Your Strokes: Bryan Yeager One Handed Backhand

What is really advanced footwork–and what isn’t?

This month we look at Bryan Yeager’s backhand in Your Strokes, which is back by popular demand. I’ve cut down on the frequency of Your Strokes recently, because I thought it was getting repetitive. Basically we were seeing the same basic technical problems over and over, and frankly it was getting boring–at least for me…But since the requests keep coming in, here we go with another addition.

Bryan’s one-handed backhand is actually a different kind of case, because the fundamentals of his stroke seem quite sound. But when it comes to his movement around the court, he appears to be suffering from what I call "advanced footwork training syndrome." And this is definitely doing him more harm than good.

By "advanced footwork training syndrome" I mean he seems to have modeled his step patterns on his perception of things that happen in pro movement, or possibly, on a coach’s perception. But, as often happens at the club level, Bryan has exaggerated or misperceived what is actually happening and/or the sequence.

Let’s start by looking at his basic motion. Then let’s see how it gets off track when he starts to move around the…