Weird advice

[defrule]

There's no real club where I live but the local sports centre open up 4 tennis courts once every week. A person there mans the ball machine and give advice to people on the machine.

The first day I went there, I tried the machine just to get warmed up a bit. Said nothing about my forehand but when I hit my one handed backhand, this is where I get troubled.

All the coaches I've had until now have taught me the usual stuff, close stance, racket back, swing and follow through etc...
I was hitting quite well on my backhand side actually.

However this man, he told me I shouldn't be hitting the ball with the arm swing. He insisted that I rotate my body into the shot and not swing into it, it was weird. It's like putting your arm across your body then rotating your body to swing you arm, I felt no control at all in the shot.
It certainly contradicts everything my coaches taught and all these good online videos.

 

[cl76]

That is wierd. But you know, it may work for him. That said, if it doesn't feel right for you then don't do it.

 

[Bud]

There's no real club where I live but the local sports centre open up 4 tennis courts once every week. A person there mans the ball machine and give advice to people on the machine.

The first day I went there, I tried the machine just to get warmed up a bit. Said nothing about my forehand but when I hit my one handed backhand, this is where I get troubled.

All the coaches I've had until now have taught me the usual stuff, close stance, racket back, swing and follow through etc...
I was hitting quite well on my backhand side actually.

However this man, he told me I shouldn't be hitting the ball with the arm swing. He insisted that I rotate my body into the shot and not swing into it, it was weird. It's like putting your arm across your body then rotating your body to swing you arm, I felt no control at all in the shot.
It certainly contradicts everything my coaches taught and all these good online videos.

Tell him if you wanted lessons... you'd pay for them.

 

[Solat]

Tell him if you wanted lessons... you'd pay for them.

you mean pay someone ELSE for them

 

[Bud]

you mean pay someone ELSE for them

He was paying for the ball machine... not unsolicited advice.

 

[samalo0]

Turning your body into the shot...

Hello Defrule,

Definitely do not listen to him. When I was first taught the one-handed backhand, my coach taught me kind of a reverse windshield wiper motion. You hold the racquet like it's a sword in a sheath and from a neutral position, you turn your hips so that your shoulders face the net to hit, and then allow your arm to follow through.

The problem with this type of stroke is that it is very inconsistent and creates trouble in directing your shots. If you look at any pro (Sampras, Federer, Gasquet...) none of them do this, and there is a reason for that! It has taken me a few months to correct this incorrect technique with a new coach and now I can direct the balls!

If you take a look at the swing patch of any pro, it is straight forward into the ball and the non-dominant arm swings back in order to stop the hips and shoulders from rotating to be parallel to the net. As you noticed, swiping at the ball by turning your hips past facing the sideline produces inconsistency and poor directional control.

Here is a good example of the right way to do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUQxb4ZtR-4

Which you are probably already doing. I think the key concepts of the one hander are:

1. Get into proper position to hit the ball by hopping on the balls of your feet and then stepping across into closed stance
2. Turn your shoulders while holding the non-dominant hand on the throat of the racquet and face your dominant shoulder blade to the desired target
3. With a loose dominant arm allow the racquet to fall into a loop and turn your hips from facing towards the back fence to facing the sideline in order to accelerate your arm
4. Swing through the ball from low to high for topspin - the swing path should be straight and towards where you want the ball to go
5. Push your back arm away to stop your hips from over-rotating
6. Allow your dominant arm to naturally follow through a decelerate

I think most people either rotate their hips too much or don't get into position well (footwork problems) if they have a crappy backhand. That or they tense their arm, I almost use a serve looseness in my arm and it works much better.

 

[fuzz nation]

Hi defrule,

Yeah, that guy sounds like a lot of golfers who pass along too much unsolicited advice - they preach some golden tip as if it's gospel just because it worked for them at some point. Best course of action could be to just be polite, but don't let someone like that interrupt you and attempt a free lesson on the spot. Even when that person means well, that's just rude. Sometimes you can just turn off someone's advice valve by telling them that you're already dealing with a number of things that your teacher is working on in your game. Again, if you're polite, that can get them to leave you to your work without offense.

I do some teaching and what I've observed among the real artists in this craft is the ability to give a player the right cue at the right time to fix a shot, etc. This is rarely universal from one person to the next - a great tip for you might only work for another player who has the exact same technical problem, but also the exact same method of learning. Actually, that "tipster" you encountered may have simply been doing a poor job of encouraging you to use less arm and more footwork and rotation in your backhand. Who knows?

Enjoy the process...

 

[dataseviltwin]

He might be telling you to look over your shoulder at the ball, and use your core (in addition to your arm) to swing (vs. just "arming" it...)...

 

[Djokovicfan4life]

Well, I don't think any one handers swing at the ball with JUST arm alone. In fact, one of the most common problems I see is opening the shoulders too much when first learning the stroke. That guy's full of it.

Matt

 

[albino smurf]

Gasquet totally does the sword from the sheath motion.

 

[LeeD]

I'd listen to his advice, and try to store it somewhere upstairs.
Then if my shoulder is getting tired, or I lack pace and consistency, I'd recall his advice and maybe employ it.
However, if you hit good backhands now, don't change a thing! A good solid backhand is hard to locate, and if you already have it, start working on other parts of your game.
He means well, so take his advice, but you don't have to employ it if you don't want to.
I personally only employ trunk rotation on return of faster serves with topspin, NOT on groundies. FastER, not fast serves.