Is it ever too late to switch to a one-handed backhand??

[VictorS.]

This question really comes out of another thread I recently made regarding wrist soreness. But I'm wondering, when is it too late to make the switch to a one-handed backhand?? Kim Clisters is someone that comes to mind...I've heard she may have to eventually switch to one-hander if her left wrist pain doesn't go away.

Obviously the older someone is....the more difficult it probably is. And I've heard it can take years before someone is truly comfortable with the shot. But if anyone has experience with this...please feel free to share them.

 

[perfmode]

Sampras took four years to get his one hander up to par and look where it got him. It's never too late imo.

 

[Rickson]

I used a 2hbh for 9 months before I made the switch. I can still hit the 2 hander comfortably, but my 1hbh is so much prettier and more efficient. I don't have as much pace with the 1hbh, but it's much faster than it was when I started and it's only about 10% slower than my 2hbh now, where as before, it was 50% slower. The 1hbh is a great stroke to use and I'm all for making the switch.

 

[C_Urala]

I saw a match Kafelnikov/Srichaphan in Tashkent. In the beginning of that match, Kafelnikov injuried a finger on his left hand and couldn't hit his 2hbh. He had to slice everything from his BH side. I should say that this slice caused more trouble to Srichaphan than kafenikov's usual 2hbh when he started to use it later in the match. Maybe Kim sould slice.

 

[Mahboob Khan]

In another thread one of my solutions for you was to shift to 1-handed BH.

With a good coach, you will learn to hit with single handed backhand in about an hour. Yes, in an hour. You may need few weeks to get comfortable with.

 

[Mark Ng]

I attended a coaches clinic given by Peter Burwash and there were many coaches that previously used 2-handed BHs. Within 15 minutes these people could hit reasonable 1 handed BH. My own experience is similar to Mahboob, around an hour a single BH can be taught.

 

[jun]

depends on how old you are, and how long you have been using 2 hander.

I personally think it would be a tough transition. You might be able to learn the stroke in an hour or two, but it can take long long time before you can consistently use it in match situation.

 

[vin]

I played seriously for a few years in high school with a two hander. 10 years later I came back after not playing at all and decided to switch to a one hander. It's been just about a year since I switched and I'm getting a lot of compliments on my backhand. I'm fairly consistent with it, I'm not afraid to use it in matches (in fact, I slice less often than I should), and I can even use it to apply pressure. I predict that it will soon be as good if not better than my forehand. Your first few months will be frustrating, but if you stick with it and don't back down from hitting backhands, you'll get through it.

So ... I don't think it's too late. I think going from a two hander to a one hander is easier than the other way around because a one hander is usually more natural for men.

Besides, if the switch is provoked by injury, you don't have much choice, do you? I know a man who was a 4.5 player that completely tore a tendon in his shoulder. He didn't want to have surgery and decided to play tennis with the other arm. How bad does your switch sound now?

But before you switch, I think you should try and do everything you can to resolve your injury and your two handed backhand technique so that you can continue hitting with it - unless you want to switch to the one hander regardless.

 

[perfmode]

The easiest part is always learning the stroke. The most difficult part is finding the confidence to use it in a match situation. That is the biggest obstacle to overcome.

 

[C_Urala]

If you decide to switch to 1hbh, make sure you do it correctly. In the other way, you'll get a shoulder (or elbow) injury in addition to your wrist. 1hbh is just a different stroke. Answer to yourself, are you ready to spend plenty of time to achieve the same level you are at, or maybe it's more pragmatic to hold your tennis for a month and stay with your 2hbh....

 

[joe sch]

No, never too late to learn new strokes including single & double handed. The best way to start developing your single backhand is to start practicing the slice. This will be a great addition to your current strokes since you can use it to play more aggressive by approaching the net with a sliced bh that stays low & deep.

 

[papa]

I don't think age is a factor for most people. I have been making the switch (agree with MK that it takes time) having had used a two handed approach for a long time. If pressed, I will still use two hands but with the help of BB, MK and several others, who have given solid advice on the one hander, I started making the switch myself a few months back and like it.

Its funny how I've been able to show people how to hit with one hand but my own individual choice was always two. I did not make the change because of wrist problems but rather found too many had figured out that keeping the ball very low or high to my backhand gave me some problems. Hitting a slice with two is also a problem but I had learned to do that very effectively.

