C4L3: Coil on the Two Hander

Now what we are going to discuss here is non dominant left hands role in the two handed backhand. Most people will say to you well its a left handed forehand and think thats enough. The fact is not many people understand the right handed forehand. So just to say its a left handed forehand is not enough. So for starters you want to use that left hand to push the head of the racket forward. See here how Warren starts his coil and its really his body that gets set. Look at that head, look at the head of the racket see that left is pushing the head forward holding Warren in a coil. Then he pulls his hips around so its the left hands job to set the coil and to try to hold that coil. Then its just a matter of rotating the hips in the figure 8 back toward the net and the arms sort of act like an octopus's where the body moves and the arms just sort of follow. Look here see how that racket head is really tilted in. Its tucked in and you hold your coil look at the racket head its still coiled in, you can still see the coil. As he drags his hips forward thats when the racket finally unfolds into the shot. Look again, see how strong that left hand is here tilting the head forward, elbows bent. See that most people think you lay the head back. As he pulls his hips forward he tries to hold the coil but it naturally unfolds perfectly at the 45 degree angle. When you are giving a lesson on the two handed backhand make sure your student understands the role of the left hand here. You can't just throw out hit a left handed forehand look at that coil holds and only when he switches his hips towards the net does the arm actually unfold and uncoil and go convex into the ball. As Steven or Warren go into this backhand, you can see they get concave and the racket head really just goes up. See that the racket head comes up and the head is tilted forward. As the hips pull through that's when the racket naturally just goes convex into the hit.