so jen how you liking tennis so far i'm loving it we're having such a great time
have you played since our first lesson like have you played after that at all outside of
my lessons no i haven't but you want to right i do you told me that after our serve lesson because
i was like very complimentary on your serve saying that you have a lot of natural ability
i got to tell you one thing you got the best beginner toss that i've ever seen ever that
kind of inspired you to want to play a lot of tennis right it did yeah okay good now today i
want to teach you something that's called volley v-o-l-l-e-y volley you know like volleyball okay
see one of the one of the words that i can't say properly in english and when i do my youtube subtitles
when i say volley it spells it v-a so it turns out that i must be saying valley like valley
but i'm saying volley teach me volley volley volley
okay maybe the the subtitles will pick it up this time so you know in volleyball you have to take it
in the air yes the ball cannot bounce so the same thing in tennis there's going to be circumstances
when you find yourself closer to the net okay right when you play points
whether you come in on purpose or being being pulled in towards the net from here there's not going to
be any time to let the ball bounce and you'll have to take it in the air and this is called
the volley so the first thing we're going to do is actually you're going to give me the racket we're
going to try it with our hand first okay okay so very similar how we structured the forehand
backhand lesson in the serve lesson we're going to get you used to playing with your hand first
and we do progressions where it's going to feel like as if you're playing with your hand
so the first thing you have to understand about the volley it can be hit
quite open so there's no turning or anything like that so i want you to come a little closer
okay so in an open position like that so treat this line as the middle line go right
between that line and now put your elbow in front of your ribcage that is very important elbow in
front of the rib cage put your hand like this all right so from that position put your hand parallel
to the net like this and from this position all i want you to do is just just tap the ball with
your hand over the net like that okay i'm gonna feed it to you just tap it over good and make
sure that when you when you tap the ball you give it like a gentle push on it like this a gentle
push on the ball like that okay go again not too much just a gentle small push go again right at me
it's a little too much this even when you start staying on the ball too long you start changing
the direction of the ball you lose control so it's a small tiny gentle push there you go come again
go again good more time okay good excellent one more time very good excellent okay now
this next progression is you're going to take the racket into your left hand okay you're still going
to be open stand right there in the same position nothing changes you're going to put the racket
over here put your hand behind the strings and now same thing you're going to gently push the
ball towards me with your hand but now the ball is going to be impacting the strings make sure the
racket is angled right towards me angle the racket towards me there you go open the racket face up
just a slightly like this and now from there just with your hand gently push it towards me
okay you're changing the angle of the racket face at contact too much and the ball is starting to
spray so you're going like you're going like this all you got to do is just a gentle push
towards the target like this okay like that with your hand okay okay open the racket face a little
more so the ball comes up okay the racket face is too neutral you know what i mean by open it up
that's closed this is open open the racket face slightly and do it again
beautiful job come again too much play there come on gentle push with your hand towards me
okay good not too hard good one more time okay next progression we're gonna put the
fingers on the strings slide down with your hand three fingers on the string thumb and
pinky around the hand around the throat let's go to the left hand and i'll do the same thing here
okay open the racket face a little bit
clean contact watch the ball not too much just a gentle push like this gentle push like that come
again okay again good again now it's important that you hold the racket i know it's tough to hold
it like that but you hold the racket as firm and as tight as possible because on the volley
stability of the racket head right at contact is one of the most important things okay
so when you're holding the racket make sure it's firm you can squeeze it quite firmly okay good
and again excellent jen good again another one don't let the racket head droop in other
words don't allow this to droop down like this you want to keep this up like that come again
okay come another one not too hard come on gentle push clean contact come good more time
good now let's go to the next progression you already know you're going to grip the
hand around the actual handle go down with your hand okay there you go and now do the same thing
good and again okay watch the ball don't watch the racket watch the ball good
look at this you're already volleying good come on you're on fire right now
look at this you're making one after the other all right next progression stay there now you're
going to feel a little bit your forearm this will work the forearm muscle the hand muscles
we're gonna try to hit it back and forth okay same thing you're going back and forth
good hit it right at me yikes sorry about that good hey we're playing
that's so funny you brought that up we're actually playing
for the first time back and forth okay you've never had this before right no see that's what
i do with a lot of my beginner players i will rally with them volley the volley first because
that's the easiest way to rally so when you go back and forth in tennis that's called rallying
come on don't get scared though the ball gotta come at you you're ready for it good come again
another one come good good oh all right now reason why i'm standing like crooked from you
because i want to stress something that's like so super important on the volley and that is
something called wrist extension you notice how your wrist is like bent this way
that is super important on the volley because that little l shape here kind of looks like an l right
you want to maintain that at all times on your forehand volley do not allow this wrist to
straighten out so by me going further towards that side i'm making you extend even more so
you can get at this angle of the racquet right here okay okay let's do a few more good good
three in a row so you're never volleyed in your life you're already going back and forth this is crazy
good wow this is absolutely insane i've never seen this on a beginner look at these volley rallies
one more time okay that's good enough now the reason why we're not going to progress
lower on the handle is because you can quite comfortably continue to hit volleys with your
hand up here for a while it doesn't require the volley doesn't necessarily require you to go super
low like you are on the server the forehand the backhand there you don't want to hold it here but
on the volley you can continue holding it here for a little while okay because it's
a lot of better stability and you keep that connection between making contact with your hand
and having the hand closer to the string bed okay i'm going to need your racket real quick
and basically this progression we're going to hit the ball with your left hand okay so
just stay open like that put your left left hand in front elbow in front angle it off
like that and just come back to me this way good again come right at me good very nice
keep the elbow in front give it a jump gentle push great job okay now you're gonna hold the racket in
