My Unit Turn Revelation

The unit turn revelation came watching Novak's backhand return.

Two years ago I was watching Novak Djokovic play John Isner at the Miami Open. Isner launched a monster serve flat down the T in the deuce court. Djokovic turned, lunged but stayed on balance and blocked back Isner's serve with authority, deep down the middle of the court.

My awe for his return continued to grow throughout the match. How was it that Novak could do this time and again when others flailed?

The next summer I watched him again even closer, this time at Wimbledon on Center Court. What I witnessed was a revelation, a bit like how St. Paul must have felt when the heavenly light knocked him off his horse on the way to Damascus. But my revelation was the power of a great Unit Turn and Grip Change.

If there is one stage of the Framework where making improvement has the greatest and most immediate impact it is in the unit turn and grip preparation.

When I see a player flow into an intense, fully rotated unit turn with minimal racquet movement I get goose bumps. Whether it's the powerful, rapid turn of the Williams's sisters backhands, or Nadal when he turns for an inside out forehand, or one of my strong juniors, when I see a great unit turn I know a shot is primed and full of potential.

Nadal's forehand: an intense, fully rotated unit turn.

When working with a student new to me, I most closely analyze first the ready position, the unit turn, and the grip change. It is all too easy to get seduced by the shape of the strokes without first looking at the underlying fundamentals.

If there are problems with the turn, which there usually are, sometimes we can correct them very quickly. And when we do, the improvement can be dramatic. The gains can then come in both the movement and in the stroke production itself.

If a player learns to turn well, then I know that we can move onto more nuanced elements like the rhythm and patterns of movement. But if the unit turn is subpar, it remains our dominant focus. Nothing great can follow if the unit turn and grip change are not done properly.

Notice I said ready position and unit turn—but I left out the split step into the ready position. This is because most beginners and intermediates are not strong enough to push with authority out of a split. There are even wide disparities in the timing and power of the split amongst the pros. (For more on the Split Step, Click Here.) A great split step is a key in reaching your potential. But players can work on improving the split step later. The unit turn and grip change are different.

You don't need monumental strength to do them properly. Therefore I am exceedingly picky when teaching the unit turn at all levels.

The Ready Position with good posture and spacing between the arms and torso.

So how does the unit turn begin? The player lands the split (or what passes for one depending on ability and level) into the ready position. If the ready position is correct, the posture should be good, and there is space between arms and torso.

In most cases when players land, the feet are facing forward toward the net although advanced players sometimes begin turning the feet in the air.

After the split the first goal is to turn the body, feet, waist and shoulders towards the direction the player must move. The second goal is to put the racquet in the best possible position to hit any incoming shot and enable (not hinder) movement to the ball. All this needs to be done before the players takes one full step towards the shot.

The vast majority of shots require that the player does this right away before the move to the forehand side, the backhand side, or to prepare for an inside out forehand. The only times this is not the case is when the player needs to sprint forward for a drop shot or the incoming shot is very high and slow.

Often they are still static when the ball bounces. At that point it's too late for anything good to happen. So most players must be consciously trained to react to the hit and to start the unit turn right away.

The unit turn, before the player takes a step toward the ball.

If you recall from my first article in this series (Click Here), rule number #4 of the Framework is that players should strive for continuous, smooth acceleration/deceleration of movement and swings. Many players at the club level are very slow to move out of the ready position.

So what is the exact sequence? After the split, the feet, hips and shoulders should turn until they are parallel to the baseline. This all needs to happen before the player takes one step.

One essential element that can be difficult is to make sure you have the correct grip as you start this push to the shot. The grip change needs to be completed before the player pushes off.

The difficulty of mastering this grip shift should not be underestimated. I have had high level juniors who make the grip change a split second late. The result is that they struggle with hard incoming shots such as big serves.

If the turn and grip change are not executed well then the ability to achieve smooth movement as well as great racquet preparation is compromised.

I won't go in depth on the various grip switches here. The combinations are complicated. But here are a few guidelines.

Watch Dimitrov as he turns the hitting side of the racket to the opponent and rotates the grip immediately at the start of the turn.

Racquet positioning is critical. For topspin groundstrokes the hitting side of the racquet head should face away from the player toward the opponent and parallel roughly to the baseline. If a grip change is needed then the non-dominant hand helps gently guide the racquet to the correct grip.

For a player with a one-handed backhand the non-dominant hand rests up the throat. For the players with two handed backhands the player usually has both hands on the grip like Andy Murray. But other players such as Novak Djokovic slide the hand down.

For volleys and slices the player needs to face the racquet forward. For the backhand volley and slice this is done by cocking the wrist.

The left hand stabilizes the racquet. The variations are many but the goal is get to the correct grip right away, at the very start of the push.

Now let's go back to Djokovic's return. Watching him that day at Wimbledon, I began to refine the rules of the Framework.

Rule #1 states that movement and racquet work must be analyzed in tandem. Rule # 3 argues players should strive to reduce variables. And Rule #4 says that a player should strive for smooth acceleration and deceleration of movement and swings.

As little motion as possible finishing with the arms level.

Novak's backhand return demonstrates those elements as well as any shot in tennis. Novak is the master of the art of doing as little as possible. The racquet is prepared mostly by the turn of the feet, hips and shoulders with minimal extra movement.

The old phrase “Get Your Racquet Back" puts the emphasis on separate, independent arm action. This is terribly misplaced. The body does the work for you.

