Is forehand topspin supposed to be 6 to 12?

mightyrick

mightyrick

Legend
So in one of my recent hitting sessions, a guy who I regularly hit with told me that I'm getting a lot of topspin on my balls. However, he said that my shots are bouncing up -- but not straight back. They bounce up and to the side.

He said they are coming into him with top/side spin. As I watch some of my balls leaving my racquet (I'm right-handed), I notice that they seem to predominately rotate from 5 to 11 or 4 to 10. There was actually very few that I hit which were exactly 6 to 12.

Is this okay? Or are you supposed to always try to impart spin exactly 6 to 12?
 
L

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Angle don't matter.
Low balls, one angle, high balls, another angle, perfect balls, 6-12.
 
jmverdugo

jmverdugo

Hall of Fame
It has to do with where in your racquet path you hit the ball. If you hit it right when the racquet is going up, let's say when the racquet is horizontal, then your balls will bounce straight forward, it you are hitting it a little bit lower or higher it will bounce sideways.
 
X

Xizel

Professional
It's fine as long as you have enough topspin to make the shot consistent over the net and if desired, bounce high.
 
Fuji

Fuji

Legend
mightyrick said:
For me, it's this:

Low balls: 6-12
Perfect balls: 5-11 or 4-10
High balls: shanking knuckleball no-spin floating sitter lob

:)
Click to expand...

That actually is pretty accurate for me too. Normal rally balls go 5-11 and rushed ones/chips go from 6-12. High ones just go from whichever angle I can hit it LOL!

Sidespin is a beautiful thing!

-Fuji
 
5263

5263

G.O.A.T.
mightyrick said:
So in one of my recent hitting sessions, a guy who I regularly hit with told me that I'm getting a lot of topspin on my balls. However, he said that my shots are bouncing up -- but not straight back. They bounce up and to the side.

He said they are coming into him with top/side spin. As I watch some of my balls leaving my racquet (I'm right-handed), I notice that they seem to predominately rotate from 5 to 11 or 4 to 10. There was actually very few that I hit which were exactly 6 to 12.

Is this okay? Or are you supposed to always try to impart spin exactly 6 to 12?
Click to expand...

That's excellent and why we always teach the "up and across" action in MTM, as it even helps you to control your net clearance better than when a player goes from 6-12 oclock.
Do you use the 4-10 more for short ball attacking?
 
G

GuyClinch

Legend
What about hitting through the ball? You guys don't really stress that? Seems to me you can't do all three things - up across and through it mentally speaking..
 
5263

5263

G.O.A.T.
GuyClinch said:
What about hitting through the ball? You guys don't really stress that? Seems to me you can't do all three things - up across and through it mentally speaking..
Click to expand...

Very good question, but if you do the preceding things right,
by pulling the racket butt to accel at contact,
the change in direction to up and across tends to whip the racket face out thru the ball, but without the pushing over extension that pushes shots long as oft happens with those who focus on hitting out to the target.

There is a balance to be struck there for sure.
 
Last edited:
mightyrick

mightyrick

Legend
5263 said:
That's excellent and why we always teach the "up and across" action in MTM, as it even helps you to control your net clearance better than when a player goes from 6-12 oclock.
Do you use the 4-10 more for short ball attacking?
Click to expand...

I wish I could say that I'm consciously doing 6-12 or 4-10. What I'm finding is that if I'm on the baseline and the ball is hit right to me, but low (between ankles and knees), then the spin is 6-12.

An ordinary ball that I hit well in my strike zone (knees to waist) is usually 5-11 (ish). I still have no ability to impart topspin on a high ball, unfortunately. If I try to impart topspin on a high ball, it seems I always shank it. So I usually just heavily slice high balls on the forehand side.

Regarding the 4-10 spin, if I am on the baseline, and someone hits me a ball that comes up short (no-mans land) and I have to run forward to hit it... I end up with the 4-10 spin. Again, not really conscious... it just seems to happen that way.
 
5263

5263

G.O.A.T.
mightyrick said:
I wish I could say that I'm consciously doing 6-12 or 4-10. What I'm finding is that if I'm on the baseline and the ball is hit right to me, but low (between ankles and knees), then the spin is 6-12.

An ordinary ball that I hit well in my strike zone (knees to waist) is usually 5-11 (ish). I still have no ability to impart topspin on a high ball, unfortunately. If I try to impart topspin on a high ball, it seems I always shank it. So I usually just heavily slice high balls on the forehand side.

Regarding the 4-10 spin, if I am on the baseline, and someone hits me a ball that comes up short (no-mans land) and I have to run forward to hit it... I end up with the 4-10 spin. Again, not really conscious... it just seems to happen that way.
Click to expand...

That's all good stuff; and it seems you are doing it off well developed feel.

The lower balls have a more to the side (or deeper) contact pt usually, so that leads to the 6-12 motion with more lift for the shot.

The mid ct or short balls that you move forward for, can be hit aggressively from 4-10 which controls the flatter/tighter, net clearance better with the out front (slightly) contact point.

The aggressive rally baseline balls get hit with the 5-11 oclock because of the aggressive contact point with some inputs for net clearance, but to a slightly less degree than the mid ct/transition shots.
Good stuff.
 
salsainglesa

salsainglesa

Semi-Pro
I think there are subtle differences on low balls it can be 5-11
waist height 6-12 on rising balls it would be 7-1... but it just comes naturally

thats why the ball has side spin, watch at top pros, their ball on inside out fh bounces away from the court. Also the cross court, has some sidespin and the ball bounces away from the opponent.
 
F

Frank Silbermann

Professional
It all depends on how you hold the racket. If you have a horizontal racket at contact, you're probably going to get 6->12 spin. If the hand is lower than the racket head (e.g. on a high ball if your grip is not extreme and you're not underspinning it) then it's going to be more like 5->11 or 4->10. If the racket head is lower than the handle (e.g. hitting a low ball with a western grip), you might have some 7->1 spin.

A bit of side spin may increase the difficulty of precise shot placement (because the ball is changing direction as it travels), but you can just give yourself more margin for error. It doesn't help as much as topspin in bringing the ball down; it helps a bit only in that a curved path travels a longer distance and thus gives gravity more time to work -- but it most certainly does contribute to the "heaviness" of the shot. It also makes it more difficult to take on-the-rise.
 
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