Your Strokes:
Shooter McMarco Backhand

Analyzed by John Yandell

The Shooter's backhand: good elements and some that need work.

This month we'll take a look at the one-handed backhand of Tennisplayer subscriber Shooter McMarco. But, before we start, a request. I hope the perception isn't that I'm being too hard on the guys I've analyzed so far (am I?). But we need more videos of strokes for upcoming months! So everyone else out there, do not fear--this is your chance--check the details in the Your Strokes section and send something in. (Click Here.)

The Shooter's backhand is interesting because of his combination of sound elements and fundamental technical problems. He has a fairly strong grip--an Eastern backhand with his knuckle partially on top of the frame. This is a grip for power and topspin. There is a pretty good player who uses it or something close, Roger Federer.



The Shooter has the grip but what about the rest of the stroke?

Because the contact point is further in front than with milder grips, hitting a drive requires impeccable preparation and very good timing. I have a feeling the Shooter rips some pretty good backhands at times, but the shot is probably not consistent--particularly when he is forced on time, or by ball speed, or court position.

We can see why by looking at the way he prepares, and particularly, the sequencing of his preparation. We've looked at the key role of the Unit Turn on the forehand and also the two-handed backhand. Guess what? Yes, it's the same on the 1-handed backhand.





The Unit Turn starts, then stops. This leads to shuffle steps.

Here is where the Shooter gets in trouble, and right at the start of his motion. He begins the Unit Turn, but it stops almost immediately. With top pros the Turn is continuous. The Unit Turn leads to the Full Turn with the shoulders perpendicular to the net or turned a little further. The Shooter starts the Unit Turn, but then the turning motion immediately stops.

This lack of a continuous Full Turn movenot only affects the timing of his stroke, it affects his movement. Because he isn't turned, he can't actually run to the ball. Instead he takes sideways shuffle steps. It almost looks as if he is recovering instead of going out to the ball. On some balls he is probably able to shuffle to the ball and then get turned, but on most balls I doubt this happens.

There is another big problem in the preparation, and that's in his set up and stance. The Shooter doesn't really get behind the ball and align the rear foot and rear leg. Instead he tends to run through the set up. Sometimes he plants the outside or left leg, but it's so far from the ball that he can't really coil that back leg.


The Closed Stance is OK but NOT with this posture.

From where he is, he is forced to take a big crossstep and hit Closed Stance on every ball. As this month's article on the two-handed backhand shows, (Click Here) there is nothing wrong with a Closed Stance on either the two-hander or the one-hander for that matter. But it is much more difficult to get good alignment and posture established, especially if you have never had the experience doing that with a Neutral Stance.

If we look at the Shooter's posture we can see what happens when you stop too away and don't gather yourself on the left foot. This is the bend at the torso. Compare that to the incredible posture of Tommy Haas in his set up. Tommy is going to hit Closed Stance, but his torso is virtually perfectly straight up and down, with the center of gravity between the feet. Compare that to the Shooter who is bent over 30 or even maybe 45 degrees at the waist. He stops so far away that even with the cross step he still needs to lean over to reach the ball.


Haas and the Shooter: Compare the differences in posture.

One good element here is that when the Shooter finally does get his shoulders turned, the line to the net is great--90 degrees plus. But a lot of that coiled energy is wasted because of the bend. Interestingly, he also maintains the sideways shoulder position really well on the forward swing. Unlike a lot of players, he doesn't over rotate his torso on the forward swing. That actually looks like Roger--except for the bend. It's tough to do and a good sign for the potential of the shot!

So here's the fix. What the Shooter needs to do is establish the feel for the Full Turn, with the correct posture. He has to imagine that he literally CAN'T bend over at the waist--that his torso is like a cylinder. Now rotate the cylinder in a one piece move. Step to the side with the outside (left foot). Make the Unit Turn with the shoulders. Then continue on with the Turn until the shoulders are a little past perpendicular to the net.


The correction is to learn the Open Stance set up, and to hit Open Stance.

From this upright turned position, coil with the knee bend with the back leg. Again stay totally and completely erect from the waist. At this point, keep the right foot completely on the right side with the right foot up on the toes. That's more extreme than the top players when they are going to hit Neutral or Closed. But there is a reason.

That's because the Shooter needs to learn to hit Open Stance. That may sound extreme, but it's necessary here. It's identical to what Kerry Mitchell recommended in his forehand stance article. (Click Here.) Normally you might want to learn Neutral Stance first, but the Shooter's posture is so far off that I think the only way to really correct it is to overcompensate. The Shooter needs to feel what it's like to align behind the ball on the back foot and hit with an upright torso position. You HAVE to do that to make contact with the Open Stance.

The best would be to use a ball machine, but if not, then have a practice partner feed balls out of a basket. Once this feels comfortable, progress to Neutral Stance. I would make every effort NOT to hit a Closed Stance backhand for weeks, until the Open and Neutral Stances feel comfortable--otherwise, it will probably just slip back in the wrong direction.


Learn to oppose the opposite arm at least a little bit like Federer.

A final point: increase the opposition of the arms a little. The Shooter keeps his back arm back and down at his side on the forward swing, and that's not bad. But he should try to move the back arm backwards at least somewhat as the hitting arm moves forward. Federer of course does this beautifully. But you don't have to match that amount of movement, to get the benefit in terms of power--and it'll help with the alignment and posture issues as well.

We could look at some other issues in the stroke as the Shooter now hits it. But I'm going to stop there. Once the alignment issues are better, he can look at the followthrough and the rotation of the hand and arm. They may naturally change if he is really able to implement these elements. So the door is open for a follow up analysis in Your Strokes. Speaking of which Mike Widell (Click Here) is coming out to San Francisco to do some work here with me (or maybe it's mainly to go to some famous jazz clubs...) So we might take another look at his forehand or maybe another stroke of his here next month. In the meantime, send me some more tapes!