took a long break from tennis and couldn't even hit over the net anymore and came across this vid. this vid was perfect for me thank you so much! I was trying to generate top spin incorrectly exactly how you explained the common misconception. after realizing swing path was the proper fundamental I've been playing so much better.
And to take an extra step on more topspin, I'd say your back leg should be bent more as you're hitting your shot to emphasize getting underneath the ball.
Hi, ATP player and soon-to-be coach here. Just gonna say that these tips work only if you are an ultra (emphasized) beginner. With even a little bit of tennis ability, the only "tip" that works here is Ian's, and is what the pros do for topspin. Swing path isn't that relevant as people with relatively! straight swing paths get huge amounts of topspin viz. Roger. Last event I was in, Grigor hit a forehand winner with 4.2k rpm, and he has a pretty flat swing path. Also, long ago it was established that no pros hit with a perpendicular racquet face. like ever. Even from vids of myself, there is always an angle downward....might be very small, might be very large but it's always there. Thing is, you don't change the angle of the racquet during the shot - I agree that can't be controlled, but if you start your forward swing with a closed racquet face, then you're bound to hit the ball with a closed racquet face. Ez pz lemon squeezy.
There is a universe of ability between professional players and those watching our videos, Baroque! No disrespect to our viewers at all, just the reality of things. The content we create isn't for professionals, or even high level amateur players, and we make that pretty clear. Two things quickly: 1. If you watch our coaching videos working with students in real time it doesn't take long to see that swing path IS a major factor among average players. It doesn't matter how well you do with any other swing element if the racquet doesn't drop below contact height before meeting the ball, and a big percentage of our students learned how to play decades ago when a very, very lateral swing path was taught. 2. You're absolutely correct RE racquet face angle - at the pro level the face is usually (but definitely not always) closed at least a few degrees. The audience we're creating videos for swings dramatically slower than those players, and creates dramatically less topspin (aka hits flatter, with less arch and shape to their shots). So, a correct racquet face angle for them isn't nearly as closed. Best wishes, thanks for leaving your thoughts! -Ian
Hello my name is John William Madden and I am a tennis player here in Hernando Florida I am playing singles in the special Olympics I have seen some of y'all videos and I have took that knowledge and put it into my practice on the weekends
What is important here is to teach proper shape and rhythm whether its topspinn or slightly flatter ,what I find with most beginners is wanting to cream the ball with no purpose and sadly some coaches don't emphasize feel, again a great video with simple and clear ideas for a starter
Good timing... just had a lesson last evening, and my shots were hitting the top of the net... need more bottom to top swing... love Kirby, and the gold bling racket
I really love playing tennis but I don't have my own racket 😢 I just borrowed tennis racket from my coaches because Tennis Racket is very expensive here in the Philippines.
When you are talking about Roger at 1:24 do you think that his racket is parallel to the ground due to the grip that he uses? What do you say about the palm/racket face facing the back fence in the backswing to create a longer swing path? Kind of like this one of Djokovic ruclips.net/video/Nw_2I2ksX3U/видео.html at 0:08 What are your thoughts regarding the different swings and is it solely due to the grips?
Trying to redevelop my forehand, so I do have an important question; do you have to snap your wrist in order to add racket head speed to the forehand????!
Essential Tennis - Lessons and Instruction for Passionate Players Unbelievable video!! Have to overhaul everything!! Uggghh. Thank you for this insight!!!!
I don't think that maximizing topspin is the answer to every shot you play in tennis. moderate spin is okay to clear the net and land in court but it's becoming a craze now
Hi ! I love your video! I'm a fan of Novak Djokovic and i love sliding on the court no matter the suface ! I can do it only with the forehand but with not the backhand. Can have an advice to do the slide with my backhand ? Thank you for answers !
That's a TOUGH one, Djoker! Maybe we'll do a video about it soon, would you like that? It takes incredible speed, balance, and athleticism to do on a hard court.
hy ...i love your videos....very instructive... i 've send you my email to receive the plan for forehand accuracy and also for forehand maximum topspin but they are not arrived ....not even in the spam section of my email.....i've sent a message to you on facebook.....can you please explain me why the pdf via mail doesn't arrive?.......
