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Tip
Transcription
Hi, Brent Abel here, webtennis.net,
and in this lesson today what I want to work on is how do we
generate natural topspin with an Eastern grip?
What we see so
much on TV and the Pro Tour these days, both the guys and the gals,
is they're generating a lot of topspin from either semi-Western or
full-Western forehand grips.
For the rest of
us, that is really a tough grip to be consistent with and to really
be able to play the game so that you don't set yourself up for
injury. So,
what I want to talk about today is how are we going to go ahead and
- for example, on this forehand, how are we going to be able to hit
some natural topspin?
The key is going
to be in you feeling that as you swing into your shot here that your
hand goes loose so that you don't tighten up and really slow the
racquet head down.
Topspin is really
generated from racquet speed, and so if you come in tight and slow,
you're not going to get much spin on the ball.
So, what I want
you to feel is that you can really loosen up your hand. Where I try
to feel it, especially in the forehand, is that as my racquet comes
into the sling shape, that I loosen it up, I loosen up my hand right
there and I don't try to fight the ball.
I try to really
let the racquet speed generate the spin.
Certainly,
there's a little low to high factor to the swing, but the point here
is that you can play this shot with an Eastern grip, and one of the
great benefits of that is that you don't get locked into something
like this, back in here, and that every ball, no matter where it's
played, you've got to back up a little bit, you've got to give it
some space, and you always lose good core position.
So, get your
Eastern grip and feel how you could swing a little low to high with
a loose hand.
I almost feel
from time to time it's like a throw almost where I'm really - I
wouldn't say I'm forking the racquet head, but I'm allowing it to
release from my hand.
So, I'm allowing
the swing shape to go ahead and generate some racquet speed and
doing that more because I've got a loose grip in terms of tension
and that's going to go ahead and generate plenty of racquet speed,
which is going to allow the ball to have that nice, safe topspin
shape to it where the ball gets to be hit up and over the net, and
the spin is what brings it back down. Good shot.
Okay. Lesson for today, Eastern
forehand grip, and feel that as you shape the swing, you start to
relax - there's a slice - you start to relax - whoop, that got close
to me - you start to relax the hand, and when you relax the hand,
you're to get a lot of racquet speed and racquet speed is what
creates spin.
Okay, let's talk about the Eastern
forehand grip.
Really, you want
to feel that the palm of your hand plays right against the back side
of the racquet.
So, you can't see
the racquet head, but it's sort of on its side. It's laying on its
edge, where you've got the string bed sort of facing forward. It's
not down; it's facing forward and this is the back of the racquet.
You've got your
palm right along the back side of the racquet. I'd like to see you
spread that index finger away from the rest of the fingers just a
little bit.
You can see that
small finger and other finger sort of lined up together here, but
that pointer finger, the index, wants to be spread away a little
bit, kind of underneath this side of the racquet and the thumb, of
course, placed comfortably there.
There's really a
V that gets formed by your thumb and your index finger and you want
to place that right along this bevel.
There's sort of
an upper right hand bevel on the top of the racquet here and just
place it right there. Make sure you don't have the hand way up, like
half-way up the handle.
You want to be
down as comfortably low as you possibly can so that you can get a
little bit more racquet head speed on this Eastern forehand grip
that we're talking about in terms of generating topspin.
All right. Hope this has helped. Any
questions, Brent@webtennis.net
. Thanks very much. |
