Forehand topspin help

[princeO32433]

on my forehand i cannot get ANY topspin at all. my coach says to brush up on the ball but when i try to do this most of the time i hit the frame. Also it does not give me that much topspin. Other players on this forum say to hit through the ball with an upward swing. when i do this the ball just flies straight up following the path of my upward swing. i really need that to get topspin on my forehand. can anyone suggest any tips to maximize my topspin? should i turn my shoulders or flick my wrist? What type of grip should i use?
Thanks!

 

[quicken]

Framing shots can only be explained by you not looking at the ball at contact. So watch where the ball goes until you hit the ball.

Now, you say you are hitting the shots straight up, which means you are hitting straight up. That is probably explained by opening your racquet and doing the low to high motion. Well, it doesn't work that way. You have to keep your racquet perpendicular to the ground. Don't try to open that racquet face up.

Now for the grip, the easiest grip to produce topspin is by gripping it western, the slanted angle of the racquet can really make a player produce some monstrous topspin.
You shouldn't use your wrist as it may lead to some nasty injuries. And I don't really get what you mean by shoulders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GxYqIyyeW4&feature=related

I found this video to be extremly helpful.

 

[wihamilton]

No wrist .

"Other players on this forum say to hit through the ball with an upward swing. when i do this the ball just flies straight up following the path of my upward swing."

Make sure your strings are facing the net, e.g. perpendicular to the tennis court, when you make contact. It sounds like you are opening up your racket face when you swing like this. This forehand has a bunch of topspin -- you can see the strings are facing the net at contact.

 

[wihamilton]

And I don't really get what you mean by shoulders.

Rotating the racket / arm, as a unit, from the shoulders adds topspin. It's one of the components of the windshield wiper forehand.

 

[quicken]

Rotating the racket / arm, as a unit, from the shoulders adds topspin. It's one of the components of the windshield wiper forehand.

Gosh, I thought what he meant was rotating as in like a circular rotation. Wow I'm off.

 

[wihamilton]

Haha no sweat. I mix up what people say on these boards all the time. Darn 3rd grade reading level...

 

[SFrazeur]

Haha no sweat. I mix up what people say on these boards all the time. Darn 3rd grade reading level...

With my dyslexia I windup with a third grade writing level , wanna go into business together.

-SF

 

[sonicboi21]

the reason some ppls balls go flying up is because you dont use the proper grip. the racket strings shouldnt be facing the net. it should be at an angle toward the ground

 

[BeHappy]

The so called windshield wiper forehand is the same as any other type of forehand, just with an undiciplined finish.When you finish over the shoulder, your followthrough stops there, your arm cannot physically move any further.There is the same 'wind shield wiper' movement with the racquet head if you finish over the shoulder.

There is so much BS in tennis instruction it's incredible.


And shoulder rotation has to do with how far in front of you your contact point is, that's all.Go through the videos of any pro frame by frame and you will see that the arm is moving forward from the shoulder, faster than the shoulders are rotating.

 

[wihamilton]

With my dyslexia I windup with a third grade writing level , wanna go into business together.

-SF

Sold. I'm dyslexic also. Match made in Heaven .

 

[princeO32433]

so during contact should my racquet face be perpendicular to the ground or angled down?

 

[BeHappy]

perpendicular

 

[quicken]

http://www.hi-techtennis.com/video_sample/index.php?movie=nadal_leverage.swf&size=normal

perpendicular

 

[Rafael_Nadal_6257]

Technically, at the exact instant of contact, the racket is never NOT perpendicular or angled up. Theoretically, the ball cannot be hit with the racket angled down at an average height, because of the physics involved. Check out extreme slow-mo vids of pros hitting groundstrokes and freeze it at the time of contact...

On the other hand, it is often useful to angle the racket down towards the court as swinging BEFORE contact so as to force yourself to swing up sharper with greater racket head speed to get more topspin.

 

[Rickson]

on my forehand i cannot get ANY topspin at all. my coach says to brush up on the ball but when i try to do this most of the time i hit the frame. Also it does not give me that much topspin. Other players on this forum say to hit through the ball with an upward swing. when i do this the ball just flies straight up following the path of my upward swing. i really need that to get topspin on my forehand. can anyone suggest any tips to maximize my topspin? should i turn my shoulders or flick my wrist? What type of grip should i use?
Thanks!

Swing from low to high.

 

[BeHappy]

Swing from low to high.

yup, keep the racquet face perpendicular though.

 

[Kratos]

No wrist .

"Other players on this forum say to hit through the ball with an upward swing. when i do this the ball just flies straight up following the path of my upward swing."

Make sure your strings are facing the net, e.g. perpendicular to the tennis court, when you make contact. It sounds like you are opening up your racket face when you swing like this. This forehand has a bunch of topspin -- you can see the strings are facing the net at contact.

I don't really get all this "no wrist" using thing, don't you use your wrist on the forehand wether you want to or not? And they also say that Federer has "a lot of wrist action" on his forehand, so what does all of this mean? where exactly or in what way should you not use your wrist? i would be extremely thankful if you could clarify this to me, since i'm having some trouble with the form of my forehand

 

[aimr75]

http://www.hi-techtennis.com/video_sample/index.php?movie=nadal_leverage.swf&size=normal

perpendicular

yeah, thats the problem i have sometimes, the racquet not being perpendicular, it being angled down leads to framed shots as the ball sees less of the face
________
Growing Marijuana

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

Use a semi-western grip and swing from low to high.

 

[Vision84]

on my forehand i cannot get ANY topspin at all. my coach says to brush up on the ball but when i try to do this most of the time i hit the frame. Also it does not give me that much topspin. Other players on this forum say to hit through the ball with an upward swing. when i do this the ball just flies straight up following the path of my upward swing. i really need that to get topspin on my forehand. can anyone suggest any tips to maximize my topspin? should i turn my shoulders or flick my wrist? What type of grip should i use?
Thanks!

If the ball goes straight up that means your racket face is to open. This means the stringbed is facing upwards to much. The cause of this is most likely that you need to make your grip more extreme. I recommend semi-western or eastern for you. Semi-Western gives you more top-spin potential and will help with high balls but will be harder for low balls.

If you hit the ball when you are brushing up you are probably just not swinging forward enough. You need a good balance between the to.

To maximise topspin drop the rackethead below the rest on the backswing so that the buttcap is pointing slightly upwards, then as you swing through the ball you rotate your wrist and follow through across your arm instead of over the shoulder.

 

[Off The Wall]

Practice Makes Better

I think topspin might be a bit ambitious for your skill level. Your questions indicate that you need to solidify your basic swing first. Topspin requires some serious vertical swing paths. That swing path requires more control than your questions indicate you have. Still, you're looking and thinking ahead. That's a good thing; keep it up.