That actually happened to me too a little while ago :( It came in a bit late and I'm glad it did because their lesson guides are always *super* helpful 👍
Some tips are good, but its not true that the racquet face is perpendicular in 9 shots out of 10, I don't know how such respected tennis coaches as you are can claim that. Federer's racquet and racquet of most ATP pros have a CLOSED racquet face upon contact, by around 4-10 degrees, depending on the incoming ball, and their own swing and what type of shot they are hitting. If ATP pros hit with their racquet speed and have a racquet face vertical theres no way they would be able to add enough spin without the ball going long, because the swing path would be too upward for that racquet speed, so the ball would go too long if they didn't close the racquet face slightly. Manipulating the racquet face is crucial for topspin and having a big variety of hits.
You make some really good points, Alen! Immediately after Kirby's take we actually discussed the "9 out of 10" bit and decided that while it definitely wasn't the best way to get her point across it wasn't enough to throw it out and start over. RE the actual angle - the pros are accelerating soooo much more aggressively than those who watch our videos. While there is definitely variation in the angle that's used at contact the majority of pro shots are still quite close to perpendicular. The only time the racquet is significantly closed (more than a few degrees) is on a high/short ball where the other side of the court starts to become directly accessible by the player. Of course, its important to be able to explain and articulate those things! However, within the context of a general grounstroke/topspin tutorial like this where most viewers are in the 3.0-4.0 range I believe saying "perpendicular" is enough information without getting too "inside baseball". Thanks for watching and for leaving your thoughts. Always good to know where we can improve our explanations! -Ian
Thanks for your positive reply Ian, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. I love your videos, you guys really explain things very well and offer alot of useful advice and your simplified aproach to teaching is wonderful, I really like it. I do think like 99% of your advice is sound and spot on, so nitpicking this little thing might seem a bit "aggressive" from me, but belive me it was not my intention, I was simply trying to help by pointing this out, because im sure you guys also know that managing the racquet face does affect alot of things. But I do agree that beginners do not benefit from this advice at all, the racquet face angle at this point is useless as they have a ton of fundamentals to learn, only after players get really familiar with the strokes and consistent decent pace strokes and can accelerate the racquet face fast and produce decent spin, is it even useful to start introducing them to this concept, and once they start experimenting and trying to change the face slightly they will notice alot of difference and as they keep practicing it they will learn what it does and help them develop alot more variety with their stroke. For example, say your trying to make alot of spin and hit at a big upward angle, once u keep hitting faster and faster, the ball will have some more spin but also more upward arc aswell, and once u reach a certain racquet speed the ball will start going too deep, if now you start hitting even more upward you do add more spin but u also increase ur arc aswell, so the ball will start beeing quite a HUGE looopy arc slow moonball, the other thing instead of increasing ur upward swing angle, is to close ur racquet face a bit more, what that will do is hit the ball a bit above the center of axis of rotation, meaning it will take away some pace but add a bit of spin, and it will also make your arc smaller even if you are hitting at the same upward angle, since ur face is pointing more down, meaning now you can hit with even more racquet speed at this angle and produce even more spin, and ur arc is smaller, so you have a new "safety margin" where you can increase ur racquet speed beyond what was before your maximum (till ball went too deep) and produce more ball pace and more spin and a more heavy ball. Essentialy closing the racquet face basically provides you: 1. more spin 2.smaller arc and ur face should be closed enough that you can hit with ur max consistent racquet speed and produce the most spin and pace and heaviness of the ball, so that the ball still stays inside the court and is not too deep. The most important ways ul want to manage ur racquet face and close it: 1.From baseline only if the ball begins being too loopy and high arc once u maximize spin with upward swing and shoulder rotation and maybe even going too deep even when ur hitting with only 70% swing speed... ul then want to close ur face a bit so u can hit with 90% swing speed, arc will be smaller, pace of ball faster, spin much greater an the ball will still not go deep (once you find the right angle, similar to how nadal hits his winner shots, ball doesn't have a ton of arc but has ton of spin), then you can play with that angle + upward swing to create different types of arcs and ball speeds and spins, to mix it up, from high arc heavy spin balls to more lower more pacey still heavy spin balls, or sometimes not closing ur face as much and hitting less upward for more flat balls 2.Short angle shots, u want as much spin as possible and less pace, so basically you swing the same swing speed as from the baseline, only that you swing more upward and close ur face a bit more, but swing speed stays similar, and then you transform your deep ball into a short angle heavy spin ball 3.Short putaway shots that bounce higher than net as you mentioned before, you will want to close ur face to prevent the ball from going long and give you the ability to hit a fairly pacey ball (if ur racquet is perpendicular u cant add any good amount of spin with upward motion in this type of shot, the arc will be too big, pace too slow, ball will go too deep more often than not, just a mess) So hitting upward more adds : more spin, bigger arc, less pace rotating ur shoulder adds : more spin closing ur face adds : more spin, smaller arc, less pace So with these three things you can combine different variations for very different results and different types of shots, theres reason some people say Federer has 30 different forehands :) Sorry if my reply was too long, I apologize, hopefully you understood my points, i would be willing to hear your opinion on all this if you have the time and patience, but if not thats fine aswell, I know you guys are busy! Good luck with ur channel, really love your videos, keep up the good work!
