Stop Smashing Balls Into The Net
I have a theory that smashing popped up balls into the net (or out of bounds) is largely caused by getting overly excited about finishing the point and rushing.
Rushing to smash a ball is often emotion and ego-induced. When we are drilling or playing completely relaxed, such errors don’t happen as often because our emotions and thinking don’t get in the way. Learn to get into a similar state of flow in a game, so that at the moment a ball is popped up to you, you are calm.
Still Your Mind
Taking a moment to still your mind in a moment of opportunity can increase the quality of your response to that opportunity.
When a high ball floats your way, it’s easy to get swept up in the moment. The ball is popped up. You see the opening. And before you know it, you’ve rushed the smash — straight into the net, or flying past the baseline.
More often than not, the problem isn’t your technique. It’s the rushing. The little surge of adrenaline and ego that says “Smash it now!”
Here’s the simple fix: Pause.
Not a long pause. Just a heartbeat. Enough time to set aside the impulse and let your trained skills take over. In that moment, your mind clears, your body settles, and you can see your real target — maybe your opponent’s feet, maybe an open area.
That tiny gap between “the ball’s coming” and “I’m smashing it” is the point where we can increase our accuracy.
The Mental Skill
You can interrupt the adrenaline/ego surge that makes you slam the ball recklessly. Remember that the point isn’t to “hit hard,” but rather to place the ball where it can’t be defended. Good placement requires contact point control, which degrades when you rush under emotional pressure.
To do this, create time for instinctive, higher-quality execution. When a pop up opportunity presents itself, add a micro-pause prior to swinging at the ball. This maintains control over launch path and target selection. This protects both accuracy and consistency.
If the idea of “pausing” leads you to misinterpret the instruction as “stop your swing” (which is not the intent), you could use a short mental cue like:
“Spot the landing”
“Find the feet”
“Breathe”
…then swing at the ball.
This allows letting go of the impulse to rush and being focused on target identification… which will help direct the shot toward better placements.
The Bottom Line
Determine and practice a mental cue that will help you momentarily slow down the impulse to rush, and you will smash less balls into the net or out of bounds.
Mistakes will still happen, but removing emotional interference as one reason for it will improve your enjoyment and your results.