Head Position in Pro Tennis:
The Backhands

John Yandell

Last month we looked at the controversial issue of head position on the forehand. We found a variety of different positions at contact--from radically sideways like Roger Federer to facing mostly frontways like Jannick Sinner to half way in between the extremes. (Click Here.)

But, despite the differences, there was one commonality. All the players got their head still a fraction of a second before contact and held this position at contact and for about 1/10 of a second after.

But what about the backhands? Same or different? And what about any differences between one hand and two hands?

What the high speed videos shows is that like the forehands, there is a range of actual head positions at contact for both backhand versions BUT that the duration of those positions is similar to the forehands.

That might seem reasonable and predictable but who knows who out there is teaching what to whom? You never really know what reality really is until you look at the high speed video.

The Range

So let's look at a range of examples, starting with the one-hander. It not exactly news that Roger Federer has an extreme head position on both sides, with the head turned perpendicular to the sideline at contact, or close.

On the forehand we saw he gets to this sideways head position about 1/20th of second before contact and holds it for the contact itself and about 1/10th of a second after.

Guess what? It's virtually identical in terms of the timing on the backhand side. Federer reaches the sideways position about 1/20th of a second before contact and holds it for about 1/10th of second after.

Stan

That other great Swiss backhand belonging to Stan Wawrinka is at the other end of the head position spectrum.

Like all good one handers, Stan turns his head over his shoulder in the preparation phase. But unlike Roger that's about it.

There doesn't appear to be any further turning before contact. But like Roger and like the forehands, he keeps this head position still for about 1/10th of a second after contact.

If you look at Dominic Theim and Stefanos Tsitsipas their head positions are somewhere in between the extremes of Roger and Stan, but again the commonality is holding the head still for about 1/10th of a second after contact.

The Two Handers

Ok it's starting to get repetitive but let's go ahead and measure some two handers to see if there are any variations. Turns out no.

Rafa has a fairly extreme sideways head position on his backhand. The timing? He reaches it about 1/20th of a second pre-contact. He keeps this position and doesn't start to turn away for that same interval of 1/10th of a second.

And then there is Sinner with a head position at the other end of the spectrum just like we saw on his forehand.

He turns his head over his chin in the shoulder turn. And he keeps it there through contact. But, like everyone else he doesn't start to turn his head toward his opponent for that same magic 1/10th of a second.

I could go on. Novak Djokovic is somewhere between the extremes of Sinner and Rafa in terms of head position just like we saw on the forehand, but with the same duration. So I think we've seen enough to establish an important key point.

The video validates the common teaching belief to keep the head still, even if there are various “still" positions and the duration is quite brief. But a think this brief duration raises a question.

Questions

Is it possible to keep the head still for too long? In theory maybe yes. In pro tennis the interval between hits is around a second or less. That is, a second after the ball leaves one players' strings it arrives on the strings of the other.

So holding the head for 1/10th of a second means the ball is still on your side when you look up and certainly hasn't reached the net. After this still, 1/10th of a second interval the players are looking up to track their shot and focus on what the opponent might do.

So a player who takes the idea of keeping the head still through the shot to an extreme might actually be impeding his ability to prepare for the inevitable next ball. How could you tell? It's something you can easily measure with a slow motion setting on your iphone.

And finally one other thought. I was inspired to start this research by Chris Lewit's research into eye dominance, which established that,even if you could accurately tell which eye was dominant, it would not and should not affect the stances or the bio-mechanics of the swings.

But what if the one factor eye dominance could affect was head position? I am not saying that I think this is true by any means. In fact I doubt it.

To answer this question of course would mean accurately measuring eye dominance then see if it coordinated with head position. Wouldn't it be great if all the top players would participate in that research? Wishful thinking!