Trouble Finding the Balance

Roy125

Professional
I'm having trouble finding a balance between brushing the ball up and hitting through it on a topspin serve. Usually, it's one or the other and I double fault. :(

If I brush up too much, the ball doesn't go past the net, and if I hit through the ball too much, it goes over the service line. Any help please?

Edit: I finally have a video of my topspin serves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rK_OX96YTI

Uh yeah, I don't know...I haven't been able to generate spin on any part of my game lately. :(
Please help.
 
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I'm having trouble finding a balance between brushing the ball up and hitting through it on a topspin serve. Usually, it's one or the other and I double fault. :(

If I brush up too much, the ball doesn't go past the net, and if I hit through the ball too much, it goes over the service line. Any help please?

Try not to smother it, but instead, aim as High over the net and as high UP as you can. That always helps me.
 

NLBwell

Legend
If you have the capability to get the big spin from brushing up on the ball, the rest is just many hours of practice.
 

Funbun

Professional
Hitting through the ball should be relatively natural in any service motion. Your body should be leading into the ball as you strike it when you transfer energy from your legs to hips to trunk to arm etc.

If anything, I sometimes visualize "throwing" my racquet up into the sky and forward towards the court. If I want to hit a hard topspin-slice (side kicker), I would just bend my knees a bit more and really throw myself into the serve. The forward energy just comes with the motion.
 
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user92626

G.O.A.T.
You have too many troubles. I thought we played tennis to get away from troubles.

Maybe save up $$ and see a sport psychiatrist?
 
I also have trouble generating topspin on my shots. :(

Then maybe its your form. Are you really brushing the ball or are you hitting through the ball. Right now, I'm trying to change my stroke to brush up on the ball rather than going through the ball.

If it isn't your form, maybe you can try a new string setup. It might help.
 

athiker

Hall of Fame
Maybe take a look at your toss and make sure it is consistent and note how far in front you are tossing. You might try a toss a bit further into the court so that when you hit up and thru the ball you aren't coming at it from an angle too far below and sending it sailing long.

I think you want the feeling of uncoiling and exploding up and after the ball but at contact the racquet needs to be moving through the ball to get power and at an angle that physics will keep the ball in play. "Physics" being a combination of striking angle of force, gravity and spin (I'm no physicist.)

Once you get that correct combination worked out then its getting all the parts...toss and motion consistent...ie. practice.

Disclaimer...I'm no coach either just thinking out loud. It seems if brushing up is landing you short you are not getting enough forward power. If hitting through the ball is sending it long then the angle of hitting through the ball is off. Both potentially solved by tossing more into the court?
 
I also have trouble generating topspin on my shots. :(

You're not dropping the head of the racquet low enough at the start of your forward swing. You've got to drop it as low as Rafa does in pic 3
NadalForehandBrokendown.jpg


The racquet head has to be low early in the forward swing in order to swing in the "low to high" swing path.

After impact the racquet has to continue moving quickly upward (pic 5), and you are swinging so rapidly up the racquet continues up willl into your follow through (pic 5).


I'll bet anythything that instead of having your racquet head low at the same position as pic 3 your racquet head is level with your hand.

Because that is the case, no amount of "brushing up on the ball" is ever possible to generate topspin.

The ball is only on your strings for a hundreth of a second, so the racquet path has to be from "low to high" starting from well before the contact point.



This is the same on the backhand. See the sixth through eighth pics below:
babx1234620101.jpg
 

Roy125

Professional
Then maybe its your form. Are you really brushing the ball or are you hitting through the ball. Right now, I'm trying to change my stroke to brush up on the ball rather than going through the ball.

If it isn't your form, maybe you can try a new string setup. It might help.

My new video is up. :D
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Back to practice time.
2nd serve, aim 3' above the netcord, spin it in with a hiss sound, 65 mph.
First serve, flat, aim 9" above netcord, as fast and flat as you can hit.
First serve spin, aim 2' above netcord, split the difference in ball speed, swing like your second serve swing, but hit it flatter, but not flat.
Practice.
 

Roy125

Professional
Back to practice time.
2nd serve, aim 3' above the netcord, spin it in with a hiss sound, 65 mph.
First serve, flat, aim 9" above netcord, as fast and flat as you can hit.
First serve spin, aim 2' above netcord, split the difference in ball speed, swing like your second serve swing, but hit it flatter, but not flat.
Practice.

My trouble is being able to put in a serve with that spinning hiss sound. I know that I'm hitting up, but the ball won't follow. :(
 
I addressed the aspect of your grounstrokes above first because it is very important that you understand what is responsible for what causes topspin in tennis.

Hard, penetrating topspin occurs from hitting the ball from "low to high".

Hard, penetrating topspin does not occur from trying to "brush up on the ball" - adding it on with a wrist movement.

Trying to brush up on the ball will only result in wristy, spinny shots that don't seem like you've hit them very hard.


So go back and understand what is going on in the correct way to hit topspin in forehands and backhands.

Then you can go about solving the problem you have in not hitting a forceful topspin serve.



In the posted video you are not hiting "low to high" in your serve.

You have too little rear shoulder drop going into your trophy pose, and subsequently too little ability to drop the front shoulder as the hitting shoulder comes up - too little vertical shoulder over shoulder action.
Instead your shoulders are being swung from right to left in a horizontal plane [and as a symptom of this you swing your rear leg around from right to left, rather than kicking your rear leg back like the pros].
Jim McLennan of TennisOne explains exactly what you are doing wrong in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTRvxaBMh8s
[He stresses this also can cause a rotator cuff shoulder injury, but you are swinging your shoulders like the "amateurs he mentions, not like the "pros".]

The result of this type of swing is that you are hitting the ball straight forward without any "low to high" action.

Instead you want to be hitting the ball while your racquet is still going up:
Set_2060.jpg




Here's how to do it:

You want to get into a steeper shoulder angle in your trophy pose, and use a vertical shoulder over shoulder action to bring your racquet up the back of the ball to impart topspin.


sampras_serve_04_0402.jpg


As you release the ball, keep bringing your tossing arm up and up and up until it is held straight up (pics 1-9) as you go into your trophy pose. This gets the rear shoulder down and gets the tossing shoulder up.

Also notice that by the trophy pose (pic 9) as seen from the side the body is in the "shape of a bow" with the front hip over the baseline.


In pics 10 - 13 the rear shoulder is rapidly raised (and the front shoulder rapidly dropped straight down.
(At the same time the "bow shape of the body is reversed.)




What this causes is that right after pic 13, the racquet is still moving up low to high, even as the ball is struck.
This "low to high" motion of the racquet imparts the topspin you are looking for, even as you give the ball a powerful smack with a pronation movement with your arm.


I hope you follow this and are able to incorporate it into your serve.
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Roy, AIM HIGHER!
If that hissing spin is hitting the net, you have not hit the ball THREE FEET higher than the net. Raise your target, ARC in into the court.
 
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