I Took a Lesson With a Pro to Fix My Crappy Overhead | ft Amrik Donkena 

You listened to the people and brought back Amrik!! Best teacher I've seen, thank you. Can you please have one where he teaches rolls and hand battles?

Honestly this might be the most useful video you’ve ever posted. I have horrible overheads and only have about 10-15% depth perception and this video was a god send

I really enjoyed the video. Thank you for bringing back Amrik. He is an excellent teacher in how he breaks down every component of the shot. Also, he simplifies every step, so you can concentrate on different components separately then bring it all together. Hopefully, you can bring Amrik back for more lessons. Thank you, Chris and Amrik.

Thanks Crhis. Everyone please, please, please be careful with respect to pronating your arm. When swinging (or throwing) and having your hand end up facing outside your body can be extremely hard/damaging to your arm (shoulder/elbow). Some people have really flexible shoulders and have no problem doing it but it is putting stress on your rotator cuff that could be damaging. It's the same reason you do not see many pitchers throwing screwballs. Similarly, volleyball players will pronate to cut the ball away from their body. When hitting an overhead definite snap that wrist at the end and finish flat but be careful pronating outward past flat. If you're not someone with freaky shoulder flexibility you could end up needing rotator cuff surgery at some point. I've had it and it's no fun

Amrik is a dope teacher

Amrik is a good communicator - communicating complex concept in a simple way. In badminton, we envision the hitting side elbow over our ear prior to forearm pronation release. Good stuff 3.5 @ best

Left PB this morning with one thought - I need to improve my overhead, and you dropped this video. Thank you!

One of the best coaches I have ever seen.

Love these videos, Amrik is such a great teacher. would love to see more!

So awesome. Love this instructor- excellent teacher. Completely changed my perspective on overhands

My only tip to add is to prevent the waiter's tray position. Notice how after Amrik as his paddle drop from the rotation, what leads upwards is the side of his paddle and not the face of the paddle up. It'll help with the acceleration and power. And when you get good with it, it'll make your body hit more loose and whip-like instead of muscling it. Open the face like that will make you less in control of the hit. Think the palm of your hands face the back of your head instead of towards the sky.

This was such a helpful video and my overheads are night and day after a few sessions. Can’t wait to keep working on this and that quick hip rotation. More videos with Amrik please!

Saw another video on this exact shot earlier and this one definitely gets into the nitty gritty steps. Huge improvement in just a few simple adjustments. Great video!

Thanks to both of you. It’s amazing all the pieces to the puzzle. I will try one piece at a time. For me, throwing the ball really did put most of the pieces together in my head.

what a great instructional video thanks so much Amrik is top notch .........wish I had him in my hometown!!!!!!!

Awesome video, great instruction! Plus, That B&B Shogun is lookin' gooood!

I really appreciate you sharing your journey to improving your game, Chris! The overhead is one of the few strokes that I didn't have to completely re-learn when moving from tennis to pickleball. One thing that helped me get it right years ago was simply remembering to touch my spine between my shoulder blades with the top of the paddle. That was a physical reminder that I have my paddle fully back and ready to whip up to meet the ball. Hope that helps!

Great video, and Chris you did an awesome job at the lesson! Much improved! I'm ready to work on my overhead now, too.

Timing of this video is perfect for me. Finishing a week of overhead errors and couldn’t figure it out. Great tips here. Thank you!

Another great lesson with Amrik … he is excellent at communicating technique changes. I’m going to throw in some observations and of course opinions ;) about tennis serves and overheads. Who knows how much of it we should bring to pickleball … I am still working it out 18 months into pickleball. I suggest that anyone that likes to verify technique or instructions with their own eyes go watch Federer serve and overhead slow motion youtube videos. You can pause and advance one frame at a time. I have watched Fed’s forehand way too many times. ;) - Amrik using throwing motion was perfect, serve and overhead are throwing motions like throwing a football - throw racket and paddle edge toward ball prior to pronation … provides full pronation range of motion - don’t preload in paddle behind back in ready position (trophy position), keep it up which allows it to drop right as you are going into throwing … waiting to last moment part of kinetic chain - used to use term “back scratch position”, now thinking drop hand over throwing shoulder for max power - the tilt of the shoulder line is important … for right hander right shoulder starts down in trophy position and rotates (around torso) with right shoulder coming up and left going down - I think the main power source is shoulders and arm, hips are a much weaker sibling - I think thinking about hips too much, particularly thinking a hip move first is a good way to screw up strokes including serves and overheads … this is what I mean: Think of a tennis forehand … let’s say semi open stance. Full body rotation before swinging will be hips turned past feet, and from there shoulders turned past hips. When Federer is in full rotation, the moment his hips start unwinding his shoulders start to unwind. Has to … by definition if at max coiled everything has to unwind together. So instead of thinking hips first power move, think smooth unwinding of torso and shoulders then followed by arm passing shoulders in final throwing motion. Everyone learns different, but if the “hip powering thing” throws you off consider the full hips+shoulder turn, and then hit with shoulders and arm … the supporting kinetic chain will do it’s thing. My two handed backhand ended up good to go with very little thought about hips. Edit: Forgot to mention, we tend to talk about “hips” as one thing, but they are two. On many strokes including overheads we have often shifted all weight to one leg before uncoiling, which then becomes the only leg/hip we can power from. If we hit a closed stance two handed backhand, right handers rotate over right leg/hip only after shifting body weight to it. A good way to screw up two handed backhands is starting your swing before fully weight shifted. This happens with overheads where you weight shift to one leg before uncoiling. Watch a Federer overhead video and note when hips start to uncoil only after planting on his left leg.

