Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time. We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

This episode is easy so we’re looking at common football words and phrases. Things you use and need to know to play the game.

Summary

Learn more football vocabulary with Premier Skills English. Each lesson in our Premier Vocabulary section looks at one football word or phrase. This lesson looks at the word volley.

You can find more lessons on the side of this page.

Transcript

Rich: Hello my name’s Rich and welcome to Premier Skills English - Premier Vocabulary.

Jack: Hi there! I’m Jack. We’re here to help you with your football English. Premier Vocabulary is a mini-podcast for you to learn football English one word at a time.

Rich: Don’t forget you can always find the transcript for all our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website. We have three different levels for you: easy, medium and hard.

Jack: This episode is easy so we’re looking at common football words and phrases; things you use and need to know to play the game.

Rich: The word we are looking at in this episode is: volley.

Jack: We’re going to look at how the word volley is used in football and other sports where the word volley is used.

Rich: Volley can be a verb or a noun and in sports, it describes hitting the ball before it touches the ground.

Jack: There is even a sport named after the word: volleyball.

Rich: The main idea behind volleyball is that you have to get the ball back over the other side of the net before the ball touches the ground.

Jack: To make a volley in volleyball you usually use your hand or fist although I’ve learned you can actually use any part of your body. The most important thing is that the ball doesn’t touch the ground.

Rich: Volleying is also an important part of tennis. A volley is hitting the ball with the tennis racket before the ball hits the ground.

Jack: Some tennis players are called serve and volleyers. These are players who serve the ball and then to run to the net to volley the return from an opponent.

Rich: This is popular when playing tennis on grass. You get a lot of players serving and volleying at tournaments like Wimbledon which is played on grass.

Jack: In football, volleys are an important part of the game, too.

Rich: When we talk about volleys we usually think about shooting at goal.

Jack: He scored with a powerful volley. Volleys are often powerful shots but you need good technique to hit a volley well.

Rich: Yes, it’s very easy to hit a volley way, way over the crossbar.

Jack: So, we can hit a volley or score with a volley - these are nouns. We can also use the verb. She volleyed the ball into the net.

Rich: We can also use it in defence. She volleyed the ball clear. When you hear this phrase you imagine a defender hitting the ball as far away from danger as possible.

Jack: Going back to shooting we also have the phrase a half-volley. He hit the ball on the half-volley or he scored with a half-volley from the edge of the area.

Rich: A half-volley is when you hit the ball as or just after the ball bounces.

Jack: A half-volley is slightly easier to control than a volley.

Rich: There is the final whistle!

Jack: We’ll be back soon with more Premier Vocabulary from Premier Skills English.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football. 

Discuss

Have you ever scored a volley?

What's the best volley you've ever seen?