marat safin volley

Original page and frames done by: tennisforall.org

The Absorbavolley: Animation of Marat Safin's forehand volley
					Touchy/Feely: Although touchy-feely shots are more natural to some than others, they can certainly be acquired (learnt) with much practice. With a forward hand, watch how Marat absorbs the pace of the ball by a timely withdrawal of the racket strings. Ever played badminton? Then you've probably caught the shuttle on the racket strings when your opponent passes it to you. This catching of the shuttlecock is similar to what Marat is doing here, only he allows enough bounce off the strings to get it up-and-over the net...just. Up/Drop: As well as withdrawing the racket head from the ball, Marat opens the face of it for height. Flat, shallow shots travel further (in distance) than ones that drop straight down from a height, and Safin doesn't want the ball traveling towards his opponent. It is for this reason he gives the ball some height. The down side (of up to drop) is that the higher the ball rises, the higher it will bounce on the other side of the net. Notice how Marat's absorbavolley rises just enough, before plopping over the net. It will take a speedy sprint for a baseliner to get to this ball.

		words and photos © evvy

Frame By Frame

Frame 1: When you are moving forward, the top of you (your head and shoulders) usually leads the way, which is what has happened here. By the way, I'm sorry it's only the back of Marat's Safin's head, girls. I'll see if I can do better next time. Frame 2: Marat has shift-pushed towards the ball with the right foot. But note how he moves over-and-in to the ball, rather than the more sideways route he might take for a groundstroke. 'Catch me I'm falling' again?

Frame 3: Difficult to tell here what Marat is up to, although there have been subtle hints for the astute. Run through the sequence and see how Marat's racket hand stays out in front of his shoulder/body throughout the entire shot. Frame 4: Having put the racket head behind the travel line of the ball, Marat absorbs the pace of the ball with the strings. By subtly withdrawing the racket head from the ball, he relieves it of it's pace. We'll get a better idea of this in the animation.

Frame 5: From frames 3,4 and 5 we see Marat has pulled the racket face away from the ball, not the hand. You could say he feels with the hand and absorbs with the racket strings. For the grip record, where's Marat's thumb? Frame 6: Take a look at the past three frames and see how little movement there has been. Obviously the legs are transporting the body, as he isn't hitting static, but apart from this the racket head is the noticeable moving part.

Frame 7: Look at the length of the skid and you'll see how far he travels. Apart from the first directional shift-push, off the right leg, the legs are bent throughout the shot: the racket absorbs the speed of the ball, the legs absorb everything else. Frame 8: What else has Marat done to the ball? He's 'opened' the racket face to give it some height. Why? He's dropping the ball, which does suggest he needs somewhere to drop it from. Anyhow, we'll see the need for a little height shortly.