Volley or let the ball bounce?

With time you’ll develop your own instinct for which balls to attack early and which ones to half volley, main thing it takes is a great deal of awareness which comes when you start being calm and noticing things like all 4 players positioning without having to consciously try. It should become automatic.

Can depend on: - your position - your partner's position - opponent's position - front or backhand - your play style - your partner's play style - your opponent's play styles And probably many more variables that you have to decide upon in the moment.

You mostly do that on balls that are played soft and with a lot of arc from the back, i.e. chiquitas. If they're good then they are very difficult to volley above the net and you run the risk of giving a player that's moving forward an easy put-away. The conservative option is to play it soft and short again so you can't be attacked from the transition zone. The counter to a good chiquita is another chiquita. Does that make sense?

If they’re at the net, let the ball bounce and as soon as it rebounds, hit a lob; if you don’t have a comfortable position to let it bounce, take it on the volley.

Whatever feels right, sometimes leaving the volley too late or not behind forward enough will make you hit the net or tee up your opponent

One use case is when you see your opponent very close to the net and know that they would immediately kill your ball because you would hit it down up into their volley. Then you let it bounce and use the time and space you gain to find a gap on their side to send the ball to in order to disarm their attack. Another case is you see them back and there is a gap right behind the net. Then a Chiquita will force them to rush to the net to either miss it or give you an easy ball down to up to kill it.

I’m not a high level player by any stretch but I’ve found two things to be true with volleys. Mistakes are more common Excess power is almost always in play. Letting the ball bounce unless it’s got epic amounts of spin on it almost always buys you more time to play a controlled shot into space that your opponent has left vacant.