One handed back hand contact point

[BBender716]

I grew up playing recreationally and originally learned using a one handed backhand because my dad played racquetball (don't worry, I got rid of lots of the bad racquetball influence) and grew up a Sampras fan.

However since I've gotten more serious in the past year about my game, I'm really struggling getting my technique down on the OHBH.

I'm noticing a couple of things that need fixing:

I found myself bending over at the waist
Dropping the wrist
Always somehow already having my weight on my front foot before coiling.
Contacting the ball too close to the body

So putting those things together, I feel like I've only recently noticed that what is happening is that I do a decent unit turn, but put myself too close to the ball and swing low to high with my racquet pointing somewhat diagonally towards the ground because of the dropped wrist to help make contact close to my body. Then on my swing I then feel like my weight is already completely shifted forward so I'm now limited to twisting my torso open and basically wind up with this weak, inconsistent low margin of error back hand.

I feel like my main problems are the contact point and wrist. The contact point causing me to bend at the waist and drop the racqiet head. Maybe if I force myself to contact further away from my body and keep the racquet head up via not dropping the wrist?

Any of this making sense? Recommended drills? Ways to focus on whats gone awry?

Sorry guys for the rant. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[Xievie]

First of all, what grip do you use for this backhand? You shouldn't really be using continental especially if you're new-ish to the shot. The Eastern backhand grip is the optimal grip, and that should be the first step to fixing your stroke. This grip will also be more out in front of you with the ideal contact point being around the waist.

Make sure you arm is a bit straightened at contact.

My coach has taught me to hit balls that are low and at the ideal contact point with a topspin shot, while high balls should be a drive backhand, but I need to make sure to keep my feet moving so I can hit it in the ideal contact point as much as possible. I found the one-hander even more dependent on good footwork, and I worked on mine by learning to talk smaller and more steps rather than bigger and less steps. I found having someone feed you a ball, hitting it, running around the cone, and hitting another good for working on this as far as drills go.

You might open your torso (and maybe even your whole body) after a shot which feels like it adds more power and makes you better able to push off your non-dominant foot to recover. Wawrinka does this from my observations while Federer stays more closed. It may be a personal thing, my coach is trying to get me to do this but I tend to just forget.

Lastly, don't be afraid to let the racquet go behind your body on the backswing. I learned to hit better shots (for my forehand, 2H backhand, and 1H backhand) when my coach had me divide my shot into three steps: takeback, dip, and contact. For a while I counted "1...2...3!" kind of like how some people say "bounce...hit!".

 

[BBender716]

First of all, what grip do you use for this backhand? You shouldn't really be using continental especially if you're new-ish to the shot. The Eastern backhand grip is the optimal grip, and that should be the first step to fixing your stroke. This grip will also be more out in front of you with the ideal contact point being around the waist.

Make sure you arm is a bit straightened at contact.

My coach has taught me to hit balls that are low and at the ideal contact point with a topspin shot, while high balls should be a drive backhand, but I need to make sure to keep my feet moving so I can hit it in the ideal contact point as much as possible. I found the one-hander even more dependent on good footwork, and I worked on mine by learning to talk smaller and more steps rather than bigger and less steps. I found having someone feed you a ball, hitting it, running around the cone, and hitting another good for working on this as far as drills go.

You might open your torso (and maybe even your whole body) after a shot which feels like it adds more power and makes you better able to push off your non-dominant foot to recover. Wawrinka does this from my observations while Federer stays more closed. It may be a personal thing, my coach is trying to get me to do this but I tend to just forget.

Lastly, don't be afraid to let the racquet go behind your body on the backswing. I learned to hit better shots (for my forehand, 2H backhand, and 1H backhand) when my coach had me divide my shot into three steps: takeback, dip, and contact. For a while I counted "1...2...3!" kind of like how some people say "bounce...hit!".

Thank you for the input!

I use an Eastern OHBH grip for sure. I'm decent at taking the racquet back "behind" me but I really think you nailed it with the footwork.

I think it's a weakness in my game in general and just is really highlighted during a OHBH. I like the drill suggestion for sure. Im also going to try to force myself to visualize a proper contact point and have a more extended arm.