the overhead is one of the least practice shots in tennis and logically a lot of players at the
recreational level but even at the junior level struggle with this shot and here's the reason why
players don't practice this shot because it's very difficult to get a nice lob fed
to you especially at the recreational level or at the junior level so players don't get to practice
the overhead unless they're taking a lesson from a coach so a great way to practice the overhead
is to practice overheads on the wall now a lot of you guys are going to be confused with the drill
that i'm about to show you because i'm going to hit the ball into the ground and you guys are
probably thinking nick aren't these overheads going into the net and they are not going into
the net at all because if you take a look at where i'm standing this is a similar distance
from the baseline to the wall that you will find on the court from the baseline to the
net so think about it are you hitting overheads from the baseline no you're hitting overheads
close to the net so if we imagine this is a court you would normally hit overheads somewhere around
here so now when you back up too close to the baseline on the wall if you happen to have a
marking for the baseline if not you can measure it and mark it yourself and now if you aim to
hit your overhead close to the wall that ball will definitely go over the net on the court
so there's absolutely no worries this drill works perfectly fine it transfers really well
onto the real court so let me show you how to do this overhead exercise on the wall now i'm going
to say that this is a very difficult drill to execute it does require a quite a high skill level
because you're going to have to be accurate with your overhead number one but also you're going to
have to move your feet a lot and track the ball really well so the degree of difficulty is high
but if you start doing it you will get better with it over time now to understand the concept
simply stand close to the wall and just bounce the ball into the ground onto the wall let the ball
ricochet off the wall back into your hand just get a feel of of how this is going to work and do
it very slowly at first just get a feel for this and now with time you can start slowly backing up
now when you start you're gonna start in a trophy position don't try to take any type of take backs
on the overhead this is absolutely unnecessary the overhead technique does not require head
so you're gonna put your racquet right here in the trophy position you're gonna toss the ball up like
you would on the serve now you're gonna hit the ball very gently into the ground and now you're
going to have to track this ball because you see that the ball is not bouncing very accurately
i'm going to have to watch the ball and move my feet at the same time now hitting very gently
and this is what you should do as well and now with time you're going to have
more success you're going to get more overheads in your confidence is going to grow and now you
can start taking bigger cuts at the overhead now remember the feet have to consistently be moving
that was actually the wall's fault like i said the wall doesn't always give you an even return
okay now i'm gonna try to put a little bit more juice on there
and do backhand overheads as well i lost my rhythm a little bit here okay i'm going to have a rip now
oh my god guys this is a very physically demanding exercise because what i find in tennis there's
nothing more exhausting than moving backwards and hitting overheads it's by far the most physically
demanding thing that you can do in tennis therefore practicing overheads on the wall will
not only develop your overhead but it will also give you a good workout let me do another round
backhand
this is good stuff real quick let's talk overhead fundamentals because
without them you're gonna have a hard time being successful at this drill so when that ball's
flying in the air i want that non-dominant hand if you're right-handed it's gonna be your left hand
almost as if you were trying to catch the ball that's an exercise in itself
you can do in the beginning put your left arm up and catch the ball this will give you a natural
tilt of the shoulders which will then result in a cartwheeling movement once you accelerate upwards
towards the overhead also as i said before the racket has to be in the trophy position it can't
be too far away from your head keep the racket tip fairly close to your head also make sure the
elbow is not too high and the left hand is going to be up naturally giving you this beautiful
tilting motion and i heard somebody once say it looks like a nike swoosh so
make the nike swoosh on your overhead now here's the crucial thing to have success on the overhead
you're going to have to wait a long time to initiate your overhead you know why
because there's really no backswing on the overhead you're starting from the trophy phase
and the movement going from here and to the contact is literally milliseconds
it's going to be an extremely fast movement you're going to accelerate really fast so that means in
the context of the incoming ball you can literally wait until the ball is very close to you it should
be almost as if it's going to fall right at your nose so you're going to wait as long as possible
to accelerate if you start taking a racket down into the rack and drop too early you're going to
reduce the range of motion you're going to be accelerating from a lower place and therefore
you're going to be losing a lot of power on your overhead now another thing that's super important
not only on the wall but also when you get on the real cord and start hitting overheads
is that you don't allow the ball to get behind you once that ball is behind you
now you have no chance because you're going to be making contact way back here unable to get any
type of power so this is where the feet come in you got to move your feet tremendously well on the
wall you got to track the ball really well you got to always keep that ball in front of you do not
allow it to get behind you now when it comes to the stroke mechanics it's going to be a rotation
into the contact just like you do on your flat and your slice serve and when it comes to the finish
remember anytime you're playing on the wall the finish is going to be slightly abbreviated
normally on the real court that finish is going to go towards your left pocket if you're right-handed
that might not necessarily be the case on the wall the finish will be abbreviated slightly because
that ball is going to come back to you a little bit faster than on a real court
all right so let's see if these mechanics that i just explained work
ah there it is
now do you guys see that last overhead i did over the net that one actually was probably going
out on the real court that was hit way too straight so again
don't worry about hitting into the ground that ends up being the perfect way to hit an overhead
so overheads on the wall will not only teach you a lot of the mechanics that you need for overheads
on a real court but it's also a fantastic workout and it works on your ball recognition
and footwork like no other drill so guys get out there and practice your overheads on the wall