Soderling's Backhand; Video Available?

[sejsel]

I think you are correct about the power of the one hander.

Maybe it's players who use the 2 hander, that don't feel they can generate power with the 1 hander, and that would make sense.

Yes, although I tend to think about the occurrences you are refering to more in terms of muscle memory (kinesthetic sense) that kicks in - when push turns to shove. I guess, people, even at that level, fall back to what has been done over the years of practice and match playing.

It can however, (it certainly is) be a matter of power as much as comfortability.

Funny I've never thought about it that way - primarily - well I guess you live, you learn...
Now it seems so obvious...

[airforce1]

I think you are correct about the power of the one hander.

Maybe it's players who use the 2 hander, that don't feel they can generate power with the 1 hander, and that would make sense.

[sejsel]

When I've seen Andy Roddick on the practice courts, he's spent a good bit of time just fooling around, hitting left handed, etc. Saw him hitting a topspin one hander (right handed) and seriously wondered why he doesn't use that instead of his two hander. It was really impressive (to me).

Kevin

I've seen this, actually, more than few times myself; Ivanišević and Courier did that during their time and I saw few other players (swedes - Magnus Larsson and few others) doing it as well at practice, and few times even during tournament matches when pulled wide.

Another note: I doubt that you can hit two hander harder than one hander, -contrary to many's gut feeling one hander has inherently more power potential than double-handed backhand.

The range of motion is less constricted (somewhat more potential for shoulder turn into backswing and more "freedom" in the release into forward swing).

This is going to provoque debate even here at forum, but I have seen one hander vs. double hander at work at the very top level of the game many times.

It is easy to be lead to believe that two hands on the racquet have to translate into more power.

[airforce1]

I wonder what would have happened if you had sharpened the blade before you went out.

Kevin
p.s. Is a "swingblade" the same thing as a "slingblade"? I like them french fried potaters. . .

I really need to get around to that, haha,

but it might have made it tougher to discern the differences.

[mntlblok]

I wonder what would have happened if you had sharpened the blade before you went out.

Kevin
p.s. Is a "swingblade" the same thing as a "slingblade"? I like them french fried potaters. . .

Was out using my swingblade in the pasture today and came away more convinced than ever that getting your wt. into a swing can be more important than head speed in certain situations.

I wasn't even thinking about this issue until subconsciously found my self adjusting my swings to cut thru a particular type of weed we have. Mostly I was just swinging with speed to cut thru easier weeds, but found that for a certain tougher one, I had to really focus on a stronger grip and getting my shoulders driving behind the swing to cut in one swing. A loose gripped fast swing just didn't get it done.
A stronger grip and driving with my wt. allowed me to cut thru nice, quick and clean, even though my swing was slower this way.

How this relates to actual ball speed off the racket, I can't say for sure,
I can say that it's clear that you can get more weight into shots by swinging certain ways.

Is it possible that this could be related to a higher ratio;
slower swing to ball off the strings speed? Maybe the weight into shot is just more efficient in producing ball speed, but not necessarily a higher max velocity than focusing on shear racket speed?

[airforce1]

Was out using my swingblade in the pasture today and came away more convinced than ever that getting your wt. into a swing can be more important than head speed in certain situations.

I wasn't even thinking about this issue until subconsciously found my self adjusting my swings to cut thru a particular type of weed we have. Mostly I was just swinging with speed to cut thru easier weeds, but found that for a certain tougher one, I had to really focus on a stronger grip and getting my shoulders driving behind the swing to cut in one swing. A loose gripped fast swing just didn't get it done.
A stronger grip and driving with my wt. allowed me to cut thru nice, quick and clean, even though my swing was slower this way.

How this relates to actual ball speed off the racket, I can't say for sure,
I can say that it's clear that you can get more weight into shots by swinging certain ways.

Is it possible that this could be related to a higher ratio;
slower swing to ball off the strings speed? Maybe the weight into shot is just more efficient in producing ball speed, but not necessarily a higher max velocity than focusing on shear racket speed?

[oliensis]

Actually, I suspect that the acceleration at the moment leading into contact, and the deceleration at impact are the salient variables, in one form or another. These terms are important because they determine how much energy will be transferred from ball to racquet and racquet to ball.