You've got really excellent understanding of the physics and mechanics of a groundstroke swing, Alen! I didn't take your initial comments as being "aggressive" at all, I could tell you were trying to help, and as I said, I agree that it could have been better phrased. I was waiting for somebody to jump on that, haha. Nothing to add to your additional situational descriptions. Keep up the great work on your game my friend! -Ian
I have a question for you if you can make a video about my question my question is when you serve the ball for some reason I have put a backspin on a tennis ball I don't know how I did that and plus on that back hen I have put a backspin on the tennis ball can you explain how someone with not a lot of tennis experience have did that
In this video, Kirby played the forehand with the racket face perpendicular to the ground. But in one of the previous video (ruclips.net/video/yQRmHsHgrRI/видео.html), she played it with a slight closed racket face. I would like to bring this up because many kids these days are trained to hit forehand with a slightly closed racket face, including my 11 year old daughter. Her coach tries to make her play it that way, but she finds it difficult as she is skinny and does not have much power. It's something that I disagree with her coach.
Does anyone else find it incredibly difficult to time the ball using a swing path that is so vertical? I feel like the vast majority of Club players aren’t going to be able pull this off consistently. There needs to be a shift towards a simpler and easier swing path so players that aren’t pros can develop some consistency.
Just practice feeding balls to yourself near the net and see if you can hit mini lobs out of it. Then you can bring the trajectory back down for normal rally shots.
I disagree. Agree with Alex X below. Covering the ball with a slight tilt of the racquet (or even bigger tilt) is the only way to hit topspin like the pros, with lots of spin and speed. In fact, the wrap around effect on the ball is what gives best spin and control (why it looks like some players are flinging the ball off their racquet). Are you forgetting that the strings both retract and grab the ball? - though not much with easy hitting. It is understandable that this is hard to do unless there is just enough racquet speed to "grab" the ball, but I can't understand why vertical racquet face is taught here unless you are teaching only beginners. It would seem that you are just being contrary to other advanced instruction to impress the viewer that you know better. Sorry that I am a bit self righteous about this.
I think you missed the main point I made in response to Alex, Ron. When you compare the hitting of our viewers to that of the pros I'd wager that literally 99% of it IS "easy hitting". As such, we're not going to spend people's time and attention quibbling about a few degrees when saying "flat" is enough for just about everybody watching. I don't disagree with a single thing Alex said. The real question is "does that part of pro execution matter to the development of our audience?". If the answer is "no" then we're going to leave it out every time. We aren't a "geek out on pro technique" channel (although that is fun once in a while!), our interest is purely in application for the amateur athlete so they can improve their game. -Ian
I listened again to the early part of the video. Reference to the myth, Impossible to get topspin covering the ball, a clear denunciation of the instructors who teach this way and this approach. In my experience, many or most of the students who try for topspin using a vertical face get little or no topspin. I may just have weakness in my teaching so that I don't succeed teaching topspin unless I emphasize coming over the ball with enough acceleration. I'm open to not thinking my way is the right way or best way. You have made a great impact with your online teaching. I don't have much experience doing what you do. You know if this is really helping players improve or get the results you are looking for.
