Overhead Drills

Quick Look

• One feeder with a bucket, one hitter, run as a progression rather than as separate drills.
• Feed from midcourt, not the baseline. The feed quality is much better and that is what matters.
• Feeding from midcourt does mean you can get hit. Know that going in.
• Start with about 10 easy high forehands, short, swung at 60 to 70 percent for rhythm.
• Next 10 are lollipop feeds the hitter can angle away.
• Then back them up with feeds over their head so they have to use their feet and hit deep.
• Then go to the backhand side so they have to work around it and still hit a forehand overhead.
• Finish with another set of short easy ones after all that work.
• Optional add on: a few real backhand overheads, which is a genuinely hard shot.
• Depth is the target the whole way through. Balls landing midcourt are easy to return.

Before You Start

Where the feeder stands. I do not feed from the baseline. I stand around midcourt. Yes, you have a real chance of getting hit by the ball standing there, and you should be aware of that before you start. But the feed is so much better from midcourt because you are not trying to launch the ball all the way from the baseline just to get it high enough. Good feeds are the whole point of the drill, so I take the tradeoff.

Equipment. A bucket of balls makes this much smoother. The drill is built around repetition, and stopping to collect balls after every three feeds kills the rhythm you are trying to build.

The shape of the session. This is one progression, not five unrelated drills. Warm up, then reward, then make them work, then make them work harder, then bring them back to something they can succeed on. That last part matters. Ending on the hardest thing is how people walk off the court feeling worse than when they started.

Drill 1: Warm Up Feeds

Setup. Feeder at midcourt with the bucket. Hitter in position near the kitchen.

How it runs. About 10 easy ones. High, comfortable, to the forehand, and short enough that the hitter can really hit through the ball. The hitter swings at maybe 60 to 70 percent.

Focus. Motion and fluidity, not power. This is where the trophy position gets grooved and the throwing motion gets loose. Nobody is trying to kill anything yet.

Drill 2: Angle the Short Ball

Setup. Same positions.

How it runs. Another 10 feeds, still short and easy, lollipop balls the hitter can really take advantage of. Now the hitter is working on angling those balls off to the side.

Focus. This is the reward ball, so learn what to do with it. The short overhead with good position is the one you can genuinely put away with an angle, and it needs reps just like everything else so the angle becomes a choice rather than a hope.

Drill 3: Back Them Up

Setup. Same, but now the feeder is hitting the ball over the hitter's head.

How it runs. The feeder makes the hitter back up and use their feet. The hitter is now hitting the deep overhead rather than the angle.

Focus. Two things at once. Footwork on the way back, and depth on the strike. The hitter should be hitting through the ball and making it land toward the baseline, not in the middle of the court. Midcourt overheads come right back at you no matter how hard they were hit. This is the drill where that lesson gets built in.

Drill 4: The Backhand Side Recovery

Setup. Same, and now the feeder is going over the hitter's backhand side.

How it runs. The hitter has to move their feet to get around the ball so they can still hit a forehand overhead.

Focus. This is the extra work portion, and it is the most game realistic feed in the set. Real lobs do not politely land on your forehand. The skill being trained is the footwork pattern that turns an awkward ball into a forehand overhead you can actually hit.

Drill 5: Back to Short Balls

Setup. Hitter comes back up to the line.

How it runs. Another set of easy short ones they can take advantage of.

Focus. Deliberate. After you have made someone back up and chase balls over their backhand, bring them back to a ball they can hit well. It reinforces the good pattern while they are tired, and it ends the progression on a success instead of a struggle.

Drill 6: The Backhand Overhead (Optional)

Setup. Feeds over the backhand side again, but this time the hitter is not working around them.

How it runs. The hitter takes them as actual backhand overheads.

Focus. This is a very challenging shot and it will not look pretty for a while. Worth a handful of reps at the end of the session so it is not completely foreign the one time a match forces you into it. Do not build a whole session around it.

Key Takeaways

• Feed from midcourt for better balls, and accept that you might get hit.
• Run it as one progression: warm up, reward, work, extra work, then reward again.
• Swing at 60 to 70 percent during the warm up. Fluidity before power.
• Sets of about 10 keep the rhythm without turning into a grind.
• Angle the short ball. Hit the deep ball deep. The feed tells you which one you have.
• Balls landing toward the baseline are hard to return. Balls landing midcourt are not.
• Make them work around the backhand side so they can still hit a forehand overhead.
• Always come back to easy short balls at the end so the session finishes on something that worked.