How to Hit the Perfect Tennis Overhead Smash with Coach Ben Zink | RCW Athletic Club Drill Series

We're going to go over some overheads today. All right, we're going to bring in pronation. All right, so we're going to first start there because that's what people call the wrist snap, right? Where you're taking your hand, turning it upside down, right? So ball comes forward, I hit the right side of the ball, take my thumb, pronate like this. No wrist bend. Our wrist doesn't do this. Understood? It rotates from back of the shoulder, rotate through. So first drill we're going to do, I'm going to feed you some short balls. Your goal, arm up, contact, pronate, finish above the net, okay? Two reasons we want that. I want your momentum going forward, right? And I want you to really feel the pronation up at the top. The ball does not have to be hard, okay? But what it does have to be is feel like you are creating a little bit of snap on the ball with the rotation of pronation, right? Thumb up, thumb down, right? Here, contact. Are we ready? Easy snap. But notice I want you to turn your body. The movement of the racket from here does start from your hip, right? So it's hip, pronate. So if I'm going like this with my arm, I'm not pronating, but I'm also not rotating. So I'm going to do both, okay? So the momentum of my arm is going forward. The pronation is out in front. Pronate. Perfect. Good job. Excellent. Good. When you finish, what I want you to make sure of is that when you finish, you feel like your momentum was going forward, okay? That's super important. The momentum is going this way. Don't feel like you're trying to drop it down into the court. Rackets up, pronate out. Perfect. Good job. Again, I want that elbow a little bit more forward. That's what I want. See how that went forward into the court. And again. Nice. Great job. Feel the pronation. Good. Awesome. And again. And when you're, again, not good or bad, but when you're practicing overheads or any shot, you want to feel the ball, right? I know that the natural tendency is for you to knock it as hard as you can. And most overheads, we're trying to end the point. But I want to also feel exactly what it is that I'm doing so that if I understand the motion, then I'm able to create that when I'm playing without having to think about it. Okay? All right. So it's really important. So you're going to turn, pronate. Good. Relax. Simple. That's it. Really feeling the rotation. Really feeling the pronation in the swing. Good. Two more here. Feel the hip turn. Easy pronation. Good. Excellent job. Feel the pronation. Awesome. Excellent. But now I want you aiming deeper in the court. Most your tendency sometimes, and a lot of people's tendency sometimes, is to come down on the ball this way. So if I start thinking about aiming for the baseline as I'm pronating again and hitting my overhead, I'm going to try to go more forward. Okay? So now I want you around the service line, but I want you thinking the same thing with your arm pronating out, but it's landing deeper in the court. Here. Twist. Yes. Aiming towards that baseline. Focusing on the pronation. Good. Yep. Good. All right. Make sure we're really good continental grip because that's going to help us get the right side of the ball. Right now it's coming out really, really flat. So I want to feel like I'm getting the right side of the ball. Pronate in. Good. Turn again. Rotate forward. Excellent. Turn again. Rotate in. Excellent. Really feel like it's coming from your hips, bud. Twist. We've talked about this in the past, making sure that I'm getting the elbow up all the way. The racket's over here to the side. Right before I hit, I want to start making a maneuver with my arm. For me to connect my hips and my hands, I've got to make sure everything starts from the same point and goes the same direction. Okay. Everything is going to start from the same point, same direction. That's all right. Let's do that again. Pronate in. Better. Feel the rotation from your hips. Twist. Good. Awesome job. Adjust that grip again for me, please, bud. Thank you. And rotate hard. Yes. Fantastic. You're up. You're turning. You're twisting. Awesome. When you're making contact with the ball, right? So say I'm hitting that way. I need to hit it where it's as if I was able to push something up high. Like it's in front of my ear, right? You're making contact back here a little bit. That puts more strain on the shoulder. Okay. So we just want to see us getting the arm a little bit more in front before we make that pronation into the ball. Okay. All right. Here we go. Get it in front. That's it. A little more in front, please. Get your shoulder going forward. That's it. Send that elbow in, right? When I turn from here, right? Nice straight line. Elbow goes forward towards my target. Okay. Rackets up. Sorry, tough feed. That was better. So your elbow is going to come forward to me. Turn. That's it. So the hip, hip, elbow, pronate out through the ball. Very important. Much better. When I turn, right? Elbow comes in. This racket stayed on this side of my body. Now it's a straight line to you. Right? Does that make sense? If my racket goes over here a little bit, now I'm circling around my head and it's harder to straighten that swing out. Does that make sense? So rackets up, elbows up. Turn. Still on that side of my body. Pronate into the ball. Straight line. Is that a faster way to accelerate if it's going straight? Absolutely. Turn in. Good. A little behind your ear. Catch it in front. There. Much better. That was in front of your body. Very good. Up. Turn. Good, Braylon. Excellent. You're up. Rotate in. Good job. Feel the hip twist. Hips first. Good, Braylon. Nice. Three more. Up. Turn. Twist. Two more times. Right side of that ball. Good. Excellent. One more time. Good. We're going to move back now. Okay? So you're going to touch the net in between each