The Overhead--Or the In Front of Head?

[johnyandell]

Would love to discuss Jeremiah Walsh's article, "The Overhead--Or the In Front of Head?"

[TheWatcher]

In front of head. No need to say more. Let that guide our overheads.

[arturohernandez]

There is one true overhead

What about the Jimmy Connors (bolo) overhead? I love hitting this shot. Partly because I am 5'7" and this allows me to get to balls that I could not get to. But I used to play basketball on the playground as a kid and loved the hook shot. The bolo reminds me of a hook shot. For me it seems like a safer shot. It also has excellent disguise. No one ever knows where it is going and it unorthodox so they are not used to seeing it.

How about a followup with the Connors overhead?

[don_budge]

"The Bunny"...

Would love to discuss Jeremiah Walsh's article, "The Overhead--Or the In Front of Head?"

It's still an overhead in my book. Good article and I particularly like the emphasis on footwork. I emphasis to all tennis students that the biggest single reason for missing a "smash" is poor footwork. Even the professionals can miss the occasional bunny. If you take the easy one for granted it is easy to forget to move your feet.

[Jeremiah]

I appreciate the comments.

I call it an overhead but when focusing on it I call it "in front of head" to drive home the point.

As far as Arturo's bolo. I focused in this article on a systematic approach that I use from 3.0 women and men all the way up. The lessons in this were really for us to share and to debunk the classic footwork and teaching methodology that leaves people feeling frustrated and hopeless because the ball isn't sitting pretty for them in match play.

I actually designed a landing platform for my better athletes so I can teach them to handle their bodies in the air and land safely. I'll have to incorporate the "bolo". I use it to teach that beautiful jumping Sampras overhead.

I've discovered that unless athletes have a lot of volleyball or basketball experience they're not comfortable off the ground when using explosive movements.

[bottle]

Of all the instructional articles I have ever read this might be the one that produced instant results.

[Jeremiah]

Thank you!

I'm really happy that it helped and that it could make a difference so quickly. Thank you for the feedback.