ball contact point

Hello everyone, I wanted to congratulate all of you guys for such a great web site. I'm from Ecuador, a beautiful spanish speaking country. I took an English course just to communicate with you and say thank you and congratulations.

My question is about the specific contact point that we must aim to hit the ball. If we consider the ball as a clock for example, three o clock would be the front of the ball. How about topspin? Backspin? counterhint forehand? backhandk counterhit? where is the contact located in relationship with the ball? 2 o' clock? 3, 4 5?

Hope recieve your answer. Thank you again.

Hi Edgar,

Welcome to our site.  We are glad you like the site.

For topspin you need to hit the ball at higher than 3.  The higher you hit the ball the more brushing contact you get and therefore more chance to spin the ball.  If you hit it at 12 for example you can get the ball to spin however you need a lot of speed to make the ball go forwards.  If you hit the ball at 2 you still get topspin and a little more speed.

The other critical factor is the plane of your swing and the contact of the bat on the ball.  If the contact is at a tangent to the ball it will be a brushing contact.  If however the contcact is flatter it will get less spin.

For backspin you need to hit the ball between 3 and 6.  For a counter hit you can hit the ball at 3 or a little higher to get a little topspin to gain control.