Heavy Topspin

Hi Alois and Jeff,

I've found that most of my firends use the heavy topspin as a way to win many points during matches in tournaments. But it's quite spinny. I started practising it but I'm still having some problems. Sometimes my heavy topspin doesn't have enough spin to go out off my opponent's rubber and my opponents (especially good players) can counter it easilly.

Second thing is that my heavy topspin is sometimes (not always but sometimes) quite high and it's easy to smash. Could you tell me a way to make my topspin both very spinny and as low as possible? I manage to make it sometimes but I want to be sure I can use it in tournaments without any hesitation.

And another thing, after topspinning the pushed or the chopped ball where should my ready position be? Closer to the table or more backwards? (I'm taller and different people say different things)

Hi Peter,

The topspin is one of the most important strokes in the game now and a good one to try and get right.

To get the stroke right you need to make sure you are brushing the ball well on contact.  Try also to make sure your arm is coming through in one plane so that the bat isn't waving around.  By watching the lesson on the Forehand Topspin Off Backspin take particular note of the start and finish positions of the stroke.  If you get this and the contact right you will start to get a good spinning topspin.  Make sure too that your racket has rubber on it that grips the ball.  If not, it will be difficult to play this stroke correctly.

If the ball is going too high on the stroke you need to close over the angle of the bat.  Turn it forward.  However when you do this you also need to brush the ball faster to make sure that the ball has enough lift to go over the net.  This is a fine line between getting it right and making an error.  That is why this game is so interesting.  The stroke needs a lot of training to get just right.

After you play the stroke you need to read what your opponent is going to do.  If the ball does go up high then you should probably move back a little to allow for the speed of your opponent's next shot.  Or if you play a good low spin ball and you see your opponent is going to block it high then you should stay close to take advantage of the weaker shot.  In general though if you are a taller player you can be a little further back from the table than shorter players to allow yourself enough room to play your shots effectively.  As a guide when you are in the ready position you should just be able to touch the end of the table.  So for someone with a long reach this will be slightly further back.