Kelly Jones: Building confidence in your volleys and transition game

Kelly Jones is our guest for the 31st episode of Baseline Intelligence. He won two NCAA doubles titles at Pepperdine University and went on to become world number 1 in doubles in 1992. He won 8 career ATP doubles titles, 2 ATP singles titles and has coached top pro players like James Blake, Mardy Fish, Sloane Stephens, Rajeev Ram, and his daughter Makenna, who also won an NCAA doubles title in 2021.

We talk:

2:16 The foundation of his coaching philosophy

8:09 Volleying cross court more often

12:59 Technical fundamentals of the volley

16:47 Split stepping

20:21 Teaching first volley movement

22:31 The volley grip

25:33 The basics of doubles

29:26 Applying strengths and weaknesses

31:38 How to anticipate at the net

33:09 Watching more doubles

33:45 His best doubles tip

35:41 The biggest doubles mistakes he sees

36:30 Doubles advice for the 4.0 player

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