How do you deal with high balls on the 1HBH side?

[Fintft]

I think a better question would be how do you deal with high balls on the 1HBH side?

a) Do you back off and hit a topspin/drive shot?

b) Or do you slice?

Some people even suggested

c) Topspin/drive without backing off

I personally try to back off in order to hit a topspin/drive shot...Until I almost blew my knee that is lol

 

[jm1980]

To hit topspin without backing off you have to close the racquet face

 

[Fintft]

To hit topspin without backing off you have to close the racquet face

According to my girl coach, I have to do more of that anyhow, just to increase my percentages.

 

[LeeD]

I slice the high balls low and short angle, if I can. That takes away opponent's next high bouncer, and it puts him short and wide on his court. DTL if I"m coming in behind my slice.

 

[lwto]

Swing low to hi
Don't come over the ball
Rotate your body forward
believe in your leap of faith.

 

[Slicerman]

I think it really varies depending on the situation.

If its a high AND wide ball then I'll probably slice it back.
If its high but with more neutral direction then I might take a couple of steps back and drive the backhand.
If I don't want to give up my court position and maintain it, then I'll stay in the same position and hit a high topspin looper.
If the ball isn't travelling through the air very fast then I might run towards where the ball will bounce and take it on the rise.

 

[Limpinhitter]

I learned how to hit a high 1hb from the first 3 seconds of this advertisement. It was an epiphany for me. This is the proper way to hit a drive slice on any height ball. You can really mash the ball with this technique.

 

[GuyClinch]

Easiest way beginners - 3.0/3.5 - lob back.
Modern way - swing out and across (some topspin - some side spin). Fed, Stan etc mostly do this.
Old but good way - hard driving slice..

 

[Lance L]

I learned how to hit a high 1hb from the first 3 seconds of this advertisement. It was an epiphany for me. This is the proper way to hit a drive slice on any height ball. You can really mash the ball with this technique.

That is a really nice looking backhand.

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls41]

I make them my B1tch.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

I make them my B1tch.

Saw this username and thought that Will Hamilton was posting here again. Guess not.

 

[ultron1969]

If you want to come over it build some shoulder strength. Don't have to be a body builder. I suggest swimming.

 

[Raul_SJ]

I think a better question would be how do you deal with high balls on the 1HBH side?

a) Do you back off and hit a topspin/drive shot?

b) Or do you slice?

Some people even suggested

c) Topspin/drive without backing off

I personally try to back off in order to hit a topspin/drive shot...Until I almost blew my knee that is lol

I was watching the Federer-Nadal Indian Wells match. He hit several high backhand drives in the first set.
- He did not look to be backing up.
- Jumped up off the ground.

I think rec players can also experiment with this. ..

Also, Courier kept mentioning Federer's bigger racquet face. Federer was making clean contact on those particular drives, and IMO, would have made them with the smaller racquet face as well. Perhaps there are fewer backhand mishits overall with bigger face, but I am not quite convinced the bigger racquet helps that much.

I wonder if Federer has directly commented on whether his new racquet is better for handling Nadal's forehand to his backhand.

 

[ultron1969]

I got the feeling courier was cashing checks as he said this ha.

 

[tlm]

The good players will move in and take those shots off the rise. But if they are high jumping shots with good topsin this takes good timing and skill. The other choice is to back up and let the ball come down more in your strike zone and of course you can always use the slice which is what a lot of players do.

I have played some guys that have very good slice backhands and they can use the height of those shots to create angles and drive the ball down. But that is not the norm most players end up chopping them back and end up making errors or giving weak replys.

 

[Fintft]

I wonder if Federer has directly commented on whether his new racquet is better for handling Nadal's backhand.

Apparently he did as I saw in the title of an article on Tennis.com

 

[tlm]

Apparently he did as I saw in the title of an article on Tennis.com

Yep it's all about the racket it has nothing to do with Rafa only being a shadow of his former self. Lol

 

[Limpinhitter]

That is a really nice looking backhand.

That was the bread and butter backhand of the wood racquet era (although Billie Jean King also had a great topspin 1hb). Most players today never learned it. But, I think it's still very viable when you can't get into ideal position to hit a 2hb. It's easier to hit low, high and reaching shots with a drive slice. And, it is an excellent option as a change up, or as an alternative shot because today's players with extreme grips and 2hb's are much better at handling high bouncing, heavy topspin shots. Many have difficulty timing and handling low, penetrating, skidding shots.

 

[Lance L]

That was the bread and butter backhand of the wood racquet era (although Billie Jean King also had a great topspin 1hb). Most players today never learned it. But, I think it's still very viable when you can't get into ideal position to hit a 2hb, and as a change up or alternative shot because today's players with extreme grips and 2hb's are much better at handling high bouncing, heavy topspin shots. Many have difficulty timing and handling low, penetrating, skidding shots.