I really appreciate your openness in regards to methods, Ron! Not many RUclips users are that gracious, haha. For me, personally, I don't believe in or teach the "over the top" approach at all. Like you, all I can really do is speak from my personal experience, and in those years I've come across a LOT of amateur players who have twisty, turny motions with their forehand and struggle mightily to create any meaningful topspin. Topspin is much, much more simple than most people assume it is, and I say that based on the results I see from people following our progressions. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree, but I'm still very grateful to have you as a viewer! -Ian
I disagree. The racket does turn over the ball with the forearm turning during the forward swing as it goes away from the body.Look at all the professionals and you will notice that this is the case. By the way, you showed a slow motion of one of the only off-center hit, but he did turn over the forearm.
Topspin is overrated. I have been hitting topspin but its hard to hit winners with topspin. Then I learned to hit flat. That made it easy to win, without out the long rallies. Topspin takes away the speed and penetration, but the ball will clear the net and land inside. For me, learning to hit flat was much harder than learning to hit topspin.
Vertical acceleration? You are trying to hit a topspin forehand, not a topspin lob. Trying to hit a ball with a tacked on windshield wiper motion is never ever going to work, that’s really bad advice.
You missed the point of my feel exercise completely, Brett. To quote the video: "Of course this isn't the only motion that we want to use. Again, what Ira talked about with the overall path of the racquet is really most fundamentally important, but if you add a little bit of this on top of an overall vertical path then you'll really start to see big topspin." We're in agreement 100%: the windshield wiper motion in and of itself doesn't work to create topspin. -Ian
Don't stop here! Grab your free PDF action plan to take your forehand to the next level: essentialtennis.lpages.co/topspin-action-plan/
Sir the pdf is missing
Sorry the pdf is not there
pdf is not found there ((
took a long break from tennis and couldn't even hit over the net anymore and came across this vid. this vid was perfect for me thank you so much! I was trying to generate top spin incorrectly exactly how you explained the common misconception. after realizing swing path was the proper fundamental I've been playing so much better.
Y’all make great videos, keep up the work. Helping out a lot of people out there!
Appreciate that so much, Leolia!
And to take an extra step on more topspin, I'd say your back leg should be bent more as you're hitting your shot to emphasize getting underneath the ball.
I enjoy every action movement you are teaching to your student and learning quite a bit. It is awesome.
What has been the most helpful, Mary?
Hi, ATP player and soon-to-be coach here. Just gonna say that these tips work only if you are an ultra (emphasized) beginner. With even a little bit of tennis ability, the only "tip" that works here is Ian's, and is what the pros do for topspin. Swing path isn't that relevant as people with relatively! straight swing paths get huge amounts of topspin viz. Roger. Last event I was in, Grigor hit a forehand winner with 4.2k rpm, and he has a pretty flat swing path. Also, long ago it was established that no pros hit with a perpendicular racquet face. like ever. Even from vids of myself, there is always an angle downward....might be very small, might be very large but it's always there. Thing is, you don't change the angle of the racquet during the shot - I agree that can't be controlled, but if you start your forward swing with a closed racquet face, then you're bound to hit the ball with a closed racquet face. Ez pz lemon squeezy.
There is a universe of ability between professional players and those watching our videos, Baroque! No disrespect to our viewers at all, just the reality of things. The content we create isn't for professionals, or even high level amateur players, and we make that pretty clear. Two things quickly:
1. If you watch our coaching videos working with students in real time it doesn't take long to see that swing path IS a major factor among average players. It doesn't matter how well you do with any other swing element if the racquet doesn't drop below contact height before meeting the ball, and a big percentage of our students learned how to play decades ago when a very, very lateral swing path was taught.
2. You're absolutely correct RE racquet face angle - at the pro level the face is usually (but definitely not always) closed at least a few degrees. The audience we're creating videos for swings dramatically slower than those players, and creates dramatically less topspin (aka hits flatter, with less arch and shape to their shots). So, a correct racquet face angle for them isn't nearly as closed.
