Want more topspin? Think “hello/goodbye”

“Give me more TOPSPIN!”
“Get under the ball!”
“Stop compressing the ball!”
“Turn the ball!”
“No, that’s too flat!”

So many coaches had barked out words like this to me for about a year. And I knew they were right, but every time I wanted to scream:

“YES, I desperately WANT to do that … But HOW? What’s am I doing wrong mechanically that’s preventing me from adding more spin all the time?”

I’d been working my tail off for so long with ball machines, trying to analyze video, asking different pros for help. But I kept hitting a wall and I couldn’t pinpoint the problem. About two months ago at Total Tennis I finally got the answer my brain needed to hear to make it click, thanks to the brilliant Saif Syed at Total Tennis. After hitting erratic forehands for about an hour in my attempt to add more spin I was about to lose it. After the morning drilling session we had a private and I vented, explaining my desperate longing to hit more topspin consistently.

In Saif’s trademark calm and wise Yoda-like manner, he said: “Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on in your head.” I explained:

“I’ve been analyzing slow-motion tape of pros hitting the modern forehand. Say you assigned a number 1-8 to each phase of the stroke, from early preparation to finish: I feel like I’m clear on everything but somewhere around number 5– the part just before impact where something happens fast with the racquet head dropping along with a change in the wrist and the hips start opening up and… well, I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong in trying to imitate that. And I’ve gotten about 5 different explanations and instructions from 5 different pros and now my mind is just cluttered with competing inputs.”

Saif asked me to demonstrate what I thought I was seeing on film. In my mind, I was imagining this video (with the point of confusion being at 0:09-0:11):

When I showed Saif how my body was translating these images into action, he immediately saw the problem and calmly suggested something along these lines:

“Your preparation looks good– good shoulder turn, initial racket head position correct. But then [referring to what would be around 0:09 of the video above] you’re incorrectly rotating and opening up your wrist/forearm clockwise– kind of like the motion you use when opening a doorknob–which is opening up your racket face, pulling your elbow into your body and putting your shoulder in the wrong position. Instead, your wrist should be doing a motion more like waving “HELLO” to someone lying on the ground. This will happen naturally as your hip rotation begins if your arm is relaxed. This way at point of contact your racket face will still be slightly closed, which it needs to be to generate topspin… then you need to accelerate and swing through with the proper finish.”

I went back to the baseline and… BINGO!!! Everything changed. Simply thinking of a little “HELLO” at the final instant set me up for more topspin on every shot. I then added a little modification in my mind to ensure that my wrist did the right thing on my follow through every time too: I added a “GOODBYE” thought immediately after the Hello, so that my wrist would essentially wave right to left (I’m a righty) as I brushed up on the ball and followed through. For me, “GOODBYE” is shorthand for the “WINDSHIELD WIPER” and “CHECK YOUR WATCH” concept commonly used by pros to explain wrist action during and after impact. I used to break my wrist at this point but Seth Hanapole (during a lesson in Andover MA when I was home last Christmas visiting my Dad) helped break me of this habit:

Now when I watch awesome modern forehands, I see essentially the same “HELLO/GOODBYE” thing happening despite individual differences (see this video for another example) . Two of my favorite guys to model my forehand after are featured below–both excellent pros who I’ve worked with at Total Tennis: Saif Ali and Marlon dal Pont. Watch in particular:

Smooth takeback/shoulder turn
Compact and efficient C-loop on take back: the racquet is in perfect position (not too far back) to execute “HELLO/GOODBYE” the instant the ball is lands in the hitter’s “zip code”
Athletic position maintained throughout, knees bent

SAIF ALI