1 handed backhand - Pls comment - made some changes

[ByeByePoly]

Yes, my backhand is most certainly my weaker side, I'm trying to defend a bit better with it and trying to practice going cross court and deep. More times than not, I run around it for a forehand on virtually any opportunity that presents itself. That being said, when I play 5.0 players and above they almost exclsively attack my one handed every chance they get, so it most definitely gets tested - I tend to slice, particularly on the run. However the guys that beat me, have little trouble attacking those defensive slices as well. Point being, I need to be able to consistently do some damage with my backhand side, so I guess I would be needing more penetration on that wing.

I now want to see your slice and your 2hbh.

I've watched open level tournament players that don't get attacked off their slice, so maybe an upgrade there goes hand in hand with your 1hbh conversion. Obviously being able to hit offense/finishing shots with topspin 1hbh is the end goal. I am doing the opposite ... going from 1hbh drive to 2hbh, and enjoying a better topspin drive than I had with my 1hbh. Always had the slice ... it's like a get out of jail card.

Your 1hbh is obviously at the point now where as it stands now, could be a repeatable quality stroke. That is ... assuming you can hit it moving, holds up to your opponents play, and you can return serve with it if that is the goal. (I throw in the ros, because I am finding that my 2hbh ros is a completely different hurdle than getting baseline groundstrokes down). So ... input here probably is not in your interest. Best thing is playing a lot, and paying the LONG *** painful process of getting a stroke match worthy.

That said ... here are some tips (let's call them observations ) of 1hbh "stuff" I have noticed looking at pro video:

The following seems common with most of the pro 1hbhs (we aren't pros, so we have to pick and choose which techniques help vs we can't repeat)

1) common that racquet points due north in take back
2) common to have more forearm/racquet lag angle (than you do) at the back of the slot right before arm starts forward ... check some slow motion video ... easy power from lag release ... wish I had known
3) you have choices with 1hbh when to get your right arm fully extended (your looks great the way it is ... don't read below ... hehehehe)

Three types of 1hbhs (no doubt more than this)

- Right arm straight at take back ... Edberg and @Tennis-melike ... good company ... can you volley?
- Bent right arm take back, arm gets extended around back foot in forward swing .... Wawrinka
- Bent right arm take back ... never gets fully extended to somewhere around front leg ... Fed ... and BBP ... two GOATS (BBP -> Geezer Old A $ $ Tennis)

Just experimenting, I find the 1hbh straight arm back at first the most demanding in the early unit turn, and Fed style the most effortless. You appear to have plenty of flexibility, so stick with what feels most natural. I seem to be the only one that cares much about arm positions and when, but to this day I am glad I picked "bent/straight 2hbh" from the start, and not end up with bent/bent.

Now .... let's see that 1hbh and slice moving.

 

[ByeByePoly]

droppin the racquet head below the hand and contact point and then rotating it around your arm into contact for topspin and lift

"droppin the racquet head below the hand and contact point"

Yep ... imo anyone hitting topspin should at least hear this and consider it ... makes big topspin possible/easier ... does not make "repeatable" easier.

"and then rotating it around your arm into contact for topspin and lift"

Not sure on that one for the rec player ... I am picturing Henin while I am typing this. Regardless, a good start would be just dropping the rh and grooving a stroke.

 

[Dou]

Hi there,
I posted a video several months ago seeking critique on my 1 handed backhand, anyway..i made some changes based on the comments received, please give it a once over and let me know what you think....looking for more tips I picked up a coach recently as well, you can hear him in the background. Video is 5 mintues in length. The last backhand he really liked.

Here is the latest video:

Here is the previous video:

Here is the previous thread: http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?p=8529852&posted=1#post8529852

since you are already working with a coach, better not messing around with random internet advice lol... shot looks good, although there is big room for improvement - relaxation, and my favorite - parametric acceleration.

