looking for those chances. That’s a major difference here, the mindset. Pro players are looking to finish points at the net, this is happening against the best counter punchers in the world. So now we know the importance of getting into the net, let’s discuss the first step to becoming a solid net player. Foundation. This means your ready position when you get into the net. Now that you have the correct grip, you are on the way but we need to have a solid foundation that will allow us to move in any direction and at high speeds. Remember when you attack the net, you have half the time that you normally have when you’re on the baseline. So your split step at the net will be slightly different to when you’re on the baseline. I teach three different types of split steps to my students. The first one is when they’re deep behind the baseline. Murray uses this style of split step very often, it’s higher than normal and it’s almost like you’re using the ground as your springboard. I call this one the explosive split step. The second is when you’re inside the baseline, normally in an aggressive position. Because you’re looking to take the ball on, you don’t want to be jumping too high otherwise you’ll be late on the ball but also the distance you have to cover is reduced. I call this one the split squat as it tends to be lower and resembles a slight squat in the legs. The third one is the one we will use at the net. This tends to be lower and wider than the other two. We use this at the net because we have less time so we don’t want to use a high split step otherwise we’ll be late but we also want to have our centre of gravity lower so that changing direction becomes easier. At the net, our main concern is getting passed on either side or being lobbed. So we need a ready position that will give us the best possible chance to cover all three of those shots. This wider and lower stance gives us that. Now, why exactly do we use a split step in tennis in the first place? It’s very simple, tennis is a multi-directional sport, meaning that we have to move in any direction. On any given shot we might have to move forward, backwards, to either our right or left sides and anything and everything between all of those. The split step allows us to be in that balanced position where we can move off into any direction but it also allows us to use explosive energy from our leg muscles to push off into the direction of the shot. It acts as a launch pad to the ball. So the first two steps in becoming a better net player are to use the correct grip when at the net and to use a wide, athletic stance in our ready position and split step. In 2017/18 over 5000 matches were analysed. These matches were at ATP, WTA, college and advanced USTA level. The data showed that the average match winner won around 55% of total points in the match. Which means that on average, the winner still lost around 45% of total points in the match they ended up winning. Where it gets very interesting is that 85% of points are over in 8 shots or less, 4 shots per player. In that 85 % of points, if the player stayed on the baseline they’d win on average 46% of the points, 9% under that 55% average needed to win most matches at these levels. Whereas if they attacked the net during those 8 shots, it could be a Serve and volley, it could be a chip and charge off a return, maybe attacking a mid-court ball, they ended up winning on average 66% of points. 11% over the 55% needed to win. Watch video #1 here - https://www.top-tennis-training.com/volley-blueprint-video-1/