Feedback on topspin form

CLV

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CLV

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Hi guys,

Finally got someone to film me while doing some topspins. In the movie I´m playing with a tumb-bandage for the first time. Having some trouble with wrist and tumb inflammation.

What are the main points you think i can improve?

Cheers
Pieter

Edit: i always get file type not allowed when attaching the video
 
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Hi guys,

Finally got someone to film me while doing some topspins. In the movie I´m playing with a tumb-bandage for the first time. Having some trouble with wrist and tumb inflammation.

What are the main points you think i can improve?

Cheers
Pieter

Edit: i always get file type not allowed when attaching the video

You are a tall guy and you compensate that a bit with "round" back. You could put the feet a bit further apart - your right foot would be where it is, the left foot would be more apart from it, that would also get you a bit lower. You can experiment with it in the preparatory phase. Now when the forward motion starts, you transfer the power from the ground by pushing the right foot correctly, that also manifests by the "involuntary" motion of the non-playing hand. Your body starts rotating and the playing hand starts to move and initially all looks good to me. But at some point your body stops rotating and the non-playing hand starts to move up, like it were trying to join the playing hand. That phase doesn't look optimal. If it were correct, you'd also feel your chest more stretched - that is also related a bit to the "round" back which participates in preventing you from getting this chest-stretch. So ideally the body rotation doesn't stop, the chest gets stretched and then the playing hand joins the effort. Imagine throwing something via rotation to the left, without the "stretch" you kind of rob yourself of potential. HTH, thanks for the video.
 
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weight transfer is missing. Remember power from the ground. Pressure on right leg, then transfer to left leg as you rotate the waist. Over reliance on arm power which is doable if you are a strong man, however tendency to get repetitive shoulder injury in the long term.
 
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CLV

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So your saving keep left hand down. More rotation wider stance. Will provide better weigth transfer and better shot.

The round back is difficult to not do. I've had 3 back surgeries the last 5 years. So trying to get best possible. But my posture will remain faulty by nature

Thanks for feedback. Will work on that

 
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So your saving keep left hand down. More rotation wider stance. Will provide better weigth transfer and better shot.

Yes. The left hand will stay down not because you consciously let it stay down, but as a result of the movement. It can go a bit up. More important is to get a bit more from that chest stretch.

The round back is difficult to not do. I've had 3 back surgeries the last 5 years. So trying to get best possible. But my posture will remain faulty by nature

Oh, I didn't mean you have "round" back always - when you stand straight it didn't appear to me at all. I meant that only when you assume playing position.

Thanks for feedback. Will work on that

You're welcome.
 

CLV

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Yes. The left hand will stay down not because you consciously let it stay down, but as a result of the movement. It can go a bit up. More important is to get a bit more from that chest stretch.



Oh, I didn't mean you have "round" back always - when you stand straight it didn't appear to me at all. I meant that only when you assume playing position.



You're welcome.

I always have a round back even when lying down :)

 
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I always have a round back even when lying down :)


:) Understand.

I recommend TTNuri's videos on FH topspin mechanics, just in case you didn't go through it yet. Much better than my attempts to get the points across. There are also visualizations of sequences, also from other sports. It helps to put things into some frame and context, you know, given by our human condition, so to speak.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9kSgD6xzwFYwmPT4wquTdQ

He's one of many good couches out there.
 
:) Understand.

I recommend TTNuri's videos on FH topspin mechanics, just in case you didn't go through it yet. Much better than my attempts to get the points across. There are also visualizations of sequences, also from other sports. It helps to put things into some frame and context, you know, given by our human condition, so to speak.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9kSgD6xzwFYwmPT4wquTdQ

He's one of many good couches out there.
I didn’t understand a word, but the feet should not be parallel. The right foot shall be behind the left foot making a ~45^ angle with the table. CLV you have much better foot position than this video, that’s the first thing you should know...

Cheers
L-zr

 
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I didn’t understand a word, but the feet should not be parallel. The right foot shall be behind the left foot making a ~45^ angle with the table. CLV you have much better foot position than this video, that’s the first thing you should know...

Cheers
L-zr

This advice feels a bit outdated. These days To be able to quickly switch to backhand many players play FH even with their feet parallel. But it depends really from where you're hitting your FH and the type of ball. There can't be a hard rule on how to exactly position your feet because there is so much to consider.

Look at FZD's feet here, they are parallel, or very close to it.

My advice to OP would be to make sure you're pushing with your right leg and to not use your arm muscles (it's difficult to tell if you're forcing the swing a little with your arm). Also make sure to not backswing too early.

 

This advice feels a bit outdated. These days To be able to quickly switch to backhand many players play FH even with their feet parallel. But it depends really from where you're hitting your FH and the type of ball. There can't be a hard rule on how to exactly position your feet because there is so much to consider.

Look at FZD's feet here, they are parallel, or very close to it.

My advice to OP would be to make sure you're pushing with your right leg and to not use your arm muscles (it's difficult to tell if you're forcing the swing a little with your arm). Also make sure to not backswing too early.

Looks like a contousionist...
That is not a natural form. I claim that you should always strive to have a 45 degree angle when hitting with forehand...

Cheers
L-zr

 
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Just my .02€.

An odd 40 yrs or so ago I was thoroughly trained for distinctive bh/fh stances. Bh parallel, fh at roughly a 30° angle (with variations as needed by placement).