 

[Kevo]

First, let me say that since this is against the ball machine we could be seeing things that have naturally worked their way into these shots because of the steady rhythm of the machine, so grain of salt. Also it's quite hard to tell how fast you have the machine set up since it's not real time, so I could be misinterpreting the timing aspects a bit.

If I were working with you I'd want to look at two things before messing with any specific mechanics.

Your feet are not setting up the way I would like to see. You tend to hang back and take large steps into the ball. This is not the best thing to groove on IMO. As others mentioned the 1HBH is the toughest groundstroke in terms of footwork. I'd like to see more active feet and better front to back movement.

Second, I'd want to see how that stroke looks under time pressure. Right now it seems the whole thing starting with the unit turn is timed to the machine. Maybe that's just because of hitting with the machine and it would be different against a person. What I'd like to see is shoulder turn and some pause and the drop being the start of the swing. Some separation there. When I hit with the machine I like to set it up so it throws pretty deep, like you have but maybe with a bit more spin, and then I try to crowd the baseline as much as possible and work on shortening my prep to take the ball early. The machine is usually more capable of delivering consistently deep and heavy shots so it can force me to work hard on the prep. Just be careful not to over do it. It's pretty easy to if you have the machine set at less than 2 secs and your trying to always catch up to the next shot. It's great practice though.

Overall I like it and I think it's most likely a matter of how consistent you can be with it under pressure and how well you move to the ball and prepare to hit it.

 

[StringSnapper]

Personally, I have extreme doubts that this backhand holds up against higher level shots or faster shots, im almost certain of that, the way he is currently hitting it, im suprized nobody has mentioned or noticed this detail yet.

Read post #33 lol. I think he can only hit it on a slow ball consistently probably

 

[FiReFTW]

Read post #33 lol. I think he can only hit it on a slow ball consistently probably

Of course, the only question is how fast a ball before it starts to break down, im sure a fairly fast ball and his bh would fall apart already.

 

[IowaGuy]

Hi there,
I posted a video several months ago seeking critique on my 1 handed backhand, anyway..i made some changes based on the comments received, please give it a once over and let me know what you think....looking for more tips I picked up a coach recently as well, you can hear him in the background. Video is 5 mintues in length. The last backhand he really liked.

Here is the latest video:

Here is the previous video:

Here is the previous thread: http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?p=8529852&posted=1#post8529852

How old are you?

Is there a reason that you are hitting with a straight right leg, instead of bending at the knee for more power?

 

[One Handed Dynasty]

It’s much harder to get accurate feedback if no one can see where the ball is going. If you can change your angle so that the camera is behind you, then I think you’ll be much happier with the quality and quantity of responses.

One thing I noticed immediately is that you need to work on your footwork. Most of the time you’re cheating towards the backhand side and not recovering fully, but when you do run for a ball you’re getting too close. You need to get your split step and initial 2-3 step burst down so that you can have time to make adjustment steps and stay balanced.

Technique wise, again it’s hard to really critique without seeing the shot quality, but it looks like you need more unit turn, more coil in the backswing, and more emphasis on weight transfer and starting the forward swing with your back hip. You have very vertical swing path on some of your strokes, which I’m not sure is intentional or not since I can’t see the ball land, but if you can and more turn, coil, and rotation you should be able to get more spin and power.


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[ByeByePoly]

It’s much harder to get accurate feedback if no one can see where the ball is going. If you can change your angle so that the camera is behind you, then I think you’ll be much happier with the quality and quantity of responses.

One thing I noticed immediately is that you need to work on your footwork. Most of the time you’re cheating towards the backhand side and not recovering fully, but when you do run for a ball you’re getting too close. You need to get your split step and initial 2-3 step burst down so that you can have time to make adjustment steps and stay balanced.

Technique wise, again it’s hard to really critique without seeing the shot quality, but it looks like you need more unit turn, more coil in the backswing, and more emphasis on weight transfer and starting the forward swing with your back hip. You have very vertical swing path on some of your strokes, which I’m not sure is intentional or not since I can’t see the ball land, but if you can and more turn, coil, and rotation you should be able to get more spin and power.

