Tennis Overhead Tips
Mental tips to improve your smash

There is one main difference between the overhead and other tennis strokes – the ball is traveling in a direction that is almost perpendicular to the racquet path. The same happens with the serve, but there the speed of the ball is very low.

Why is this so important? When you play a groundstroke, volleys or half volleys, the ball travels towards your racquet – in almost the same plane. So even if you are a split second too early at the ball or a split second too late, you can still make a good contact.

With tennis overhead it's different – if you are too early, you swing below the ball and if you are too late, the ball is below your racquet face. In my own calculations (this would be something for Mr. Howard Brody to have fun with) it shows that the ball which was falling from the height of 8 meters travels along the hitting plane of the racquet – 20 centimeters – only for about 0.05 seconds.

If you mistime your shot for 0.06 seconds, you probably hit the ball with the frame.

This is actually quite a revelation – at least for me it was. It means that when you miss your overhead »really badly« and everyone laughs at you, you know that you were so incredibly incapable of timing the ball in 0.05 seconds. :)

Very funny, isn't it? The tennis overhead may be a little more simple for someone like me, who has played volleyball for 16 years. I had probably hit around 100 or more overheads almost every day – (with my arm) – but it sure helped me with judging the ball and getting used to watching the ball straight up.

On the other hand, for an »ordinary« tennis player an overhead is something quite challenging. He is used to balls flaying at him in the horizontal plane. Although the serve is in the vertical plane the ball has very low speed when it's falling down, making it easy to middle the stroke.

Now that you understand the difficulty of the overhead smash I hope you'll approach it next time with more respect and focus.

As with any shot or situations there are many very useful tips to help you achieve booming overheads that make holes in the back fence.

When we see a ball flying to the overhead and it's not too difficult, we usually get ahead of the present moment and fall into the trap of emotionally whacking the ball. This is our chance to really stomp our opponent down. Hitting the ball feels almost as hitting him/her down in the ground.

Don't do that. Really, grow up. This is not about destroying your opponents, it's about exploring your limits and being the best player you can be. Approach the overhead with the mentality of a cold supercomputer who just wants to win the point.

Stay away from emotional overhead smashes. Ok, only one per match, maybe…

Tennis overhead tip #2

Beside the difficulty of hitting an overhead you also need to know where you'll hit it. You need to decide whether you want to hit left or right. You also need to know your target – are you aiming for the line (I hope not) or 6 feet from both side and baseline.

If you don't decide quickly and know your target, you'll probably play your overhead straight at your opponent and give him another chance. What usually happens is that you'll get an even tougher lob to deal with.

So – decide quickly – it usually doesn't matter where, because your opponent is guessing where you’ll play anyway. So don't try to guess what he'll guess.  It's too complicated.

Tennis overhead tip #3

I can't let this section pass by without the favourite phrase in tennis: watch the ball. Hopefully you've read the article on that topic and know by know that if you are not watching the ball, it means that your mind has raced into the future and left your body in the present. Your body is not such a super computer to calculate all the hundreds of a second without the mind’s cooperation. So it makes mistakes.

Stay in the present – stay with your mind in the moment of impact until the ball disappears. Then move on. Actually, if you do this well, you won't have to move on because you'll win the point with an outright winner. Try and catch Roger Federer in the moment of hitting and overhead. You'll see what I mean.

Tennis overhead tip #4

If your opponent happens to guess where you'll hit and replies with a weak shot, you'll be very disappointed if you stay somewhere in the no man's land. You'll probably have to play a half volley and miss your chance.

So move in and close the net as soon as you hit our overhead (stay there in the shot with your mind first – I repeat!) just in case your opponent plays a weak return. And if he plays a good shot, it's even more important to close the net so that you'll have a better angle.

Tennis overhead tip #5

I see this mistake so often and yet so many players don't think about it. When you're facing a tough lob and you are moving backwards while you're hitting an overhead, most of your smashes end up in the net. Do you agree? Have you noticed this pattern before?

It's a situation where our brain usually makes a mistake in judging our movement and distances. You play your ordinary shot but at the same time you are moving backwards. This causes you to hit the ball a little more in front (since you moved back) than usual. And when you hit the ball more in front your racquet face is a little more closed. You hit into the net.

What you need to do is to install a correction software in your brain. Whenever you face a lob and you're moving backwards – aim over the service boxes. Depending on your skill level: if you are a good player, aim into the last 3 feet of the court; if not (yet), then go and aim just over the service line. I guarantee that your shot will end up shorter.

Experiment with this tennis overhead tip and see what happens and where your shots land and then store this program in your memory. This way when this situation happens, you'll know what to do.

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