Best wishes, thanks for leaving your thoughts! -Ian
This and you backhand video gave my topspin the boost it needed
This is the best video I have ever seen about tennis on youtube...💖💖
Keep doing the great work!!👍
Hello my name is John William Madden and I am a tennis player here in Hernando Florida I am playing singles in the special Olympics I have seen some of y'all videos and I have took that knowledge and put it into my practice on the weekends
What is important here is to teach proper shape and rhythm whether its topspinn or slightly flatter ,what I find with most beginners is wanting to cream the ball with no purpose and sadly some coaches don't emphasize feel, again a great video with simple and clear ideas for a starter
LOVE this channel! Love the Academy.
Good timing... just had a lesson last evening, and my shots were hitting the top of the net... need more bottom to top swing... love Kirby, and the gold bling racket
Have you had the chance to give this a shot yet, Wong?
You look like a villain Bond character : ''The girl with the golden racket''
plz help me creating topspin with two handed backhand thanks
You bet, this video is exactly for you: ruclips.net/video/zWtKk3EC53U/видео.html
Is that what you were looking for?
so contact the ball at 6 , 3 or 12 o'clock for max spin ?
Thank you🙌🔥👏🏼👏🏽💯
I really love playing tennis but I don't have my own racket 😢 I just borrowed tennis racket from my coaches because Tennis Racket is very expensive here in the Philippines.
What is your address , maybe I can send you some rackets that i can get here in the states cheap.
Oii naglalaro kapa ba? Kababalik ko lang ulit sa tennis XD
Newbie
Did you spray paint your racquet?
Where is Kirby? Did she leave now
Verbal explanation is so key to your video. Wishing you tour Norcal someday. Love to attend a camp with you guys.
Appreciate the input, Marko! We'll be teaching clinics in Indian Wells this coming March!
Could you make the same video about the one handed backhand plz
Great idea, added it to our list!
Beautiful physics you have put one who understands can only generate forehand top spin. The girl was very excellent while explaining.
Thank you very much!
When you are talking about Roger at 1:24 do you think that his racket is parallel to the ground due to the grip that he uses?
What do you say about the palm/racket face facing the back fence in the backswing to create a longer swing path?
Kind of like this one of Djokovic ruclips.net/video/Nw_2I2ksX3U/видео.html at 0:08
What are your thoughts regarding the different swings and is it solely due to the grips?
Trying to redevelop my forehand, so I do have an important question; do you have to snap your wrist in order to add racket head speed to the forehand????!
Here's an excellent video from another online coach about that topic: ruclips.net/video/vfsS9JAAdMc/видео.html
Essential Tennis - Lessons and Instruction for Passionate Players
Unbelievable video!! Have to overhaul everything!! Uggghh. Thank you for this insight!!!!
Dang, I was having this same problem not too long ago too!! Funny enough I just scrolled across this comment 😂
Yes but what grip?????
Great description and progression!
Have you had a chance to try it out, Marco?
Yes, thanks! Many times players Think that the key for a top-spin is to hit the ball turning the racket while hitting...
Does racket string tension affect the amount of topspin that can be applied to a tennis ball?
Yeah, usually the higher the tension, the more spin potential
Can you guys do a video on spraying tennis racquets?
Haha, that's a great idea... -Ian
Many thanks for sharing your invaluable experience!
What was most helpful, Noushin?
Thank you Kirby!
I don't think that maximizing topspin is the answer to every shot you play in tennis. moderate spin is okay to clear the net and land in court but it's becoming a craze now
Just what i needed!
Awesome, good to hear! Anything else you'd like help with? -Ian
Maybe a clinic in stockholm?.. :-)
Oh man,.. wouldn't we all love that 😂
Is that golden racket a prototype or just a new paintjob?
LOL, it is distracting. They are trying to be get a racket sponsor.
УХАХАХАХА!!😝🍥😝
thank you
1:41, did she just say that Federer made a mistake?
😂
@@EssentialTennis 🙀😁
Are you holding a golden Wilson endorsed by Willims?
Looks like it was just a racquet that was sprayed over in gold.
Hi ! I love your video!
I'm a fan of Novak Djokovic and i love sliding on the court no matter the suface ! I can do it only with the forehand but with not the backhand. Can have an advice to do the slide with my backhand ?
