Dennis Van der Meer had a neat hack for fixing a half volley that has a downward
angle of attack and underspin. The Master would feed balls to the player and have them
touch the racquet edge to the court prior to contact. He’d show the player and encourage
them to create a bump with bit of a forward and rising action to erase the cutting down
motion. Having watched many great 1/2 volleyers, I don’t recall two of the best
(McEnroe and Federer) ever cutting downward on this important shot.
An effective drill to change the old habit into new is for the coach to send a ball with
topspin hitting it forward from a bounce so it just clears the net. Nearly every player
given this feed tends to raise the racquet as that’s the message the brain naturally
sends. Have em tap the court and then imitate Fed and the myelin in the brain can
begin forming and start sending better signals.
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