Pickleball Skill Building - Overhead Shots and Lobs

Pickleball Skill Building

Overhead Shots and Lobs

Overhead drills are not going to work very well until the players have first learned to lob well enough to hit a lob to the player practicing overheads! After you can lob fairly well when returning a ground stroke or volley, then you are ready to attempt these drills.

These drills are necessary not only to develop your overhead skills, but also to develop your ability to return an overhead smash with another lob. You will find that if you do these drills your lob will improve as much or more than your overhead improves.

Drill 1 – One player stands on one side of the net at the baseline and hits lobs to the other player who hits overheads back at the first player. The first player tries to hit high lobs that land between the no-volley line and 3/4 court.  The second player tries to hit overheads back at the first player so that it can be lobbed again. Rotate between lobbing and hitting overheads often.

Drill 2 – This drill for 3 players has two players on one side of the net hitting lobs to the one player on the other side of the net.  The pair stand at the baseline and hit lobs to the single opposing player who practices hitting overheads to both corners and down the middle. Though the objective is to get used to hitting overheads and lobs, the player hitting overheads can attempt to hit kill shots when all parties agree, as this practice is useful as well.

Drill 3 - In this drill, you have two teams on opposite sides of the net with one team lobbing and one team hitting overheads. Advanced teams should be trying to put their smashes away while the lobbers should be trying to lob high and deep. When possible, however you also should try to be consistent while doing so. More beginning teams should be considerate of what the other team is trying to do when they lob or smash.