How to hit Heavy Looping Topspin Strokes

[Sure Shank2]

I'm confused guys. I use the topspin button to hit with topspin obviously (B on 360) yet i can never seem to get the same height on my balls as Coolhand Texas. I mean really, the amount of loop and top spin the guy gets on his shots is insane. It's like playing nadal. So my question is, what is the key to hit a higher arcing topspin shot?

[jayl0ve]

I've always been curious about this, too. I think I have good enough skills and timing that I would have just naturally hit this shot without even trying, but I don't think I've ever hit ONE of those insane moonballs you're speaking of

[Yippie-Caiay]

did you try aiming deep with L2?..(LT in xbox 360)

[jayl0ve]

Of course

I have no problem consistently hitting risk shot after risk shot but I can't do this thing.

Al (djarvik) has mentioned something about only tapping LT for a split second...I've tried it and can't really make it work for me because I always hold down the trigger until after I'm completely done with the shot. Oh well it's not really a shot that fits with my style anyways. I'd really kick myself if I made an error trying to hit a farty floater

[Mack2300]

Norberto executes this shot beautifully too so would be worth asking him I remember playing a sim match against him a few months ago and I was sure he had to be hitting lob returns coz the height he was getting on his topspin returns were unreal..and they would all float right to the baseline too. It drove me insane lol. I have never seen anyone else manage to get such height from just using B button and lt

[Coolhand Texas]

For returns all you do is hold lt and tap b. But i hat using those returns seem .

In rallies I just use lt and b, nothing special

[djarvik]

These shots were very effective about a year ago. You could built a whole match around them. Not anymore however, anyone with a bit of experiences eats these alive....unless its done as a surprise tactic or to an open court (winch is unnecessary as any shot will do at this point). Same goes for slow slices.

The key to executing these and countering these is to not pre-press. Meaning only select the shot after seeing what is coming from your opponent.

There are two types of high Top Spin shots:

- Norberto's "heavy" top spin
and
- Djarvik's "light" top spin




Norberto (from recent memory) presses early and most times uses RT in addition to his top spins. That works great when on offense, but that early pressing makes him venerable on defense, as if an opponent reaches the ball and is being smart about his next shot, meaning not pre-pressing, he can just flick it to the opposite corner using "light" top spin. Since Norberto have his buttons already pressed, this makes his guy slow to reach that ball. Of course the trick is to actually "catch" that attacking shot from Norberto, which is easier said than done.

What I do, is press and release very quickly, only after seeing what is coming from the other side. This gives me a "choice" of either go for a "light" top spin shot or to go for a Flat hard shot. I usually just tap LT when going for "light" and press and hold both triggers when going for hard flat.

I almost never pre-press, that might be one of the reasons that prevent me from wining guys like Joesixtoe, Anteros and Coolhand (even thou Coolhand had added the "light" spins to his arsenal now and he is a total nightmare when he is on). I hand with them just fine, but "hang" with a person that doesn't use risk is basically not good enough, it means that in crunch time you are more prone to errors.

My suggestion to you is: If you pre-pressing - Stop. Learn to select the shot a bit later, after seeing whats coming first. Sure, at first it will seem impossible, but this will add "fluidity" to your game and "fluid" game combined with "variety" is what is fun for me in TS3 and I am sure it will be for you as well. Just play guys like Picachu on Xbox or Alex on PS3, both are absolutely phenomenal at creating points and making you feel helpless without necessarily overpowering you.


P.S. - I want to throw one more name there: Moralspain. He is as good as anyone with his verity.

[jayl0ve]

I've tried to stop pre-pressing...it's not happening. It's just too engrained in my head.

[Moralspain]

thanks for the mention Al...and i wanna throw one more name to the list too: SMP Andyroro, i've played many matches against him, and in my opinion he´s one of the most skillful players here, a master using lt+b, i don't care if he has won a lot of matches lately or not, he's good....that's all.

Every time i play against him we have rallies of more or less 20 shots just hitting with lt+b hahaha and we both have chances to finish the play but we keep hitting cross shots with lt, we don't mind who finally gets the win.

I certainly know i will never be as good as some of the players here, so i just play for fun, maybe hard to believe but as real as life itself.