Modern Backhand Stances:
The Two Hander

John Yandell

For the last few years there has been an ongoing, heated discussion of what constitutes “modern tennis.” Much if not the majority of that has focused on the forehand.

And a major topic in that forehand discussion has been stances-- particular open stances. During the same period though there has been little analysis of the corresponding stances in the modern backhand.

"Open stance" may in fact be the number one modern tennis buzz phrase. But when we look at the video evidence, the top men in the world hit the majority of their backhands with the exact opposite stance--an extreme closed stance with a diagonal cross step.

Surprised? It's true on the two handed backhand. And it's even more prevalent on the one-hander.

Looking at several hundred pro backhand-- when the players had the ability to choose how they set up--over 55% of all two handers were hit with closed stances. For the one hander it was over 60%.

Neutral Stance was the second choice. Open stance was third.

That conclusion may seem surprising, shocking even, but is critical in understanding how the top players play, and something that must be evaluated in how the two-hander is taught.

So in this first article on backhand stances let's take a detailed use at the stances on the modern two-hander. Next we will move on the one. The pro women are more complicated to understand and use a more varied range of stances. We'll look at them in a third article.

The Closed Stance Preference

It's incontrovertible that the closed stance is the preferred stance when the great two handed players have the opportunity to choose how to set up.

That doesn't mean they don't hit with neutral or square stances. It doesn't mean that they don't hit with open stances. They do both at certain times from certain positions.

From deep in the court, players often hit open stance. Players also hit open when they are forced on time.

Around the center of the court, top two handers will tend to hit more neutral stance backhands. This is also true when they are setting up near the sideline and hitting down the line.

You can find also exceptions to all these tendencies. But it is still a fair generalization to say that closed stance is the most common and the most preferred stance.

So how could it be that the predominate stance on the men's two backhand is the complete opposite of what we see on the modern forehand? To see why, let's start by looking at the open stance on the modern forehand and how it functions.

As strange as it may initially sound, the technical benefits of open stance on the forehand are actually similar to the technical benefits of closed stance on the backhand.

The result in both cases is an increase in the use of the torso and the legs, and therefore the generation of more racket speed. It goes to show--once again--how complex and dynamic the game is at the highest levels--and how difficult it is to understand.

Open Stance Forehands

At the pro level the use of open stances dominates on the forehand—but there are two primary versions of open stance, fully open and semi open. It’s important to understand that the preferred pro forehand stance is semi open--not fully open--and to understand why that is.

By semi open I mean that the front foot is clearly in front of, or closer to the net, than the rear foot. Typically, if you draw an imaginary line across the toes, the front foot is off set at something like a 30 to 45 degree angle to the rear.

You definitely still see a percentage of forehands hit in pro tennis with neutral stances, but usually this is an adaption to low balls and short balls, even for players like Roger Federer who have conservative grips.And you see a percentage of forehands hit with full open stances, that is, with the feet set up basically parallel to each other and the baseline.

But the video evidence on this is overwhelming. The players will work very hard with a complex array of adjusting steps to create the semi open alignment whenever possible.

There are two reasons for open stance in pro tennis. The first is to deal with the phenomenal levels of topspin and the resulting contact heights.

The spin and trajectory levels in pro tennis cause frighteningly high ball bounces. It’s not uncommon for players to make contact at shoulder height while being a foot or more in the air.

Put another way, if you were standing on the baseline, some groundstrokes hit in the pro game would bounce over your shoulder. This point isn’t understood--especially by television commentators who played before poly strings and the evolution of modern technique changed the game. (For more on the effect of poly string, Click Here.)

But of the two open stances, why the semi open? The answer is greater coiling in the preparation, and therefore the additional forward body rotation in the forward swing.

We see incredible coiling on the forehand in the modern game, in the legs, but also in the hips and shoulders. As a result we see incredible uncoiling.

The norm on the modern forehand is for the player to leave the court with one or both feet and for the rear shoulder to rotate forward and around until it is pointing at the net or something close. This is an incredible 180 degrees of body rotation in the forward swing--or more.

The advantage of the semi-open stance is that it enhances even further by allowing players to turn incrementally more in the coiling phase. And that in turn creates additional uncoiling and rotation in the forward swing.

Let's see this by comparing the angle of the shoulder turn for Andy Murray who tends to hit more fully open forehands to Novak Djokovic who uses the semi-open stance more predominantly. (Click Here for more analysis of Andy's forehand.)

Look at the angle of the torso at the furthest point in the turn. Andy has a great turn. His shoulders are about 90 degrees to the baseline or a little more. 99 percent of all club players I have ever filmed don't turn that well.

But look at Novak with the semi open offset between the feet in his stance. His shoulders have turned another 20 or 30 degrees. No doubt he has a significant additional upper body coil.

You see the exact same position with the semi open stance with other top players. Rafa. Federer. Del Potro. Even Andy on many balls.

Now watch the uncoiling. If the shoulders are turned further away in the preparation they will automatically rotate further in the forward motion.

Andy is getting around 180 degrees of forward shoulder rotation with the open stance. As crazy as it seems, Novak--or any top player in the semi-open stance is getting probably something like 200 degrees or more.

Backhand Stances

So how does this analysis relate to closed stance on the backhand side? The answer is players have found a way to incrementally increase the amount of coiling and body rotation on the backhand as well. This is with the closed stance.

Why wouldn’t top players just set up in a semi-open stance on the backhand and rotate through the shot in the same way as the forehand? The two handed backhand is like a left handed forehand right?

