This paper proposes a new approach for the ant-swing control of overhead cranes. The proposed control consists of a model-based anti-swing control scheme and a practical path planning scheme. The anti-swing control scheme is designed based on the Lyapunov stability theorem; the proposed control does not require the usual constraints of small load mass, small load swing, slow hoisting speed, and small hoisting distance, but guarantees asymptotic stability while keeping all internal signals bounded. The path planning scheme is designed based on the concepts of minimum-time control and anti-swing control; the proposed path planning generates near-minimum-time trajectories independently of hoisting speed and distance. The effectiveness of the proposed control is shown by computer simulation.