Problem: Often hitting volleys into the net.
Repairs:
- If you're pivoting your swing at the elbow or wrist (see above), and you're the tiniest bit early, your racquet will be facing downward. Punch from the shoulder, with your racquet moving straight through the ball.
- If you're moving forward to meet the ball, as you often should be, make sure you don't stop just as you're hitting. When you stop running forward, it's your feet that stop first, and the rest of your body tends to pitch forward and downward. Either make sure you're completely stopped before you start your volley motion, or keep moving forward, slowly, as you make your hit. If you're closing in on a volley from fairly far back, as would often be the case in serve-and-volley, you'll usually use the latter option, continuing forward slowly as you hit.
- Make sure you're not reaching too far in front of yourself to make contact. The ideal point of contact for forehand volleys is even with your front shoulder, for backhands around a foot in front of your front shoulder.
- If you are hitting backspin volleys into the net, you either need to tilt your racquet face upward more or chop downward less.
- Make sure you're not reaching back to contact the ball. You'll hit the ball weakly, and to keep from popping it up softly, which is the most natural consequence of reaching back, you might overcompensate in trying to keep it down.
- If your opponent has hit a heavy backspin at you, the ball will jump down off you strings more than a flat ball would, and you need to compensate by aiming a little higher.
- It often feels like you can hit down on a volley when you really can't. Unless you're very close to the net and you get a pretty high ball, hitting down will produce an error. You almost always want to hit out, not down.
