Tennis Ball Machine Volley and Approach Shot Drills

Raise the launch angle for net drills instead of flattening it, and add speed rather than taking it away. A machine sitting on the far baseline is about 60 feet from a player standing on the service line, and a flat, medium-paced feed over that distance is already dropping by the time it crosses the net. It lands at your feet or short of them. Every setting below exists to put the ball at a hittable height once it has traveled that far.

Machine Settings for Volley and Approach Drills

Net feeds need more speed and a higher launch angle than groundstroke feeds. Judge the setting by where the ball arrives, not by the number on the dial: feed three balls, watch where they reach you, and adjust one step at a time.

The service line is a reference line for these drills, not a match position. In a point you pass through it on the way in and stand two to three steps beyond it. Drills use it because it is a line you can see without measuring.

If you are new to the net, start 10 mph slower and add a second to every interval. The volley is a short motion that fails mostly for lack of time, so buy yourself the time before you buy the pace.

A 2-second interval is correct in the reflex drill and harmful almost everywhere else. A compact punch with almost no backswing is proper volley technique, so a fast feed cannot break down a swing you were never supposed to take.

Why a Flat Feed Never Reaches the Net

Because it is already falling by the time it crosses the net. Three things change on the way in, and all three work against the settings you use for groundstrokes.

The ball has to still be climbing at the net. To arrive at chest height 60 feet away, the feed must leave the machine on an upward path steep enough to survive the trip. Drop the launch angle to its minimum and the ball peaks early, clips the tape, or lands in the forecourt. This runs against the instinct, which is to flatten a volley feed because volleys are flat shots.

The same setting arrives higher the farther forward you stand. A feed that reaches your chest on the service line will reach your shoulder six feet closer in. That is exactly what a passing shot does as you close on it, which is why running a transition ladder on one fixed setting is realistic rather than lazy.

Reaction time drops by about a quarter. At 50 mph a ball takes roughly 1.1 seconds to travel from the far baseline to yours and about 0.85 seconds to reach the service line. Moving in does not make the ball faster. It removes part of the flight, which is the reason volley technique is short.

Check that your machine has the launch angle range to do this at all. The Acemate S10 covers 10 to 40 degrees, enough to put the ball anywhere from a half volley at your feet to a lob over your head. A machine with a lower maximum will still handle volleys; what it loses is the lob feed for overheads. A machine with a high minimum is the opposite problem, since it cannot put the ball at your feet for a half volley.

Approach Shot Ball Machine Drills

Three drills off one short-ball placement at 40 to 45 mph with an 8-second interval. The long gap is there so you can walk back behind the baseline between reps.

The strategy the drills are built on is short: come in only off a ball you can take inside the baseline, hit it down the line, and keep moving until the next ball is struck. Surface changes what that short ball gives you. Off clay it sits up and waits for you, while on a fast hard court it skids low and you have to take it earlier.

Short Ball Recognition

Alternate a deep feed with a short one and come forward only on the short ball. Start every rep from a mark behind the baseline. Twenty balls, ten of each. A rep fails if you move forward on a deep ball even when you hit it well, because an approach struck from behind the baseline gives your opponent the whole court and you the whole distance to cover.

Approach Down the Line

Take the short feed and hit it down the line every time. Down the line makes the pass travel over the higher part of the net and forces it from behind the baseline, and it leaves you covering one side rather than splitting the difference. Count only the balls that land past the service line on the line side.

Slice Approach

Same feed, hit with underspin and kept low. Open the strings toward the sky and cut under the ball rather than chopping down on it. A low ball forces the pass to travel upward, which buys you the time to get inside the service line before it arrives.

Clear this section at 15 of 20 approaches landing deep on the side you aimed at, with no forward movement on a deep feed.

Ball Machine Volley Drills

Five drills from the service line at 45 to 50 mph, with the launch angle set so the ball arrives at chest height. Contact is farther in front than on a groundstroke, the racket face is slightly open, and nothing goes back past your shoulder.

Two volleys are worth separating before you start, because they have different targets. The first volley, hit from around the service line off an approach, goes deep and you keep closing. The put-away, hit from inside the service line off a ball above net height, goes to the open court and you do not recover, because the point is over. Hitting a first volley like a put-away is how a good approach gets wasted: you are still too far back for the angle, so the ball either sits up or misses.

Punch Volley

Twenty balls alternating forehand and backhand at chest height, with the body moving into each one. Count only volleys landing past the service line on the far side, since this is the first-volley pattern and depth is the whole job.

Volley Side to Side

Same height, but the feed alternates wide forehand and wide backhand, which needs oscillation or two programmed placements. Step across with the outside foot instead of reaching, and recover toward the middle between balls. Ten each side.

