Diagonal spin on forehand

[cortado]

Often when I hit a forehand it seems to have slight diagonal spin. It still has a topspin trajectory (arc up over net then dropping in before the baseline). But when I watch the ball as it flies away from me, often it's spinning slightly on its side, rather than a perfect north-over-south vertical spin? It looks like 2oclock is spinning around to end up at 8 o'clock and vice versa.
This seems to happen more on balls hit around shoulder height than knee height.
The most 'perfect' topspin without diagonal spin I've achieved is using 90 inch head with poly mains. I tend to get diagonal spin the most with my 97 inch head with synthetic gut full bed.
Does this actually matter? Or is it just my OCD annoying me?

 

[BlueB]

Like Nadal's "banana" shot? It's good!

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[cortado]

Not sure it actually has that banana shot trajectory, I think it's more just a regular up-over-the-net-then-down-the-other-side topspin arc but the ball itself has a bit of wonky diagonal spin.

 

[BlueB]

Does it bounce a bit to the side instead of following the trajectory?

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[cortado]

That's the one thing I've not been able to look for in the heat of the moment. I've seen side-bounce happen on my slices and drop-shots but not noticed it yet on forehand.

 

[serveitup911]

Any extra rotation on the ball is a good thing and makes it harder for your opponent to handle. I like to have the feel of the racquet going 4-10 or 5-11 on head and shoulder height forehands. The rotation will stabilize the ball flight and make your shots consistent like topspin even if the ball doesn’t dip as fast. The ball rotates around an axis, and biomechanically, that axis has to tilt more as contact point gets higher.

 

[Curious]

it’s called a kick forehand

 

[HuusHould]

A lot of the pros will control and fade the ball away from their opponent this way when flattening out in order to attack. The grips suited to hitting the higher balls are conducive to leading with your elbow and contacting with the racquet head a bit laid back. The fact that there's a topspin component makes it a bit less aggressive, but I find this a harder skill than just gripping and pulling down a pure sidespin drive. Wawrinka's good at fading with topspin. Andreescu is very good at flattening out with sidespin.

 

[2nd Serve Ace]

More frame mass, denser center pattern, thicker strings. These all help promote a 12/6 spin action.

 

[dahcovixx]

If you apply pressure at 5 oclock the ball will naturally goto 11 oclock. Think of it like strink a cue ball in pool.

A friend of mine was really good (won naia singles and doubles), he showed me this. He looked like an ordinary baseliner but when you play him, your arms are usually extended upon impact (making weak), ex step etc.

 

[BlueB]

More frame mass, denser center pattern, thicker strings. These all help promote a 12/6 spin action.

Interesting. How?

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[Shroud]

it’s called a kick forehand

I prefer twist myself...

 

[2nd Serve Ace]

Interesting. How?

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Physics.

 

[Curious]

More frame mass, denser center pattern, thicker strings. These all help promote a 12/6 spin action.

I thought it was just the opposite!
Lighter racket, less dense string pattern and thinner strings.
How come you got all three wrong?

 

[2nd Serve Ace]

I thought it was just the opposite!
Lighter racket, less dense string pattern and thinner strings.
How come you got all three wrong?

Just stick with pickleball.

 

[golden chicken]

Nothing promotes 6-12 spin as much as making contact with a 6-12 swing.

So...if you're getting 5-11 spin, you're probably swinging 5-11 at contact. Is it bad? Not necessarily. Just realize you have to aim slightly differently to hit your target.

 

[Vanhalen]

Na....light frame, thin poly, maximum spin, frustrating opponents, fun.

 

[ballmachineguy]

I’m calling bs on seeing the spin as the ball leaves your racquet.

 

[Slowtwitcher]

I’m calling bs on seeing the spin as the ball leaves your racquet.

What??? By the time the ball crosses the net plane you know what spin it carries.

 

[cortado]

I’m calling bs on seeing the spin as the ball leaves your racquet.

I don't mean 3 feet in front of me as it leaves, but once it's over the net I can often (but not always) see what kind of spin it has. Probably because I'm not good enough for it to have so many RPM that direction of spin becomes impossible to see.

 

[BlueB]

Physics.

Care to explain? I'm genuinely interested. In my mind, the swing path and contact point determin the spin axis, no mather of waight...

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[cortado]

More frame mass, denser center pattern, thicker strings. These all help promote a 12/6 spin action.

