Hey everyone, Simon and Alex here with Top Tennis Training, and in this video we're
going to talk about the windshield wiper on the forehand and how it generates topspin.
Now the windshield wiper motion allows for maximum racket head speed when you're going through that
contact zone with that low to high swing. All your favorite players like rafael nadal novak djokovic
and roger federer use this motion and it makes them incredibly effective at generating topspin
now make sure you watch this lesson right to the end because we'll be showing you a very simple
drill to help you get more of that windshield wiper motion on your forehand the first part to
the perfect windshield wiper motion is your grip now if you're a player that uses the continental
grip you're going to struggle to achieve it so why does this happen on the continental grip the
racket face does not face away from your body making it very difficult for you to rotate your
hand at contact you're going to have to take the ball a lot later so the contact becomes later and
the racket head would have to go upwards like this meaning that you have to tense your hand upwards
rather than allow the hand to rotate therefore all the grips that allow that hand rotation
therefore the racket face facing away from you at contact other grips are going to be effective
now those grips are the easton grip someone like roger federer uses it to great effect
you've got the semi-western grip
and you've got the western grip
now the eastern grip is about here it allows that racket
acceleration upwards but it's a little bit more difficult than a semi-western
the semi-western is the optimal position between the racket face pointing away from your body and
the position uh away from your body so the the distance that you have between you and the ball
now the the western grip you can achieve the racket face pointing away from you but the contact
zone has to be a lot closer to you in order to achieve that rotation upwards so whichever grip
you use and if you are someone that's starting out i would choose the semi-western grip simply
because it's the easiest to do now if you're serious about improving your game make sure
you have subscribed to the channel and you turn on that notification bell so what happens prior
to contact now before we actually make contact with the ball the rack ahead should drop beneath
that contact point as you make contact the forearm starts to now pronate over so i'm going from this
supinated position where the palm is facing the sky to a pronated position so i'm pronating over
as i make contact and this is what allows this windshield wiper motion to happen now as you make
contact the wrist should be laid back like so and a common error that a lot of club players make is
they keep the wrist in that position when they're trying to achieve this windshield wiper motion
now what you want to actually do is have the wrist come out of that position into a neutral position
while you're pronating the forearm so it ends up going from this position to this position here
so now let's talk about the timing of when we should do it well it depends on what kind of
shot you're trying to hit is it going to be a flatter shot or a more spinnier shot the more
topspin you apply the more the windscreen wiper motion has to happen at point of contact so at
the point of contact with the ball the racket is rotating around my hand and it's going up
the flatter the ball the more i go through the ball at contact still finishing with a
wiper motion because that's the natural way for my wrist to rotate it's the easiest way to finish and
it allows for that relaxation through the wrist and your hand now a simple way for you to imagine
this windshield wiper motion happening is prior to contact the racket head to be down and after
contact the racket had to be up so my racket hits going from this down position to this up position
and this is the position that we see nadal federer djokovic a lot of the pros achieving after they
make contact the tip of the racket pointing up to the sky now this doesn't mean that you stop
in this position because that will be unnatural what you want to achieve is this position but
then finish all the way around so the forearm is pronating fully now let's talk about what happens
at contact with a windscreen wiper as my racket is going up the racket path will obviously change
depending on the shot that i'll hit the flat shot having a more horizontal racket path now the more
top spin i want the more closed off the more close the rack it will be compared to the racket path so
as the racquet path is going upwards the racket faces closed compared to the path the straighter
the path is for a flat shot the less closed off it needs to be compared to the path now to the ball
the ball is always going to be met with a flat racket face so that i can brush the back of that
ball and create that rolling of the ball in the strings allow the strings to grip that ball now
during contact because i'm leading with that top edge and i want that top edge to go around my hand
and towards my shoulder it will lead across so then it starts to close off at contact even more
if you just led with a close racket face at contact you simply wouldn't achieve the length
of ball that you need to achieve and sometimes you'll even make the ball go down now if you
want more help with your forehand we have a free forehand guide that you can download right away
all you have to do is click the link under this video enter your email and we'll send you your
downloadable pdf now the main reason we use this motion is to generate that heavy topspin
when you think about the the main obstacles on the tennis court the first one being the net
and the second one getting it into the lines the heavy topspin will allow us to lift that ball off
the strings so having a nice neck clearance think about rafa when he's playing on clay and then
having the ball to dip before it hits the lines now if we hit the ball flat we can get the ball
to pass the net but it will be very low but if we want to take this net out of play eliminating the
net we need the ball to be lifting off the racket but then to have that dip we need that spin and
that's why we have that low to high swing path during the contact point now for the first part of
this drill i'm going to put my racket down and i'm going to simply use my hand and the ball in front
of the net now what i want to do is i want to use my two fingers and my thumb to simply roll the
ball over the net so all i'm doing is i'm holding the ball and then i'm rolling it over the net
that gives me that ability to actually turn my racket to turn my wrist in exactly the same manner
as i would when i'm doing the windscreen wiper now for the second part of this drill
we're going to use the racket this time and still using the net to roll that ball over the net so
i'm holding the ball i'm rolling it i'm holding the ball i'm rolling it notice how my racket head
is going from low to high now if you were simply to push through the net that ball will not roll
up you will not get the same effect you won't get the same spin that means you're not doing
the windshield wiper the third part of this drill we're now gonna have a drop feed so simon's gonna
drop the ball in front and i'm gonna simply focus on getting my racket from below the ball
to going up so i'm finishing with a racket head pointing up to the sky and starting below the ball
so from low to high and that's my focus
okay now here i'm simply focusing on my hand and not my body now the fourth part of this drill
i'm going to try and put all my segments together so now i'm going to use my legs
my body and i'm going to finish the stroke fully just like i would on a normal shot
now here i'm focusing on getting that racket path as high as possible so low to high
as much as possible and getting as much rotation of that racket with my hand
so there you have it we hope you've enjoyed the video and learned something new do press the
like button leave a comment under the video let us know how you get on with a windshield wiper
also let us know if there's anything that you'd like to see from us in our future videos
don't forget to subscribe to the channel as well and we'll see you soon all the best
you