 

[Fidelica]

I played tennis fairly seriously as a junior, with a two-handed backhand, and then didn't play except for the odd match here and there for nearly the next 20 years. When I started playing again 2 years ago I started to hit with a pro and we started talking about 1HBH and he said that I was a good candidate b/c I was what he called a "backward thinker", in the sense that I could easily size up the court and the ball looking over my right shoulder (I'm right-handed). So, I decided to give it a shot and switch over. Despite what Mahboob Khan says, the idea that it would take one hour is absurd. Perhaps - and I mean perhaps - you can understand the rudiments of the shot conceptually in an hour but, hell, you probably can do that already. The grip change, the positioning, the stroke channel, the finish -- these things definitely take time and repetition to learn. And then, of course, there's the confidence to not bail out in a match and resort to your old stroke or a slice but to risk it and hit through. I videotaped my stroke a few times over the course of a few months and that was extremely helpful. My backhand is now a solid part of my 4.5 game -- it's a better and more consistent stroke than my old one though not on par with my forehand in that I can't hit a tremendous amount of flat-out open court winners from a fairly neutral position but then again my forehand is my weapon and I'm only 4.5.

On a similar note, I had a serious rotator cuff irritation after my return to tennis and once I accepted that I had to lay off the game while I rehabilitated I was still badly jonesing to play so I called my trusted pro and endeavored to learn the game all over, as a Lefty. Well, it was fascinating, and very challenging. My conclusion left me hopeful, though: if worse came to worse I am confident that I could learn the game all over again from my other side. Suffice to say, I don't think it would take an hour (or even three, if you were to throw in forehand and serve). I think it would take a couple of years, and I'm not sure my serve would ever quite get there but basically I felt it was doable.

So, bottom line is, I feel, that it's never too late. For Clijsters, however, it's a different story. She doesn't have a year or two to learn a new stroke and anything that interfered with her confidence for that kind of a period would be deadly.

 

[Chanchai]

I wouldn't think that it is ever too late, but I imagine that the transition is very difficult for most people.

Not only is the one-hander very different in so many ways from the two-hander on a technical level. For the sake of your arm, you gotta make sure you're pushing yourself to learn the one-hander (and any technique for that matter) properly enough to make sure that you won't just create another source of injury.

It is easy for people to get very sloppy on one-handers when learning them. In some ways, it's natural to start out sloppy because you might not have that particular coordination (though if you've been playing tennis long enough, I figure this is far less a concern than for people just learning tennis).

You want to make sure that contact zone is in a good place (more in front of your body), but you also don't want to be doing a weird lazy-arm gimpy backhand (doing almost nothing with your arm while your body rotates so that your racquet is just kinda flailing passively at the ball--you don't want to do this).

Another point of difficulty is how you react when you read the ball. While I believe that all good groundstrokes demand that a person prepares far ahead of the ball, it's a very critical point on the one-hander--not because of a notion that the one-hander is the only stroke that needs early preparation (it isn't), but the one-hander has a critically lower margin for error if you're just getting to the ball when you hit that one-hander.

Anyways... I could go on and on... I'll try to drop some tips if you do make the transition.... but just remember that I'm just another student of the game (and I have no certifiable credentials, just my word):

-Practice hitting the ball LOW TO HIGH with the one-hander. Not straight across. You want to develop a feel for a low to high swing. Even when you eventually get into situations where you have to hit almost across the body, the feel of the racquet going even just a bit low to high is important. But practice that low to high motion as you hit the ball. It's more important than it sounds. Yes, nowadays I start my racquet up high on a one-hander, but it dips down and then goes from low to high as it hits the ball. Many people try to flail straight across and the result is an ugly backhand that doesn't do its job adequately.

-THE ONE HANDER DOES NOT NEED A FULL ROTATION OF THE TORSO, in fact.... practice hitting the one-hander with your SHOULDERS PERPENDICULAR TO THE NET before and after you hit the ball. You don't have to be super strict, but at least while learning the one-hander, try not to let yourself open up so much on it. An alternative is that you can let yourself show a reasonable amount of your back to the net, but just rotate enough through the stroke that at the time of contact and all throughout the follow-through, your shoulders are perpindicular to the net. So yes, rotation plays a role and you get power from this, but it's not from opening your whole chest to the net (though some players do indeed finish like that and hit good one-handers, but for now don't sweat that). Opening of the body can be added later, but I think the foundation of the one-hander is in applying your body without necessarily flailing it open. Another way to think of this: JUST KEEP FOCUS ON THE CONTACT ZONE BEFORE AND AFTER YOU HIT--I think the two kinda help each other. As you stay focused, your body usually won't go beyond reasonable bounds.

-Like I said above, KEEP FOCUS ON THE CONTACT ZONE. Before the ball gets to you, you should focus on where you will hit that ball. Around the time you are hitting the ball, you should be focusing on that spot. After you hit the ball, you should still be focusing on that spot.