one. First move we're going to do is we're going to practice. We're going to drop the right foot back. Crossover. Load on the right foot. What I want your emphasis to be on is starting that swing from this right hip. So if I step and open my hips, am I going to be able to rotate on the ball? No. So I need to make sure I'm moving back. Keeping everything closed. As I'm doing my scissor kick, I'm going to make the maneuver with my hips. That is going to then counter and send my racket forward. Again, looking for a straight line. Keep it steady. Keep it simple. Move with the racket up and just keep it still. So you're going to start up at the net. Ready? Touch. Drop your right foot back. Good job. You went out of it a little early, but I liked it. Great job. Cross. Twist. Good. Nice, Braylon. Touch. Rackets up right away. Moving. Snap. Great work on that overhead. Nice. Cross. Twist. There you got the hips going. I like that. Hold. Snap. That's it, Braylon. That's what we want to do right there, bud. Turn. Twist. Good. Outstanding. Fine. Hold. There. Straight. That was it. Racket still. Twist. That's it, bud. Two more like this. Cross. Twist. Good job. Way to know that you didn't have to scissor kick there. One more time. Back, back, back. Good. We're going to add a volley now. Okay. So you're going to close in for a volley first, and we'll alternate sides to begin. Okay. We've talked about the volley, loading on the outside, controlled movement through. What are you going to want to do with that? You're going to want to cut that short so that you can get back for the overhead. I want you to take one or two steps through the volley, then work on going back for the overhead. Okay. So now we're transitioning back and forth. Okay. Putting it all together. Right. So now I'm hitting a volley, getting right up into an overhead. All right. What it would be more realistic in a point. Okay. All right. Does it make sense? All right. Steady racket. When I'm moving as a tennis player, when I'm moving, I need to have control of my racket. You watch anybody on TV and they're running for a ball, their racket is still. If it's moving around a lot, they're not going to get a good solid shot on the racket and out to their target. All right. Something's going to go wrong. Miss hit wide. He missed it wide because I caught it a little late. Whatever that may be. So when you're closing in for those volleys, racket still. When you're moving back for the overhead, racket still. Not a lot of bobbling of anything. All right. We're ready to go. Volley, overhead, volley, overhead. So we're alternating sides. 20 balls worth. Okay. Are you ready? All right, big guy. Everything you got. Load. Good. Turn. You don't have to touch the net. You're just going to work on moving. Racket still. Stable. That's it. Push from the ground. Good job, Braylon. Sorry, bud. Tough one. Great work. Turn. Rotate. Left foot. Good job. Great volume. Hold it still. Good. Hold it still. That's it. You're all right. Watch that ball. Crossover. Hold it still. That's it. Keep moving the feet. Steady, steady. Rotate. Good. You're catching it just a little bit behind. In front of you. There you go. Great job. Excellent. Turn. Catch it in front of you. It's okay. A little behind. That's why it's going long. You've got to make contact in front of your body, bud. You got it, dude. Last one here. Good. When you're hitting this though, right, like whenever I'm practicing anything, the key is to make sure that I'm under control first. Like I understand the overheads. We want to like knock them out of the park. But if I hit a great volley and I'm sitting on an overhead, I just need to make sure that I place it well. I don't have to hit it 100 miles an hour. You know what I mean? And that's what we want to do, right? Like we want to go, I'm in an overhead. I'm going to hit this like the Hulk, right? But normally that's where we make mistakes. I would, the only other thing I'd like to see you do is keeping that elbow in a little bit more. That's going to help you pronate better. Okay. So if I bring that forward here, this pronation is a lot easier. Like I want you to make contact here with your overhead, right? Does that make sense? Like if you're lifting something up into a cabinet, you don't want to lift it up like this. You want to lift in front of you. So like, you know what I'm saying? Like up in and out in front. So you want to make contact right there in front. So I'm able to lean into it a little bit. I can't lean into this. I can't put body weight into this. So then it becomes a strain on my shoulder and my arm to make that happen, right? So I want to keep my feet going. So I'm getting myself in the right position. Okay. All right. I'm with you. Let's get this done. Ready? Here we go. Move the feet. Steady racket. That's so much better already. Good. Elbow stays in front. As you get tired, like as you're in the middle of that drill, it's real easy for us to start to do this a little bit or this or like this. And it's like, I got to keep my body nice and up. So when I'm moving, I want my spine to rotate. I don't want it to twist over to the side. You know what I mean? The more posture I have coming in from my body, from my nice and straight up and down, and I'm moving forward into the ball, I'm going to have more control. You watch Djokovic, you watch Sinner, you watch any of those guys. They're moving like this all the time. They're not like this and like this because they know they've got a twist on the axis of their spine with their hips. All right. Here we go. Up. Twist. That's okay. You went a little early. Don't leave that. Don't leave that too early. There it is, bud. Good. Right here. This is number 14. Good, Braylon. Little low. Try to catch the contact out in front. Nice. Come on, bud. Awesome. This is... Keep your body. Keep your posture. Keep your posture, Braylon. That's it.