The Overhead: Mentality and Physicality

[johnyandell]

Let's get your thoughts on Kyle LaCroix's article, "The Overhead: Mentality and Physicality"

[hockeyscout]

Nice piece.

Always enjoy reading how the American tennis coaches do, and see things. Kyle's psychological articles are pretty close to how hockey coaches think - its good he has a dual sport backround like me, don_budge.

Yes, overhead smashes very important.

Especially, if you are really serious about developing a serve and volley player like we are here.

But, I don't think coaches should work to much on that smash until kids are 13 or 14. I am real careful with it. But, I have an 10 year old who is 5'11, and we have to be very careful with her development.

I have a cart of soft orange balls, and three times a week we go into the swimming pool and practice smashes with my ten year old who is in slightly below waist deep water and she hammers a cart of orange soft balls.

We put her in fishermans pants and load in water, and she has to run and jump out of the water and do what Sampras used to do - be athletic, and powerful and pound the ball.

Its all about being athletic and jumping up high, and hard to the ball ... like a slam dunk.

She likes it, often times I let her dive off the diving board and just kill the ball mid-air. That builds a certain type of mentality, and control in mid-air, to be able to do that. Thats her favorite, and it teaches coordination in time and space which is what you want to do with young athletes. We do a lot of work where my athletes are diving into the pool, and catching balls as well, and we do a ton of volleyball stuff where they jump - smash as well as playing games where they have to jump up and block the ball like a NBA defender.

You know, you gotta keep it fun, and let em soar like eagles but also teach an extreme level of athletic jumping ability - and once that is in place, everything else is simple.

But, we use that smash in the pool to teach ultimate physicality and athletism.

One thing, as soon as a ball is wet we obviously do not use it.

We put the balls in the furnace room and they are dry for the next day.

Smashing the ball on a tennis court after that type of workout is generally a joke after that type of workout.

I do a lot of my fighting as a MMA coach in the pool - I got a good fighter and it really helps even up the score when you can put him in a fisherman's suit, wrap him up in heavy plastic, make him carry behind him a 200 pound wet ball, drownd him a bit, put him under some stress and fight all out in the pool.

[klacr]

Thanks for reading Hockeyscout.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[nickw]

A really good article Kyle, another reminder about the importance of the overhead, and of practising it regularly. The focus on mentality also very true and important. Similar to encouraging students to love tiebreaks, and the big points instead of fearing them. Serve and volley is rare these days, not because it's ineffective in modern tennis, but because almost all coaches don't teach or encourage it in juniors these days. Just look at the recent success of Mischa Zverev and Ivo Karlovic. Both a few points away from making finals of 500 events recently, with constant serve and volley and net rushing. Zverev almost beat Djokovic and Cilic, and did beat Stan at his home event. Karlovic could be eyeing Top 10 next year with virtually no points to defend until May. Anyway, good work Kyle, and interesting post hockeyscout, great stuff too.

[hockeyscout]

I liked the Spanish article and the running serve. Combined what kyle wrote, I added in that running serve. Saw quick progress, and it promotes athletism.

[klacr]

A really good article Kyle, another reminder about the importance of the overhead, and of practising it regularly. The focus on mentality also very true and important. Similar to encouraging students to love tiebreaks, and the big points instead of fearing them. Serve and volley is rare these days, not because it's ineffective in modern tennis, but because almost all coaches don't teach or encourage it in juniors these days. Just look at the recent success of Mischa Zverev and Ivo Karlovic. Both a few points away from making finals of 500 events recently, with constant serve and volley and net rushing. Zverev almost beat Djokovic and Cilic, and did beat Stan at his home event. Karlovic could be eyeing Top 10 next year with virtually no points to defend until May. Anyway, good work Kyle, and interesting post hockeyscout, great stuff too.

Excellent points nickw. I appreciate you reading it. Thank you.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[klacr]

I liked the Spanish article and the running serve. Combined what kyle wrote, I added in that running serve. Saw quick progress, and it promotes athletism.

So glad it helped you Hockeyscout. Keep it up. Embrace the net.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[hockeyscout]

So glad it helped you Hockeyscout. Keep it up. Embrace the net.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

You saw Chris Levitt's piece on running into the serve like a volleyball player, yes? I did that today, and everyone thought it was brilliant. My ten year old hates the idea of that drill as it was not tennis, but, after doing it a bit, she loved it. That is kind of the deal with coaching - seeing something, adding something into it and getting sudden improvement. I liked how Chris talked about using 6 balls. Personally I never go over 3 balls. But, I have a ten year old who is 10, and 5'11", so I have to be careful in how I move such a big mass of an athlete on very young tendons, muscles and bones. The Ukraine coaches bitch to me about how I run my athletes in small spurts. We will see who is right long term. I see the sport is changing a bit, and evolving. I knew the numbers of rallies, ect, five years ago, but again its interesting to see mentality is changing to kind of fit into my beliefs. But, I do not think people will buy into my philosphy that the racket can be controlled by properly installing nuerological activations into athletes that are tennis specific. That one is a stretch for people. I think a lot of specialists will enter into this sport in the next five years, and coaches who are smart will embrace them fully like we learned to do in hockey. Its amazing how much better hockey players can skate and shoot now - but, they've done proper work in the gym, pool, mats, nutrition and recovery, and it shows in there stickwork and boots when they transition it over to real game setting skill-sets. Tennis is getting there, but, its a tough sell.

[Guest]

This jumping into the serve is working remarkably well for us. Its insane. We did not want to do it at first, but, it works. We modified it a bit. Three balls in hand, and you keep moving forward towards klacr's dream of serve and volley. Three serves. Go to the net, and then run backwards and do another three. The ten year old loves it, and she is really trying to launch into the ball and keep her momentum and balance going. I am not sure why the Spanish guys stopped after one serve, when you can really tie it into a lot of skillsets, and ball feeding drills.

[Guest]

The above was my post - hockey scout

[dipperhitter]

I finally worked my way through the overhead article classics. Plus I read Kyle Lacroix's. His emphasis on absolute belief the point is over is something that hit a note and I realized I needed to work to overcome that nagging little voice of doubt. I also went searching in the old archive for overheads. I thought the claim in the last email that this was such a world beating collection on the overhead was suspect. Now I don't.

[klacr]

dipper hitter,

Thanks for taking the time to read it. Glad you got something out of it, as well as the other great overhead articles. John has done a great job of curating all of them so it is the most comprehensive overhead collection you will find. Good luck on your game and embrace the net!

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton