Onehanded backhand, how do I hit with more power?

[Bungalo Bill]

Friends again! Yeah! Thanks for your spunk and your willingness to challenge me! Makes me sharper! I acutally am in contact with Pat Dougherty often on the subject. It is a great stroke, for those that can execute it. I have a couple students that hit it very well that way. One the other hand, I know of a couple of my friends students that hit it the classic way and rip it.

I have both methods to teach. But on the onehander no matter what you choose - it all starts from the ground up.

lol, no i dont have a patent on the drill. and i dont use it all the time either. it is in my library of useful drills to get my point across if other things (simpler things) arent working.

By the way, when I drill this, the player is taking a swing, he is just learning to time his swing with a rise. The chair drill is wonderful to feel how much tension in the thigh muscles are needed in order to feel the "getting" low feeling. Your butt has to go down (in the chair) and you cant droop the racquet and as the ball is coming towards you, you have to somewhat rise out of the chair to hit the ball. Very useful drill.

[bhallic24]

Originally Posted by Bungalo Bill

The onehanded backhand is little art and more skill.

Most people do not get low enough with their center of gravity to make a meaningful onehanded backhand. I can remember teaching a student and his idea of getting lower was dropping the racquet head. The onehander compared to the forehand can not afford a dropped racquet head, you must bend your knees. The timing of the onehander is a bit more precise then the twohander. Mainly because your trying to time about 5 different body segments as compared to a twohanders two body segments.

My suggestion below agrees and supports the other posters comments above. They are as follows:

1. Grip: Eastern backhand grip

2. How low can you go: Get low by bending your knees and lowering your center of gravity.

3. The hard part: In order to have a successful dependable onehander, you must be able to lift your center of gravity with your legs as the forward swing starts and slightly before impact. Be careful not to jump or hop up off your feet as that will alter the swing path and produce errors. I have no issue with jumping or hopping off, however, it needs to be because you are being pulled off the ground from your center of gravity rising quickly, instead of forcing yourself off the ground. You must time this lifting with a rising racquet and the shift in weight going to the front foot.

I think James Blake (although it is not his strength) has an excellent ability to transfer a rising center of gravity over his front foot for the backhand and he is smacking the backhand now. Sometimes he transfers so powefully and subtly, he gets pulled off the ground!

You should make contact right when your weight (or center of gravity) is on top of the front foot.

Be careful not to cross over too much with your feet. A big cross over step usually happens because the players backswing causes the butt cap to point to the side fence instead of forward and at the ball. The racquet must be lower then the contact point!

This is a huge tip for onehanders! Most onehanders reference their contact point from the height of the ball as it clears the net - you see their racquet on the backswing get no lower then their waist (because their center of gravity is too high). However, according to their reference point (ball over the net) they think they are below the ball only for the ball be framed or poorly hit because "they" are too high. What usually happens is the body/brain senses the racquet face is in the wrong position, the wrist turns up to compensate, the racquet head drops, and a poof ball goes over for safety or a mistake is made.

Your backswing only needs to be with mainly your shoulders and prepared early to bring the racquet forward immediately.

Watch out for a hitch in your swing. It is when you make the shoulder turn, then you raise your arms. This takes exceptional timing and most people on this board are not going to have Henin or SCUDS backhand. Keep in mind, the pros level ball is traveling fast and when they take those big backswings, that is talent and practice that few of us will ever achieve.

My suggestion is practice to bring your racquet back with the butt cap pointing towards the ball at the same time with the shoulder turn only. Then condition your muscles to WANT to bring the racquet forward from that position. You will notice your hitting hand will barely have moved from its central position near the navel. Practice that - later as you get more comfortable you can take a bigger cut.

Also, most people do the coil but forget to prepare the muscles for the forward swing. By the time they need to start the forward swing, the brain finally sends the signal, that millisecond or nanosecond is all a onehander needs to mistime the ball.

Always prepare your backswing for the forward swing.

this is a wonderful wonderful set of tips. I think the most important one in this whole section is GET LOW. I'll say it again.

GET LOW!!!!!

When you get low and then lift, and incorporate your big thigh/leg muscles into your shot, it is incredible the difference it makes. All of a sudden your balls loop right over the net instead of into them like a line drive. And you hit a ball that is just so much heavier.

If you don't get low or below the ball when you hit, you will never hit a good 1hbh because you can't brush up on it.

[dozu]

going hand in hand with the 'get low', is the 'axis tilt' that many overlook.

the the racket travels from low to high during the forward swing, but the swing is done AROUND the body. To do both at the same time, there must be an axis tilt (spine tilt) away from the the target.

I don't like the 'lift' concept too much.... the legs naturally unwind, and the swing feels circular, instead of 'lifting from low to high'... human upper body is not built to 'lift', it's built to turn.... but if the spine is tilted, a circular turn becomes a low to high lift.

If the above makes sense.