Level Up Your Volley Game in Padel with These Stellar Moves!
Aggressive Volley
The aggressive volley is the next stage in developing the types of volleys that you need to add to your arsenal. This often occurs when your opponent hits a weak or soft shot. This allows you to get into position, pivot correctly with your body, and have a better backswing.
For a quicker volley, create excellent racket-head speed through the ball.
Typically, you will aim deep towards the corner and play your shot flat or with a slice. This should ideally be the kind of shot that allows you to win the point instantly or, at the very least, set up the next shot to complete the point.
Crosscourt Volleyball Down To The Fence
This is a particular kind of volley. You have to make your opponents move to the back of the court and receive a pretty simple volley reasonably close to the fence on your side of the court.
The temptation will typically be to play a drop-shot, but this must be hit extremely short and with heavy backspin. Otherwise, the ball will pop up for your opponents, enabling them to get back into the point.
This move has a low chance of success, and that’s not what we want, right?
The crosscourt volley down to the fence is a much less dangerous but still highly efficient option
As the name implies, you will grab the ball from a wide-angle and perform a pretty tight crosscourt volley. This offers you a lot more court to work with than a standard drop-shot.
The ball will bounce past the centerline on the first bounce and bounce again just short of the fence on the second bounce or drop down to strike the fence near the ground on the third bounce.
The good news is that you can play this shot flat or with a bit of a slice, making it a risk-free stroke to play!
The ball may strike the barrier and jump up a bit, enabling your opponent to get a racket to the ball. Even if this occurs, they will have little control over their shot and be out of position. You’ll have everything covered if your partner covers down the line and you go over to the centerline.
Out Of The Court Smash
The smash off of the court is a stroke that most padel players with tennis experience learn fast. While you may be picturing the kind of overhead power smash you see on the tennis court, this is not the case. On a padel court, the target is considerably smaller, requiring much more precision.
Think back to all those baskets of balls your coach had you hit as topspin second serves that would kick up higher after bouncing, whether you’re a current or past tennis player. This is the winning shot!
Now that you know it isn’t a crazy power-smash and you have greater control over your shot. Let’s take a closer look at where the ball should ideally be placed.
With topspin, try to get the ball to bounce a bit before the service line. If your opponents are not in the proper posture, the ball will bounce at their feet or climb beyond them, nearly out of reach.
Then you’ll need to choose a place on the rear glass to shoot towards. The ball should strike the connection between the first and second glass panels from the corner. The primary reason for this is that this join will continually be strengthened. The glass will have less flex, causing the ball to bounce up higher after hitting the glass.
The angle of reflection is another reason you should aim for the connection between the first and second glass panels. If the ball strikes the back glass high, but near the corner, the ball will likely strike the high portion of the side fence. Connecting the glass high up along the join will propel the ball far enough forward to clear the other high side fence portion.
Now that we’ve gone through the many types of volleys, you may play in padel. It’s essential to remember that these volleys are not mutually exclusive. Consider the volley in padel to be a spectrum, with the volleys described above as points along that spectrum.
