Making your volley warm-up count

Every session starts the same way. Groundstrokes, volleys, smashes, serves. The warm-up is routine and, for most club players, that is exactly the problem. Routine means mindless, and mindless practice is wasted court time. But that’s the wrong mindset.

Raising the bar on a simple exercise

The set-up here is as basic as it gets: one player on the baseline rallying groundstrokes, one at the net volleying. But the quality of the exercise depends entirely on what both players are trying to do.

The baseline player's job is not to feed comfortable balls. Their goal is to keep the ball on a low trajectory over the net, ensuring it arrives below the volleyer's shoulder height. That means controlled topspin or flat drives, not floated half-pace offerings. The closer this gets to a real rally, the more value both players extract.

What the volleyer is working on

The volleyer's target is equally specific: keep the ball low over the net and push the baseline player's contact point behind the baseline. That means directing volleys with depth and purpose, not just blocking the ball back.

The competitive element ties it together. Both players count consecutive balls where each player achieves their target simultaneously. The baseline player keeps the ball below shoulder height; the volleyer keeps the contact point behind the baseline. One minute to ninety seconds of this, tracking the count, and a routine warm-up becomes pressurised, purposeful practice.

Why it works

The exercise succeeds because it gives both players a specific technical focus while maintaining the tempo and unpredictability of a real rally. The volleyer practises trajectory control under genuine pressure. The baseline player practises keeping the ball low, which is the single most important skill when facing a net player. Neither player is simply hitting to the other. Both are trying to make it difficult.