What is a Heavy ball?

Tom Downs

One of the more interesting chichés I see on t shirts or hear from the mouths of coaches and students involves something to do with the heavy ball. But what exactly is a heavy ball and what does it mean? For most of us, when we think of a heavy ball, we instantly think of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer forehands which are hit with large amounts of offensive topspin and pace. And we would not be wrong to consider those shots heavy balls. But a heavy ball is more than just that. What you read in this article may surprise you. But more than anything, I hope it will help you in your quest to becoming a better tennis player.

According to some dictionaries, the word heavy means something that has force. So a heavy ball is one that has force behind it. In tennis terms, force means a ball that is hit with good pace and spin. A heavy ball could be an offensive topspin groundstroke hit with pace, a flat and hard groundstroke, a topspin lob, a serve that has either kick or slice, a first serve that is hard and flat or has some slice on it, and various kinds of slice backhands that will be later looked at in this article, or even slice forehands.

A heavy ball has a lot of momentum, as body weight goes up and into the shot along with tremendous acceleration. In today's game, a majority of players are hitting a lot of their offensive topspin groundstrokes with their body weight off the ground. This is because they use their kinetic chain properly, and their large muscle groups are going into each shot from the ground up, which naturally forces them off the ground through the contact zone. This also increases the acceleration of the racquet head tremendously.

As a high performance coach, I often hear things from students that are somewhat mind boggling, such as a flat ball isn't heavy. Well, a flat ball can certainly be hit with both force and momentum behind it. So absolutely, a flat ball can be very heavy. If both the acceleration of the racquet and the force of the body weight are going into the shot, the flat ball will be coming through the court with good penetration and force and it may skid through the court.

One of the greatest backhands in the history of tennis was that of Ken Rosewall’s slice backhand. You're trust me, it was heavy. Rosewall’s backhand was so heavy that he could control points with it even against the likes of Rod Laver and Pancho Gonzalez. Stan Wawrinka's slice backhand could be considered the modern day contemporary of Rosewall's slice backhand. Stan's backhands have more pace and spin than Rosewall's and penetrate through the court more, largely due to the advancements in technology regarding racquets, string, and possibly Stan's overall physical strength. The Sampras serve, often regarded by many as the greatest shot in the history of tennis, is very heavy. So too is Maria Sharapova's relatively flat backhand. So there are a lot more ways to hit a heavy ball and to acknowledge what a heavy ball is besides Rafael Nadal’s offensive topspin forehand.

To hit a heavy ball you have to use your entire body correctly and execute your strokes with efficient swing patterns and technique. For me, there’s no such thing as perfect in tennis, there’s either efficient or inefficient. To hone your groundstrokes, use drills and exercises to work on accelerating the racquet head through the contact zone.

I often have my high level students practice drop feeds. The goal here is to  produce heavy topspin groundstrokes that will look as though the ball will travel past the baseline but then drop in at the last second and, after the bounce, hit the back fence about halfway between the top of the fence and the ground. Club players can do the same drill but their target could be a quarter of the way up the fence after the bounce.

While practicing drills concentrate on using your body correctly and focus on hitting the correct part of the ball. In this case, you want to hit the outside part of the ball. If you were to put a clock face on the ball, a right-hander would hit the 4 o'clock part of the ball for a topspin forehand and the 7 o'clock part of the ball for a topspin backhand. The swing pattern will be an inside to outside from the slot, with the racquet then traveling in an upward and forward path through the contact zone. The important thing to remember is that the maximum acceleration will start from the slot. The finish will be a by-product of the swing. Understanding where that finish should be is very important so that your racquet will travel in the correct path.

Many students and recreational players think a fast or hard ball is somehow different from a heavy ball. But in reality, a fast or hard ball is a type of a heavy ball and not something completely different. A fast or hard ball has force and momentum behind it. As does a ball hit with excessive topspin.

Tomas Berdych hits hard, flat traditional groundstrokes that extremely heavy. Berdych hits groundstrokes with such force that his shots skid through the court, forcing opponents to hit off the back foot and off balance. Opponents are often forced to react to Berdych’s power rather than generating offense of their own. To return Berdych's penetrating shots, opponents often have to make adjustments. We rarely see someone out hit Berdych.

