Hey guys in today's video I'm going to teach you how to hit with backspin.
First let's talk about what backspin is. So backspin is basically under spin. The
same type of spin that you get on a slice or a drop shot. Where the ball
is basically rotating in this manner.
And you can easily tell how much backspin a
ball has simply by looking at how it behaves after the bounce. So you can have
a ball with backspin that continues going and then maybe has a second bounce
that's very close in proximity to the first one. That can still be done with
backspin. Other backspin type of balls will have zero penetration. In other
words they will bounce and then simply stay in place. And balls with an extreme
amount of backspin will actually bounce and then come back towards the side
that they came from. So let's say your opponent hits a ball with backspin. Now
the ball bounces and it's coming back towards the net and it's going over the
net you are actually allowed in this instance to reach over the net and play
the ball. And the easiest way to apply backspin is to do it with a half volley.
Basically all you have to do is time the ball correctly and keep a stable string
bed. So what you're gonna do on a half volley is basically position your racket
with a slightly open racket face and I'm going to demonstrate here but just
simply setting the racket in the right place and bouncing the ball into the
ground right before the racket and once that ball hits my strings it's going to
have backspin. Take a look.
See how the ball is bouncing back towards my racket and that is the
easiest way to apply backspin on the ball and that is to do it with a half
volley with a slightly open string bed.
If you do a drop shot from the baseline it would be great if that drop shot has
backspin on it. It would greatly increase your chances of winning the point with
that particular shot. And here's how you're gonna do it. Basically you want to
have a continental grip on both the forehand drop-shot and the backhand drop
shot with backspin. And let's start off with the backhand. You're going to take
your racket up towards your shoulder. It's very important that you start high
and now you're gonna swing down towards the ball and you're gonna play it a
little bit closer to your body. This will increase the feel and now once you make
contact you want that string bed to be slightly open. This will increase the
chances for the ball to have backspin and now the very important part is that
the racket does not continue going through the ball and also it doesn't
continue going straight down on this side. What you want to do is imagine a
wall in front of you and where the racket cannot go forward and what you're
gonna do after contact this go across the body and down without going forward.
This will give you the best chances to create a drop shot with backspin.
The forehand drop-shot generally is more difficult than the backhand drop-shot
and it should keep this particular shot at a minimum. But here's how you do a
forehand drop-shot with backspin. Basically you start at the shoulder
height and just like the backhand you're going to hit down on the ball making
contact closer to your body for extra feel. And the same as the backhand you
imagine a wall in front of you and you're not gonna go forward and you're
also not gonna go down on the same side. You're going to go down across the
body like this and you can take the tip of the racket as the orientation point
and you want that tip to point straight down on the finish. So it looks from the
shoulder into the contact with a slightly open racket face and then
across the body with the tip of the racket pointing downward.
So the volley drop shot with backspin it's gonna be very similar to the way
you execute it from the baseline. Basically you're going to be in a
continental grip and on the backhand volley you're gonna start at your
shoulder and you're gonna hit down. Again you want that contact to be made a
little bit closer to you and what's crucial on the volley that you
absorb the ball. Now any pushing forward on the ball will decrease your chances
of getting backspin. So what you must do is absorb the ball into your strings. Do not
allow the racket to go forward. In some instances you can even go back with the
racket slightly and after you make contact the tip of the racket is gonna
go down towards the ground and this is your best chance of getting that drop
shot to bounce on the other side and then come back to your side.
The forehand drop-shot volley just like the baseline forehand drop-shot is the more
difficult one and you should keep it at a minimum. But generally on the volleys
you also want to have a little bit softer grip. So you don't want to hold
the racket too tight. This will make it more difficult to absorb the ball
into the strings and it will make the ball just pop off the strings decreasing
the chances of the ball having backspin. So on the forehand you're going to start
at your shoulder, you're gonna come down making the contact little bit closer to
your body and then using the tip of the racket as the orientation, make it go
down and across and again. Sometimes you might even want to absorb the ball
back into your strings and this will increase the chances of the ball having backspin.
You can create backspin by hitting through the ball but this is not
something I want you to do on a real incoming ball because you do have to
open the racket face up quite severely for this to work and what happens on a
real incoming ball you will either send the ball too high
or you will send it too far and it decreases the effectiveness of such a
shot however just to get the feeling the sensation of making backspin you can
position yourself close to the net and this works with either forehand or
backhand and basically you open the racket face up you hold the racket
loosely and let the ball drop into string and you hit forward you will be
able to create backspin.
Now let me try that again. I can do a little better job I can make the ball
come back over to my side and now let me try forehand. Same thing basically open
the racket face and let the ball come back to the other side. Guys it's very
important that you don't fall in love with hitting drop shots. Now these shots
are a lot of fun especially if you can pull off a shot that comes back to your
own side and it's almost addicting you want to do it over and over again
but when you're playing a match keep these type of shots at a minimum.
They are very low percentage they do come in handy from time to time and it's good to
practice these type of shots. it improves your finesse it improves your feel but
when it comes to playing matches that keep these as a surprise. They will be
more effective when you apply in this way.