They dont hit the ball just straight down to up for normal topspin, they hit it with side spin. I'm guessing they hit the ball from 7 to 1 or 8 to 2.
I guess that's possible, but they sure make it look like they're hitting a topspin forehand.
The sad thing is that if you hook your forehand, expect to get hooked in the match here and there! People call this shot out all of the time...they think its going out and when it lands inside the line, they either still see it out or they just call it anyway.
this is a good one!
Tell me what would you do.
that 'hook' comes from huge amounts of topsin. it can sometimes have some side action also, but the motion is the same.
semi-western or full wester grip with a windshield wiper like motion gets it everytime. It is one of my favorite shots.
The best "hook shots" are hit with a ridiculous amount of wrist action, to the point that they are forcing it. I don't recommend hitting this shot often, unless you want to injure yourself.
To carve a forehand that curves from left to right, as in hooking a ball in on a down the line that starts out wide and comes back, hit around the outside of the ball, coming up hard and fast on the outer portion of the ball. This creates a ball with an axis that is tilted some degree inward, causing the ball to curve down and in.
Remember the simple physics of any moving, spinning object: the ball will curve in the direction it is spinning, relative to it's forward motion. Thus, a ball that is spinning to the left will curve to the left.
The key, of course, is to learn to hit from left to right to make the ball spin from right to left. We see it more clearly on serves but it is not that difficult to create the action on other shots once a player understands the effect of spin.
Good luck!
IF you hit the forehand in front of you (for example, hitting the ball inside out from the ad court), you will tend to get the strong side spin from the natural racquet path.
Also, whenever the pros hook their shots, they are always running. That momentum, wrist action, and everything else is probably forcing the ball to spin incredibly. Plus the weight and stuff make the racket are spinnier than they already are.
Yes, but we're not going inside out, we're going outside in.
Ok, so this "hooking" thing that you're all talking about, does it work on a regular forehand like at chest/belly height? Cause I can't picture all this at that height, now, if it were like at shoulder height or slightly above, then you could hit it from right to left and impart that spin.
So are you all reffering to a low forehand like at knee height or slightly below, which you hit with the racket head down almost vertically upside-down? because then it would be easy to hit that shot
I have seen nadal do this twice with on the run passing shots down the line. Once against murray and again today against shuttler. That is some awesome skill level..
But the ball has to be knee height or lower to be able to put the curving side spin.
well, you can't see the result of this shot but i'd be willing to bet large sums of money this was a down the line hook. the inside out swing path is very pronounced in this clip of Nadal, which leads to another point - this type of swing usually, if not always, ends up with a reverse follow through.
I wanted to post a video where we could clearly see the inside out swing motion irrespective of what we could see of the ball.
It's apparent you just didn't read the post above yours first. No problem.
In this compilation of passing shots there are a few examples of the "hook" shot. Rafael Nadal is second after Roddick and there is a slo mo of exactly how to hit this shot.
Around 2:40, Federer hits a nice "baby curve" on the backhand side for a winner.
At about 3:40 in the video Andy Roddick hits a sweet forehand pass on Djokovic. Hawkeye even shows the curve of the ball. Great shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDGgZUNn2_c
The sad thing is that if you hook your forehand, expect to get hooked in the match here and there! People call this shot out all of the time...they think its going out and when it lands inside the line, they either still see it out or they just call it anyway.