It's fair to say that all players on the ATP Tour hit heavy forehands, but not all of those forehands are hit exactly the same with regards to ball spin and speed. Studies from the Hawkeye ball speed show that the average forehand rally speed in a tour match ranges from the low to high 70s range in miles per hour (MPH). A flatter ball striker who has a heavy forehand such as Juan Martin Del Potro is shown by Hawkeye to generate between 1900 to 2200 RPM (Revolutions per minute) on average (he would likely hit with more spin on clay) while Rafael Nadal averages somewhere between 3700 to 4300 RPM on hardcourts, and possibly more on clay.

At the club level, probably the most often practiced and thought about shot would be the heavy topspin forehand. While most of us mere mortals will never hit this shot as heavy and with as many RPMs as Nadal or Jack Sock, we can all make our forehands significantly heavier and more penetrating.

One of my my favorite drills is the high net forehand drill which uses a rope to make the net higher. The high net should be about 70 inches above the net in general, which is the average height Federer clears the net by. Nadal is around 90 inches. When practicing this drill, it is crucial to focus on hitting the outside part of the ball with plenty of brush from the racquet strings so that we can drive the ball with a forwards rotation (topspin). The goal here is to clear the net with enough spin and pace so that the ball will land just inside the baseline and hit half way up on the back fence after the bounce. So while this drill seems simple and not that creative, we can work on a number of things that can enable us to more efficiently execute a heavy topspin forehand. Have your coach do some drop feeds to work on this. Then basket feeds. Then rally with a practice partner while the coach observes your form from close range. Progression drills are always so important.

I recently asked Andrey Golubev, a pro player from Kazakhstan, who hits the heaviest ball on the men’s tour. While he said that Rafael Nadal hits the heaviest forehand, and that players who play Nadal all comment on how they hit more strokes out of their strike zone than they do against any other player due to the spin and pace he generates, the player that gives him the most trouble because of the different types of heavy spins coming off his racquet, is Roger Federer. Andrey explained that Federer may not serve as big as Sampras, but he has different first serves that have tremendous spin on them and are well placed. He also said that the hardest shot to handle is Federer’s slice backhand. It is difficult to handle because it is well placed with a lot of spin and most players on the men’s tour fail to handle this shot with any real conviction.

Players struggle to create offense off of Federer's short, low slice because they are forced to move up to the ball and hit their shot well inside the baseline and out of their comfort zone. They have to create their own pace off a ball that stays low and has a lot of underspin. If they do not hit a quality shot, Federer will go on the offense and use his wide range of offensive tools to dominate the point.

The Federer and Wawrinka slice backhands are both heavy but quite different. Stan may hit deeper and harder slice backhands, but Federer hits his slice to different locations on the court and the slice he puts on them is very heavy. Federer's one-handed topspin backhand is very effective due to its heavy topspin, and Stan’s is considered the world's best one-handed topspin backhand due to the pace and spin. Both of these strokes can be deemed as heavy as both have force and momentum behind them.

So in your quest to develop heavier shots, remember there's more to it than just hitting hard, offensive topspin groundstrokes. Work on all the shots.. This is one of the many things that we can learn from Federer. As the great coach Tony Roche would often say to his players, "Stay heavy out there boys." Do not think for a minute he only meant hitting with topspin. After all, he did coach Federer among others.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Tom Downs' article by emailing us here at TennisOne.

Tom Downs

Tom has and extensive coaching background, and has been a member of the Institute team for several years. He has served as our Head Staff Professional, and is currently the Traveling Coach for Institute players. He has traveled with several of our Tour players including Laura Granville and Carly Gullickson, who won the US Open Mixed Doubles title in 2009.

Tom has worked with junior and other professional players, including Sam Stosur and Rennae Stubbs, at all 4 Grand Slam events, as well as other major tournaments around the world. Tom graduated from the University of South Florida in 2005 with a degree in communications. As a successful junior player, Tom represented Australia, and was consistently ranked in the top 10 in all age groups in Australia. He played college tennis at South Carolina State University and was a member of their conference championship team in 2004.