Is it possible to hit an effective onehanded backhand with open stance only...? And if, what is the best way to do it...? If I'm not mistaken Mauresmo use this stance exclusively... :?:
Yes it is. Most people start by doing it for very high balls that they don't want to slice. Then they start to do it for waist to chest high balls. You can hit it on low balls, but I find neutral easier. You can hit an open stance one handed b/h very hard, with or without a big angle. crosscourt
Is it possible? Yes Should you do it? NO! And here is why: WHen hitting two handed backhand you use uper body uncoiling to generate power. One hander uses weight transfer. This means that you want to step into the ball to have your weight moving in the direction of the ball. Which is not possible when hitting an open stance. Another thing is that I believe that whenever you practice hitting open stance it makes you lazy. So, my advice is, do not hit an open stace on purpose!! Regards, Predrag
From what I've seen and read, the only time that you want to hit an open stance backhand is when you don't have enough time for setting up the neutral stance. A good example of this would be on returns. I think an open stance makes the swing more circular and as a result reduces the hitting zone making it harder to be consistent. Vin
I don't know how hitting high balls with open stance would be easier with one hander. You are better off using neutral stance on such ball. Generally open stance on one handed backhand is not taught, but doesn't mean it couldn't happen... On serve returns, this could happen. It can also happen when the ball comes unexpectedly deep, or you are rushed. A couple of main things is to keep your shoulder closed through out the contact..and bend those knees.
Hey tennisbody, hope all is well. I was very happy to see you defeat your slicing nemisis, but sad to see that the scores disappeared from the post. (Best weapon for a crafty slice is...). I like to be able to see the evidence (the score) that a tip works, plus you had included a little extra tip for everybody that was erased too. I guess you didn't want to give too much away to the rest of the world (the slicers might adjust and take their revenge) ha ha ha. It should be noted here that tennisbody is an EXCEPTIONALLY strong guy. His muscular development is at least to the level of a state bodybuilding championship competitor, and I'm not talking about a short one, He's at least 6ft and makes any top 100 pro tennis player look like a twig (sorry Marat, you too). His Body fat is also exceptionally low, probably under 7%! This may influence his ability to perform a rather unconventional technique consisently. More muscle in general will let you get away with more off balance weird stuff (he could be falling away from the shot and still knock the crap out of the ball). I'm guessing by fine tuning his technique he could top out at hitting around 100mph forehands!!! If it works for you, go with it... You may have trouble hitting the short low ball this way though (the one you have to move forward for) because the bent left leg may get in the way of the forward swinging racket. Leaning at the waist/spine over that leg (to clear it with the swing) will put you more off balance and thus more vulnerable to your opponent. I don't know how many times this will come up in your matches, It may not be an issue. I want to see you start entering some open tournaments and kicking butt!!! With your great physical strength and hard work ethic (I put this guy through his paces and he kept up well), you clearly have some incredible potential!
If you use an open stance, there is the danger of following through across the body and giving the ball side spin. If you're going down the line with this shot, leave more margin, because the ball will curve in the air towards the line.
Good point about hitting "inside of the ball and making sidespin". Just to clear things up, my earlier quote from a fortune cookie saying "All wisdom is plagiarism" is certainly not ment to advocate taking someone elses words and putting your name on them. The point here is that if you have a great idea, the chances are someone before you has already had the same idea, whether you know it or not, you may be reinventing the wheel. The communication age we live in certainly makes this more apparent. You can spend 2 years working on a hypothesis ,discover something, and then do a google search and find out someone just came out with that yesterday. Taking credit for any idea becomes less and less important, team work becomes more important. It's still important to give credit though when you know you got some info from someone else. P.S. thank you for reading critically, I believe in that.
Thanks guys for a good advice. Thanks to Eric for a kind word. I deleted my score post because I didn't want to sound to silly. After all it was my first victory over a guy who was killing me for a while. Now I want to get back to my post if possible. Like Eric said my body build-up is strong but is limiting my movement somehow. I used to be a pro powerlifter and my body weight is around 260 lbs. year around. So I really can't afford an extra steps in my footwork. An open stance backhand is giving me chance to save two steps ( to the ball and recovery). Therefore my footwark is more efficient and I don't have to fight against my body weight. I know it looks weird but works for me. As for the weight transfer I don't really need much to hit powerfull shot as long as I stay balanced thru the shot. Eric, I would like to drop you e-mail on some other issues. Could you contact me at mremza@wearbest.com
Eric - just in case this is relevent, my plagiarism definition was added because I suddenly realized that the tomato bit came from the old board - I'd just jotted it down somewhere, found it recently, liked it and put it up. Then it came back to me where I got it from - only I can't remember who first posted it. Maybe Camilio ? his are often good.
Just want to clear something. My open stance backhand is not exactly as you guys described. What I do is, on wide ball, I step out with my left leg and my right shoulder turned pointing the ball. Right before impact I push of from my left leg in ball direction. From the side it looks like twohanded open stance footwork combined with onehanded shoulder turn. From this position , if I keep my spine straight ( no leaning from the waist) I can go crosscourt , down the line , to the middle. Recovery is really quick, because all I need is to step forward with my left leg, since body weight was transferred to the right in the moment of hitting and turn my shoulders back to ready position ( parallel to the net). Pardon me if sounds to crazy but that's how it works for me.
