tennis-ball-in-the-armpit
Slicepong asked 6 years ago
Hi gentlemen. I was inconsistent and ineffective with my topspin in my last match. I did ok as far as winning, but improvement is Job 1 and I seem to be static, except for my serves, which are decent. I ‘m thinking of going back to basics and just driving for awhile because I’m just using my arm on the forehand. I rewatched your fine drive vid and Dan’s tennis ball trick made me think that my elbow is too far away, a tennis trait that’s hard to change. Would that cause my forehand woes?
Slicepong answered 6 years ago
P.S. Is the distance of the elbow the same with forehand topspin also? Thanks.
TomHi Slicepong,
First off that’s definitely a good attitude to have the improvements are your number 1 goal and that mentality will help you improve in the long term!
Yes it could definitely cause a few problems having the elbow too far away, it means as you said it can use too much arm and the body rotation and weight transfer are lost. Keeping the arm closer will allow you more control and stability, just be sure to adjust when the ball comes in closer to the body or wide forehand by moving your feet into position.
For a forehand topspin you still don’t want your arm to far away, however you can have a touch more space between the elbow and body to allow for greater swing motion needed when playing a topspin. With the topspin it’s also important you are confident to snap and accelerate the forearm, so find a position where this is comfortable and as you said go back to keeping things simple and using the body rotation as well as the arm.
Feel free to send us in a video and we can analyse and give further help if you like.
SlicepongTom, Thanks for your in depth analysis. You’re spot on about weight transfer and I appreciate the advice on needing to be flexible on the swing length with topspin. I appreciate your video analysis offer. I keep wanting it to be top shelf before I send it So it may be awhile! I’ll get to work on improving. Thanks again. You guys are fantastic.
