Overhitting.   You have probably heard this term used by tennis commentators on TV or perhaps your tennis coach has mentioned it.  What exactly does it mean? ...read on..

Overhitting in tennis is like overcooking in food preparation.  It's overdone.  More, of whatever it is, has resulted in a less successful result.  In tennis it is usually an instance of too big of a swing for the task at hand.   Less effort could have resulted in a shot that cleared the net and landed in the court.

A major cause of overhitting is overswinging  You see it everywhere.  A medium-paced ball comes to the forehand side and the player takes a swing that would result in a home-run in most major league ball parks.  But in tennis, we have to control the ball and keep it within the court boundaries. 

What causes overswinging?  Surprisingly, it is often caused by early preparation.  The racquet goes back too early, too quickly, and too far to achieve effective, well-timed contact.  Instead of waiting in a "find the ball" or "show the logo" position until the ball is closer and a correct determination has been made of its direction, pace, spin, and position in the strike zone, the player takes his racquet back too quickly and then has to adjust from a poor position at the end of the backswing.  The player panics and the foreward swing is rushed or forced to compensate for the poor preparation. 

In my opinion, a player should never overswing or overhit because he or she should never be late or never be rushed.  If you prepare by turning toward the ball with a "show the logo" movement of the racquet and hands, no ball can ever over-power you.  Even if it is coming like a rocket, all you have to do is keep your wrist(s) firm and block it back, taking no backswing whatsoever.  Balls hit at you with less pace or landing farther in front of you give you more time to prepare.  In every case, however, you are only taking a big enough backswing that time allows.

 Hard hit ball, no backswing because there is no time; softly hit blooper, then take a bigger backswing because you have more time.  

Another way to think through this is in in terms of the pace of the oncoming ball.  A screamer landing on the baseline has tons of pace, so you can take advantage of the pace on it by simply blocking the ball back; you don't need to generate a lot of pace yourself by taking a big swing.  A softly hit ball, on the other hand, has little pace, so you will have to generate some pace on your shot to get the ball back over the net and deep; the way to do that is with a longer, but well-timed, backswing. 

Keep these principles in mind when you are playing and you won't be guilty of overhitting.