But pay attention to other elements. When Novak turned to return Isner's serve, his arms stayed virtually level. They do not move up or down or away from his torso in any noticeable way. Many other pros are not nearly as efficient or economical.

The arms begin the turn with elbows holding that proper spacing from the torso. That elbow spacing will be held through movement to the ball when the swing starts.

Again, Rule #4 is the goal of reducing variables. By starting and holding the shot with great spacing great players reduce movement to a minimum.

The combination of this leg and body turn and perfectly positioned racquet and arm position enables the body to move in the smoothest and balanced way possible.

Novak's outside foot rotates like a greased hinge.

Why are the level arms so important? Because the arms and racquet have real mass and weight. If players have poor arm position, that mass holds the player back. Literally players can throw themselves in the wrong direction.

Want to prove it to yourself? Try this experiment. Hold a bag of groceries then turn and run like you are going to a forehand or a backhand.

If that bag is not in the right position it feels very awkward and your movement is severely impeded. Try running with that bag lifted above your back shoulder, for example. Or dropped down below your waist. You will instantly feel how much that positioning will impede you.

Yet many players, even pros, raise their hands and racquet too high when they move to their forehands. Many players hold the racket too low on the backhand side. I believe players should never move with his arms above shoulder height or below the waist.

So back again to Novak. On his backhand return, Novak lands with his feet pointed towards the net, or sometimes ata lesser angle. But then, as if his foot is on a greased hinge, it rotates to parallel with the baseline. Think of that wonderful device at your local Chinese restaurant, the Lazy Suzan. Understanding all this that day at Wimbledon I wanted to jump out of my seat and scream, “it's a miracle."

During the last few years of my career I had struggled with my backhand return. I never felt like I had any power or leverage. Djokovic helped me see the light. The fundamental problem was I never got my outside foot turned parallel to the net and so my body was not turning.

Compare the extent of the turn for Harrison versus Novak.

Some players think I am too picky when I teach these elements of the unit-turn and grip change. But a few degrees less leg turn or a shift of the racquet too far up or down has drastic and hurtful impact. To illustrate this point I usually bring up Djokovic's backhand versus Andy Roddick and Ryan Harrison.

The relatively poor backhands hit by Ryan and Andy start with the poor rotation of the outside foot which leads to insufficient shoulder turn. Both guys also push their racquet away from their bodies and forward exacerbating their ability to move parallel to the baseline or backwards because of the weight of the arms and racquet.

Their poor turns lead to the feet getting somewhat tangled on the first step. This in turn leads to the inability to get optimum turn In essence their backhands are doomed at the first stage. As we will see later, this compromised movement to the ball also leads to inefficient recovery.

Furthermore this poor unit turn leads to compromised tactical choices. I remember watching Harrison play Nadal at the US Open. He, like Roddick sometimes did, resorted to moving far back in the court and slicing. Off course the results were not good. But what isn't widely understood is that the problems started with a poor unit turn.

Tim Henman demonstrates the foot and body turn on the volley.

Tim Gallaway and others have said that if we just get out of our way then our bodies will do the work naturally. I believe that thinking may help players play better mediocre tennis. The idea that a player finds his way to greatness by what feels good does not do justice the fact that what feels good may not be good. There are certain correct elements of the game that nevertheless can feel complicated, unnatural, or even bizarre for a player with problems.

I speak from experience.

What I saw the best do on the unit turn did not seem particularly natural to me given the way I had played for decades. The only shot I am really proud of his my volley, particularly my first volley off the serve and volley play.

The reason? On my volleys, I rotated the feet and the hips during the unit turn. So my volleys shared something with the Djokovic return. Before the push to the shot, our feet are already rotated in the correct direction. The racquet is taken back by the shoulder turn with the grip in place.

The large majority of the technical problems, particularly for intermediate players and below, start with this issue of the unit turn. Many players develop the turn easily and naturally, but many players, and again, even good and great ones, struggle with the turn one side or the other. Jez Green who was Andy Murray's movement coach told me that Murray was far better going to his backhand than his forehand. Green said they constantly worked on Murray's hip flexibility to improve the turn to that side.

A high level split step can add energy to the turn.

In my own coaching, I worked with a very talented young woman who had a very difficult time going to her backhand. It took almost a year to get the turn down properly in competition. It simply did not make sense to fix other problems in her backhand until the movement out of the unit turn was right. Yet she always had the ability to turn well on the forehand side.

The fact is at the turn so many things can go wrong. When going to the forehand side, players lift their dominant arm and racquet at or above their shoulder. This creates imbalance that can literally pull the body up off the ground.

When players pull their racket down going to the two handed backhand it creates imbalance in the opposite direction. The same problems occur on the return of serve. The result becomes apparent when a player has to move quickly to one side or the other. But if we simply turn the shoulders and the racquet does not move or moves very minimally, we have done our job. Potential energy is stored and the player is ready to spring to the shot.

Which brings us back to the split step. A great split step is like an earthquake. It creates great additional energy, but before using that energy in springing to the shot a player must be stable, loose, and relaxed above the waist player when landing. That's what a great split step allows.

Like an earthquake safe building, the player absorbs waves of energy, keeping extra movement in the torso and racquet to a minimum. This absorption allows the arm and racquet to stay stable, reducing variables.

If done properly a great split then sets the stage for a smooth even more powerful unit turn and maximum push and acceleration to the shot. But all that is predicated on a great unit turn.

My Unit Turn Revelation

Tim Mayotte