The Topspin Backhand-Why?

I guess I should start off by answering the title. The reason you need to learn the topspin backhand is so that you can score points. And that's the name of the game is to score points. Maybe you have a good topspin forehand, well that's not the side your opponent is going to hit the ball to. He's going to hit it to your backhand because for most people, just making any kind of backhand shot is an accomplishment, so he'll be hoping that you're in that boat. Imagine his surprise when you not only make a well hit return, but the ball seems to fall out of the sky and drops down close to the net, but on his side. You can do this if you master the topspin backhand. I'll tell you how to become the master of the topspin backhand in this article.

A lot of the topspin backhand is just like the regular backhand, but you will be holding the tennis racquet with a different grip. The proper grip to use for the topspin backhand is called the Continental grip. In the Eastern grip the "V" between your thumb and forefinger will be centered on the #1 bevel on the racquet handle. In the Continental grip, this "V" is moved all the way to the left on the #1 bevel

As I said before, this stroke will be almost the same as your regular backhand. The big difference is that when you bring the racquet across your body, you bring it to a position below where the ball is going to be. If the tennis ball is coming in low, you may even have to bend your knees so that you can get your racquet even lower. When the ball arrives, go ahead and make a swing at the ball. You will actually be swinging up at the ball. This puts topspin on it which will cause it to curve towards the ground. After you make contact, go ahead and make your follow through and don't forget to look momentarily at your contact point before you watch the balls trajectory.

The end result of the topspin is that the ball is spinning in such a way that it curves to the ground. I'll say it again, it's not sneaky; it's called strategy. You want to hit the ball where your opponent can't get it and the topspin backhand might just come in handy for that.

I know that a lot of people would rather watch demonstrations of a skill than read about it, so I've made a website where I sell links to tennis backhand videos. It's called, "Tennis Backhand Videos". I also have a Squidoo lens about the topspin backhand. It's called, "How To Hit A Topspin Backhand". My Squidoo lens also has a couple of videos that demonstrate both the one-handed and two-handed topspin backhand. I have even more information in my article over at Ezine articles called, "The Topspin Backhand-A Sneaky Stroke?"