How Can I Gain Confidence In My Overhead?

When your opponent throws up a lob, have you ever had that sinking feeling in your gut, and you’re thinking, “I hate these shots, why doesn’t he play like a man and hit the ball.”  Well, the truth of the matter is; a lob is a very good shot to use in certain situations, even the mighty Fed will use it.  So, if you cannot overcome your lack of confidence, you’re going to continue to dread seeing the lob, it’s not a shot that’s going away.  First thing, you must realize is how much time do you spend working on your Overhead Smash.  If you’re like most tennis players, probably very little.  In fact, the Overhead Smash is the least practiced shot in the history of tennis. So, the first thing you need to do is make a commitment to practicing the shot on a regular basis.  You can do it with a practice partner, ask them to hit you some lobs for 10 minutes, then you can hit them whatever they’d like to work on, how long you practice is not the key, but try to get in at least 10 minutes and do it on a regular basis.  You can also work on your Overhead with a ball machine, a pro, or even a wall.  Also, make sure to have your opponents give you some lobs in the warmup before you play.

Here are a few key points you’ll want to keep in mind:
#1 -  OK, you feel unconfident about the shot, what is the quickest way to start developing confidence?  Act confident, that’s right, fake it to get started.  When you see a lob going up, from now on, whether in practice or in a match, think, “I love these shots, can’t wait to smash it.” I know you don’t totally feel that way deep inside now, but you will, if you keep ‘acting and practicing’.

#2 – Move the feet.  Many times the #1 reason players miss overheads, lack of footwork.  Try to move the feet 5-10 steps before hitting the overhead. This will help you start to get the feet in gear every time someone throws up a lob.  This a very good habit to get into.

#3 – Keep the head and chest up at the moment of contact. If the head or chest drop before contact there’s a good chance your smash is in the net.  So, keep the head and chest up until the ball is gone.  Purposely keep your head and chest up longer than is necessary, you’ll be in good company, Roger Federer is a master at keeping his eyes fixed on the contact area longer than he needs to.  This insures he will not drop the head and chest too soon.  If the head and chest drop too soon, guess what happens?  Remember in science class the teacher told you “for every action there is a reaction”.  Well, in this case dropping the head and chest too soon (moving the head and chest), is the action and the reaction is that the racquet moves off line and you mishit the ball.

Key point to remember, when practicing overheads never concentrate on more than 2 points at a time.  More than 2 will get the brain confused.  Keep it simple, 2 points at a time, in the sequence they naturally occur during the stroke.

Please be sure to POST any COMMENTS (bottom of this page) on any of the videos on the Home Page or FREE section, or any general questions, I’ll do my best to point you in the right direction.

What Type of Approach Shot (topspin, slice or flat) to Hit Against What Type of Player?

I played a match a couple of weeks ago and lost.  When I look back on how the match went it became clear my chances would have been much better had I stuck to a certain strategy.  My opponent had a very solid consistent forehand that he could hit short angle and hit deep as well, for outright winners.  However, his backhand was not half the shot, a mere block most of the time and an occasional topspin crosscourt, but it certainly was not the weapon he possessed with his forehand.  He was a lefty, but that’s no excuse, I knew he had an obvious weakness but I didn’t GO AFTER IT relentlessly.  Consistently hitting to his backhand meant I’d have to hit many of my backhands down the line, he being a lefty.  Maybe, it was the challenge thing I wanted to see if I could beat his strength, or, I got gun shy when I missed a few down the line, lost my confidence and resorted to going with the flow.  This proved disastrous because he hit a lot of winners off the forehand wing. The lesson I’ll take away from the match is stick to exploiting your opponents weakness.  Even though I was missing some backhands down the line I needed to stick with it.  What I’ll do next time is mix up the backhands down the line with topspin and slice, and use my mistakes as feedback to help me make the corrections needed to start hitting that shot more consistently.  Bottom line is, if you want to win the match you may have to do some things that aren’t as comfortable as usual.  In this case, relentlessly hit to my opponents backhand side.  I look forward to playing him again.

Please check out the Extensive Video Archives I have a lot of video on playing the net effectively, plus the entire archives has Over 7 Hours of lessonssimilar to the above video, covering everything from A to Z, and they’re available for INSTANT DOWNLOAD, it’s well worth the price.
All the best and happy hitting,
Tom Avery

Attacking Style Tennis Can Be Very Effective If You Reach Ideal Volley Position

If  this years Australian Open is any indication things are slowly starting to change. Roger Federer is moving forward and volleying more often, and so is Tsonga, Murray, Roddick, Daveydenko, Nadal and Del Potro.  So, why are these players moving to the net more often?  Because they understand two key factors.  Number one,  tactically speaking, court geometry favors the net player.  When you move closer to the net your chances to hit sharper angles increase dramatically.  Therefore, the closer in you are the more you can move your opponent and make him run.  As an example, from the baseline you may be able to angle the ball to the corner enough to move your opponent 5-6 steps.  On the other hand, from a volley position, halfway between the service line and the net, you can move your opponent 12-15 steps.  Number two, when you come to the net you are pressuring your opponent to come up with the goods, by hitting passing shots that are very difficult. Especially in todays game of baseline bashers, coming to the net can be very effective.  Baseline players are used to playing other baseline players, when they play a net rusher they have to come up with a completely different set of shots.  They can no longer just keep bashing with the mentality just keep it deep, they now have to hit a very precise shot to get the ball by you.  These precise shots become more and more difficult especially in a close match when the pressure is on. Think about this, if  it’s difficult for a pro player to pass a net player, how much more difficult is it for a club player? Statistically speaking, if you can volley and hit overheads well, you should win the point 2 out of 3 times, I like those percentages.
Please check out the Extensive Video Archives I have a lot of video on playing the net effectively, plus the entire archives has Over 7 Hours of lessons similar to the above video, covering everything from A to Z, and they’re available for INSTANT DOWNLOAD, it’s well worth the price.
All the best and happy hitting,
Tom Avery

Technique #1 To Use Against Weak Slow

Serves (see additional tips below video)

Picture this scenario:  You’re playing a match against an opponent who is solid from the baseline, however, his serve is weak and slow.  You’re trying to take advantage of his weakness but you’re making way too many errors on the return of serve.  As you may know, it’s tougher to be consistent against a slow ball as compared to someone who hits hard.  When you’re playing against a hard hitter you can get into a rhythm,  there’s not a lot of thinking, you’re sticking the racquet out there. Remember this, it takes better stroke mechanics to hit a slow ball consistently in the court.  In the video above, there are 2 Key points to remember:  #1.)  at the low point of your backswing the racquet should be closed (or facing down), #2.)  swing from the shoulder with as little forearm and wrist movement as possible and your racquet is guaranteed to be vertical at contact.  After contact, the hitting arm relaxes and comes up across the body, at this point it doesn’t matter if you roll the forearm and wrist the ball is long gone.  However, if you’re trying to roll the forearm and wrist in the hitting or contact area, it’s going to be hit or miss, it will be very difficult to develop confidence in hitting away against slow serves.

See some additional tips on how to improve your forehand volley below the video clip.