Look back a few posts ... he posted his recent one from the back angle. That last video was an old one.

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[One Handed Dynasty]

Of course, the only question is how fast a ball before it starts to break down, im sure a fairly fast ball and his bh would fall apart already.

I was about to say don’t be harsh he’s just learning and then I saw his post about 5.0 match play lol. @Tennis-melike is that your level and you switched from a two hander?


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[One Handed Dynasty]

Gotcha, thanks!


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[ByeByePoly]

I was about to say don’t be harsh he’s just learning and then I saw his post about 5.0 match play lol. @Tennis-melike is that your level and you switched from a two hander?


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previous 2hbh:

previous thread ... forgot the rh drop had been mentioned:

Back injury reason for converting to 1hbh

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/one-handed-backhand-please-comment.617229/

 

[Wise one]

Hi all - Just thought i'd take a look back at this 1 handed backhand posting (2014) and compare it to my backhand as of a few months ago. Would still welcome any comments anyone has:

You're not moving forward enough, not hitting the ball on the rise. Otherwise, fine.

 

[Tennis-melike]

Personally, I have extreme doubts that this backhand holds up against higher level shots or faster shots, im almost certain of that, the way he is currently hitting it, im suprized nobody has mentioned or noticed this detail yet.

What happens when you face fast shots to your backhand? Shots that are very fast and get to your backhand very fast. Do you just always end up slicing them? What happens if you attempt to topspin them?

Yes, that's the case, it doesn't hold up, at least not my topspin backhand. My backhand is easily my weaker side as i mentioned, against faster shots or when out of position I pretty much slice them back and fight for neutral, or block them back deep on the forehand side of my opponent. I'm much more comfortable with a forehand to forehand battle than a topspin backhand to backhand exchange. I also slice low and away to my opponents backhand, then come to the net for attempted put aways.

I am re-watching your backhand video and could nit-pick on a few things.

1. You should play lower, you need more knee bend.
2. You can engage your hips more, really utilize that power
3. You can add some flare to your backhand, right now its very simple and straight forward but if you wanna add some spin, soften your hands and speed up your racquet.

You might consider a racquet change if you are having trouble on defense, larger head size will definitely help. You have a strong physique so all that weight if directed correctly could be very powerful.
Your backhand arm kind of locks similar to Theims, maybe try adding some wrist-action at the very end for added spin.

Wrist action is a missing element for sure, it feels stiff at times - particularly when I get tight in matches.

In such a case I'd focus on knee bend and actually whole thing with being lower and using leg power to adjust and drive the ball, echoing what @NuBas wrote.
Also, as @Chas Tennis mentioned (if you managed to scrap this out of his wall of text) droppin the racquet head below the hand and contact point and then rotating it around your arm into contact for topspin and lift - not trying to swing whole arm up. This will give you a heavier more consistent ball. If you continue to struggle bringing ball down, consider closing your grip to true easter BH.

Also, as long as 5.0 opponents mentioned, what's your racquet specs? Facing heavy ball with some heft in the hoop is much more comfortable.

I'll try to add the knee bend, that's good advice - and i'm using the Head Extreme 2.0 Pro, 100 sq in, with wraps etc it's around 344 grams @ 5 points headlight. I switched from the old Prostaff 90 BLX 6.1 at 363 grams and the old Prince Tour 95 at 358 grams (non-textreme), both of which very control oriented sticks for me but lacked the pop of the extreme on serves.

 

[FiReFTW]

Yes, that's the case, it doesn't hold up, at least not my topspin backhand. My backhand is easily my weaker side as i mentioned, against faster shots or when out of position I pretty much slice them back and fight for neutral, or block them back deep on the forehand side of my opponent. I'm much more comfortable with a forehand to forehand battle than a topspin backhand to backhand exchange. I also slice low and away to my opponents backhand, then come to the net for attempted put aways.

