how far to take a backhand backswing

[salsainglesa]

Hello, i have been working on making my backhand as good as my forehand, making theswing paths as similar as can be.
The Bh swingpath is shorter, since I am using a two hander, but i tryed something new today, and take the raquet back a little less today... i could hit it cleaner... and liked it, i thought it would be to short of a backswing but tried it anyway...

so...

how far back do you reccomend to prepare for the stroke?

i mostly hit my rally ball in neutral stance, and i use an eastern/continental combination.

[LeeD]

In life, as in tennis, everything is a COMPOMISE!
The 2HBH compromise is the attaining balance between quick prep ready and powerful fast swing. You can have both, but by then, you're already 6.0 or better.
Short prep and backswing allows you time to wait for the incoming ball, move your feet and use all your kinetics.
Long backswing have the POTENTIAL to swing faster under control, so you can hit the ball harder, more spin, faster.
But for you, only practice and recognition can tell you whether to go short prep/backswing or longer.
Whichever you choose, remember the constant is the long followthru.
Nobody can really say FOR YOU, which is better, except yourself.

[LeeD]

Does there need to be an R in compomise?

[Djokovicfan4life]

Originally Posted by LeeD

Does there need to be an R in compomise?

Yes. Come on, get it together, homey.

Originally Posted by LeeD

Short prep and backswing allows you time to wait for the incoming ball, move your feet and use all your kinetics.

But you can set up for the ball with your feet AS you prepare. You don't finish your backswing, then start moving to the ball. That would be stupid.

[LeeD]

I'd think short prep players like Agassi did so to get ready SOONER and be ready SOONER. He adopted this short backswing to compensate for his standing ON the baseline, quite a bit nearer the opposition than his compatriots stood.
So maybe short backswing just makes it easier and quicker to prepare. Not a horrid thing, if you can provide the power and ballspeed with spin.
I can't, so always long, loopy strokes for topspin.

[Bungalo Bill]

Originally Posted by salsainglesa

Hello, i have been working on making my backhand as good as my forehand, making theswing paths as similar as can be.
The Bh swingpath is shorter, since I am using a two hander, but i tryed something new today, and take the raquet back a little less today... i could hit it cleaner... and liked it, i thought it would be to short of a backswing but tried it anyway...

so...

how far back do you reccomend to prepare for the stroke?

i mostly hit my rally ball in neutral stance, and i use an eastern/continental combination.

The rule of thumb to use is take the racquet back but keep it on the same side of the body, especially the racquet head. When the racquet head goes back farther than that, you will tend to not time the ball so well especially on fast moving balls.

Normally, with a twohander as well as a forehand, you stand parallel to the net. With your front foot parallel to the net and baseline. Imagine a line coming from the net, going through your toes (or just in front of them) and then going to the back fence. When you bring your racquet back with shoulder turn, you do not want the racquet head to go past that line and behind you.

Utilize your legs, torso, and angular momentum to put power into your shot.

[xFullCourtTenniSx]

Originally Posted by salsainglesa

Hello, i have been working on making my backhand as good as my forehand, making theswing paths as similar as can be.
The Bh swingpath is shorter, since I am using a two hander, but i tryed something new today, and take the raquet back a little less today... i could hit it cleaner... and liked it, i thought it would be to short of a backswing but tried it anyway...

so...

how far back do you reccomend to prepare for the stroke?

i mostly hit my rally ball in neutral stance, and i use an eastern/continental combination.

Depends on your abilities and style. If you're great at taking the ball on the rise and like to pound the ball, then you should probably take a medium sized swing to compensate for the time lost. If you more or less just redirect pace, you might only need a compact swing. If you're generating all the pace on your own, you might need a massive swing. If you're way behind the baseline, you should probably take a pretty huge swing.

Overall, the harder you want to hit the ball, the bigger the swing you take, and the more you're just focusing on redirecting the opponent's pace, the smaller the swing you take. And the closer to the baseline that you play, the shorter your swing will generally be, while the farther behind the baseline you play, the bigger your swing should be.

Also, throughout this whole thing, we're still assuming a healthy amount of racket head acceleration, a full follow through, and a quick swing through contact to generate plenty of spin, pace, and control.

[salsainglesa]

i think i almost got it all together, the unit turn, as in getting ready with the feet, and a quick backswing. On every stroke I get into nuetral stance with the path of the ball as reference and my knieic chain feel good.
I had a long loopy backswing, wich worked perfectly for a topspin ball, and as a tried to copy the swingpaths of my forehand I thought it would be smart to copy the preparation too, atlist the kind of preparation, wich for fast balls in wich i use rivals pace is straght back and not too long.
My followtrhough is as long as it gets, without stretching it...

what bungalo said about keeping the backswing on the same side has been my working image, on the FH and BH,but shortening it a little bit felt so natural today, that i wantedto know the forum's opinion.

I take the ball early, sothe abreviated swingmakes a lot of sense....

i'm going to compromise and tellyou how it went !!

if there are any more pointers, i would ike to read em, and ireally appretiate your answears .)

[Bungalo Bill]

Originally Posted by salsainglesa

i think i almost got it all together, the unit turn, as in getting ready with the feet, and a quick backswing. On every stroke I get into nuetral stance with the path of the ball as reference and my knieic chain feel good.
I had a long loopy backswing, wich worked perfectly for a topspin ball, and as a tried to copy the swingpaths of my forehand I thought it would be smart to copy the preparation too, atlist the kind of preparation, wich for fast balls in wich i use rivals pace is straght back and not too long.
My followtrhough is as long as it gets, without stretching it...

what bungalo said about keeping the backswing on the same side has been my working image, on the FH and BH,but shortening it a little bit felt so natural today, that i wantedto know the forum's opinion.

I take the ball early, sothe abreviated swingmakes a lot of sense....

i'm going to compromise and tellyou how it went !!

if there are any more pointers, i would ike to read em, and ireally appretiate your answears .)

The other side to the backswing is how high you take the racquet up, back, down, and forward. For the forehand, I call it the C loop. For the twohander and onehander, I call it the smile pattern.

Nearly every pro keeps the racquet head on the same side of the body. They also have a smile pattern for the twohander that allows them to gain momentum on their forward swing without losing control.

If you stay within those parameters (smile and racquet head on same side), you are well within developing good fundamentals to improve from.