Thank you for answers !
That's a TOUGH one, Djoker! Maybe we'll do a video about it soon, would you like that? It takes incredible speed, balance, and athleticism to do on a hard court.
You guys are amazing
hy ...i love your videos....very instructive... i 've send you my email to receive the plan for forehand accuracy and also for forehand maximum topspin but they are not arrived ....not even in the spam section of my email.....i've sent a message to you on facebook.....can you please explain me why the pdf via mail doesn't arrive?.......
Sorry about that, Claudio! Please send an email to ian AT essentialtennis DOT com and we'll get you set up right away.
thank you but i've solved the problem the pdf and other pages are arrived thank you
Good to hear, thanks for watching!
That actually happened to me too a little while ago :(
It came in a bit late and I'm glad it did because their lesson guides are always *super* helpful 👍
excellent
Some tips are good, but its not true that the racquet face is perpendicular in 9 shots out of 10, I don't know how such respected tennis coaches as you are can claim that. Federer's racquet and racquet of most ATP pros have a CLOSED racquet face upon contact, by around 4-10 degrees, depending on the incoming ball, and their own swing and what type of shot they are hitting.
If ATP pros hit with their racquet speed and have a racquet face vertical theres no way they would be able to add enough spin without the ball going long, because the swing path would be too upward for that racquet speed, so the ball would go too long if they didn't close the racquet face slightly.
Manipulating the racquet face is crucial for topspin and having a big variety of hits.
tennisspeedresearch.blogspot.si/2013/02/a-roadmap-to-hall-of-fame-forehand-part.html
You make some really good points, Alen! Immediately after Kirby's take we actually discussed the "9 out of 10" bit and decided that while it definitely wasn't the best way to get her point across it wasn't enough to throw it out and start over.
RE the actual angle - the pros are accelerating soooo much more aggressively than those who watch our videos. While there is definitely variation in the angle that's used at contact the majority of pro shots are still quite close to perpendicular. The only time the racquet is significantly closed (more than a few degrees) is on a high/short ball where the other side of the court starts to become directly accessible by the player. Of course, its important to be able to explain and articulate those things! However, within the context of a general grounstroke/topspin tutorial like this where most viewers are in the 3.0-4.0 range I believe saying "perpendicular" is enough information without getting too "inside baseball".
Thanks for watching and for leaving your thoughts. Always good to know where we can improve our explanations! -Ian
RE that link: talk about "inside baseball"!! haha
Thanks for your positive reply Ian, I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. I love your videos, you guys really explain things very well and offer alot of useful advice and your simplified aproach to teaching is wonderful, I really like it. I do think like 99% of your advice is sound and spot on, so nitpicking this little thing might seem a bit "aggressive" from me, but belive me it was not my intention, I was simply trying to help by pointing this out, because im sure you guys also know that managing the racquet face does affect alot of things. But I do agree that beginners do not benefit from this advice at all, the racquet face angle at this point is useless as they have a ton of fundamentals to learn, only after players get really familiar with the strokes and consistent decent pace strokes and can accelerate the racquet face fast and produce decent spin, is it even useful to start introducing them to this concept, and once they start experimenting and trying to change the face slightly they will notice alot of difference and as they keep practicing it they will learn what it does and help them develop alot more variety with their stroke.
For example, say your trying to make alot of spin and hit at a big upward angle, once u keep hitting faster and faster, the ball will have some more spin but also more upward arc aswell, and once u reach a certain racquet speed the ball will start going too deep, if now you start hitting even more upward you do add more spin but u also increase ur arc aswell, so the ball will start beeing quite a HUGE looopy arc slow moonball, the other thing instead of increasing ur upward swing angle, is to close ur racquet face a bit more, what that will do is hit the ball a bit above the center of axis of rotation, meaning it will take away some pace but add a bit of spin, and it will also make your arc smaller even if you are hitting at the same upward angle, since ur face is pointing more down, meaning now you can hit with even more racquet speed at this angle and produce even more spin, and ur arc is smaller, so you have a new "safety margin" where you can increase ur racquet speed beyond what was before your maximum (till ball went too deep) and produce more ball pace and more spin and a more heavy ball.
