How to play a Straight Volley Lob
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The Straight Volley Lob is a beautiful and graceful shot.
The Straight Volley Lob is a very effective shot when you are deep in the back corner and the ball is high and threatening to drop into the corner and not come back out again. It is also a very useful shot for maintaining control of the T-Position and a great Serve Return if you’re facing a Lob Serve.
When played well, it should go very high on the front wall. The higher you hit it, the more it pushes the opponent back into the corner. It should also be hit very slowly so that the ball just drops into the back corner with very little pace on it so that it stays there.
It can be quite difficult to control at first as you will usually have to play it around or above head height and subsequently you may hit it out a few times initially.
Make sure you apply the general principles for playing a good Volley shot, such as hunting for the opportunity to Volley with your racket ready and then taking the ball as early as you can to take even more time away from your opponent, with those of the Lob shot.
Play a good Straight Volley Lob in three quick steps:
- Open Racket face – Make sure that your racket face is open when hitting this shot, as the spin this will apply is important for keeping the ball in the air longer. If you are struggling with keeping an open racket face, look into how you hold the racket here.
- Hit the ball whilst it’s high – When playing the Volley Lob, hit the ball whilst it’s still fairly high and you can use the height already on the ball and avoid having to lift the ball too much. This can reduce the number of errors when playing this shot, as if you allow it come down to low, you have apply a lot of lift which is not always easy to judge.
- Letting your hand go through the ball – Your follow through should be long and your hand should go beyond the point where the ball was when you hit it. Letting your hand go through the ball is crucial to ball control.
→ Check out our other related Volley pages:
Volley Boast | Volley Reverse Boast | Volley Drop | Cross-Court Volley Drop | Straight Volley Kill | Cross-Court Volley Kill | Volley Nick
→ Recommended posts for those looking at Volleying or Lobbing :
Controlling the T-Position, Changing the pace of the game, Watching the Return of Serve, The Importance of Lobbing