Overhead grip

[kevhen]

What grips do you use on overheads? I am guessing the same as you serve with, so mostly continental. I serve with eastern and use the same for my overhead. If I can't easily put away the overhead, I will often add slice to it, so it will drop into the court and make for a difficult return as it surprisingly moves away from the returner and has lots of spin on it to which can cause their racquet to twist.

Just curious to know if anyone else hits with an Eastern grip overhead or if you ever slice overheads? I have a 4.5 level overhead, but am aided by my height and strong first serve in making that one of my strengths.

 

[TwistServe]

I either smack an overhead back using continental (flat) if it's over my head, or I'll just use a topspin forehand if my feet are too late.. or sometimes a swinging volley

 

[vin]

Uh oh, round 2!

It makes sense to hit overheads with the same grip as your serve because a lot of the motion is the same. However, aside from the continental being the text book grip for the reasons discussed in the other thread, I think there's also another reason why the continental is a good choice for the overhead. Because it is part of your net game, it would be advantagous to hit them with a grip that is at least close to, if not the same as your volley grip. Sure you may have time to change grips before you hit the overhead, but if it comes back and you have to hit a volley, you may have much less time.

What grip do you volley with? If you hit volleys with a different grip than your overhead, do you ever experience trouble making the change before or after?

 

[kevhen]

I volley with an eastern grip like my flat serve and overhead and have a decent 4.0 level forehand volley so I don't plan to change it.

I need to learn how to hit a backhand with the continental grip as I mostly hit swinging two handers unless I am desperate to make contact with the ball, then I use one and it's still in the same eastern grip. I will admit my one-hand backhand volley sucks but I need to practice it over and over using the proper continental grip and I haven't had time or a good partner for that this year.

I would agree that the volley grip should be the same as the overhead grip, that makes sense to me, less switching grips when you have less time to do so, although you do have some time to switch if you wanted to before hitting the overhead.

I would trade my volley skills with my young doubles partner's who does everything by the (tennis) book (he's an accountant). He's a continental volley/serve/overhead and SW-forehand, 2 hand backhand kind of guy who has self-taught himself as well. He has gone from 3.0 to almost 4.0 in about 2 years. He has focused on proper technique while I have been more focused on court strategy. He now realizes how all the drilling both of us did together (hitting passing shots, working on crosscourt placement, etc.) last year really helped our games. Unfortunately we have both moved over an hour away from each other because of our jobs. But I did beat him in 4 sets last weekend in a grand slam match!