Essentialy closing the racquet face basically provides you: 1. more spin 2.smaller arc and ur face should be closed enough that you can hit with ur max consistent racquet speed and produce the most spin and pace and heaviness of the ball, so that the ball still stays inside the court and is not too deep.
The most important ways ul want to manage ur racquet face and close it:
1.From baseline only if the ball begins being too loopy and high arc once u maximize spin with upward swing and shoulder rotation and maybe even going too deep even when ur hitting with only 70% swing speed... ul then want to close ur face a bit so u can hit with 90% swing speed, arc will be smaller, pace of ball faster, spin much greater an the ball will still not go deep (once you find the right angle, similar to how nadal hits his winner shots, ball doesn't have a ton of arc but has ton of spin), then you can play with that angle + upward swing to create different types of arcs and ball speeds and spins, to mix it up, from high arc heavy spin balls to more lower more pacey still heavy spin balls, or sometimes not closing ur face as much and hitting less upward for more flat balls
2.Short angle shots, u want as much spin as possible and less pace, so basically you swing the same swing speed as from the baseline, only that you swing more upward and close ur face a bit more, but swing speed stays similar, and then you transform your deep ball into a short angle heavy spin ball
3.Short putaway shots that bounce higher than net as you mentioned before, you will want to close ur face to prevent the ball from going long and give you the ability to hit a fairly pacey ball (if ur racquet is perpendicular u cant add any good amount of spin with upward motion in this type of shot, the arc will be too big, pace too slow, ball will go too deep more often than not, just a mess)
So hitting upward more adds : more spin, bigger arc, less pace
rotating ur shoulder adds : more spin
closing ur face adds : more spin, smaller arc, less pace
So with these three things you can combine different variations for very different results and different types of shots, theres reason some people say Federer has 30 different forehands :)
Sorry if my reply was too long, I apologize, hopefully you understood my points, i would be willing to hear your opinion on all this if you have the time and patience, but if not thats fine aswell, I know you guys are busy! Good luck with ur channel, really love your videos, keep up the good work!
You've got really excellent understanding of the physics and mechanics of a groundstroke swing, Alen! I didn't take your initial comments as being "aggressive" at all, I could tell you were trying to help, and as I said, I agree that it could have been better phrased. I was waiting for somebody to jump on that, haha.
Nothing to add to your additional situational descriptions. Keep up the great work on your game my friend! -Ian
nice!
Thanks for watching, Wilson!
I have a question for you if you can make a video about my question my question is when you serve the ball for some reason I have put a backspin on a tennis ball I don't know how I did that and plus on that back hen I have put a backspin on the tennis ball can you explain how someone with not a lot of tennis experience have did that
Amazing
Could you tell me the lady coach name? Can you record more video from her? I really like her and her clear accident thank you very much!
Kirby Bridges
In this video, Kirby played the forehand with the racket face perpendicular to the ground. But in one of the previous video (ruclips.net/video/yQRmHsHgrRI/видео.html), she played it with a slight closed racket face. I would like to bring this up because many kids these days are trained to hit forehand with a slightly closed racket face, including my 11 year old daughter. Her coach tries to make her play it that way, but she finds it difficult as she is skinny and does not have much power. It's something that I disagree with her coach.
Easter Egg: if you would change your name to Fernando Gonzalez your forehand speed will be increased by 10%
😂😂😂
Love the racquet Kirby!
Does anyone else find it incredibly difficult to time the ball using a swing path that is so vertical? I feel like the vast majority of Club players aren’t going to be able pull this off consistently. There needs to be a shift towards a simpler and easier swing path so players that aren’t pros can develop some consistency.
Just practice feeding balls to yourself near the net and see if you can hit mini lobs out of it. Then you can bring the trajectory back down for normal rally shots.
Just curious do any of these tennis coaches have formal training or a college degree in kinesiology or body mechanics?
Hmm... isn’t Kirby’s comment contradictory to Ian’s?
Is he left handed?
I finally figured out who Kirby looks like. The beautiful Mary Hopkin from the 1969 song Goodbye written by Paul McCartney.
Check it out.
