September 1995
Sampras' Smashing Overhead
By Tim Gullikson, Instruction Editor, with Alexander McNab
Photography by Stephen Szurlej/TENNIS magazine
In more than three years of working with Pete Sampras, I've seen him miss few overheads. It is a very sound stroke. Not only does he usually make it, he usually puts it away. He has a good sense of where the other player is on the court and he doesn't overhit. He rarely goes for Mach 1 power. Instead, he'll just place the ball in the corner.
I also haven't seen too many lobs get over Sampras' head. He gets back for the overhead really well, he's got long arms and he's an excellent jumper. You probably should jump only when you have to. Otherwise it kind of complicates the shot a little bit. All of us can't be Pete Sampras.
While these photos were taken during a warm-up, they are quite instructive. Look at
Sampras's racquet preparation and his concentration on the ball in the first two pictures.
His racquet is up early. His front shoulder is up. He is turned sideways. And he's
got a good, wide base with his legs as he backs up.
Also note the way Sampras keeps his head up during the entire stroke. Club players often drop the head, resulting in errors as they lose sight of the ball.
Sampras prepares in plenty of time, so he doesn't rush his swing. As the racquet disappears behind his back, he is timing the hit. Note the deep racquet drop and good wrist cock as he starts his swing up at the ball: They're a big source of racquet-head acceleration.
His head stays up through contact. As the ball leaves the strings, his racquet head is accelerating and is still square to the ball. He hits his overheads pretty flat, which is good. It is easier to control the overhead when you hit it flat than when you hit it with spin.
Sampras has good extension at impact. A key point here is that his racquet head is a little bit in front of his wrist. You want to contact the ball out in front, as you do on the serve. When you don't get the racquet head in front of the wrist, a lot of times the ball flies long.
Sampras gets a lot of pop on his overhead and on his serve by the tremendous snapping of his elbow and forearm. The way he breaks the swing off at the elbow probably is more of a natural idiosyncrasy than something teachable.
As he lands, he has transferred his weight forward. Once you've hit the overhead, balance yourself and then move forward to the net again into good volleying position. If this were a match situation, you might see Sampras moving up a little quicker. But he often doesn't have to because he usually puts his overheads away.