Moving sideways on forehand topspin
martink asked 5 years ago
Hey. I recently became aware of a bit too much sideways movement when executing a forehand topspin. I think this is especially exaggerated when looping half-long balls. I noticed this when playing doubles, on serve receive. If I try to loop a slightly longer serve, I suddenly end up on the backhand side of the table when trying to weight transfer from right to left, interfering with my partner. Whan can I do (or mindset?) to get rid of this movement? Could it be leaning or something else?
Tom Academy Coach answered 5 years ago
Hey Martink,
There are a couple of things that could be causing this sideways movement on the forehand. Firstly it could be that your feet are too square (Your right foot, if you are right handed, is not far enough behind the left) causing your weight transfer to go sideways not forwards, so look out for that one!
The second one thing is that when preparing for the shot on your forehand or half long ball you aren’t getting the weight onto your right leg enough, causing this leaning and sideways movement. Try to focus on the weight transfer happening together with the backswing of your arm as well as good body rotation.
If you aren’t rotating the body back or taking enough backswing its difficult to make the energy of the stroke to go forward. Give those tips a try and I’m sure you’ll see a difference!
martinkThanks, this sounds like some really good advice. I believe having the right foot enough behind the left on those half-long balls can be difficult, since I must get as near the ball as possible and the table might obstruct the shot. I guess it should still be possible to achieve?
It should definitely help I feel. Yes your right, some of the very top players have their right foot fairly far forward when playing the half long balls but they make up for this with really good body rotation so they can recover quickly. So I agree definitely getting close to he ball and also low on the half longs is important also having good waist and body rotation into the shot and to recover will help as well.
