How to Hit a Tennis Ball with Topspin

'A topspin groundstroke allows you to hit the ball higher over the net. And yet, due to the physics of the spin, the ball will drop in and not go out. It keeps your opponent back further in the court.' ' Bill Van Keuren, USPTR certified instructor and Director of Tennis at Eddie Farm Inn & Sports Resort.

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tennis Shirts
• Tennis Shoes
• Tennis Shorts
• Tennis Socks
• Sports Drinks
• Tennis Bag
• Tennis Balls
• Tennis Racquets
• Sports drinks

1. Hold the racquet with your normal grip, but the more extreme topspins work best with the semi-western or western grip.

2. Take the racquet back and drop its head down.

3. Hit the topspin with either an open or closed stance.

4. Hit up on the ball finishing high, and out over the opposite shoulder, moving the racquet from low to high.

Tips & Warnings

• Visualize 'brushing up' on the ball as you hit it. The spin is caused by the angle of the stroke.
• Buying a good rough string or a custom hybrid stringing can enhance the ability to hit the ball with spin.

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[specialk1965]

on 1/3/2008 Thanks for the info, caonex. I'm trying to get my 12-year old daughter to hit with topspin, and she is both having trouble trying to learn it, and is also very stubborn in her need to learn. She'll see it on the JV team next year, so.... I also confirmed with her coaches that she CAN start, so there is a reduced chance of her blowing out her elbow (a la 12-year old pitchers with curveballs).

[caonex]

on 8/26/2007 An alternative to watching a more experienced player and possibly miss certain aspects of the swing, is to look for slow motion top spin video from the best players in the world in youTube.com. I have found slow motion videos that allow you to see every single aspect of the swing, regardless of the speed with which they execute it helping you capture the basics of it. You can find out some videos from Federer, Nadal, Sampras, pretty much all of the modern players that have for sure been caught with modern video cameras.

on 4/19/2008 Despite a lot of explanation, watching an experienced player for ten or fifteen minutes, standing near the court while he plays and watching the player (don't follow the ball) can allow a person to learn the technique more quickly and easily. Much of what really goes on when one hits a strong topspin shot is too fast to think about, just try to copy a more experience player and do what he does.

There are drawbacks to this too, some parts of a good swing are too fast to see, so mix the two techniques, the learning by the books (or by instruction) and learning by emulation.