Or an alternate theory--why wouldn’t players want to step directly into the shot with a neutral stance? Wouldn’t that generate weight transfer and linear momentum?

Not a Left Handed Forehand

The answer is that in the men’s game a two-handed backhand is not really a left handed forehand. And if that comes as a surprise and contradicts what you have read or heard, I made that exact argument myself in a best selling instructional book called Visual Tennis.

That was in the days before high speed video existed and there was no way to study technique in the detail or with the number of examples the way we can today. And my belief is that it's important to acknowledge this and revise our thinking whenever we have newer, better data sources that can lead to better knowledge.

The fact is a two-handed backhand--in most cases--is exactly that: a backhand hit with two hands. The role of both is critical. We can see this by looking at the position of the body at contact and the amount of rotation that has occurred at that point in the swing.

With a forehand, the shoulders rotate 90 degrees plus so that they are basically parallel with the baseline. With a one-handed backhand the shoulders are square at contact, that is, basically perpendicular to the net.

On the two handed backhand, guess what? The position of the shoulders is usually dead in the middle—half way in between the forehand and the one-hander--about 45 degrees to the net. And that is basically the same regardless of stances.

This is what Rick Macci and Brian Gordon call a pull push swing combination. (Click Here.) There is no rotational increase or advantage with the open stance on the two hander, because the shoulders finish parallel to the net. Understanding this is critical to understanding the predominance of closed stance.

Grips

It's also critical to understand the grips that produce this. To hit a true two-handed backhand, the players have to use some version of a true backhand grip with the bottom hand.

Typically this is what can be describes as a mild to a strong continental. In Tennisplayer grip terminology that could be a 2 / 1 with the index knuckle on bevel 2 and the heel pad on bevel 1. (Click Here.)

This can be paired with either an eastern or a mild semi western grip with the top hand. In the same terminology that would be a 3 / 3 with the heel pad and the index knuckle both square behind the handle. Or a 4 / 3 with the index knuckle shifted one bevel down. (Click Here.)

When we get to the women we will see that there are other variations with the bottom hand that involve less of a grip shift, and that for these players, the different grip structure affects the technical fundamentals of the swing.

Closed Stance Coiling

So now we are in a position to understand the closed stance advantage. Due to the true two-handed nature of the shot, two handers cannot develop the same amazing, massive torso rotation you see on the forehand forward swing.

But with the closed stance they are able to increase the initial turn, and thereby increase the total amount of body rotation from the turn to the contact.

The long diagonal step is key in creating this extra turn. At the time the player steps to the ball, draw an imaginary line across the toes. Then another across the shoulders. Basically, those two lines are parallel.

And look what that does to the turn. The shoulders turn as much as 120 degrees or more. The same way they do on the forehand side with the open stance.

Compare this to the times the players hit with neutral stance. The shoulders with the neutral stance tend to turn about 90 degrees. Lik.e the open stance, the neutral stance has less turn potential.

Again, for the average player, turning 90 degrees on the backhand is an awesome achievement, but in the supercharged world of high velocity pro groundstrokes, the top players have found a way to turn further.

Semi-open forehand. Closed stance backhand. The effect is the same. A significant increase in the coiling in the upper body.

But that's not all. Note with the diagonal step into the closed stance two hander how wide the players' base becomes. Look also at the legs.

If we compare the knee bend, it is generally significantly deeper than with a step directly forward into a neutral stance.

Now look at the release and the uncoiling. Compare the increased rotation to contact. There is an additional 20 to 30 degrees of rotation with the closed stance. Again the contact is at about 45 degrees with the shoulders then continuing on until they are parallel to the court.

Note also the motion of the legs. The deeper knee bend automatically means that the upward uncoiling of the legs will be increased as well.

These are incremental differences. But clearly the players feel the advantage and this is why you see the closed stance on the two hander in pro tennis.

As For You?

The next question to ask however is whether the closed stance is suitable in your game. The answer is possibly. A common problem for club players is the tendency to chase the ball with the front foot and to pivot wildly through the shot with the back leg swinging around too soon. (Click Here.)

Watch the back leg on these high level two handers. Watch how it stays behind the player, well behind the front foot.

Although little noticed in teaching and analysis, this factor is a key to controlling the timing of the rotation and also the recovery step. The racket has reached the most extended position in the forward swing and the shoulders are parallel to the net but the rear foot has yet to swing around to the players left side to start the recovery. In fact it is still in a closed stance alignment or something close.

Controlling the rotation and the timing of the recovery steps is critical for the stroke to function effectively. Talented junior players can often move directly into extreme closed stance and still do this, but as a club player, develop control of the sequence of the motion first.

Learning open and neutral stance will actually facilitate this body control. Open stance is great for players struggling to control the momentum of their movement and to set up correctly. Or for players who tend to reach for the ball or swing the recovery step around too soon.

Neutral stance is also great for positioning and also for working on balance and staying upright during the forward swing. It's also good for learning to feel how to keep the rear foot back and not taking a recovery step too soon.

But once a player has the ability to finish the swing in the correct sequence, it can be exciting to experiment and see what closed stance can do. It's not necessarily to have a good backhand at the club level, that's for sure.

But you may find that you feel increased leverage and velocity on your two hander from learning how to increase your body turn and leg coiling like top players. That can help raise the level of the stroke's effectiveness.

Stay Tuned. Next we'll look at the one-handed stances on the men's side.