Tomaz,

A coach I know teaches a topspin groundstroke style that produces shots with a pronounced curved trajectory and land deep into the opponent’s court with an aggressive high bounce (above shoulder level on a hard-court).

This style seems to be very effective: it pins your opponent to the back court and often forces him to produce a weak or short reply.

However, I also see that most pros don’t play this way. They hit shots that have tremendous pace and spin, but don’t bounce up that high.

Is this because unlike us, the pros can actually produce a winner off of a high bounce, so feeding a high bouncing ball to them is actually giving them an opportunity?

Please write an article discussing the mechanics of hitting high bouncing balls. Thanks!

Good question.

First, I assure you that pros also use this type of shot but not that often. Especially Nadal and other Spanish armada. With women it’s Patty Schnyder that can play like that quite often.

Why they don’t play it more often?

Because at the pro level this doesn’t hurt the opponent. A pro is skilled enough to handle such a ball.

They will probably not hit a winner but you haven’t achieved anything with your high bouncing shot except neutralize your opponent.

This used to be a successful tactics in 1990 but not in 2007.

Players are looking to hurt their opponent as soon as they can. So they choose the faster ball.

At the club level (or semi-professional) this shot is effective because players don’t have such good tennis skills and timing to handle a high kicking ball so well.

The result is that they often mishit the ball which then lands short and is easy to attack.

How to hit such a heavy topspin high kicking ball?

1. My first instruction would be to imagine the ball flight with higher arc and just do it.

I would demonstrate the shot but I would ask the player to observe the ball flight (and not my technique!) and try to play it.

Then it’s just a matter of repetition and refining the feel.

2. If after a while the player is not able to hit such a ball, I would work on top spin lobs and top spin shots from the baseline to my feet when I am at the net.

That’s how the player would get better feel for the spin.

3. The grip needs to be a little bit closed (semi-western), the wrist quite loose and the racquet needs to have a lot of speed.

So when you hit with a lot of top spin you need to let go of the stroke. Don’t control it too much.

Some coaches call this type of shot (on the forehand side) the windshield wiper forehand since you move the racquet more across the ball instead of through the ball.

4. Some other tips that help produce a lot of spin are to help with the leg drive and rotate fast with your upper body.

Again, I wouldn’t stay too long with the instruction. Instead I would ask the player to do it and let the body figure out HOW to do it.

Enjoy Roger Federer’s super kick serve here…