Improve Your Spacing and Topspin

Prodigy Maker Tennis Show EP 111

Sunday, January 11, 2026

In this live Q&A session, Tennis Evolution Head Coach Chris Lewit shared deep insights into spacing on groundstrokes and how players can train themselves to find better contact positions consistently.

Chris—who studied literature and religion at Cornell, Harvard, and Columbia and is currently pursuing a PhD in kinesiology—is widely regarded as one of the top high-performance tennis coaches in the United States.

Key Takeaways: Improving Spacing

Chris outlined a clear, practical framework for improving spacing, including:

Let the ball fall before striking

Trick your brain to reach and extend more fully

Play deeper near the back fence or wall to give your visual system more time to track the ball

Allow the energy of the ball to die out before receiving it

Be patient and avoid attacking the ball when working specifically on spacing

Spacing and Topspin

Chris also explained how topspin generation is closely linked to spacing, emphasizing that spacing must come first before power and spin can be maximized.

Key elements of effective topspin include:

Letting the ball fall

A loose arm and wrist

A smooth, low-to-high “ramping” swing path

Proper spacing to allow the swing to work naturally

New Book Announcement

Chris also discussed his upcoming book and its central thesis. You can learn more about it now at winningpretty.com.

➡️ Winning Pretty

🎾 The Prodigy Maker Tennis Show (PMTS) explores the intersection of junior tennis development, cutting-edge sport science, fitness, health, and human performance. Hosted by world-renowned coach Chris Lewit — author of The Secrets of Spanish Tennis and Winning Pretty, and developer of numerous No. 1 juniors in the U.S. — PMTS brings together coaching wisdom, research, and technology to shape the future of tennis and human performance.

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📖 Books: The Secrets of Spanish Tennis | Winning Pretty

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