Your Strokes: Ron Milenko One-Handed Backhand

What’s obvious to the naked eye, and what can only the camera reveal?

This month in Your Strokes we take a look at the one-handed backhand of Ron Milenko. Ron recently asked me to film his game to see where he could improve, so we got together and I filmed all of his strokes at 60 frames per second. This gave us twice the visual information of even regular video, which films at 30 frames.

Ron’s one-hander demonstrates how a player can appear to be doing things "right", but have underlying technical flaws that only the camera reveals. These invisible aspects are usually what hold the key to rapid improvement.

Let’s start with everything that is "right" about Ron’s stroke. First he has a good upper body coil with his shoulder pointing in the direction of the incoming ball.

Second, he stablishes a solid, straight arm hitting structure early on in the stroke. A proper one handed backhand uses the arm as a lever that connects with, and lifts the ball, and Ron does this perfectly, finishing with beautful extension. Third, Ron is in a closed stance with all his weight on his right foot, assuring that he is stepping…