Tennis Tip – Spacing — Brent Abel's WebTennis

Tennis Singles: Serve & Volley – Backhand Volley

December 12, 2009 By Brent 4 Comments

I’ve got a time sensitive BONUS lesson offer for you which is detailed below, but first, here’s a quick look at a serve and backhand volley sequence in singles.

There are a couple of things that I want you to really study, but the most important one is the decision of where to play your backhand volley that should determined by where you are on the court at the time of that volley…

Download Video or MP3

Serve and volley tennis is a lot of fun, risky at times, but if you practice enough and sort of de-sensitize yourself to that concern of being passed by your opponent, the end result is you put a ton of pressure on your opponent to have to hit better returns of serve, and the consequence has a real ripple effect…

More missed returns of serve;
more missed passing shots;
more serving errors on their part as they realize they have to hold serve because you’re holding serve easily;
and on and on…

Here’s chapter 11 of my Serve & Volley lesson DVD…

Download Video or MP3

This is a full one hour detailed lesson where we work on all of the elements of solid serve & volley technique:

(Videos are DVD quality on the lesson’s DVD. These samples above had to be compressed for the blog because of file size)

The serve & volley philosophy. You gotta see the forest for the trees…
It’s always about court positioning (where you are on the court at any given moment) and occasionally about shot execution
How to come out of your serve motion on balance and ready to efficiently move forward into the court
How, where, & when to split stop (step) your feet for your transitional shot and why “spacing” to that transitional shot just may be the most important aspect of serve and volley tennis
How & where to play that transitional shot whether it’s a volley, 1/2 volley, or approach shot
How & where to play your following shot once you get up inside the service line
Experience: The philosophy that becoming a good solid serve and volley player in both singles and doubles is totally dependent on you simply putting in your learning time

Lesson BONUS - Grab your DVD copy now of my Serve & Volley Singles Strategies lesson for $37 (shipping to anywhere in the world included), and I’ll also include my DVD lesson for your 1/2 Volley mechanics (a $37 value) , another full blown detailed lesson on perfecting your 1/2 volley so that you’ll never pop up another 1/2 volley to your opponents and how you can turn your 1/2 volleys into true approach shot opportunities.

This BONUS lesson offer expires and goes away Tuesday night Dec 15, 2009 at midnight

Pacific time zone.

Once you learn and practice your new 1/2 volley, your opponents will realize that low returns of serve to your feet just don’t bother you. That starts the cycle of them going for bigger and bigger returns of serve which equates to lots of unforced errors and free points for you. Now that’s what I’m talking about…

You’ll also receive the links to each lesson’s download page so you can download some or all of the videos if you want to get started right away.

Claim your Serve & Volley and Bonus 1/2 Volley DVD lessons by clicking this link!

12/16/09 – This Offer Has Expired

GUARANTEE – As with all of my lessons, no worries, if I can’t help you become a better tennis player, then I don’t want to keep your money. Any lesson purchase you make comes with a 100% lifetime tennis player satisfaction guarantee.

Remember, the FREE BONUS 1/2 Volley DVD lesson expires this Tuesday night Dec 15, 2009 precisely at midnight Pacific time zone.

Hoping to have a chance to help you start to become a serve & volley monster out there! Grab your lessons here.

12/16/09 – This Offer Has Expired

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Filed Under: Tennis Footwork, Tennis Lesson - Specials, Tennis Mental - Competing, Tennis Strategy - Serve, Tennis Tip - Backhand Volley, Tennis Tip - Half Volley, Tennis Tip - Serve - Volley, Tennis Tip - Singles Strategy, Tennis Tip - Spacing, Tennis Tip - Split Step

2nd Serve Return of Serve Technique Follow Up

August 25, 2009 By Brent 13 Comments

I want to give you some email feedback and my responses from our recent post http://webtennis.com/archives/232 on the return of serve in doubles, especially the 2nd serve return of serve…

Hi Brent. Thanks for the tip. It is good but I note that you are using an underspin return of serve rather than a topspin backhand.

This underspin back hand return is a weak return and makes you vulnerable for a stronger shot from your opponent.

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Not if I get my return down to the incoming server’s feet.

If the server has to consistently hit up towards me and my partner, then they have a big time problem.

There is no question that a nice hard dipping topspin return of serve certainly can be a weapon, but the reality is that it’s tough to be consistent with it unless the server has a really weak serve.

Also, executing a topspin drive can inhibit your natural ability to move forward through your shot and gain good court position after your return (as I mentioned above, I always want to force my serving opponent to have to volley up to both of us, not just my net partner).

If you stay back on your return of serve because your stroke mechanics don’t allow you to naturally move forward, and if the server volleys well enough to consistently receive your return of serve with a simple in-play volley back to you, the serving team now has better court position, and trying to win points when you’re back on the baseline and your opponents are both up at net is really rough…

I play doubles every Monday against a player who’s serve is not strong and could appear to be an opportunity to go for a big topspin return of serve drive, but he’s adapted really well by getting quickly up to net and simply handling the return with a volley that he consistently lays down at the feet of the returner.

He’s not bothered by the big topspin return knowing that he’ll have the better court position if he can simply play his volley back to the returner.

It’s best to be really versatile with your returns where you could drive cross court (and occasionally at the net player), slice, and lob.

To me, the 2nd serve return of serve should always be an approach shot opportunity even if you decide to play a lob over the server’s partner. Your opportunity here is to get better court position before the serving team can.

