A Trick for a Better Volley
One very common mistake in learning the volley is certainly overdoing the push with the racket arm in an attempt to speed up the shot.
This type of execution, while it can sometimes be effective for experienced players, often turns out disastrous in terms of volley control for less skilled players.
Below, you can see the typical incorrect movement that implies excessive use of the wrist in the volley:
If you also perform this type of finish with the tip pointing towards the target and with a “break” in the angle formed between the racket and the forearm, it’s likely that you often find yourself struggling with poor control of the shot’s direction.
Do you want to better control your volley? A little trick I often suggest to my students to overcome this flaw is to “freeze” the impact, i.e., as soon as the ball makes contact with the strings, stop the racket’s advancement and especially maintain the string bed “facing” the target.
In this way, the wrist remains much more solid and you will get into the habit of controlling it even when you necessarily play more driven volleys with longer finishes.
All of this is naturally valid for both the forehand and backhand volleys because this type of adjustment trains your muscle memory to tighten when necessary, i.e., at the moment of impact when the weight of the opponent’s ball is on your strings, and gets you used to being less rigid in the (brief) hitting phase (that is from the minimal opening you make until the moment your racket hits the ball).
By doing so, you will immediately feel more stability in your volley and less loss of control in the execution of the shot.
A good system to “muscle memorize this movement” is to try it out in front of the backcourt tarp by stopping the impact in such a way as not to touch the fence with the racket at the end of the hitting movement.