Question about Topspin serve
- Thread starter Sjohn
- Start date
Follow-through?
I’ve been following this thread for a while and throughout all the discussion on how to toss, where to brush the ball, et al, I haven’t seen anything that talks about the follow-through.
The reason I bring it up is that two books I have describe different pathways. One says that your racquet should end up on my serving side (i.e. if I’m a right hander my racquet will follow an arc downward after striking the ball and end on my right side). The other says that it will end across my body by my feet.
My apologies if this was already covered in this thread.
I’ve been following this thread for a while and throughout all the discussion on how to toss, where to brush the ball, et al, I haven’t seen anything that talks about the follow-through.
The reason I bring it up is that two books I have describe different pathways. One says that your racquet should end up on my serving side (i.e. if I’m a right hander my racquet will follow an arc downward after striking the ball and end on my right side). The other says that it will end across my body by my feet.
My apologies if this was already covered in this thread.
TennisAsAlways
Professional
^^^
Yeah, "generally" for a right-hander, the Topspin and Twist follow-through would end up on the right side. It's not a "must-do" thing though. It's just a commonly noticed idiosyncrasy among right-handers, that's all. Some people land on their right foot, some on their left; same kind of thing with the serve follow-through side.marcl65 said:
Okay, thanks guys. I was trying this method during a practice session after someone mentioned that I was making a chopping motion at the ball as opposed to following through. I’d tried swinging the racquet around the front of my body but worrying about hitting myself in the legs caused me to screw up my swing, and I did hit my legs once or twice.TennisAsAlways said:
When I tried bringing the arm around to the right side I really liked the results – topspin went deeper, faster, more consistent, more spin, etc. However, this morning my right deltoid is really sore so it got me wondering if maybe this wasn’t the right way to do it.
TennisAsAlways
Professional
I'll repeat this BORING suggestion that you "may" often times hear, phrased in one way or another: "You should NOT direct the racquet to where you would visualize the follow-through. You should NOT even be "visualizing" the follow-through. Just make correct ball contact and let the follow-through occur naturally (Don't fight against it or force it to happen a certain way, but rather smoothly direct it to decelerate.)".marcl65 said:
I had not heard that. However, does that apply just to serves? It wasn’t until my coach got me to catch the throat of my racquet in my left hand (at neck level) that my topspin forehand really got working. For whatever reason, if I don’t consciously tell myself to catch the racquet, my arm takes a more lateral path resulting in less topspin/flat shots.TennisAsAlways said:
Anyway, for some reason I don’t have a problem with flat/slice serves ending up on my left side. Just the topspins.
TennisAsAlways
Professional
Strokes in general.marcl65 said:
Hey, whatever works for you. There are always exceptions.
Isn't it that you want to have a follow-through like that of the pros/tennis players with good form in "general"? If so, then the idiosyncrasy for a Topspin serve is to have the racquet end up on your "right' side, not your left.
mucat
Hall of Fame
marcl65 said:
I was going to post exactly the same thing TennisAsAlways did. Don't force the follow-thru to finish certain way. Follow-thru is the result of your swing. Fixing the follow-thru might not fix a swing problem, but fixing related swing problems will produce the correct follow-thru.
Catching the racket help finish the swing high, but if you can remember to swing from low to high, catching the racket is unnecessary.
mucat
Hall of Fame
marcl65 said:
Because the follow-thru happen AFTER the ball left the racket, whatever you does with your follow-thru has nothing to do with the ball. In theory, Roddick can serve his 140mph serve and follow-thru with a nosepick. However, for example, for FH serve return, short swing with an extended follow-thru help, because players tend to decrease racket speed before contact if do not complete the follow-thru. But for serve, which side you finish your follow-thru is determine by your swing.
TennisAsAlways
Professional
The "Cause vs Effect" analogy.
Recently I changed my grip to continential and I changed my toss position so that if it dropped it would hit my shoulder but about 1.5 ft into the green. I have been hitting through the ball instead of constantly thinking about brushing upwards at it. I realized like the flat serve if I try to frame the ball with the racket my arm will auto pronate. All in all I think my serve has improved. It has a lot more pace now and an added touch of spin.
I went out on the court today and had some pretty good topspin. The difference was the scratch position. I usually have a slight pause, but today I tried bringing my racket lower and lower so it was always moving. Wow, it was some really nice spin and took a lot less effort. The other guy was asking how I did it. Hopefully, next time I can reproduce it. LOL.
