Tactical Mid-Court Volley Drill

In order to help your players groove one or two high-percentage responses to any volley they have to play from the mid court, set up a drill which requires them to hit to target areas pre-determined by the type of ball they receive, AFTER discussing with them which one or two responses are their highest percentage choices based on their volley skills (see this month's mid-court volley article).

Step #1 -- Lay out seven hula hoops (realistic target areas) on the court as shown in Diagram A.

Step #2 -- Players line up two steps behind the service line, in the middle of the court, on the side of court opposite the hula hoops. Feeder stands on the baseline, directly opposite players on the other side of the court.

Step #3 -- Feeder feeds ball to player. Player begins to move forward to play ball as soon as it is fed. To make drill more realistic, feeder may bounce feed, with player moving at the drop and split-stepping before contact.

Step #4 -- Based on the type of ball the player receives (low backhand, high forehand, etc.), players uses pre-determined target area for that type of ball to make first volley.

NOTE: Players will need to LEARN to make the appropriate shots before PRACTICING them. At first, the same type of volley (low backhand) should be practiced for several minutes so that players can test their ability to make the shot they need consistently, experiment with adjustments, etc. Players should spend enough time learning how to deal with each of the four balls (described in this month's mid-court volley article) they will receive before moving on to random practice (different balls each time). The player knowing where the next ball is coming from is fine for now, since the player is working on technique at this stage. Random feeds will then test the player's ability to use the skill in a match-play situation.

After the four-step progression described above is used four times (for each of the four balls), players receive random feeds (the fifth step).
Variations

This drills REQUIRES a number of variations, as players will need to practice the mid-court volley resulting from a serve and volley, return of serve and baseline attack. Because the mid-court volley is a transitional shot, players will also need to progress to the net and play a finishing volley.

Variation #1 -- After players have gone through the five rotations described above (four same-ball and one random-ball progression), players repeat the drill. This time, the feeder feeds a second ball to the player (who has earned his or her way to the net with the transitional volley). After making the first (mid-court) volley, the player will continue to the net to play a finishing volley. Again, because players will receive one of the four balls described earlier, they must have pre-determined which one or two shots are their best choices for each.

For example, high volleys at the net can be played into hula hoops #6 and #7, for example. Lower volleys might be played to hula hoops #4 and #5. The combination for a right-handed player receiving a high backhand might be #5 and #7. Balls received into the body by a right-handed player might require a volley back to hula hoop #2 or #3.

Go through each of the four types of ball for several minutes in isolation before moving to random feeds.

Variation #2 -- Have players do the drill while serving and volleying. If the feeder does not have the skill to return serves consistently, have the feeder feed the volley from the service return area after the server has served and his or her ball lands and bounces to the baseline.

Variation #3 -- Players attack the net off a second serve. If the feeder does not have the skill to consistently play the return of serve, he or she can feed the second ball after the return has made it to the baseline (just like in a match).

Variation #4 -- Players attack off a short ball. If players are able to make it to the net after the approach, feeds should be low and into the body to increase difficulty and to allow attacking players to gauge which target area is their highest-percentage choice.