Volley pointers

I hit some volleys with Terry, the dad of my daughter's schoolmate, on Saturday. Terry gave me a couple of excellent pointers. First, he noticed that I tend to keep the racquet on the backhand site. Because of that, I'm frequently late on the forehand volley. I also frequently forget to fully recover to the middle right after hitting a volley. He asked me make sure I recover fully to the ready position with the racquet squarely in the middle.

Terry also told me to immediately turn the racquet when I'm reacting to the volley, and then let the body follow. I found this immensely helpful. Psychologically, I feel like I can move the racquet very quickly; once I move it to the forehand or the backhand side, my focus is on that side, and the body follows naturally. I need to remind myself that my racquet is 12 points head-light, so there is no reason I should be sluggish with it.

He also recommended that I aggressively use the left hand to help me turn the racquet towards the path of the ball.

The morning after, as I drilled with the ball machine, I tried to remember these hints. Before, I sent at least 25 balls out of 150 into the net; that day, the number was down to 15. I'm encouraged by this metric, even thought I know that many of the balls that made it over the net were pathetic floaters, or sailed long. So, I should remember:

- Recover the racquet immediately to the neutral position;
- Think of moving the racquet first--the body will follow;
- Actively help turn the racquet with the left hand.