your right hand you're going to put the left hand behind the strings and now do the same thing
you just did but the only difference is that now the strings are going to be in front of you
you're going to gently push it towards me not so hard here we go good come again
good another one excellent come again good control the contact don't do too much just a gentle tiny
push on the ball good again good another one come again there's a little too much movement there
excellent now slide your left hand around the throat with three fingers on here
two fingers around the racquet head now when it comes to your backhand volley i want you to remain
with your right hand on the grip and now you're gonna push here with your left hand okay here we
go excellent come again so what do you think is easier the forehand volley or the backhand volley
interesting are you sure about that look how easy this is i want you to rethink that answer
look at this what do you think you still think it's easy easier this is easier see i knew it
see biomechanically that the backhand volley is a much simpler
shot you know why why because it doesn't require wrist extension you see how your
right wrist is neutral here to get this proper angle of the racket head you don't need to
do anything with that wrist it's in a neutral position that's why it's easier again good
excellent so in addition to the wrist not having to bend also remember on the forehand volley you
have to bend the elbow here and you have to get this angle of the arm on the backhand side
it's a very simple angle it's just a natural position of the arm towards the left side so
that's why i say the biomechanically the backhand volley is far easier than the forehand volley
excellent one more okay one more time so good jen backhand volleys are out of this world
all right now for the real backhand volley to take place the only adjustment that you need
is the following you do everything exactly what we did now the only difference is going
to be that shortly before contact you let go so you can stay here shortly before contact
you just let go and make contact with one hand okay do you understand what i'm saying
before you hit the ball you let go okay you end up making contact only with this side like that but
everything else stays the same here we go a little too early hold the left hand on the strings longer
excellent the best beginner backhand volley i've ever seen in my life
what do you think a talented student or a talented coach
tell me i think both right this is insane i'm not kidding i'm not hyping you up or anything
do you know the backhand volley is one of the most difficult shots in tennis yeah you see how
i developed your backhand volley in like three minutes it's absolutely technically sound it's
perfect there's no flaws on it take a look at this insane unbelievable i know i'm more excited than
you because you never played tennis i'm excited you don't understand the difficulty people have
with the backhand volley and you see the ease at which you are executing it is phenomenal nice work
thank you all right j now the next progression is we're going to try to rally the backhand volley
okay i think we can do this okay you're going to come back to me we're going to keep it in play
here we go good everything else stays the same come on okay it's a little wobbly now remember
one thing that volley needs is stability so when you hold here now go a little tighter a little
tighter stronger hold okay and the ball comes you hold here you hold hand right before the contact
you let go like this and give it a miniature little gentle push on the ball good good good
oh my goodness we got four in a row that was crazy one more time okay look to when let go too early
on that one you see and the racket face got opened up and you got a weird angle there okay come again
it's a little too open now so when the racket face opens too
much the ball is going to start popping up so this is enough okay good good wow
okay another great rally we got three in a row now you've never done this rally back and forth that's
actual tennis what do you think is fun yeah it is but do it again bad feed come again one more time
right no it's actually so a couple of things i'm gonna tell you if it goes if it goes there you're
getting this angle you're like this if it goes there up you got too much here okay okay so right
here is perfect because you're aiming right here straight you're aiming as straight as possible
not that much there it was only on the forehand we needed that we don't need it on the back and
we don't need to bend the wrist here and keep it neutral okay right here the rack
can be parallel to the net come again wow wow no look i missed i missed before you did
all right one more time last one come good good careful that was a bad feed good good good good
and again another four ball rally jen you are on fire very nice job okay we've got one more thing
to do and we're done okay we're going to alternate forehand and backhand i want to show you something
all right let me see i'm going to pick up the ball let me see go ahead intuitively oh let me see
wow oh there you go nice work you learned it good very nice jen good wanna try the other one
remember the one where you go like this watch the triple head
come come come wow nice i see you're getting better okay one more thing we have to learn
is come to the volley something called the ready position okay where you're going to be basically
you can hold the racket higher like we did and you're holding the same position and go right
there in the middle so you can continue holding the racket like you are there you don't have
to point it forward you can point it towards the side like this like you have there you go backhand
forehand like that we're going to alternate good forehand backhand forehand
backhand and last one jen forehand this is unbelievably good and let's try one more thing
this is the last thing we'll do today i'm going to try a forehand and backhand rally where you
don't know where it's coming it can go either way okay so now where this is where the ready position
will come in very handy because you'll be from a ready position you can react much faster okay
of course you can you can be down slightly like this with your upper body on your a little bit
towards your toes elbows in front are not that far over a racket more the hands need to be center
right here okay yeah like you don't want to like wait here hands are in the center of the body but
the tip of the racket is slightly to the left like this you see this okay good jen good good
good morning volley at the end there very nice i gotta say again the best beginner
volley lesson i've ever had and i mean it awesome that was fantastic great job
thank you did you think that was hard uh no i just have to remember the things that you told me yeah
like the position of my hands and the position of the racket oh we did a really good job
so now you learn forehand backhand you learn to serve and how you learn the volley next
time you come i'm going to teach you something called an overhead okay you know what that is
overhead yeah so yeah it's in the name so let's say you come to the net somebody gives you like
a regular ball like this it's lower you hit a volley but if what if they shoot it high
that's not a volley anymore that's called an overhead like this and this type of shot like
you can slam really hard and because you had such a good serve i think you can learn this one pretty
fast too okay yeah all right nice work again good job thank you awesome so guys again i'm gonna
give credit where credit is due and this drill just like most of the beginner drills that i've
been doing recently are my dad's drills he's an absolute coaching genius my dad passed away
last year rest in peace dad but he is an absolute genius and teacher beginner so
i've never seen anything like this before you see this is absolutely unbelievable in the way
jen learned the volley in only 20 minutes or so so again rest in peace dad and thank you