I starting playing in around '82, and that was very much the style I remember, and used as well. The funny thing is I don't think all through HS I even tried to learn to hit a drive 1hbh.
Now that I've developed a reliable drive 1hbh, I seem to have lost the old slice 1hbh. I'm hoping that as times goes on and the drive 1hbh become more and more second nature I'll be able to hit them both equally well, since the slice bh certainly has its place.

 

[Fintft]

Yep it's all about the racket it has nothing to do with Rafa only being a shadow of his former self. Lol

Exactly my thought, b/c in the past Rafa used to get to impossible shots, in position to return them with interest.
Also some people have posted how Rafa is not making angles with his FH anymore, since he was facing Djokovic (another thing that he misses now in his battles with the rest of the field, including Roger).

 

[ricki]

Either block it back (start swing at higher point) or step-in and pwn it!

 

[Crocodile]

With high balls it depends on where you are on the court, the pace of the ball and how balanced you are at the time.
For example if you are caught out wide and you are off balance and in trouble you slice because you don't have much time to prepare and at the same time you need to slow the play down to get yourself back into a nuetral position.
On the other hand if the high ball is short and slow and not too wide and you are strong and tell you could drive this one.
At the end of the day you need to treat each ball on its merits and assess each situation individually.

 

[Shroud]

Personally my grip lets me make contact higher than normal and my ideal contact is around chest high, so high balls dont really bother me. Though over head high they start to be a problem

 

[movdqa]

Sometimes I step back and sometimes I step forward and hit the ball on the rise. I generally don't slice the ball.

 

[Curious]

I learned how to hit a high 1hb from the first 3 seconds of this advertisement. It was an epiphany for me. This is the proper way to hit a drive slice on any height ball. You can really mash the ball with this technique.

Is it the very obvious supination that is special about this technique?

 

[Christian Olsson]

At 6'4, high balls are less of a problem. I prefer taking them on the rise. Generally don't like stepping back too far from the baseline. Some players use the high ball at backhand as a "weapon". I am currently training my high ohbh for those moments.


Skickat från min iPhone med Tapatalk

 

[Moveforwardalways]

The best plan is to get taller.

 

[HuusHould]

I got some great advice in a recent thread I posted;

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/ind...-kicker-to-the-single-handed-backhand.579884/

The post that I found the most useful is below;

No one teaches how to hit it. Would you hit a high kicker on your fh, going high to low? Or would you start high and hit down on it? Must use the deltoids in a way that's not taught. Start high and hit down on it just like a fh return, but takes a strong deltoid and practice.

It takes so much less effort and you can attack much more effectively if you hit down on the ball slightly rather that trying to brush up it, it's almost like a flat high volley. I don't even find it requires that much strength, just good timing. I find you need to hit the ball with a more vertical racquet (at least that's what it feels like I'm doing; I'll have to look at slow mo footage). The only return of serve situation I found it a bit tough to apply to was the Raonic at the head body serve, but with a bit of practice I think I can even use this technique in that situation.

I think we all get gridlocked on the idea that you have to brush up the ball. I have found that even if the ball's barely above net height if it has a steep angle of incidence (trajectory) you can play it much more aggressively by ostensibly hitting down on it (not trying to brush up it). I remember Vico Braden saying that the racquet face has to be perpendicular to the ground when hitting topspin, he said something like; "the ball can't rise up through the strings." To me this is completely ignoring the impact of the trajectory of the incoming ball (as well as the height of impact), I mean if you throw a ball upward at a vertical wall it doesn't bounce back parallel to the ground. Anyway I advocate taking it early and hitting it flat. I mean topspin isn't required up there, because you can hit downward toward the court, negating the need to dip the ball. The harder you hit it the more you can hit it downward.

 

[movdqa]

A heavy racquet with high swingweight makes hitting these balls easier too.

 

[Limpinhitter]

Is it the very obvious supination that is special about this technique?

You have to pronate before you can supinate. That was the epiphany for me.

 

[Curious]

You have to pronate before you can supinate. That was the epiphany for me.

Are there any current players using this techique?

 

[Limpinhitter]

Are there any current players using this techique?

Not really. 2hb players use their 2hb to handle high balls, and use a chop to hit underspin which doesn't work well on high balls e.g. Federer. In the videos below you can see Murray and Djokovic (at about 10 seconds), doing a bit of it in practice, but, they mostly chop at the ball.

 

[Curious]

What's its benefit? You're changing the racket face during the swing with pronation and supination. With chopping though you don't have this variable.

 

[Limpinhitter]

What's its benefit? You're changing the racket face during the swing with pronation and supination. With chopping though you don't have this variable.

The benefit is effortless racquet head speed and the resulting power of a driving slice, even when reaching for the ball. I know of no other way to really wallop the ball with a 1hb from head height or higher. The variable is no more relevant than on a modern forehand. The racquet face naturally squares up at contact. Once you done it and had that "aha," moment, you'll see that it is probably the easiest, most natural shot in the game.

 

[1HBH-DownTheLine]

I try to take them off the rise the best I can and power through them. Looks more like a half volley ping pong shot from the baseline. Pretty much neutralizes their high ball.