The most common corrective for bad volleys is “Don’t swing at the volley.”  This, along with “Watch the ball!” is one of the most misunderstood catchphrases of teaching.  

We CAN take it for granted that in general the closer a player comes toward the net, the less they will tend to move the racquet.  It’s simple physics. The players do not have to move the racquet as much as the distance the ball has to travel is less.  Yet we can observe that if the ball can be contacted by the player when it is above the white band of the net, the racquet can travel a great distance indeed (look at the overhead!).  So “Don’t swing at the volley” doesn’t necessarily mean the racquet doesn’t move at all.

But if we look at the racquet path in a groundstroke, we see that the motion is both large AND upward.  It goes upward to lift the ball up, just like the golfer’s tee shot or the baseball player’s cut at the ball.  But neither the golfer’s putt, nor the batter’s bunt, goes upward.

What should be meant by “Don’t swing at the volley” is “Don’t move the racquet upward.” The racquet on the volley moves LEVEL and FORWARD, as the golfer’s putter moves above and along the ground.

A photo clip of Michael Llodra’s high backhand volley in the May issue of Tennis Magazine shows it clearly. While the racquet moves in a huge 180 degree arc to power the put-away volley, the racquet head travels LEVEL, going from high to high. This is a concept that even many teachers of tennis are not clear. 

To improve your volley, go forward and, not up or down but, level.