Topic: Thoughts on the "Volley Doctor"

[10usnut]

Howdy All,

Well, it's Christmas time again and I'm trying to decide on whether the "Volley Doctor" device would be a good item to put on my wishlist.  At first, I was hoping this would be the silver bullet for my volley woes but upon further review wonder if this device would help at all.  It claims it helps the user learn not to drop the racquet head but looking at the picture below seems to be too flimsy.  So, I thought I'd ask you folks out there who may have one or know of a friend with one.  Here is a link to the item:
http://www.mansionselect.com/volleydoctor-tennistrainingaid.html

Overall, I wonder if there's something better out there (other than taking lessons

Have a great day and Merry Christmas to All!

chris

[Tennis4you]

Interesting, I have never really seen that before.  Unfortunetly for the "Volley Doctor" there is more to volleys than just a firm wrist.  Although I can see it helping certain aspects...  To save 20 bucks couldn;t you just tie a string around your wrist and the handle of the racquet.  Probably not as effective though.  

In the end, I doubt it will hurt your volleys, you probably have nothing to lose.  The best bet is to just hit an insane amount of volleys in practice and work them into your matches.  Get some dubs in too, that will really help!  it has made my volleys better.

I played singles last night and crushed some guy, I dominated the net.  About 1/2 way through the beating he asked me if I ever considered playing dubs.    I always play dubs.

I do not know of anything better than what you said, time on the court.  And you will have to be on the court to use the volley doctor anyways.  I assume you could only use it in practice.  I wouldn't want that thing strapped to my wrist when hitting other shots.  So in the end you will be on the practice court with or without it.

Do you feel like you let the racquet head drop too much?

Anyone else seen anything that may help 10nut's volleys?

[10usnut]

Yep, dubs is the way to go to improving your volleys as well as other important parts of your game such as overheads and return of serve.  When the volleys go awry, it seems that I run into problems with me having too much action in my arm and wrist area causing the racquet face to be too open when making contact with the ball (a majority of the time with the wrist bent backwards instead of being firm).  I try to imagine my arm and wrist in a cast when making the volleys but still find a way to flex that wrist backwards in order to get under the ball.  Interestingly enough, it seems that I don't notice the problem when volleying against a wall.  Over the winter, I plan on videotaping a practice session to review stroke mechanics and compare what I think I'm doing with the actual thing.

chris

[Tennis4you]

Video taping is one of the best things you can do to see what you are really doing.  I would probably be scared if I saw myself.  

On those volleys, try keeping that racquet out in front of you a little more and see if that doesn''t help that less than firm wrist some.

[Jeffro]

One thing I like to do, but don't do enough of, is practice putting volleys away, or at least not right back to my opponent.   When I'm hitting with someone and we just open 1 can of balls, we can't really practice put-away shots or we'd be chasing balls more than hitting (which is often the case with me anyway!).  I get in matches and too often, I hit volleys right back to my opponent, just like I do in practice.  Getting a basket of balls and a willing accomplice and hitting some put-away volleys always seems to help me.  Good luck!

By the way, how close are you to Goldsboro, NC?  We played a team from Goldsboro in the 4.0 nationals last year, nice guys.

[Tennis4you]

How the hell you remember who we played?  I can remember scores from all my matches leading up to Nationals but not who we played.  

[10usnut]

I'm about an hour or so drive away from Goldsboro (East of the Triangle).  In my state Greensboro is the mecca of tennis (even have public indoor courts!!!) with good players.