Does the 1hbh allow smaller pros to generate more power?

[tennis_hack]

Watching Youzhny and Hewitt, both guys of a similar build, both very skinny and 5ft 11in-ish, it struck me that Youzhny could put a lot more 'stick' into his backhands. He could just get the ball penetrating the court better, and he could generate his own pace more efficiently. We all know how great the Hewitt is at redirecting pace, but generating it, not so much - and that kind of mirrors the advantages and disadvantages of the 2hbh as a whole.

The two of them would get involved in a lot of passive, slicing rallies, and Youzhny could pull the trigger from nowhere on his backhand, whereas Hewitt's winners would come from getting to a fast Youzhny shot and pinging it to where Youzhny wasn't.

And I noticed a general trend that a lot of small-to-average players that are really powerful off the backhand side have 1hbh's. Almagro. Gasquet. Wawrinka. Youzhny. Kohlschreiber. Henin. Gaudio. Suarez-Navarro. Rochus's backhand has to be up there considering his size.

Smaller guys with 2hbh's don't tend to have big backhands, but they use them as a very consistent yet flat shot to ping back powerful groundies hit at them, redirect shots down the line, counterpunch, and stay in the rally to set up forehands. See Hewitt, Ferrer, Simon, Tipseravic, Fognini...

Could it be that since these guys aren't blessed/cursed with a huge wingspans of big 2hbh hitters like Soderling, Del-Potro, Cilic and Berdych, the slightly less 'cramped' and longer swing-path of the 1hbh allows them a longer lever-arm to hit with more power?

 

[PaulC]

Watching Youzhny and Hewitt, both guys of a similar build, both very skinny and 5ft 11in-ish, it struck me that Youzhny could put a lot more 'stick' into his backhands. He could just get the ball penetrating the court better, and he could generate his own pace more efficiently. We all know how great the Hewitt is at redirecting pace, but generating it, not so much - and that kind of mirrors the advantages and disadvantages of the 2hbh as a whole.

The two of them would get involved in a lot of passive, slicing rallies, and Youzhny could pull the trigger from nowhere on his backhand, whereas Hewitt's winners would come from getting to a fast Youzhny shot and pinging it to where Youzhny wasn't.

And I noticed a general trend that a lot of small-to-average players that are really powerful off the backhand side have 1hbh's. Almagro. Gasquet. Wawrinka. Youzhny. Kohlschreiber. Henin. Gaudio. Suarez-Navarro. Rochus's backhand has to be up there considering his size.

Smaller guys with 2hbh's don't tend to have big backhands, but they use them as a very consistent yet flat shot to ping back powerful groundies hit at them, redirect shots down the line, counterpunch, and stay in the rally to set up forehands. See Hewitt, Ferrer, Simon, Tipseravic, Fognini...

Could it be that since these guys aren't blessed/cursed with a huge wingspans of big 2hbh hitters like Soderling, Del-Potro, Cilic and Berdych, the slightly less 'cramped' and longer swing-path of the 1hbh allows them a longer lever-arm to hit with more power?

Not at all.

On the tiny end of the height spectrum, you have Michael Chang, David Ferrer and the alikes who hit double-handed counter-punching shots near perfection.

I don't think these two can benefit even a single bit from using a 1HBH.

On the crazy tall end, you got folks like Karlovic who hits decent one-hander coupled with decent serve and volleys...

I am gonna argue that taller folks who are willing to volley or pass more, will benefit from hitting with 1HBH, exactly due to their arm span.

The reason that your mentioned tall folks are all 2HBH is most likely simply a result of the diminishing number of 1HBH coaches compared to 2HBH coaches, it was how they were coached to hit when they started as little kid, and nobody else show them how to hit otherwise.

 

[Bender]

I'm fairly sure Almagro, Gasquet and Wawrinka are not small guys

 

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

You're really going to make another thread about 1handed backhands again?

 

[President]

No at all.

On the tiny end of the height spectrum, you have Michael Chang, David Ferrer and the alikes who hit double-handed counter-punching shots near perfection.

I don't think these two can benefit even a single bit from using a 1HBH.

On the crazy tall end, you got folks like Karlovic who hit decent one-hander coupled with decent serve and volleys...

I am gonna argue that taller folks who are willing to volley or pass more, will benefit from hitting with 1HBH, exactly due to their arm span.

The reason that your mentioned tall folks are all 2HBH is most likely simply a result of the diminishing number of 1HBH coaches compared to 2HBH coaches, it was how they were coached to hit when they started as a little kid, and nobody else show them how to hit otherwise.

Ferrer's backhand is "perfect"? It's an extremely weak shot, I literally can't remember hitting a winner with it on anything other than a complete sitter. It is relatively consistent (although even that it is not great in compared to a real great 2 hander like Murray, Djokovic, or Davydenko) and extremely flat but it is SUCH a weak shot.

 

[BreakPoint]

The 1HBH is just a more powerful shot than the 2HBH regardless of your size. Did you see how much pace and spin Kohlschreiber was hitting with his 1HBH last night? Not even Nadal's monster crosscourt forehand could do much against Kohlschreiber's 1HBH.

 

[BreakPoint]

I'm fairly sure Almagro, Gasquet and Wawrinka are not small guys

Being only 6 feet is "small" by today's standards.

 

[PaulC]

Ferrer's backhand is "perfect"? It's an extremely weak shot, I literally can't remember hitting a winner with it on anything other than a complete sitter. It is relatively consistent (although even that it is not great in compared to a real great 2 hander like Murray, Djokovic, or Davydenko) and extremely flat but it is SUCH a weak shot.

The operating phrase here is "I don't think these two can benefit even a single bit from using a 1HBH"

Please keep the discussion within the original topic.

Anyway, maybe "perfect" is not a good description, but I bet they can still beat 99% of the entire world tennis population with it at their peak, given both have been ranked in ATP top 4.

 

[droliver]

You can definitely hit a 1HBH harder and with more spin because you can generate more torque and racquet head speed, provided you can set up for it.