How do you tell if you're hitting with a closed racket face?

[Ehh]

Without filming yourself in slow-motion high def footage, how do you tell that your hitting with a closed racket face?

If you're hitting a ball with lots of height over the net that seems to kick up on your opponent - you could be deceiving yourself that you're hitting with a closed racket face and lots of top spin - but really the ball is just going high and jumping up because your racket face is open...

Sometimes I can swing as hard as possible, and the ball moves quite quickly but still arcs in the air and dips well before the baseline - could it be that I've hit that shot with an open racket face?

I say this because I get a lot of height over the net, and swing as fast as I can at the ball - yet I'm not breaking a lot of strings. Apparently, the best way to tell if you're hitting with a lot of topspin is how often you break strings.

Since I'm not breaking strings, yet I'm getting a lot of height over the net, I can only assume that I'm only getting height over the net because I'm hitting with an open racket face and no topspin. but I have quite extreme grips (full western forehand and semi-western 1hbh), so I'd have to twist quite uncomfortably to hit with an open racket face...

Anyway, how do you tell if you're actually hitting with a closed face and topspin to achieve the height over the net, or if it's just open face racket and no topspin to make the ball go high?

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Can't you see the spin on balls that you hit? Do you hear a brush sound on your contact? These 2 clues should tell you if you are getting much topspin on the ball.

For most topspin drives/groundstrokes, your racquet face would be pretty close to neutral on contact. If you employ at fairly steep swingpath, particularly with extreme grips, the racquet face could be slightly closed on contact for most shots. On high, rising balls, the racquet face would often be somewhat closed.

 

[Rafa4Ever]

You can see the spin when you start hitting high RPM's. It's really not hard to tell

 

[DropShotArtist]

Is it even possible to hit with topspin with an open face? I think the only way is if you pull backwards towards you.

 

[THE FIGHTER]

Is it even possible to hit with topspin with an open face? I think the only way is if you pull backwards towards you.

top spin lobs are hit with an open face.

 

[mightyrick]

Sometimes I can swing as hard as possible, and the ball moves quite quickly but still arcs in the air and dips well before the baseline - could it be that I've hit that shot with an open racket face?

That shot has topspin.

If you want more topspin, loosen your grip and swing even faster. The racquet head should lag behind your swing and rocket into the ball. You should hear the whoosh sound of the racquet head as you swing. If you don't hear that sound, then you don't have good racquet head speed.

If you hit a good topspin shot, you should be able to hit it hard, five feet over the net, and have it dive two feet inside the baseline. That is topspin. If you want more topspin, go eight feet over the net, and use an even more extreme swing path (low to high).

Breaking strings isn't the tell-tale sign of topspin.

 

[OHBH]

The rackets is in your hands isn't it? Don't you know what your hands are doing?