Even if you have a big time topspin return drive, if you become too predictable, better doubles players won’t be bothered by it.

Keep working on your different grips and always remember that spacing to the ball is #1.

Brent

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Hi Brent. Thanks for the tip. It is good but I note that you are using an underspin return of serve rather than a topspin backhand.

This underspin back hand return is a weak return and makes you vulnerable for a stronger shot from your opponent.

My response:

Not if I get my return down to the incoming server’s feet.tip-dubs-ros-2nd-serve

Create space with your feet to the path of the incoming serve so you can always move forward through your return to establish superior court position.

If the server has to consistently hit up towards me and my partner, then they have a big time problem.

He’s not bothered by the big topspin return knowing that he’ll have the better court position if he can simply play his volley back to the returner.

It’s best to be really versatile with your returns where you could drive cross court (and occasionally at the net player), slice, and lob.

Even if you have a big time topspin return drive, if you become too predictable, better doubles players won’t be bothered by it.

Keep working on your different grips and always remember that spacing to the ball is #1.

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Related Detailed Lessons by Brent…

Return of Serve Fundamentals (comes with a BONUS lesson on 1/2 Volley Fundamentals)

Slice Forehand and Backhand

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Filed Under: Tennis Footwork, Tennis Grips - Continental, Tennis Tip - Approach Shots, Tennis Tip - Return of Serve, Tennis Tip - Spacing, Tennis Tip - Split Step

Spatial Relationships in Tennis – “Shank You”…

August 17, 2009 By Brent 7 Comments

I had a great time down in Ojai this past weekend attending my niece Morgan’s wedding.

Family, lots of new friends, perfect weather, and the entire production could not have been more perfect.

Uncle B and the beautiful new bride Morgan

Probably wasn’t a dry eye during the ceremony.

She got her guy, and he got her gal, and how cool it is to see two young people so crazy for each other…

Thank goodness that some traditions remain classic and that lots of weddings haven’t gone the way of a full blown western so-called modern forehand. Please…

On Saturday morning before the wedding, I played some doubles with the groom Bill, one of my nephew’s Tim, and Bill’s business partner Devin.

These guys are all classic young early 30s tennis players who can play at about an NTRP 4.0 level who have grown up watching semi to full western forehands on TV and are trying hard to hit forehands with pretty big swing shapes.

“Shank you very much” was sort of the common theme with these young guns meaning that they were constantly giving away free points by simply miss-hitting easy balls.

And after we were done playing, Devin asked me what one thing should he be thinking about with his strokes.

And if you’ve been with me at WebTennis for any amount of time, you know what my answer to him was likely going to be.

“Spatial relationships…”

And I love the look I get when I first say that term to someone who’d not familiar with my teaching style.

And this is a smart kid who I’m sure is a business genius in his field, but that look of “huh, uh…” just took over his face.

So of course mister nice guy here can’t let him wallow too long, so I rescue him with the meaning of spatial relationships in tennis.

Click the photo to learn more about the PracticeHit Stroke Developer

You’ve got to specifically align your body to the path of the incoming ball so you can make whatever stroke you have as repeatable as possible.

What’s the ideal distance away from the ball do you want to be aligned to the path of the incoming ball when you swing your racket?

The less focus and attention to spatial relationships with the path of the incoming ball, the more you have to improvise your swing.

And trying to improvise an amateur semi to full western forehand is worth the price of admission.

The term “shank you very much” was coined with these guys in mind.

Real smart business guys with Ivy League degrees can look just a tad uneducated, if you know what I mean.

And the same applies to all of us whether we have classic continental grip style games to even today’s baseline stuff, without a consistency for your spatial relationship with the incoming ball, you’re going to be a mishit wonder.

I was recently interviewed about winning the national 60s Hardcourts this past April, and I kept coming back to the same answer for what helped me play well enough to win that title.

I kept not missing the perceived easy shots because I was focused on spacing first and allowing my instincts to dictate where I was going to hit this next shot.

We spend way too much time trying to perfect swing shapes, etc., and not nearly enough time grinding through the boring stuff of using our feet to insure we have the exact distance away from that path of the incoming ball so our swing can be greatly simplified.

Just imagine how many possibly poor spacing possibilities there are for say a standard forehand groundstroke.

I mean there must be thousands and thousands of ways we can misalign ourselves to the ball.

Could we ever practice enough to be able to deal with each and every one of those spacing situations?

No way…

If a very specific spatial relationship is not the #1 practice focus on each and every one of your strokes, then you’re going to be limiting your ability to improve and to truly enjoy this game.

Improvisation is what creates the “shank you very much” comment.

Here’s an email I got this last week from one of your fellow WebTennis subscribers.

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“Brent,

Your videos on spacing have proven to be an enormous asset to me.

I have always suffered from focusing too much on stroke mechanics, especially in tournaments, blaming this or that for not playing well.

Getting the stroke mechanics out of my head during play hasn’t been easy.

I can see I need more practice at it.

Thanks for giving me my game back!”

Tom L, Seattle WA

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And there you have it folks, thanks Tom, that’s all that needs to be said.

So, your focus this week is to get out there on the court, and if you only have time for a practice match, at least spend the time during the warm-up thinking about the distance you need away from that path of the incoming ball.

Create that ideal distance with your feet and not having to improvise with reaching your arms.

For now, trust your instincts to tell you where and what kind of shot to hit.

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