-HAVE FAITH. If you're gonna commit to learning a one-hander, don't give up on it easily. It's a hard shot to learn, but once most of the factors fall into place, it'll feel like a much easier shot in general (though timing can still be very tough depending on opponents). Know that the one-hander is going to be a tough shot to time, have little margin for error, and yet it's a shot that works at its best when you have faith in it (at least that's how it feels for me--that type of faith is the same that drives me to keep my head down as I hit the ball--because I know the outcome will almost always be good and that maintains form).

Anyways, if you go with the one-hander, good luck.

-Chanchai

PS A picture that I feel helps in understanding the one-hander (it won't tell you everything though) is a picture I saw of Federer's one-hander follow-through. You see that he has clearly hit the shot well, is practically at the end of his follow through, but his eyes are still locked onto the area where his racquet struck the ball. I can't go digging for it right now because I have some stuff to get back to (programming assignment--after typing up this post, I definitely need to get back to it now), but if I remember and find time, I'll go digging for that pic and post it here.

 

[Power Game]

The easiest part is always learning the stroke. The most difficult part is finding the confidence to use it in a match situation. That is the biggest obstacle to overcome.

so true....

Anyway, I had a decent one-hander and had trouble attacking high balls and stuff like that so I switched to a 2-hander this summer, and my backhand is getting as good as my forehand. I would say that yes, you can make the switch, just remember this: when people are first learning a new stroke and they try to use it in a match and it isn't working they revert to the previous stroke. Don't fall into this trap, be commitant about the switch, stick to it all the time (feed one handed) and practice.

 

[papa]

Power Game wrote:

".....Anyway, I had a decent one-hander and had trouble attacking high balls and stuff like that so I switched to a 2-hander this summer......."

Interesting because I'm still in the transition phase of going the other way. I found that high balls in particular are a problem with 2 hbh - at least for me and I've tried, believe me. Using two hands is great if the ball is in the strike zone but anything else is rather iffy - I can get the ball back but not with a great deal of zip if its outside the "zone." I actually hate to give up using two hands because it has worked well for me and although not as good as my forehand, I can hit the ball well with it. Some are surprised that I've making the switch (been going on for a couple of months now), but in the end, I think it will be better - hope so anyway.

Problem is now that with one hand I still can't get anywhere near the pace I need although it getting better by the week. Its a very different stroke and I just need to keep at it.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

Power Game wrote:

".....Anyway, I had a decent one-hander and had trouble attacking high balls and stuff like that so I switched to a 2-hander this summer......."

Interesting because I'm still in the transition phase of going the other way. I found that high balls in particular are a problem with 2 hbh - at least for me and I've tried, believe me. Using two hands is great if the ball is in the strike zone but anything else is rather iffy - I can get the ball back but not with a great deal of zip if its outside the "zone." I actually hate to give up using two hands because it has worked well for me and although not as good as my forehand, I can hit the ball well with it. Some are surprised that I've making the switch (been going on for a couple of months now), but in the end, I think it will be better - hope so anyway.

Problem is now that with one hand I still can't get anywhere near the pace I need although it getting better by the week. Its a very different stroke and I just need to keep at it.

If high balls are a problem with the twohander you are most likely "pulling" on the stroke to much with your bottom hand/arm. This pulls the racquet downward and you get inconsistent results. Not maintaining the proper balance and not loading the back leg enough could also be contributing to the problem.

Remember, the twohanded backhand is hit mostly from the tophand, so high balls should not be a problem as you can imitate a forehand hitting and going through those balls. It is the same swing path. If you are weak on your non-dominant side this will hurt your ability to progress.

The twohanded backhand is a very good stroke for high balls. IT is the onehander that has trouble with the high ones.

You have to feel your non-dominant side in the stroke. Even in the torso, if you dont chances are you need to build strength on that side so it can feel more coordinated and be the dominant side for the stroke.

Or if you can, take it on the rise before it gets too high. But as System 5 suggested, taking a ball on the rise is more difficult.

 

[dozu]

the other side of the question would be, how slow will you become when you getting older at what age so that you have to switch to a one hander.

If you plan to play tennis into your 60's and 70's, how many people at that age do you see who can still cover the court well with 2hbh?

1hbh slice + 1hfh topspin is the most efficient way to cover the court side to side, even at the 4.5 level I can use split step + shuffle + 1 step to either side to cover 80% of the baseline rallies useing the above 2 strokes.

so IMO sooner or later you will have to switch.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

the other side of the question would be, how slow will you become when you getting older at what age so that you have to switch to a one hander.

