Insider:

Volleying

Forget personality tests—you don’t need them. If you want to really know a man, all you have to do is ask how he plays tennis.

Maybe he’s a defensive reactive type who lets other people take the initiative; on the court, you’ll see him nailed to the baseline, scampering back and forth like a frenzied hamster, trying to patty-cake everything back over the net.

Or maybe he’s an introspective type, someone who sets high standards for himself and hardly notices that other people inhabit his world; in that case, he’ll be a technician on the court, focusing to the exclusion of all else on honing his serve or groundstrokes into the very image of perfection.

But then, maybe he’s a hyper-aggressive adrenaline freak, the kind who likes to drive hulking SUVs simply for the thrill of frightening the other drivers on the road. When he plays tennis, he doesn’t just want to win, he wants to dominate. And his strategy? There’s no question about it: He plays the serve and volley.

So you want to be that adrenaline freak, you say? I can’t help you with the car payments on the SUV, but I can put you on the right track to a killer Top Spin™ style of play. Follow these principles, and soon you’ll be such a court dominator, you’ll have to register your racquet as a deadly weapon.

On-court domination.

Need for Speed
The key to a successful volley can be boiled down to one word: speed. You want to get to the net—fast. You want to make your opponent react—quickly. You want to end the point—as soon as possible. Yes, my friend, it all comes down to speed, and that’s especially true if your player is slow. Does that sound like a contradiction in terms? Allow me to explain.

What sort of player tends to charge the net? Is it the jackrabbit-quick player? Not really; those guys tend to be as small as they are fast, so they tend to play from the backcourt—they just have too many problems with lobs. No, the guy who’s always at the net is the one who’s too slow to keep up with his opponent’s groundstrokes. The more shots there are in a rally, the more chances the opponent will have to hit something that our big burly friend can’t quite reach. His only chance is to come in and finish points as quickly as possible. So if your player in Top Spin is big, powerful, and so very, very slow that he makes molasses look speedy by comparison, you’ll have to come into the net if you want to play at a high level.

But here’s the catch: When you’re serving and volleying, the worst thing that can happen is to be too slow to the net. There’s a region on the court, just behind the back line of the service box, that is deservingly called “no-man’s land.” That’s the last place you want to be when you’re trying to hit a shot. You’re too far back to put a volley away, and you’re too far in to hit a strong groundstroke; instead, the best you can do is sort of half-volley the ball back across the net and hope that you’ll survive your opponent’s reply. Not good. Assuming your player isn’t the Flash, you’ll need strategy to prevent your opponent from smoking you on your way into the net.

Move quick to win!

Use the Serve
There are two main ways to use the serve. First, you can ensure that your opponent’s return is a pitiful thing that will allow you to maintain control of the point. Read this article for some tips on how to improve your service game. The second method is a little trickier: Try serving the ball slowly. I know. It sounds counter-intuitive, but in the right place, at the right time, it can work like a charm. Spinning in a big slow serve gives you time to get to the net; the risk is that your opponent will crush the return, but if you catch him by surprise, you stand a much better chance. You certainly shouldn’t do this often—you’ll get killed if you do—but this is a good way to mix things up and win a point or two with something other than muscle.

So now you’re at the net; what should you do? Remember the magic word: speed. You want to finish the point as quickly as possible; if you have to hit more than a couple of volleys in any one point, your opponent will have more chances to hit a passing shot or lob for a winner. So how do you hit a good volley? First, through practice: If you’re playing with your Career mode player, find the volley coach and pile up as many stars as you can afford; the better your rating, the more sharply-angled your volleys will be and the easier it will be to hit them for winners. Otherwise, it comes down to the buttons. The A button unleashes a basic flat volley. This is your bread and butter and should be used in most situations. Hit away from your opponent and at as sharp an angle as possible. The B button hits the volley with topspin, which can be useful when you want to try for an especially acute angle on the shot. Finally, the X button puts backspin on the volley, which allows you to hit the volley with more depth than usual (this could be useful if your opponent has drifted in toward the net).

Mix it up.

The Ol’ Chip and Charge
Simple, right? Hit a big serve, come in behind it, and then put away the volley. There’s another dimension of the net game, though. You’ll also have to find ways to come in when you weren’t able to hit your first serve, or when your opponent is serving. This scenario is called the “chip and charge,” and to play this style, you just leave your thumb sitting on the X button. First you wait—you’ll need a shot from your opponent that comes in short or that is aimed directly at you so you can get a good swing on the ball. Then hit your next shot with backspin (that’s where the X button comes in) and aim it to one of the two back corners of the court. As the ball slowly lofts its way across, run like hell toward the net; your next shot will be a volley, and you want to be as far forward as possible. Then, as usual, try to finish the point with one or two shots.

So now you know the principles. The way to take your game to the next level is to forget every one of them. Well, not exactly—nine times out of 10 these principles will serve you well. But a predictable Top Spin player is a player on his or her way to defeat, so every now and then you want to throw in something different. Charge the net behind a topspin groundstroke; come to the net after a second serve; do exactly the opposite of what you have been doing, so that your opponent won’t know what to expect next.

You know the rest: Crush. Kill. Destroy.

By B.B. Larouche