How Do You Know That You Hit A Top Spin?
I recently had a tennis lesson with an 11 year old girl in the tennis academy and we were working on top spin.
She was hitting sometimes with lots of spin and sometimes too flat.
So then I asked her: “Was this a top spin?”
She: “Yes.”
Me: “How do you know?”
She: no answer…
She knew that she hit a top spin backhand but she couldn’t explain to me how she knew.
2 days later I had a lesson with an adult advanced recreational player.
At one point, I asked him again: “Was this a top spin?”
He: “Yes, sure.”
Me: “How do you know?”
He: paused for 10 seconds then told me one thing right and two things that were not exactly necessarily true.
I realized that something what may be obvious to a tennis coach studying tennis for 20 years is not so obvious for a tennis player who hasn’t spent countless hours THINKING about tennis.
So here is a quiz question: How do you know that you hit a top spin?
Test your knowledge and reply in the comments box below.
The correct answer will be posted on Friday, 22nd of June here on the blog and in the next issue of the TennisMindGame.com newsletter.
You can check the past issues of the newsletter here.
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June 19th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
the sound the strings make when brushing up against the ball…i think?
June 19th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
topspin is when you swing from low to high on the ball. the ball should kick up after hitting the floor. and should be hit higher over the net than a flat. i think…
June 20th, 2007 at 12:07 am
- The sound of the ball brushing the strings – The flight path of the ball: it clears the net nicely and lands comfortably inside the court on the opponent’s side. – The bounce: it bounces higher and pushes your opponent to the baseline – And finally – just by looking at the ball, you can see it spinning, especially if the ball’s relatively fresh and the branding on it still shows
June 20th, 2007 at 12:27 am
start from under where you wanna hit the ball and Brush up the back of the ball
June 20th, 2007 at 2:11 am
You know it is top spin if ball curves in and then accelerates on impact with the surface. basically you can track the ball with your eyes until its hits the surface but then its hits the surface it accelerates and goes really fast making it difficult or sometimes impossible to return.
June 20th, 2007 at 3:27 am
nice to read this
June 20th, 2007 at 4:27 am
You know when you’ve hit a topspin shot because the ball flight is slightly higher when it leaves your strings (compared to hitting flat) but takes a sharp dip on passing the net (or near the opponents baseline). An experienced player will see the curvature flight path of the ball almost immediately and associates this with his stroke pattern and feel of the ball. Starting a stroke below the height of the bounce is no guarantee of hitting with topspin if the racquet face comes through open or hits the ball flat (which will send the ball way too long). Pro players know that they must hit with a nearly vertical racquet face or slightly closed as they brush up the back of the ball – it is this feel that they try to repeat and get feedback by observing the arc of the ball flight. It would be virtually impossible to see the ball spinning as it leaves the racquet strings because of the speed of the shot and pro players don’t shift their heads off the contact zone until they follow through, after which time they see the ball passing the net with the familiar rise & dip.
June 20th, 2007 at 5:35 am
When a well hit ball clears the net by 2 feet or more and yet falls in- thats a top spin shot !
June 20th, 2007 at 7:47 am
Well… I’ll answer that i know it’s a top spin from the feeling of hitting the ball with the raquet moving upwards relatively with the ball. Of course there’s that, that the ball dips down and then kicks up, however those things can be deceiving if you’re using a raquet and ball both whitch you’ve never used(or seen, or read about) before and hence don’t know anything about them. Also you can’t really say from just the sound because brushing the ball in any direction with the same angle and speed sounds the same. Of course just brushing up doesn’t make it certain that you get top spin since if you’re opponent just hit a huge top spin, if you don’t brush up enough it might be allmost spinless, or even have backspin. That why you really need to feel it to be sure.
June 20th, 2007 at 8:58 am
You will know from a number of things. Feel of the ball on the racquet, when you hit up and under the ball. Observation of the spin and the flight of the ball in an arc over the net and dipping, and finally the way the ball kicks up on the bounce.
Joe.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:11 am
I know I hit topspin when it really feels like it, or when I am intending it and I see it by watching the ball. Sometimes I hit a forehand that sinks in right where I wanted it and which must have had topspin to get there. So in that case its a “feeling” and an “intention” that makes me believe it had topspin.
June 20th, 2007 at 11:00 am
your follow through ends up much higher than the contact zone.
June 20th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
You know you have created topspin if your swing was from low to high meeting the ball with a vertical or slightly closed racket face, causing the ball to rotate forward on its horizontal axis…
June 20th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Most obvious result is when the ball bounce. If it bounce with more power then when it landed, then it is top spin.
June 21st, 2007 at 12:57 am
Thanks for some many cool and thoughtful replies. I will post my ideas tomorrow.
July 4th, 2007 at 4:50 am
I know that I hit top spin If I see the ball rotating around itself from top to bottom.
July 12th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Whenever you change your grip (the one appropriate for a top spin stroke) and you execute it well along with all of the steps mentioned above low to high, follow through etc…