best way to teach topspin forehand to junior player

[clintontiger]

My son who is 6 has a descent forehand for his age but he constantly cuts through the forehand instead of rolling it over. I have tried everything under the son to teach him to roll it over but nothing is working. I normally wouldn't care because he hits the ball hard and flat with the swing he has now, but he doesn't have much margin for error and hits alot of balls long or in the net. Plus I don't want that habit so ingrained that he can't get out of it which is starting to happen. Thanks for any help.

 

[Ash_Smith]

I like getting the player to trap the ball on the netband of the net with their racquet (making a sort of tennis ball sandwich!). Keeping the strings parallel to the net they have to bruch up and across to 'spin'the ball over the net to theo other player (in this case - you!). He will probably need help making the sandwich at first and you'll probably have to guide the racquet path with him a few times as he will likely open the racquet face the first few times.

This is obviously not the only way, but it's the most efficient way I have found to build the swingpath.

Hope that all makes sense.

Cheers

 

[1HBH Rocks]

With a 6 years old, it's tough 'cause you can't reason them out of a bad habit... The best thing is yet to have them play a game whose rules force the good habit in place.

Use the net and have him roll the ball over it a few times while explaining him that the next lesson he will learn will involve spinning the ball. Don't get too technical as he won't understand any way; simply make it fun. Then, propose him to simply flip the ball with spin over the net: the goal is to spin the ball into the other service boxes. At first, hand feed him -- just make sure that he's forced to lift the ball over the net and that he hits appropriate spin. Once he gets good, ask him to do the same thing, but this time he has to aim deeper.

A big mistake people might make is tell their kids things that follow the form "if A, then B"... that's a deduction and they cannot yet do this mentally. You could go and tell your kid that if he hits stop spin, because it brings the ball down earlier, he will then lessen the number of his mistakes, but he cannot operate these things -- he doesn't think that way, yet. At 6, it is plausible that he might be able to generalize stuff: if he's there cognitively, he will understand that when he does as you asked, the ball drops earlier and will use it when required. But, even then, he might still not be able to do this sort of operation before a while... that's what I meant by "you can't reason them out of a bad habit."

With a kid of his age, you need games, funny things... anything, in fact, that have them take good habits without it being in anyway formal. He's probably just hitting big and flat because he likes the feeling of it, but even a baby can reason this way. If you want to have him understand what he's doing, a lot of mental imagery, something symbolic, like having the ball draw a rainbow, can be much more effective as he should be technically thinking with symbols at the moment, unless he's early in his development.

 

[jk816]

With a 6 years old, it's tough 'cause you can't reason them out of a bad habit... The best thing is yet to have them play a game whose rules force the good habit in place.

Use the net and have him roll the ball over it a few times while explaining him that the next lesson he will learn will involve spinning the ball. Don't get too technical as he won't understand any way; simply make it fun. Then, propose him to simply flip the ball with spin over the net: the goal is to spin the ball into the other service boxes. At first, hand feed him -- just make sure that he's forced to lift the ball over the net and that he hits appropriate spin. Once he gets good, ask him to do the same thing, but this time he has to aim deeper.

A big mistake people might make is tell their kids things that follow the form "if A, then B"... that's a deduction and they cannot yet do this mentally. You could go and tell your kid that if he hits stop spin, because it brings the ball down earlier, he will then lessen the number of his mistakes, but he cannot operate these things -- he doesn't think that way, yet. At 6, it is plausible that he might be able to generalize stuff: if he's there cognitively, he will understand that when he does as you asked, the ball drops earlier and will use it when required. But, even then, he might still not be able to do this sort of operation before a while... that's what I meant by "you can't reason them out of a bad habit."

With a kid of his age, you need games, funny things... anything, in fact, that have them take good habits without it being in anyway formal. He's probably just hitting big and flat because he likes the feeling of it, but even a baby can reason this way. If you want to have him understand what he's doing, a lot of mental imagery, something symbolic, like having the ball draw a rainbow, can be much more effective as he should be technically thinking with symbols at the moment, unless he's early in his development.

I agree with this age you need a bigger, more interesting and readily grasped example that exaggerates the intended motion. For the modern FH, you could lean on basketball tricks. Can you spin a basketball on your finger? If you can't, no doubt some neighbor's kids can, it is a common b-ball trick, one that shares a lot of the physical aspects with the up and across stroke. Show him how to spin a basketball (better yet teach him, using a lighter ball)on his finger (non-racquet hand of course) and keep it going, and then tell him to try to do the same to the incoming tennis ball with his racquet. Once he grasps the motion, it is just a matter of judgement and timing (hand fed drills are good initially).

If you are teaching the classic TS FH, rolling the ball up the net or wall is the most common trick I see used by teaching pros. Not many kids seem to have fun with that though, from what I've seen it works better with adults.