This is what I was thinking. My 90 is 340g strung, the 97 is 330g. With the 90 I notice some real 'bite' on the ball as I hit it and it feels like I really give it 12/6 spin. With the 97 the feeling is more vague on contact and only occasionally can I feel that I added 12/6.

 

[Dragy]

Tilted spin axis is natural at higher and lower contacts (hooking "inside" on lower, "outside" on higher). Moreover, if you try to keep it straight at those locations, you'll likely slow down the swing and spoil the flow.
Additionally, sidespin is efficient to throw off your opponent. You only should be aware of it to not let the ball float out, or too close and comfortable to the opponent when hitting wide.

 

[cortado]

Yeah it feels like when I deliberately try to stop it from happening I hurt my wrist.

 

[Dragy]

Yeah it feels like when I deliberately try to stop it from happening I hurt my wrist.

You can also experiment by hitting inside/outside of the ball more, or pushing hand more/less through against releasing racquet head into the ball, or letting the ball "sink" more/less to the side against hitting well in front. All will affect ball qualities, including spin axis.

 

[pencilcheck]

Ball is never struck perfectly upwards and forward, same goes for backhand, you can see in this vid Fed's stroke and his hitting partner's stroke are always cuving slightly left or right

 

[Morch Us]

It is infact a good thing. What you really need to learn is how to control that component by trying to hit on purpose by more inside of the ball or outside of the ball (just like on different pure topspin trajectories you try to adjust where on the vertical axis you hit. This is a common high level skill which most rec players ignore.

On most shots you want to feel like hitting slightly inside of the ball (and feel like coming over and to outside, even though it is not happening practically). This is similar to hitting slightly below center on topspin, and then feels like you are brushing and coming over the ball (even though in reality you are never going over the top of the ball).

Often when I hit a forehand it seems to have slight diagonal spin.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I’m calling bs on seeing the spin as the ball leaves your racquet.

Guess I missed it. Did someone here claim that they were seeing spin as the ball left the racket?

 

[golden chicken]

Guess I missed it. Did someone here claim that they were seeing spin as the ball left the racket?

I can definitely see the spin on the ball when I play mini tennis. Sometimes I can see it on my backhand groundstroke too. I hit flat, though, so "spin" might be a bit of an overstatement.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I can definitely see the spin on the ball when I play mini tennis. Sometimes I can see it on my backhand groundstroke too. I hit flat, though, so "spin" might be a bit of an overstatement.

I'll have to check that out next time I play mini tennis. I'm usually about 7m (> 21') from the net. Pretty sure I can see the ball when it is less than 10' (3m) from me but not sure if I can see it when it's less than 2' off the strings.

 

[cortado]

Guess I missed it. Did someone here claim that they were seeing spin as the ball left the racket?

I can't see it as it leaves the racquet, but once it has crossed the net, before it bounces on opposite side of court, I can often see whether the spin is 12-6 or 2-8 etc. (Probably because it's not spinning fast enough for the spin to be impossible to see).

 

[5263]

I can't see it as it leaves the racquet, but once it has crossed the net, before it bounces on opposite side of court, I can often see whether the spin is 12-6 or 2-8 etc. (Probably because it's not spinning fast enough for the spin to be impossible to see).

actually hitting 6-12 or 12-6 spin is not a good thing, as it shows that your swing has been compromised. All shots should have some degree of diagonal nature to the spin.

 

[nyta2]

Often when I hit a forehand it seems to have slight diagonal spin. It still has a topspin trajectory (arc up over net then dropping in before the baseline). But when I watch the ball as it flies away from me, often it's spinning slightly on its side, rather than a perfect north-over-south vertical spin? It looks like 2oclock is spinning around to end up at 8 o'clock and vice versa.
This seems to happen more on balls hit around shoulder height than knee height.
The most 'perfect' topspin without diagonal spin I've achieved is using 90 inch head with poly mains. I tend to get diagonal spin the most with my 97 inch head with synthetic gut full bed.
Does this actually matter? Or is it just my OCD annoying me?

high and low fh will typically have a "kick"

 

[Bender]

actually hitting 6-12 or 12-6 spin is not a good thing, as it shows that your swing has been compromised. All shots should have some degree of diagonal nature to the spin.

That's true, happens most often when your arm gets cramped up into your torso and you end up chicken winging it over the net.