That came with a price: a stronger commitment, and less fluidity in fh-bh/bh-fh transfer. I’ve seen the distinction grow less pronounced, even in my own gameplay. My bh-fh transfer markedly improved.

Yet my feet aren’t parallel; the bh has a slight angle, and the fh angle is bigger upon opportunity. Else; contortionism, indeed.
 
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Just my .02€.

An odd 40 yrs or so ago I was thoroughly trained for distinctive bh/fh stances. Bh parallel, fh at roughly a 30° angle (with variations as needed by placement).

That came with a price: a stronger commitment, and less fluidity in fh-bh/bh-fh transfer. I’ve seen the distinction grow less pronounced, even in my own gameplay. My bh-fh transfer markedly improved.

Yet my feet aren’t parallel; the bh has a slight angle, and the fh angle is bigger upon opportunity. Else; contortionism, indeed.
Absolutely you can not achieve that for every shot. But you should strive for it. (which the coach in the video didn’t). The benefit with this is that you can get a shorter and snappier upper body twist and FH’s in the wrong corner does not become unnatural. I always have a BH stance to start with (like most players). When I need to play FH I try to take a step backward with my right leg and naturally end up in the right position. (This is the goal anyway).
If you are using parallel feet and a body twist I’m not surprised you end up with back problems...

Cheers
L-zr

 
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You are holding back your forward motion. Let the leg and the body swing pass the ball. It won’t reduce your spin. On the contrary, you’ll feel like you are grabbing the ball and throw. (Physically not, I know)

Some of the shots, not all, the right foot is not supporting your weight properly, move it back a little. Don’t think about 45 degree or a fixed position. Just feel that support.

Regarding the back, find the right bent that makes you comfy most. I have the same back although I’m short, so I can understand. To be fair you look fairly comfy with it now. (People who don’t have a bent back won’t understand. When we stand, it looks straight ‘cause we’ve been training hard to do so all our lives. But it’s actually naturally more bent 😎 )
 
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This must be against backspin? If it is I think it looks pretty okey! Think the most important part against backspin is to work with the forearm which you do very nice.



Wise to remember that technique do not need to be perfect as long as it is functional in game and suit the rest of your play.

if this is against backspin and you can do a little higher opening loop that is on the table 12 times of 10 then it is a good start. Then the technique is working.. I agree with what some above say that you can use the body more but the ball is light and if you use the forearm that well I think it will always be an okey opening loop. When the opening loop always is on the table you can develop it further.

If this is not against backspin I think you need to play much more forward.
 
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Hi guys,

Finally got someone to film me while doing some topspins. In the movie I´m playing with a tumb-bandage for the first time. Having some trouble with wrist and tumb inflammation.

What are the main points you think i can improve?

Cheers
Pieter

Edit: i always get file type not allowed when attaching the video

You can stand legs wider, to lower your body and to increase weight transfer.

Not sure the spin of the ball, your swing is good for backspin. If the ball is coming with topspin, your swing should go more forward.

 
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What we would need to comment is to know what shot situation, what ball, and what what/result he is looking for. Without that, we are giving over-generalized advice that may or may not be very applicable to what he is trying to do.

There are also a lot of other things that go into a shot like the step to position, the crouch, the toes, how the sequence of explosions are done, the grip, the whip, the final arm/wrist and grip.

The few reps shown here make it look like there is a slower very low spin practice ball coming and the OP wants to make a safe somewhat spinny shot with low to low medium power. Kinda like a 30% of possible power and making a little more spin than speed.

If OP wants more power and spin on this kind of ball, he could just more whip and grip. Even from this position where the ball is in descent. Training like that can really help for when in a match, you cannot get to the ball at the top and you still need to make an aggressive shot with acceptable safety. Ideally, one would move to a little more forward position and use a more forward stroke vs this kind of ball - many advantages to doing it that way...

... but we need to understand again all the things about what ball is coming where and what we want to do to it - that will drive the response and there is more than one effective response that can be done under pressure.

We could talk all night about all the different things to do to hit differnt balls to get such and such result.

What a coach would look for are more along the lines of:
Did player see what was going on with the ball and know where/when/what spin/speed/vector at the right center of impact zone point?
HOW EFFECTIVE did the player move to a good position ready on balance in rhythm
Did player select an appropriate shot for what he saw and wanted to do now and next ball?
Did player control the strike zone on balance with his impact?
Did player use an effective sequence of explosions?
Was player's stance and balance effective enough to do that shot?
Did it allow player to recover on balance ready to move?

Those are a good chunk of the kind of things to look at that will more readily apply to shot than just looking at a single shot in an obvious practice situation.
 

CLV

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Thanks for the reply´s. I was playing a safe opener against backspin. Person feeding the balls wasn´t used to feeding multiball so they were al over the place.

I will focus on better rotation in upper torso. Not sure if it´s gonna work. I have some screws in my spine so lost a lot of flexibility. Also will try a bit wider stance
 
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That’s very dedicated man. You would have told us that. It looks all fine from that perspective. Probably just relax a little more so you got a better feel of how spinny the ball is so you put the right amount of spin. I wouldn’t power the ball a lot if I had your spine.

But honestly I don’t so rather difficult to say.
 
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