She said Ira is going to show us top spin. 😳
I disagree. Agree with Alex X below. Covering the ball with a slight tilt of the racquet (or even bigger tilt) is the only way to hit topspin like the pros, with lots of spin and speed. In fact, the wrap around effect on the ball is what gives best spin and control (why it looks like some players are flinging the ball off their racquet). Are you forgetting that the strings both retract and grab the ball? - though not much with easy hitting. It is understandable that this is hard to do unless there is just enough racquet speed to "grab" the ball, but I can't understand why vertical racquet face is taught here unless you are teaching only beginners. It would seem that you are just being contrary to other advanced instruction to impress the viewer that you know better. Sorry that I am a bit self righteous about this.
I think you missed the main point I made in response to Alex, Ron. When you compare the hitting of our viewers to that of the pros I'd wager that literally 99% of it IS "easy hitting". As such, we're not going to spend people's time and attention quibbling about a few degrees when saying "flat" is enough for just about everybody watching. I don't disagree with a single thing Alex said. The real question is "does that part of pro execution matter to the development of our audience?". If the answer is "no" then we're going to leave it out every time. We aren't a "geek out on pro technique" channel (although that is fun once in a while!), our interest is purely in application for the amateur athlete so they can improve their game. -Ian
I listened again to the early part of the video. Reference to the myth, Impossible to get topspin covering the ball, a clear denunciation of the instructors who teach this way and this approach. In my experience, many or most of the students who try for topspin using a vertical face get little or no topspin. I may just have weakness in my teaching so that I don't succeed teaching topspin unless I emphasize coming over the ball with enough acceleration. I'm open to not thinking my way is the right way or best way. You have made a great impact with your online teaching. I don't have much experience doing what you do. You know if this is really helping players improve or get the results you are looking for.
I really appreciate your openness in regards to methods, Ron! Not many RUclips users are that gracious, haha. For me, personally, I don't believe in or teach the "over the top" approach at all. Like you, all I can really do is speak from my personal experience, and in those years I've come across a LOT of amateur players who have twisty, turny motions with their forehand and struggle mightily to create any meaningful topspin. Topspin is much, much more simple than most people assume it is, and I say that based on the results I see from people following our progressions. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree, but I'm still very grateful to have you as a viewer! -Ian
I disagree. The racket does turn over the ball with the forearm turning during the forward swing as it goes away from the body.Look at all the professionals and you will notice that this is the case. By the way, you showed a slow motion of one of the only off-center hit, but he did turn over the forearm.
Good video but skip the comments!
Comments?
@@EssentialTennis What I meant was it's better not to read the comment section because most of it is just nonsense. The video is great❤️
Ok... So I can't believe I'm the first to ask but what's up with the golden racket Kirby? Is that Willy Wonka's tennis racket?
Rocket90 looks like ian blacked his out as well
We had craft day at the office!
Topspin is overrated. I have been hitting topspin but its hard to hit winners with topspin. Then I learned to hit flat. That made it easy to win, without out the long rallies. Topspin takes away the speed and penetration, but the ball will clear the net and land inside. For me, learning to hit flat was much harder than learning to hit topspin.
Ааахренеть!! Она даже ракетку под золото покрасила для видосов!!😝🍥😝 Вот придурки то!!😎
Cameraman is cute :-)
Три супер секрета топспина так и не открыли. Плюс топспин с разных высот отскока. Ноль информации.
Три дизлайка.
Bla- bla - ble non stop!
Vertical acceleration? You are trying to hit a topspin forehand, not a topspin lob. Trying to hit a ball with a tacked on windshield wiper motion is never ever going to work, that’s really bad advice.
You missed the point of my feel exercise completely, Brett. To quote the video: "Of course this isn't the only motion that we want to use. Again, what Ira talked about with the overall path of the racquet is really most fundamentally important, but if you add a little bit of this on top of an overall vertical path then you'll really start to see big topspin."
We're in agreement 100%: the windshield wiper motion in and of itself doesn't work to create topspin. -Ian
Ok, that was a bit confusing to me. Thanks for clarifying.
Sure thing. Thanks for watching. -Ian
That nasally breathing from the 3rd guy was distracting.
These lessons are for low level club players.
3 people to explain 1 thing is a little too much I think...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA