Add Power to Your Overhead
Having a little bit of pop on your overhead is a huge benefit when it comes time to put the ball away, so, in this section I will be talking about how to increase the power of your overhead.
The first step to increasing your overhead's power is to keep your elbow, shoulder, and wrist relaxed. If you stiffen up at contact and try to "muscle" the ball, you will be actually taking power off your shot. However, if you stay loose and through the motion you will greatly increase the power.
A second way to increase power is, just like all the other tennis strokes, to make sure to transfer your body weight into your shot, instead of just relying on your arm and shoulder. Basically, you want to transfer your body weight onto your front foot as you make contact with the ball. This brings me to the next point, where to make contact with the ball. When hitting an overhead, you want to make contact with the ball in front of you, as well as high up enough that your arm is fully extended.
Improve Overhead Consistency
Being able to hit a powerful overhead doesn't mean anything if you can't get the ball in the court, so in this section I will be talking about how to increase the consistency of your overhead and keep the ball in the court.
The first tip is quite obvious, but is something you should take into account. When you're deciding where to place your overhead, instead of trying to aim for the line, aim a few feet inside the line. This will allow for a small error of margin if you miss your desired target.
Also, you should try to always use a continental grip when hitting an overhead. You should be "snapping" through with your wrist at contact, for more information on this, read our articles on improving your serve. This will increase the top spin on your overhead which will increase consitency. Along with the grip, you should always make sure you're facing mostly sideways when you begin your overhead motion.
If you tend to hit your overheads into the net, here are a few tips to eradicate that problem. First off, you might be making contact with the ball to early, try delaying a little bit before making contact. Secondly, you may need to "swing up" more, aka. make contact with the tennis ball higher. Your arm should be fully extended upwards when you make contact. Your entire body should be essentially pointing upwards. This includes your head, which should always be up and tracking the ball. A good trick to keep your body "up" is to point at the tennis ball with your left hand, which will naturally force your body "up". Also, you should also be aware of swinging down on the ball. You don't want to swing down, you want to swing forward and let gravity and spin handle bringing the ball down.
If you tend to hit your overheads long and out of the court, here a few pointers to bring the ball down and keep it in the tennis court. Just like with hitting an overhead into the net, if your contact point is off, it can cause the tennis ball to fly long. If the ball is going long, you're most likely making contact to late. Trying making contact earlier and higher and it should bring the tennis ball down into the court.