Yeah makes sense, you can handle slow ball machine feeds easily buy once you olay and get faster and spinnier balls it breaks down.

I will advise you one thing that will help your backhand tremendously, but will post it in like 10 hours im not home now and ive made picture comparisons for you before.

 

[One Handed Dynasty]

Hi all - Just thought i'd take a look back at this 1 handed backhand posting (2014) and compare it to my backhand as of a few months ago. Would still welcome any comments anyone has:

You've made a lot of progress from the previous video, everything looks smoother. One thing that will help with fast balls is to change your take back. You turn with your arm straight and bring the racquet down by your hip, then bring the racquet up to shoulder height, and then bring it back down as you start your forward swing. I'd suggest making two changes so that you can make things more compact. First, keep your elbow bent as you turn and take the racquet back. Straight arming the back swing back takes more time, as the racquet and hand have to travel farther. Your arm will straighten out in the early stages of your forward swing. Secondly, you don't need to take the racquet down to your hip as you do your unit turn, just bring it up to the high point of your swing like you have it at around 0:35. Both of those will help give you more time to move to the ball and time faster balls, especially when hitting on the rise.

 

[NuBas]

You've made a lot of progress from the previous video, everything looks smoother. One thing that will help with fast balls is to change your take back. You turn with your arm straight and bring the racquet down by your hip, then bring the racquet up to shoulder height, and then bring it back down as you start your forward swing. I'd suggest making two changes so that you can make things more compact. First, keep your elbow bent as you turn and take the racquet back. Straight arming the back swing back takes more time, as the racquet and hand have to travel farther. Your arm will straighten out in the early stages of your forward swing. Secondly, you don't need to take the racquet down to your hip as you do your unit turn, just bring it up to the high point of your swing like you have it at around 0:35. Both of those will help give you more time to move to the ball and time faster balls, especially when hitting on the rise.

Those are good points, I would have pointed out also. Take back higher and don't lock out your arms like Thiem.

Watch and compare.

 

[FiReFTW]

You've made a lot of progress from the previous video, everything looks smoother. One thing that will help with fast balls is to change your take back. You turn with your arm straight and bring the racquet down by your hip, then bring the racquet up to shoulder height, and then bring it back down as you start your forward swing. I'd suggest making two changes so that you can make things more compact. First, keep your elbow bent as you turn and take the racquet back. Straight arming the back swing back takes more time, as the racquet and hand have to travel farther. Your arm will straighten out in the early stages of your forward swing. Secondly, you don't need to take the racquet down to your hip as you do your unit turn, just bring it up to the high point of your swing like you have it at around 0:35. Both of those will help give you more time to move to the ball and time faster balls, especially when hitting on the rise.

Good post, so someone finally noticed it.

@Tennis-melike

Look at the difference in your takeback compared to Federer, Wawrinka and Thiem.

You have like a 3 time longer path to take the racquet back, theres no way you can do that takeback against faster balls, u probably won't even reach the top position by the time you should already make contact with the ball.

 

[kramer woodie]

In addition to FiReFTW post above this comment: 1. Learn to make contact with the ball as it is coming upwards off the court...called hitting on the rise...you now wait for the ball to start dropping below the highest part of the bounce! To speed up your racquet take back follow the pictures
above. I prefer the first two of Fed and Wawrinka. Why? Because they are both hitting off the front foot. The third frame shots of Theim (I believe)
show him hitting off the back foot, plus his take back is really, really, really long, which translates to a slow long swing.

Best of progress to you!!!

Aloha

 

[Hmgraphite1]

nd don't lock out your arms like Thiem.

What is this? Lockout?

 

[StringSnapper]

What is this? Lockout?

he means the straight arm takeback thiem does. seems to make his stroke bigger

 

[ByeByePoly]

Good post, so someone finally noticed it.

