I was working with Janice recently on her volleys, and within the first few minutes of video analysis, I spotted something that I see in probably 80% of recreational players.
Her backhand volley was weak. Not terribly broken, but noticeably weaker than her forehand volley. And like most players dealing with this issue, she had developed a compensation strategy that was actually making the problem worse.
She was choking up on the grip.
Now, I get why players do this. When a shot feels weak or unstable, your instinct is to shorten the lever. Get your hand closer to the racket head. It feels like you have more control that way, and in the moment, it does help you make contact with the ball.
But here’s the problem: choking up is a crutch. It’s not solving the underlying issue of why the shot feels weak in the first place.
When I showed Janice the video of her backhand volley, the real problem became obvious immediately. She was hitting the ball almost entirely with her elbow pushing forward. Her arm was doing all the work while the rest of her body just kind of hung out and watched.
Think about that for a second. You’re trying to hit a tennis ball using just your forearm and elbow. That’s one of the smallest, weakest levers in your entire body. No wonder it felt unstable. No wonder she felt like she needed to choke up on the grip to have any sense of control.
The solution wasn’t to adjust her grip. The solution was to activate the right muscle groups.
Here’s what I want you to understand about the backhand volley: the power and stability should come from your shoulder blades and your back, not from your elbow pushing forward.
When you watch a professional player hit a backhand volley, pay attention to what’s happening on the back of their body. You’ll see their shirt wrinkle and squeeze together as their shoulder blades compress. That’s where the real work is happening. The arm is just along for the ride, extending through contact as those bigger muscle groups do the heavy lifting.
This is a completely different feeling than what most recreational players experience. Most of you are over reliant on that small lever of your forearm, and you’re leaving all the strength in your shoulders and back completely untapped.
So here’s what I had Janice do, and here’s what I want you to try if this sounds familiar.
First, we got rid of the choke up completely. Hand goes in the proper position on the grip, full leverage available. I told her we’re going to strengthen the backhand instead of compensating for weakness with grip adjustments.
Then we started with shadow swings. No ball, no pressure, just focusing on the movement pattern. Set up perpendicular to the net, about 90 degrees turned to the side. Start with a slight bend in your elbow. Now here’s the key part: as you separate your hands to hit the volley, focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together behind you.
As that squeeze happens, your elbow should naturally extend through the point of contact. You’re not pushing with your elbow anymore. You’re squeezing with your back, and your arm is just extending as a result of that larger movement.
This is where the strength comes from. This is where the stability comes from.
When Janice first started doing the shadow swings, I could see the lightbulb going off. She could feel the difference immediately between that small, isolated elbow push and this much larger, more powerful movement coming from her entire upper body.
But feeling it in a shadow swing and executing it with an actual ball coming at you are two very different things.
We started with simple tosses right up close to the net. No speed, no pressure, just trying to find that same feeling with actual contact. And honestly, within just a few repetitions, the difference was night and day.
I’m not exaggerating when I say her backhand volley looked completely transformed. One of them came so close to my head that I joked about almost getting decapitated. That’s how much more pop she suddenly had on the shot.
Here’s what’s interesting though: when you make a change this significant, everything else has to recalibrate. Your hand is in a different position on the grip now. The energy is coming from a different part of your body. That changes the relationship between your body and where the ball needs to be.
So at first, Janice was hitting some volleys long. She was bringing so much more energy to the shot that we needed to adjust the angle of her racket face to keep it in play. She also needed some time to dial in the quality of contact because everything felt different.
That’s completely normal and expected. You can’t make a fundamental change to your power source and expect perfect contact immediately. There’s a recalibration period, and you have to be patient with yourself through that.
But the foundation was now correct. The movement pattern was now correct. Everything else was just fine tuning.
By the end of our session, when I compared video from the day before to video from that same day, the contrast was stark. The day before, her backhand volley was all isolated arm movement with her left arm just kind of hanging there doing nothing. After our work together, her entire upper body was active. Her right arm was pulling and supporting, which is just an indicator of what was happening with her back and shoulder blades behind her.
It just looked like tennis. There are certain movements that look like tennis, you know? Where everything is working together the way it should. Her backhand volley finally looked like that.
Here’s what I want you to take away from this if you struggle with your backhand volley.
First, stop compensating with grip adjustments. If you’re choking up, that’s a sign you’re not using your body correctly. Fix the movement pattern, not your hand position.
Second, understand that your elbow pushing forward is not an adequate power source for this shot. You need to recruit your shoulder blades and your back. Those are the muscle groups that should be doing the work.
Third, practice the feeling without a ball first. Do shadow swings where you can really focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together as your arm extends. Feel what it’s like to have your entire upper body involved in the shot instead of just your forearm.
And finally, be patient through the recalibration period. When you change where the power is coming from, everything else has to adjust.
The angle of your racket, the quality of your contact, your positioning relative to the ball. Give yourself time to figure all of that out.
The reward is a backhand volley that finally feels strong and confident. A shot that looks like tennis instead of a weak, tentative poke at the ball.
Your volleys don’t have to be your weakness. Sometimes you just need to understand where the real power source should be coming from.
Your Coach,
-Ian