If you plan to play tennis into your 60's and 70's, how many people at that age do you see who can still cover the court well with 2hbh?

1hbh slice + 1hfh topspin is the most efficient way to cover the court side to side, even at the 4.5 level I can use split step + shuffle + 1 step to either side to cover 80% of the baseline rallies useing the above 2 strokes.

so IMO sooner or later you will have to switch.

Well, I dont see too many players stick to singles at ages 60 on up! lol

Plus, court coverage with the twohander is not as an huge issue people make it. Usually players with a twohander also develop a slice backhand to compliment. I would suggest a player with a twohander at that age to get their slice to perform better before a drastic change to a onehanded topspin backhand.

For the twohander it is more about balance then reach. So, IMO you will not have to switch especially since many at that age turn to doubles. 8)

 

[GrahamIsSuper]

I have switched to a 1 hander within the last month. I agree with mahoob that you can learn the form in 1 lesson, but it definitely does take several weeks to truly get a feel for it. It is already better than my 2 hander, but this is prolly due to the fact that I have been using only a 1 hand slice on my backhand for close to 3 years now.

It definitely has advantages, like the extra angle, the ease of the shot, and the precision and natural feeling. On returns, its only sub-good. I usually would just slice that back, but against big servers or when attacking a second serves, I still use a short 2 hand swing.

 

[Rickson]

Federer slices back big serves to his backhand side.

 

[TwistServe]

The backhand slice is really effective to use on high balls or catching balls on the rise on the backhand side.. You can really slice it hard and still be very consistent because you have lots of margin for error.

 

[joe sch]

For the twohander it is more about balance then reach. So, IMO you will not have to switch especially since many at that age turn to doubles. 8)

I agree with Bungalo Bill but also want to encourage you to keep trying to make improvements to your game And trying to compete in singles as long as possible. It is true that many players over 40 start playing doubles because of the requirement for less court coverage and conditioning but if you can still compete in singles and enjoy it, try to keep going. That is my plan. There are lots of great singles players in SCal over 60 that could still beat many college players. Same goes for the US as I have witnessed some national tournaments at this level.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

For the twohander it is more about balance then reach. So, IMO you will not have to switch especially since many at that age turn to doubles. 8)

I agree with Bungalo Bill but also want to encourage you to keep trying to make improvements to your game And trying to compete in singles as long as possible. It is true that many players over 40 start playing doubles because of the requirement for less court coverage and conditioning but if you can still compete in singles and enjoy it, try to keep going. That is my plan. There are lots of great singles players in SCal over 60 that could still beat many college players. Same goes for the US as I have witnessed some national tournaments at this level.

If a player over 60 can still run with the young guns, I would suggest keeping their twohander as movement is not a huge issue in this case. Just improve the slice backhand for those wide balls.

But even still experimentation is ok, but the onehanded topspin bakchand is a difficult animal to be consistent with and stick with. Especially if someone is so used to the twohander.

The onehanded backhand and the twohanded backhand are hit with different mechanics and unless you are one of the few, you will have a hard time adapting. I know even younger players that have a developed twohander that try to make the switch to the onehander and give up after a year of hard practice and go back to the twohander.

The backhands are one of the few strokes that depend on how you are wired. It is never too late to learn anything, but the road to learning the onehander for a given level a person is playing at can produce undesireable results and frustration.

The other thing I see with older players that want to stick to singles (nothing wrong with that) is they tend to buy themselves more time to recover by hitting higher over the net.

 

[papa]

BB wrote:

"......But even still experimentation is ok, but the onehanded topspin bakchand is a difficult animal to be consistent with and stick with. Especially if someone is so used to the twohander. ...."

So true.

Whether I like it or not, I happen to fall in the over 60 group - the "ageless wonders" ---- don't we wish.

My preference is for doubles although I don't mind playing singles. Singles is harder, of course, to play and takes more out of me but I like to leave it all on the court anyway. My only advantage in singles, like everyone else here, might be in my serve and maybe banging away at the baseline - but thats not enough to beat the youngsters.

To insinuate that I could keep up with college kids or even people twenty years younger, would create a serious credibility gap. Know I can hit with them at times but thats a completly different thing and everyone knows that - if you don't know it now, someday you will.

BB, I also appreciate the pointers on the 2hbh and although I probably should go back to it, I'm going to stay with the 1 hander for a little longer.

BB wrote: "The twohanded backhand is a very good stroke for high balls. IT is the onehander that has trouble with the high ones" I did NOT know that a two hander is better for high balls - this has always been a problem and your advice is appreciated.