@Tennis-melike

Look at the difference in your takeback compared to Federer, Wawrinka and Thiem.

You have like a 3 time longer path to take the racquet back, theres no way you can do that takeback against faster balls, u probably won't even reach the top position by the time you should already make contact with the ball.

This is the variations of 1hbhs I mentioned above. I said Fed, Wawrinka and Edberg ... just replace Edberg with Thiem. Thiem (and melike) gets to straight arm on take back. Wawrinka and Fed do not get right arm straight into forward swing ... Fed later than Wawrinka. To me, Fed's is the most relaxed easiest to repeat for a rec player ... but that is just speculation based on my limited experimentation with my 1hbh. Thiem style puts immediate stress/tension in my backswing that seems unnecessary.

Here is an observation about "alternate paths getting to backswing" . As rec players with limited reps, it seems a logical to simplify/shorten to improve our chances for repeatable. Also, as you correctly pointed out ... prep time against faster/variable pace/shots. That said ... at least with pro 2hbhs, many do just fine with longer paths getting to the backswing position.

These two get to a similar quality backswing position from long low to high backswings rather than straight across in unit turn. Both of these guys would have failed our requirement. Maybe someone can think of a pro 1hbh example.

 

[Hmgraphite1]

I've read a lot of the ohbh posts but don't remembrr seeing why, if, the Becker /Edberg take back is inferior in some way? For me I can't seem to get high 'modern atp ohbh' takeback to jive with my coiling.

 

[NuBas]

What is this? Lockout?

If you look at the fourth photo in post #68, that's what I mean. Don't lock out his arms too early, allow some elbow bend and when the arm is completely straight is point of contact. If you lock out before you are giving up some lag that the bent elbow provides.

 

[ReopeningWed]

be careful with racket head speed. its highly overrated. remember your still in the process of learning and developing the fundamentals of the shot. if you just start swinging faster your going to increase the use of your upper body...shoulders etc. You really need to get the rotation down pat and have a pure stroke before you start whipping the racquet through the contact zone.

If i were teaching you and you were hitting the shot without a smooth rotation I would actually tell you to slow the stroke down until you developed the feel for the stroke.

Something to remember. If your not controlling your body you wont control the ball....and thats what its all about...ball control.

You should watch some edberg footage. He has the perfect backhand. Its pretty much straight up fundamentals and streamlined to perfection.... very smooth, perfect rotation, crisp and clean. He doesnt have whippy racquet head speed and it is in no way a liability.

Hey OP people pay GOOD money for this advice, a lot of the coaching I did/got at tennis academies were specifically this.

Order of importance:
1, 2, 3) Contact point
4) How the legs set up for your shot
5) Get the upper body and lower body separated and get that racket going back while your legs are moving

Slow slow slow slow on the wind-up, very smoothly pull through, repeat that for 10 million balls until you can adjust the takeback and windup as needed for incoming ball speed.

 

[ReopeningWed]

1. You should play lower, you need more knee bend.

This is great too, Oakland's legendary tennis coach Mark Manning used to give his players volleyball kneepads to get them used to bend SUPER low, your technique and balance will be so good after you wear through them.

 

[NuBas]

This is great too, Oakland's legendary tennis coach Mark Manning used to give his players volleyball kneepads to get them used to bend SUPER low, your technique and balance will be so good after you wear through them.

Its kinda like that duck walk thing you used to do in gym class or how children squat down to sit, that reminds you to play lower to the ground.

 

[Chas Tennis]

Illustrating the technique of Gasquet, Justine Henin and Wawrinka as discussed in post #39.

 

[Hmgraphite1]

If you look at the fourth photo in post #68, that's what I mean. Don't lock out his arms too early, allow some elbow bend and when the arm is completely straight is point of contact. If you lock out before you are giving up some lag that the bent elbow provides.

Agree , 4th photo looks to "tight" needs to loosen up