How To Hit Topspin On Your Forehand - Windshield Wiper Technique in Tennis.

Hey everyone Simon and Alex here with Top Tennis Training and in this video we're going to talk about the windshield wiper on the forehand and how it generates topspin. Now the windshield wiper motion allows for maximum racket speed when you're going through that contact zone with that low to high swing. All your favorite players like Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer use this motion and it makes them incredibly effective at generating topspin. Now make sure you watch this lesson right to the end because we'll be showing you a very simple drill to help you get more of that windshield wiper motion on your forehand. The first part to the perfect windshield wiper motion is your grip. Now if you're a player that uses the continental grip you're going to struggle to achieve it. So why does this happen? On the continental grip the racket face does not face away from your body making it very difficult for you to rotate your hand at contact. You're going to have to take the ball a lot later so the contact becomes later and the racket head would have to go upwards like this meaning that you have to tense your hand upwards rather than allow the hand to rotate. Therefore all the grips that allow that hand rotation, therefore the racket face facing away from you at contact are the grips that are going to be effective. Now those grips are the eastern grip, someone like Roger Federer uses it to great effect. You've got the semi-western grip and you've got the western grip. Now the eastern grip is about here. It allows that racket acceleration upwards but it's a little bit more difficult than a semi-western. The semi-western is the optimal position between the racket face pointing away from your body and the position away from your body so the the distance that you have between you and the ball. Now the western grip you can achieve the racket face pointing away from you but the contact zone has to be a lot closer to you in order to achieve that rotation upwards. So whichever grip you use and if you are someone that's starting out I would choose a semi-western grip simply because it's the easiest to do. Now if you're serious about improving your game make sure you have subscribed to the channel and you turn on that notification bell. So what happens prior to contact? Now before we actually make contact with the ball the racket head should drop beneath that contact point. As you make contact the forearm starts to now pronate over so I'm going from this supinated position where the palm is facing the sky to a pronated position. So I'm pronating over as I make contact and this is what allows this windshield wiper motion to happen. Now as you make contact the wrist should be laid back like so and a common error that a lot of club players make is they keep the wrist in that position when they're trying to achieve this windshield wiper motion. Now what you want to actually do is have the wrist come out of that position into a neutral position while you're pronating the forearm. So it ends up going from this position to this position here. So now let's talk about the timing of when we should do it. Well it depends on what kind of shot you're trying to hit. Is it going to be a flatter shot or a more spinnier shot? The more topspin you apply the more the windscreen wiper motion has to happen at point of contact. So at the point of contact with the ball the racket is rotating around my hand and it's going up. The flatter the ball the more I go through the ball at contact still finishing with a wiper motion because that's the natural way for my wrist to rotate. It's the easiest way to finish and it allows for that relaxation through the wrist and your hand. Now a simple way for you to imagine this windshield wiper motion happening is prior to contact the racket head to be down and after contact the racket head to be up. So my racket head is going from this down position to this up position and this is the position that we see Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, a lot of the pros achieving after they make contact. The tip of the racket pointing up to the sky. Now this doesn't mean that you stop in this position because that will be unnatural. What you want to achieve is this position but then finish all the way around so the forearm is pronating fully. Now let's talk about what happens at contact with a windscreen wiper. As my racket is going up the racket path will obviously change depending on the shot that I'll hit. The flat shot having a more horizontal racket path. Now the more topspin I want the more closed off the more closed the racket will be compared to the racket path. So as the racket path is going upwards the racket face is closed compared to the path. The straighter the path is for a flat shot the less closed off it needs to be compared to the path. Now to the ball the ball is always going to be met with a flat racket face so that I can brush the back of that ball and create that rolling of the ball and the strings allow the strings to grip that ball. Now during contact because I'm leading with that top edge and I want that top edge to go around my hand and towards my shoulder it will lead across so then it starts to close off at contact even more. If you just led with a closed racket face at contact you simply wouldn't achieve the length of ball that you need to achieve and sometimes you'll even make the ball go down. Now if you want more help with your forehand we have a free forehand guide that you can download right away. All you have to do is click the link under this video enter your email and we'll send you your downloadable PDF. Now the main reason we use this motion is to generate that heavy topspin. When you think about the the main obstacles on the tennis court the first one being the net and the second one getting it into the lines the heavy topspin will allow us to lift that ball off the strings so having a nice net clearance. Think about Rafa when he's playing on clay and then having the ball to dip before it hits the lines. Now if we hit the ball flat we can get the ball to pass the net but it will be very low but if we want to take this net out of play eliminating the net we need the ball to be lifting off the racket but then to have that dip we need that spin and that's why we have that low to high swing path during the contact point. Now for the first part of this drill I'm going to put my racket down and I'm going to simply use my hand and the ball in front of the net. Now what I want to do is I want to use my two fingers and my thumb to simply roll the ball over the net. So all I'm doing is I'm holding the ball and then I'm rolling it over the net. That gives me that ability to actually turn my racket to turn my wrist in exactly the same manner as I would when I'm doing the windscreen wiper. Now for the second part of this drill we're going to use the racket this time and still using the net to roll that ball over the net. So I'm holding the ball I'm rolling it I'm holding the ball I'm rolling it. Notice how my racket head is going from low to high. Now if you were simply to push through the net that ball will not roll up you will not get the same effect you won't get the same spin that means you're not doing the windshield wiper. The third part of this drill we're now going to have a drop feed so Simon's going to drop the ball in front and I'm going to simply focus on getting my racket from below the ball to going up. So I'm finishing with a racket head pointing up to the sky and starting below the ball. So from low to high and that's my focus. Now here I'm simply focusing on my hand and not my body. Now the fourth part of this drill I'm going to try and put all my segments together. So now I'm going to use my legs my body and I'm going to finish the stroke fully just like I would on a normal shot. Now here I'm focusing on getting that racket path as high as possible so low to high as much as possible and getting as much rotation of that racket with my hand. So there you have it we hope you've enjoyed the video and learned something new. Do press the like button leave a comment under the video let us know how you get on with a windshield wiper. Also let us know if there's anything that you'd like to see from us in our future videos. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel as well and we'll see you soon all the best