C3L2: One Handed Backhand

The one handed backhand is probably the most misunderstood shot in the game. You will hear even commentators and pro's tell the student or tell people who play tennis, if you don't have enough power on the one handed you better switch to two and get more power with the backhand. Its absurd, don't tell Federer this. Here is the blue print to the one handed backhand, which is basically a map to the effortless stroke. You've got your figure 8 and 45 lined up for a one hander obviously. Then you've got this sign curve which is what we are going to get into this month. Believe it or not your arm on the back hand moves just the way it did on the forehand. Concave, expands along the 45 degree angle and actually makes contact with the ball as it shifts to convex. Lets take a look at Paul in slow motion. Just a drop feed, which you all know is tougher than a ball being hit to you. Now the left hand is actually pushing the racket head forward. Creating a coil on the one hander, most people think that left hand pulls the racket back and pokes the elbow forward. No it pushes the head forward and points the elbow down towards the court - this starts his coil. As his hips shift forward across the x of the figure 8 the arm transfers from concave to convex and its that transition that creates the power. Its obvious here how Paul's arm here is convex letting the ball lay into the strings here as he makes contact. So his racket head really lays into the ball expanding out along the 45 degree angle in a round way. So thats the key, you go from concave and pulling the butt of the racket back first and pushing the head forward getting a nice tight coil on this 45 degree perfect hitting point and then as your hips continue around the corner of the figure 8 slide out into the front of the stroke thats transition creates all the power in the backhand. The tighter the coil and the better the transition, the more consistent you are with figure 8 in the center and out on the periphery the better you lay into the ball here at contact. See that you can see his racket head is still bowed backwards absorbing the hit. The left hand holding him there at the 45 balanced. Lets take a look at Warren, same thing, look at that left hand look how balanced he is here on the 45. That left hand is actually tilting the head forward. Letting the butt of the racket come back first, the butt coming along the line of the figure 8. Then as he shifts his hips forward thats where you see the transition from concave to convex and his wrist goes from holding the coil to expanding out. See that look at his racket head, matched up identically with the white arrow. See that then he comes off the ball from there. So if you understand how your hips and arms relate to one another and how your arm actually makes a sign curve out towards the 45 degree angle you can really hit a powerful and effortless backhand with one hand. As you see here it looks very good. This isn't even Warrens shot. So anyone can learn the one hander. Once again lets one last look - see how the butt of the racket really comes back first that racket head is really more lifted up than anything else. His left hip is coming around see, its coming around the corner in the back left hand still pushing forward, eyes on the 45 and now as his hips come forward thats the transition. Now he is coming out convex towards the ball and laying into the ball nicely right there at the 45 but in a very curved and non-linear way. So get out there with students and give this a shot, these visuals really help quit a lot to see this. Its obvious you come out convex you can see it in the players when they finish. Its not that obvious on how to get concave, how to get coiled up to the hit.