Low Volley and Half Volley

Set the lowest angle that still clears the net so the ball lands at or just in front of your feet, and stand a step behind where it lands. Bend at the knees rather than the waist, keep the racket head above your wrist, and lift with underspin instead of driving. Once the racket head drops below the wrist the shot becomes a scoop and the ball floats.

Drive Volley

Drop to 35 to 40 mph and raise the angle so the ball arrives at shoulder height while still floating. This is the one shot at the net you swing at, and the swing is a compact topspin drive taken out of the air. Twenty balls, and any ball taken below shoulder height counts as a miss, because a drive volley off a low ball is a full swing at a ball you should be punching.

Reflex Volley

Move six feet inside the service line and shorten the interval to 2 or 3 seconds. Hands only, no footwork, racket in front throughout. Run it as blocks of 10 with a 20-second pause. For pure reflex work a wall returns the ball faster than a machine can feed it, which is the one drill here where a wall or a rebounder beats a machine.

Clear this section at 15 of 20 punch volleys landing past the service line, and a block of 10 reflex volleys with the racket never going behind your body.

Doubles Net Drills

Two drills from the doubles net position, which sits two to three steps inside the service line rather than on it. The doubles net position produces two shots over and over: the low first volley off a dipping return, and the poach.

Dipping Return Volley

Set a trajectory that just clears the net and has dropped below net height by the time it reaches you, which is what a good return looks like from the doubles net spot. Angle the machine toward the returner's corner rather than feeding straight down the middle, because in a match that ball arrives on the diagonal. Volley it deep and down the middle instead of trying to angle it, since a low ball has no angle available and reaching for one puts it in the net. Twenty balls.

Poach Movement

Feed to a fixed spot toward the middle. Start in the doubles net position, split on the launch, then move diagonally forward and across rather than sideways along the service line. Moving forward cuts the angle and gets you to the ball higher; moving sideways gets you there late and low. Aim at the feet of where the opposing net player would stand. Ten reps from each side of the court.

The poach is a footwork commitment before it is a volley. You move before you know whether the ball is coming your way, so the pattern has to be automatic, which is the only reason to rep it against a feed you already know the answer to.

Linking the Approach to the Volley

Short ball, approach, first volley, put-away, in that order and in one continuous rep. The drills above train the pieces; this section trains the sequence.

Transition Ladder

Start at the baseline. Hit the first feed, take two steps forward, hit the next, two more steps, and keep going until you are volleying inside the service line. One fixed setting for the whole ladder. The ball arriving higher as you advance is the point of the drill. If the fixed interval rushes you between steps, machines with recovery-based feeding hold the next ball until you have arrived.

Approach and First Volley

Program two placements: a short ball, then a volley-height ball two seconds later. Approach the first, close, and split step as the second ball leaves the machine rather than when you arrive, then volley it deep. This is what a net point actually consists of, and it needs a machine that runs programmable sequences rather than random oscillation.

Overhead Finish

Add a third ball at the top of the launch angle range so it drops behind you as a lob. Turn sideways, move back with crossover steps instead of backpedaling, and take it in the air. Check your ceiling first if you are indoors. The S10 can send a lob up to roughly 26 feet, and indoor clearance falls off from the net toward the back of the court, so feed three test balls before you set the angle anywhere near the top of the range.

Run the full sequence eight times, counting a rep only if every ball in the chain lands in. What no machine gives you here is the pass itself. Even machines that return your shots are returning them rather than trying to beat you, so the decision of where to move belongs to match play. Once these sequences hold, they slot into a weekly tennis training plan alongside it.

Running These Drills on a Basic Machine

Every drill above runs on a fixed feed if you move yourself instead of the ball.

For side to side volleys, keep the feed centered and start each rep with a touch of the singles sideline, alternating sides. For the approach and first volley, set the feed to volley height and start behind the baseline: your run forward replaces the short ball, and the feed you arrive on becomes the first volley. For the transition ladder, nothing changes at all, since it was always one setting.

What you cannot fake is the deep and short alternation in short ball recognition, because the whole drill is about telling them apart. Run that one at a club with a programmable machine, or replace it with a rule: come in only on feeds you can take above waist height.

FAQs

Why do my volleys float long?

Usually too much backswing and an open racket face. A volley is a block with the body moving forward, so once the racket goes behind your shoulder you have added swing speed you cannot control at that distance.

Should I use a continental grip for both volley wings?

Yes. One grip for both sides is what makes a reflex volley possible, since there is no time to change grips between a forehand and a backhand at the net. It also opens the face slightly, which produces the underspin a low volley needs.

How high should the machine sit for net drills?

At its normal height on the far baseline. Raising the machine flattens the arriving ball and shortens its range, which is the opposite of what a net feed needs. Change the launch angle instead and leave the stand alone.

Should volley drills come before or after groundstrokes?

After, in the same session, or on their own. Volleys need fresh hands rather than fresh legs, so they survive a tired session better than groundstrokes do, and running them first tends to leave your baseline timing untouched