backhand placement and topspin

Ziga Kranjec Asked 14 years ago

i usually just played some normal forehands and backhands without much spin, but as i learned more about the game i started using topspin on my strokes. i used to just play backhand to backhand and i couldn't place it down the line, now that i play it with topspin it always goes down the line and never to the backhand side. any ideas how to add more variety to my backhand placement with or without spin?

also my stroke is pretty fast and i do brush the ball, but the ball doesn't really have the speed i see you guys get on your topspin drills, my ball is slower with a high bounce, and my opponents play with less spin and more power and just attack my every stroke, how can i make my topspin more of a weapon because my flat shots never make the table?

Alois Rosario Answered 14 years ago

Hi Ziga,

Firstly when placing the ball with the backhand just hitting the ball a fraction earlier will get the ball to go across court instead of down the line. Relax your wrist so that you can alter the placement of the ball.  It doesn't take much of a change with your wrist to get the ball to go in a totally different direction.

To get more speed you may need to trade off a bit of spin for more speed.  The flatter you hit the ball the faster it will go.  So you can brush a little less to get more speed on the ball. You still need to maintain some spin otherwise the ball will keep flying and not dip at all onto the table.