Another S tier lesson video. Watched 3 times. Thx for the instruction. Gonna summon my old pitching days :)

This was 100% amazing. Perfectly explained.

Dude great video! Way to go!!!

This was excellent- Thanks Chris

I can attest to the pronation and off hand involvement being absolutely crucial to having powerful and controllable overheads. I have between 5-8° loss of extension in my right arm from an elbow issue I didn’t get addressed quickly enough and people still comment about how hard some of my overheads are. I attribute that to a tennis player teaching me how to use those techniques when serving. Wish I still had full extension for the extra snap but with the rest of the formula and a properly weighted 14mm Black Diamond I don’t have too much trouble putting the ball away.

I boxed and played baseball and that transfered to a very strong overhead. I watched a video very early on where the instructor just touched on overheads and compared it to a baseball throw. This clicked well for me and my overheads can be deadly, but sometimes inconsistent depending on fatigue. This breaks it down so well and it is nice to understand the fundamentals.

Best video ever on this!!

Great video and much needed for my game.

Absolutely helpful… Thanks Chris !! 🫡

This video is very useful. I'll practice more.

It was nice to see your progression.

Great video. Just in time for my hip training

this... i needed. Now, to drill this and develop this as muscle memory!

Great video!

When I hit the lotto I’m hiring Amrik!!

Thanks for your sharing. I was hoping for a video of hand battles in the kitchen.

Praise PBS.. I’ve been trying to figure out my overhead and my coach just had to move to play mlp.. we worked on drives/drops/sinks and some hands but had not reached overheads.

This video was very helpful, one of areas that I need improvement with. Thank you Chris! RESTROOMS -->

Amrik is dope

A good way to think about the weight transfer and hip rotation is if you are trying to skip a stone as far as possible. You will really load up on the back leg and the hips will automatically try to turn as fast as possible

Great lesson - but one thing worth mentioning: Yes, tennis converts are naturals at crushing overheads, but so often they can't get out of their tennis mindset of trying to end points by pummeling the ball into the middle of the court hard enough to bounce clear into the bleachers, only it's a pickleball - not a tennis ball - so it doesn't bounce into the bleachers, it just makes it easier for the other team to smack a hard drive back. If a ball is high enough above your head that it would bounce above the net height, it's usually far more aggressive to just let that bounce happen, and then hit the ball at a flatter angle to the ground so it maintains its horizontal velocity and skids on the ground instead of bouncing straight up. Sure, it gives your opponents more time to set up, but you know what also does? A ball that's smacked directly into the ground after it bounces - it just sits up and floats at 0 g's right in front of your opponents torso. I see pros make this mistake all the damn time. But Thomas Wilson does a great job at this bounce strategy.

As an ex tennis player this something I still do at home practicing the hip rotation along with the pronation. I would ask add Chris not only in your overheads but your high forehands could use some more hip rotation as well. Ben Johns does this very well when he has a high forehand. Might be good to look at his and compare them to yours now that you know what to look for. Maybe this will get you out of 3.5 finally 😂

Thank you Chris and Amrik. Is Aizec the photographer for the video?

This seems like something that could majorly injure a newer player. I think anyone below 5.0 doesn't need a phenomenal overhead. Just focus on side angles and those can easily end a point. When I get to 5.0 and beyond, I'll look to this video

whats the best paddle on the market right now ?

Question … can we include links in youtube comments? I’m used to posting relevant player video in tennis technique discussions. When I hit save in yahoo app with a link included in comment it doesn’t save.

AMRIK!

Chris beefing up. Working out is working. And hoping this cures my princess slam. 😅

Where exactly is the ideal contact point? Was it 45 degrees up and in front of you?

Brilliant video. Chris I am visiting the Phoenix area in August. Could you send me a way to contact Amrick (sp) to take a lesson while I am visiting.

This is a great video. Thank you. However, there is one thing that is missing in the video. It is not explained how the hip turns from an open position. This is done by pushing off the right foot.

bookmarked

What paddle did use it look like shogun

Hips don't lie ;)

2:35 THAT CAKE CHRIS. You may not put a ball away but 🤷🏻‍♂️

In short. To get your right arm in the correct position, think of smelling your armpit.

Amrik does a good job but I have to disagree on one point. The first move is your weight shift. Planting your foot allows you to get your hips into, just as in a golf swing or a football quarterback. You can see this well in the portion of the video you show his slow motion overheads. Especially where he takes a step back to hit. Just as a quarterback get the snap and takes a step back putting his weight on his back leg then plants his front long to shift his weight forward to bring the hips, body and arm through.

this guy is literally ray from everybody loves raymon or that old tv show

Ermm, actually thats not how a golf swing works. The arms actually start the downswing, that's how shallowing happens.🤓☝

You played tennis, right? It’s the same stroke.

Throw a football... It will teach you everything you need to learn

If you played badminton you probably got a nasty overhead

Baby doll we’ve been telling you forever you have no no power. What’s funny is that Amric is giving you instructions with the worst paddle in the world

First 10 seconds were so cringe 😅

Great video and great advice but way too much over explaining. Say something one time and practice. Dude loves to hear himself explain how smart he is.

Chris, on your take back, make sure you can tap the back of your head with your paddle. That will ensure it’s in the proper position for the overhead.