Very happy to learn this. Had long wondered whether there was something "magical" about whether the string bed was accelerating during the 4 or so milliseconds of ball contact.

Kevin
Savannah

[crass_lawner]

My guess would be that the idea of playing with your opposite hand has occurred to quite a few people with arm/wrist/shoulder problems, including me. It definitely seems like it would be good practice for a 2 hander too. When I used to hit with a 1 hander I also thought it would be good to play left handed to even out my musculature . I really felt kind of lopsided.

But I've never actually gotten around to hitting left handed b/c I'd feel bad for the person I'm hitting with. I guess that's just another reason why it'd be great to be Andy Roddick, because people would love to (or are getting paid to) hit with you, even if you are hitting left handed.

[mntlblok]

Hitting left handed FHs can be a good tool for improving the 2 hander. I expect this is what Roddick is doing.
I have a son who hits a FH off both sides and we started this to improve and aid the eventual 2 hander we expected him to use. At this point, he just prefers to hit a FH on each side. I guess we will see how it goes. I do feel there are some advantages to it.

He was definitely just goofing around, but I get your point. Being an old fart, I have several tennis friends who are (or have learned) attempting to learn to play left handed. Shoulders and elbows seem to eventually want to give out. I've even tried it a bit myself of late, trying to find a way around a wrist problem.

I'd *love* to have enough ambidexterity to learn to hit forehands off either side - and especially to do the Luke Jensen thing and be able to serve with either hand. Turns out, though, that I'd probably starve if I even had to try to use a fork left handed. Most of my friends haven't had stellar results, either. . .

Kevin

[mntlblok]

Secondly, the racket may be accelerating through the shot, but there is a specific velocity that the racket hits the ball at at the moment it imparts its energy to it. That is the velocity we are interested in, not the velocity before the hit, or after the hit, or how fast (acceleration) that velocity is changing.

Very happy to learn this. Had long wondered whether there was something "magical" about whether the string bed was accelerating during the 4 or so milliseconds of ball contact.

Kevin
Savannah

[airforce1]

When I've seen Andy Roddick on the practice courts, he's spent a good bit of time just fooling around, hitting left handed, etc. Saw him hitting a topspin one hander (right handed) and seriously wondered why he doesn't use that instead of his two hander. It was really impressive (to me).

Kevin

Hitting left handed FHs can be a good tool for improving the 2 hander. I expect this is what Roddick is doing.
I have a son who hits a FH off both sides and we started this to improve and aid the eventual 2 hander we expected him to use. At this point, he just prefers to hit a FH on each side. I guess we will see how it goes. I do feel there are some advantages to it.

[mntlblok]

And by the way, for future reference, my name is John--only my wife calls me Johnny please.

I'll bet that if yer "handle" had an "underscore" (john_yandell), the "Johnny" thing would be less likely to happen.

Kevin

[mntlblok]

One other point, you never see top players with two backhands, or at least two backhand drives, one with one hand and one with two. It's hard enough to have one.

When I've seen Andy Roddick on the practice courts, he's spent a good bit of time just fooling around, hitting left handed, etc. Saw him hitting a topspin one hander (right handed) and seriously wondered why he doesn't use that instead of his two hander. It was really impressive (to me).

Kevin

[crass_lawner]

O.K. airforce, sorry if I assumed more than I should have. I'm still confused about many aspects of this too, but there are some fundamental points that I'm pretty sure of. I'm sure that there are many inaccuracies in my posts, but I just see even more inaccuracies in some other people's posts. Maybe over time I'll be able to gain a clearer understanding of this issue.

[airforce1]

Crass,
funny thing here is I'm not really convinced either way on this issue yet, and have tried to look at it with an open mind. My main aim is to support posters like you getting a fair say on an issue like this, and not being shut down by some study that may or may not address the issues at hand.
You have made some good points that I wanted to hear out.
I think we have made it pretty clear that much of the " expert comments/studies" are full of limiting assumptions and in some cases, just plain mis-applied.

My personal guess is that biggest factor of getting your wt towards the shot, adds control thru alignment, which in turn, allows you to cut loose with more of your power with confidence. This is keeping in mind that we all have swing speed in reserve on groundstrokes, that we can learn to apply as we have more control of our shots.