How to Hit a HEAVY Topspin Forehand Like a Pro

Hey guys in today's video I'm going to teach you how to hit a heavy topspin forehand. A heavy topspin forehand is a shot that can help you to dominate the point and really push your opponent back behind the baseline to help you control the point. Now if you want to add more control and power to your game then this is a really important shot to master. So let's start with why topspin matters. A topspin forehand can help you to change the rhythm of the point as it can allow you to still hit powerfully and aggressively but with the ultimate control. Because essentially topspin allows the ball to travel over the net in an arc type motion so this ensures net clearance and it also ensures that the ball is going to land inside the baseline on the other side of the net. And when I refer to a heavy topspin forehand I'm talking about a topspin forehand that produces so much topspin that the ball bounces high and kicks really high up off the court on your opponent's side of the net. So when you think of a heavy topspin forehand think about Rafa. His forehands are incredibly heavy because if you've ever seen him play on tv you can see his opponents are always kind of quite far back behind the baseline and struggling to really deal with his heavy topspin that are pushing them so far back. So the heavy topspin forehand is a great weapon to have in your tennis game because it allows you to dictate the points by pushing your opponent back behind the baseline and then therefore because your opponent is so far back behind the baseline this means that they're very unlikely to be able to play an aggressive shot off this heavy topspin forehand and you're going to find that they're going to be in defensive situations back behind the court which is great for you because they're most likely going to hit a weak shot back off of your heavy topspin forehand so that then you can step in and attack more with a flatter shot potentially. In addition because the heavy topspin forehand creates such height and depth it means that your opponent is likely not going to be hitting the ball in their perfect strike zone which is around waist to hip level. Instead because of the kicking element of the heavy topspin forehand they're likely going to be hitting out of their strike zone up around their shoulder and this is likely very uncomfortable for your opponent and therefore they're likely going to be hitting a shot with less quality back to you meaning that you're going to be the dominant player in the rally. So utilising the heavy topspin not for finishing the point but for building the point is a really really great tool to have in your tennis game. So now let's break down the swing and the mechanics of the heavy topspin forehand so you guys can get out there and start hitting heavy topspins in your next match. So first of all let's talk about the grip. The ultimate grip really is either the semi-western or the full western grip and this is because the semi-western or the full western allows that brushing motion up the back of the ball more so than the eastern forehand grip or the continental grip if anyone still uses that grip. So this is because the semi-western grip as you come into contact here you can see my strings are a little bit closed off so that helps me to really get that brush up the back of the ball and the brushing up the back of the ball helps me to create that heavy topspin which then produces a high net clearance, bounces down into the other side of the court and kicked back up. With the western grip you can see here that my strings are even more closed as I come into contact so that's going to help me to brush even more so up the back of the ball and create that heavy topspin motion. Now let's talk about our stance. So for a heavy topspin forehand generally the best stance to use is either a semi-open or an open stance forehand. So when I say semi-open stance forehand I mean something like this so I'm a little bit side on here I'm not in a fully closed stance position I'm a little bit more open so this back leg is around here or an open stance forehand like this. I personally find that when I hit a really great heavy topspin forehand I'm normally in my semi-open stance position and this semi-open stance position is great for producing heavy topspin balls because it allows you to really first of all bend your knees get a nice body rotation bend the knee and then from there it's super easy to rotate your hips and you can get a really really big hip drive and leg drive from this semi-open position and essentially to create a heavy topspin forehand you really need to use your legs. So as I've said in previous videos power comes from the ground up and this is true for a heavy topspin forehand so what you want to do is really drive up and this driving low to high helps you to really get that whip like motion up the back of the ball to create that heavy topspin because if I was just to do that with my arm sure I can get a little bit of racket head speed and whip up the back of the ball if I load down here and drive up from my hips from my legs then I'm going to find that I'm able to really produce so much more of that heavy topspin and power into the shot. A key thing to mention here as well you want to ensure that your footwork is so good so that you're in the position that you need to be in order to really get that massive topspin brush up the back of the ball so you can't be lazy with your feet here guys if you want to hit a heavy topspin forehand you need to be super super athletic super quick with your feet intense with your feet if you go out and look at Rafa when he's hitting his heavy topspin forehands he's not lazy that's one thing for sure he's really loading the legs and popping up into the ball ensuring that his footwork is on point ensuring that he's taking little adjustment steps to get into the correct position he needs to be in order to execute that shot perfectly. So now we're going to talk about the swing so in order to hit a heavy topspin forehand or just the normal topspin forehand in general it's always recommended to start with a high to low to high swing this high low high swing helps with momentum and racket head speed into my forehand shot for example if I were to start low and then go low to high my swing would be broken so if I start low I stop and then I have to start again so my power and my momentum is only starting from this position which will mean that I don't have much momentum and racket head speed going into the shot from that position whereas if I start with a loop I've built up a lot of momentum I've built up a lot of racket head speed to really then at the end of my take back here to just drop the racket be nice and loose with my arm loose with my wrist to really brush up the back of that ball with a quick and loose and relaxed arm here another important thing is to ensure that your racket head drops below the height of the incoming ball so as the ball is around here and you're ready to come up into contact you want to ensure that your racket is under the height of the ball because this then allows you to get that nice brushing up motion here so you're coming forward and up the ball now let's talk about the contact point you want to ensure that this dominant shoulder is in front of your non-dominant shoulder as you're hitting the ball because this ensures that you're creating that correct rotation from your upper body into the shot so your contact might change a little bit depending on what grip you have but generally we want that contact a little bit in front of the body and obviously to the side of the body to ensure correct spacing the last aspect of the swing to talk about is the follow through so many people say that the follow through doesn't matter because you've already hit the shot however the follow through is important as it ensures that you're continuing the stroke and you're continuing your path of your racket and you're allowing your racket head to slow down naturally and finish where it wants to finish so generally when you have a high low high swing you're going to be finishing up around your opposite shoulder like this because if you weren't using that high low high swing path if you were say to go high to low low then from here and finishing down here you're more likely to not get that brush up the back of the ball that you want you're more likely to be hitting that ball in the net because you're finishing low and you're not really getting that lift on the ball that you need to create that top spin on the ball and you can experiment with your follow throughs for example you can try finish and catch finish not catch or you can even try to experiment with a rougher finish like this so guys now i'm going to demonstrate to you some heavy topspin forehands for you to see and a really great drill for you to try and do is when you're hitting these topspin heavy topspin forehands is to try and get your second bounce to hit the back fence now that is a very ambitious challenge and it obviously depends how far back your fence is but in general if you can get that second bounce to hit the back fence then you know you've hit a really video and found it helpful then please give this video a like and also subscribe to my channel for more tennis coaching videos like this one to come and guys if you want more help with your forehand then down in the description box below i have a free forehand guide for you that talks you through the key fundamental aspects of the forehand stroke make sure you go and download that in the first line of the description below and guys i'll see you in my next video