Adding side spin to your forehand topspin can be effective, but it can also be a lot of fun
There are two types of forehand sides ben topspin that you can do. There's the hook and
the fade so the hook is where you're dropping the end of your racket and the fade is where you're
Lifting the end of your racket
The critical part of adding side Spin is the angle of your racket and your wrist if you have your racket straight
You're going to come straight over the top of the ball and add pure topspin on the ball
But now let's look if we drop the end of our racket down using our wrist
I'm going to brush on the side of the ball and add some sides ben curving the ball from my left to right
Similarly if I now lift the end of my racket up and my wrist up I'm going to brush on
This side of the ball, and so I'm going to curve the ball from my right to left
When you're playing the sides been topspin
It's important that your arm action is still very similar to your normal topspin
so if your normal topspin
This is what your arm looks like now all we're going to do is we're going to change the angle of our wrist and racket
to add the side spin
this way
or that way I
Often see players instead of doing this
doing this so right across their body which tends to lead to a lot of errors, so
Make sure that you're finishing with your arm in a good high position
So technically when should you use the side spin topspin
It's a good idea if your opponent is central to the table to be able to use the side spin to drag them out wide
Across the table if you use the hook then
The ball is gonna drag out wide there or if you use the fade you're gonna drag your opponent
Way out to the other side of the table?
Adding side Spin to your top Spin also makes it a little bit harder for the blocker
blockers are used to the ball coming with pure topspin and
For pure topspin they just keep their bat straight
Now by adding side Spin the ball is curving so they need to be able to react to that curve
But once they contact the ball they also then need to be able to cope with the side spin
That's on the ball
So the side Spin is going to drag the ball out one way
Or the other and they need to angle their racket to be able to counter the sides been on the topspin
It's important before
Attempting the side Spin topspin that you're really confident with your straight topspin
It's important to get the action of your straight topspin correct
And then you can start to change the angle of your wrist either down or up
When you're playing with pure topspin the ball has a better margin for error because the pure topspin will drag the ball straight down
However with the side Spin the ball isn't dropping as quickly because it's curving
So it's a little bit less accurate and you will find that you'll make some more errors. It's a more difficult stroke
So make sure first up you have your pure topspin
correct and then you can start to experiment with the Hook and
the fade