The AMBIDEXTROUS player

[thebuffman]

been doing a lot of thinking about my tennis game since i've picked the racquet up after years of layoff. i am an ambidextrous athlete (can use right or left hand) and have been pondering possible advantages this can afford me. i play right handed and utilize a one handed backhand. i've never tried playing any other way but recently started thinking about it. intrigued by the two handed back hand i was surprised at how natural it felt to me when i hit a couple balls the other day. (matter-of-factly i am a left handed hitter in baseball, shoot left handed in basketball, golf with the left hand but play tennis with the right - yes it gets confusing at times as i try to remember what hand feels better to play with) anyhoo i got to thinking "why even use a back hand?" is there an advantage to having two formidable forehands?? but i never see any player play this way so perhaps this has been tried but has been written off as a failed experiment.

now i am consumed with the possibilities of hitting left handed especially since my left hand is a lot stronger than my right. it seems that serving with the left from the ad court might hold some profitability.

but then again i am no pro at this stuff so i decided to bring this concept to the forum and see what your input might be.

tia

 

[Skabeast121]

There is actually an ambidextrous player on the atp doubles tour. Mike Battistone he actually uses a twin handel racquet. Yes the racquet has 2 handels but as a result he is allowed to hit two forehands one with the right handle and another with the left handle.

 

[Lefty5]

if you can switch your grip quickly enough, two forehands would be awesome. With serves, the possibilities are endless...

 

[Nanshiki]

Sometimes I hit far-off backhands with my left hand (usually holding the racquet near it's throat)... I'm not ambidextrous I can get it back into play reasonably well.

 

[sureshs]

Sharapova and Nadal are ambidextrous

 

[thebuffman]

if you can switch your grip quickly enough, two forehands would be awesome. With serves, the possibilities are endless...

i think i will give this a try today. i can't imagine it will be too difficult since i already play every other sport which uses some sort of club with my left hand. if i bat left handed and golf left handed, i imagine playing tennis left handed shouldn't be too difficult to get used to.

being ambidextrous is the weirdest thing though because you end up choosing the hand you want to play with by "feel". it was the funniest experience when i played little league (i'm 35 now). i always batted left handed but fielded right handed. one day in practice i was sitting on the bench waiting for my turn at bat and the assistant coach was going threw catching drills with another player. someone overthrew the other and coach asked me to go retrieve the ball. i hustled over, grabbed the ball and whizzed it back with the left hand a LOT stronger than i throw with my right. coach was frozen "what hand did you throw that ball with??!!" he asked. "my left coach". "Well why on earth are you fielding right handed??!!" "I don't know...it just feels better". "Get this kid a left handers mit!!" and they went digging through the duffle bags looking for a mit. i must say that i've been just as confused on which hand to pick for every sport ever since. sometimes i go to play a game and forget which hand to play with LOL!

just thought i would share that little story. anyhoo i think i will try the left out today and report on how it went. stay tuned.

 

[tennisnj]

By all means Thebuffman go for it! I've been an ambidextrous tennis player since I started learning the game & even now at the level I'm at, it's still worth a few points or even games in matches I play. I just won a mixed doubles tournament on Sunday in which the coach (re: TOOL) of 1 of the opposing players was whining that his charge had no idea which side to hit to during the match. Any extra weapon one can use on the courts is an advantage. Even if it's just to scoop up 1 extra ball a game.

 

[danix]

Nadal is apparently a natural right hander, who learned to play lefty.
They mentioned that this helps him on the 2 hander backhand, as he's able to use a lot of that right arm on the backhand.