Beginner Overhead Tennis Smash: Your technique with options

We love options in tennis

The overhead smash is the last tennis core tennis stroke you´ll learn as a beginner. Best to learn this one after learning the serve since the motions are identical. The smash is more a psychological thriller than anything. When you’re comfortable and confident to use a true overhead smash to end a point, it’s effortless. When you’re first learning the overhead smash, it’s bizarre to see that spiraling green ball pummeling down at you. It’s a shot that needs your timing to be clean, coordination on point and you’ll want hit it to the open court. If the thought of an overhead makes you queasy- there’s options. These options help you keep going when you’re getting started in tennis. I always fire off some big lobs to test these options with new players on a tennis holiday.

The overhead smash is one of the five core tennis strokes you learn in tennis. The stroke or swing motion resembles the serve. A ball approaches a player hit as a lob. This shot is hit over your head and typically out of the air, at net. A very good lob can bounce high and be hit as an overhead off the bounce above your head for a clean winner. The stroke is used a lot in doubles.

The Overhead Smash: It can be intimidating at 1st

Recognize the incoming ball early

When you’re first starting out in tennis and you hear it’s overhead smash day in your tennis clinic, you don’t think much about it. You’ve seen it on TV. You’re aware of what it is and what it looks like. But man, starting out in tennis, the 1st time you see a LIVE BALL high in the air come pummeling down in your direction isn’t comfortable. And you’re expected to return AND PUT THE BALL AWAY??? Sounds crazy I know but totally doable with a little time & progressions.

A lob can be intimidating for most. Putting one up is fine but returning it can be a different story. The best thing to work on in the very beginning is to see the lob early. The best part about receiving a lob is it it’s so obvious. When your coach or opponent is going to hit one their demeanor stalls out. Their racket face opens and they smoothly, and by no means coyly, send the ball up!

The ball isn’t meant for you to return well. It’s meant to go deep behind you so that you can’t get it comfortably. It’s meant to push you away from the net. Meant to move you backwards while you move sideways face up on the ball. Players get very discombobulated with this movement and some even claim you need to be highly athletic to hit it at all!

My belief is, the more you experience overheads the more comfortable you’ll feel to hit one.

Pro tip: ⚓️

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Like any shot in tennis, it’s all about the timing. You always have more time than you think. But if you feel rushed or intimidated not to miss it altogether or shank the ball off the side of the racket, fall down, or get hit with the ball - we can panic and worse! Let the ball bounce at net and hit it like a forehand. Ah no, this isn’t a good look. And whatever ball comes out of that won’t land in the court.

Nope. By far the overhead smash can be a humbling shot. Until it’s not.

Coordinating it step by step, knowing you have options, will help keep you going until you start having a little comfort & success. And you WILL have success. Believe me, if I haven’t hit balls for awhile this shot can be my kryptonite too.

Go slow.

Ask for shallow lobs (feeds) in the beginning. Build up to those higher balls with a coach or someone with a good feed that will push you backwards into the court.

It only takes coming over and cracking that 1st lob you swing down on with velocity for you to LOVE THIS SHOT. All you have to do is find the sweet spot and your home free. And you can do that by keeping your head up and eyes glued to the ball.

Let’s walk through the grip and shadow technique with Jofre Porta who guides you to find comfort in this position (a shadow stroke or show & tell without a ball).

Jofre Porta overhead smash how to coordinate the stroke

Overhead Smash Grip

Use the continental grip on this stroke like you use on your serve. It’ll help you direct the ball where you want it to go when you’re more advanced with the overhead.

You’ll be at net already, facing your opponent, expecting a volley in a ready position. Until you see your opponent, very obviously, send up a lob. So you should already be in the continental grip.

How to Hit the Overhead Smash: Technique

Overhead Smash Progressions:

Remember! Your opponent will want to put the ball over your head. The moment you get to it, they know the momentum can shift against them. They won’t feel good about that. But here’s where you’ll need to coordinate the shot.

1.) You’re at net in the continental grip

2.) You see they’re about to put up the lob

3.) You see that it’s coming to the right side of your body & not the backhand side. 😁

4.) Turn fully sideways to your right while you look up & POINT up, at the ball. (hold that till contact)

5.)While sideways push back, side-stepping quickly to a position comfortably under the ball.

6.) As the ball approaches, you’re sideways & your racket is back, keep your head up.

7.) Fully extend your racket up, over and down on the ball you’ve just hit OVER your head (not under or at shoulder height).

8.) Only when your strings contact the ball does your head come down off the ball.

9.) Finish the stroke across your body, like you do on your serve.

10.) Recover to your ready position at net or baseline. Depending on where you actually hit the ball.

Overhead Smash: Where should you hit it?

As a beginner, 1st make contact- racket to ball, above your head.

Next, practice hitting it anywhere in the court.

Then when you’re better, start hitting to the open court. The place where your opponent IS NOT.

You’ll improve your overhead by setting up cones like we improved your volley direction. Set 3 cones up past the service line across the court. Then have someone feed you easy shallow overheads to swing up at and through. When you’re really comfy start swinging your racket faster and in the direction of where you want to hit. At this point I’d say you’ve successfully got this overhead shot down.

You can see more in the overhead smash module in my, How to Play Tennis for beginner adults.

Options for Your Overhead:

1.) Hit the overhead smash out of the air. No bounce. Just crank that racket back and hit up - out - then down on the ball and blast it away on your opponent. Your ideal situation and a genuine overhead smash. What nature intended with it. 😁

2.) Let the ball bounce deeper in the court. When a lob goes up it´s pretty HIGH & DEEP if it’s a good lob. So when it bounces, it bounces back up, high again - but slower. You’ll have more time. More control. You may have more confidence to hit it this way. But it still needs to be hit over your head. Nothing changes around the technique other than you let the ball bounce.

3.) Some players are really good at lobbing. Beginners get good at lobs. If someone lobs you & you have time to run to the back court, you can let the ball bounce. You can let it drop ALLLL the way into your forehand strike zone and hit a forehand. (avoiding your overhead smash entirely)

You´ll need to be able to hit an overhead for singles and doubles so you’ll have to hit it eventually.

I encourage you to learn it slowly, with shallow soft balls & practice it whenever you can.

Tennis is filled with surprises, you know that. It’s what’s addictive about playing it. That anticipation of what’s coming next, keeps us coming back.

With love from Mallorca~