WHY NO OVERHEAD THREADS?! Great serve, horrible inconsistant overhead...

[LeeD]

Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken....
This is a OVERHEAD thread, not a run back to the baseline and hit between you legs thread.....
When you turn your back to the opponent, you are conceding advantage, not being aggressive, and merely playing FETCH THE BALL, you DOG, for the opponents.
Once again....
When you see a overheadable ball go up.. and not to the backhand side...
Turn sideways, watch ball, oft hand pointing at ball, crabwalk sideways until you are ready to hit the overhead. Hit on a fly if shorter than service line. If deeper, depends on your confidence.
Get into trophy (if you are an athlete), look at ball, swing flat serve swing at 70% or slice serve swing at 70% to guide the ball DTL or CC.

[apor]

Originally Posted by tennis angel

Another good drill is to hit overheads using the technique in my last post against a wall or indoors on a racketball court. Begin by hitting the ball down as hard as possible to create a really high ball, then track it as if you are going to catch it and smash it - see how many of these you can do in a row. It is exhausting but very rewarding. When you can do it well add some distance from the wall and repeat. It is FUN and will increase your skill and confidence.

There is a better way, one that replicates the arc of the ball coming from an opponent.
You "serve" the ball with a downward trajectory at the ground about 3 feet in front of the wall. The ball will bounce up at the wall and then ricochet up over your head with some backspin. Meanwhile you're tracking the ball for your overhead.
If there is a net line painted on the wall you have an idea of where you're hitting your overhead. Beware- if you hit the overhead straight at the wall in front of you, it's going to be coming back pretty fast.
-apor

[papa]

Originally Posted by LeeD

Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken....
This is a OVERHEAD thread, not a run back to the baseline and hit between you legs thread.....
When you turn your back to the opponent, you are conceding advantage, not being aggressive, and merely playing FETCH THE BALL, you DOG, for the opponents.
Once again....
When you see a overheadable ball go up.. and not to the backhand side...
Turn sideways, watch ball, oft hand pointing at ball, crabwalk sideways until you are ready to hit the overhead. Hit on a fly if shorter than service line. If deeper, depends on your confidence.
Get into trophy (if you are an athlete), look at ball, swing flat serve swing at 70% or slice serve swing at 70% to guide the ball DTL or CC.

Yes, this is an overhead discussion but there are times when you just can't get to the ball and have to abort the shot by either taking a bounce overhead, ground stroke (if possible) or send up another deep overhead -- in that order. This happens frequently in doubles because we get drawn in and the best way to push us back out of position is with an overhead.