Perhaps the most beautiful stroke in tennis is the one-handed backhand. It's always a pleasure to watch the great one-handed backhand players. But as beautiful as the shot is, it also comes with its thorns. The biggest dilemma facing players that choose the one-handed backhand is developing a consistent and powerful stroke, one that can be depended on time and time again. Professional players seem to be able to get to the ball, setup, and perform their stroke with ease. This is what frustrates many club players as they realize "looks are deceiving."
One of the players I have always enjoyed watching over the years is Mark Philippoussis. His explosive style is always a pleasure to see. He has an incredibly powerful serve and a big forehand that he uses to put his rivals on the defensive. But one of his strokes that has slipped under the radar is his one-handed backhand.
Nothing Fancy
When you look at Mark's backhand there is nothing fancy about it, except that he loads and explodes through the ball, creating an excellent combination of power and spin. Although there may be "flashier" one-handed backhands to analyze, I have found that Mark's one-handed backhand possesses a package of key fundamentals that any one-handed backhand player can learn from. In this article, I want to share what I see when I look at his backhand so you can improve your own one-hander. By disciplining yourself to use the fundamental aspects of his stroke, it will help you become a better tennis player.
Mental Preparation
It is my opinion that in order to become more consistent with your one-handed backhand and be able to improve in tennis generally, you will need to place utmost importance in how you prepare mentally for your opponent's reply. My take on preparation is a little different. I believe you need to prepare with your mind first, not your grip or your shoulders which is often the first step most players learn when they are taught about preparation skills in tennis. In order to prepare your grip and turn your shoulders, your mind needs to be completely centered on gathering as much information as possible to determine what to do at the earliest opportunity. I believe this mental refocusing process needs to take place during your follow-through and recovery stage and before your opponent strikes the ball.
When your opponent hits the ball, it takes a little over one second for the ball to travel from his side of the court to your side of the court. Most club players do not refocus until the ball is on their side of the court. There is this "downtime" in the brain between the hit and the opponent's reply. This leaves the player with less time to move into position and perform the physical preparation process (turning the shoulders, changing the grip) in order to execute a clean, smooth, and consistent stroke. If you want to improve your ability to move to the ball and setup on time, you need to improve your ability to refocus. Watch how Makr stays focused before, during, and then after his shot (and during recovery). He follows the ball back toward his opponent, repositioning himself and waiting for his opponents reply. He is looking to the other side of the court to gather as much information from his opponent on where he will hit the ball next. Mark's ability to get a "jump" on the ball comes from his proactive refocusing skills. Most club players are not proactive like Mark but instead use reactive focusing when the ball is already on their side of the court. Because a one-handed backhand requires early preparation, refocusing once you hit your shot is paramount.
During practice or a match, you can improve your ability to determine which side the ball is going to sooner by using your own voice. When your opponent strikes the ball and you determine which side it is going to, say to yourself "backhand" or "forehand". By doing this, you have to prepare your mind before your opponent hits the ball in order for you to say "backhand" or "forehand" on time. Some players say to themselves "HIT, BOUNCE, HIT". The first hit is from their opponent's racket. Again, in order to say the first "hit" on time, you need to focus before your opponent hits the ball. As you practice, you should see noticeable improvement in your ability to get into position earlier and hit the ball with better timing. Another benefit is you will build your anticipation skills because while you are using your voice to refocus earlier, the visual information your brain is receiving will allow you to learn to see the little visual clues you may not have picked up on in the past because your refocus point was after your opponent struck the ball.
Split Step
Even though Mark's split-step and step out with the foot closest to the ball is a common footwork pattern amongst professional tennis players, it is always worth examining because it plays a vital role in court coverage and a one-handed backhand players ability to control their sideways momentum. Problems with the initial step-out with the foot closest to the ball can explain why so many club players have difficulty with the backhand side. Most club players overlook the footwork patterns in their efforts to resemble the pros. Instead they focus more on the swing and the finish of a stroke rather than the footwork required to setup and support a smooth swing.
The split step is what allows the player to initiate their footwork in a particular direction with efficiency. The split step basically takes the weight off your feet so that when you land again you can push off left or right quickly by pushing off with the outside leg. This "unwieghting" also prevents you from leaning any particular way and centers your body weight before you move left or right. Mark performs his split step slightly before his opponent hits the ball and steps out with the foot closest to the ball (in this case his left foot) as soon as he recognizes which side the ball is going. This allows Mark to push off with the outside foot to improve his court coverage ability and increase his time to setup for his onehanded backhand.
There are two primary reasons why a player needs to step out with the foot closest to the ball. The first is to cover more court in less time during a crosscourt exchange. The second is to control sideways momentum which often makes it more difficult to step into the ball properly without blocking your hips and thus "short-circuiting" the kinetic chain for power.
In a crosscourt exchange, it is imperative that players step-out with the foot closest to the ball . You will cover more court this way and will be able to maintain more forward momentum into your shots which in turn allows you to step into the ball and power through. Most club players can step-out with their foot closest to the ball on the forehand side relatively easy. However, on the backhand side (the weaker side) most club players step across their body with the dominant foot (right foot if you right handed) first which often sends their momentum too much sideways and contributes to a weak foundation and an inconsistent backhand. Stepping out with the foot closest to the ball allows your hips to stay square for as long as possible before your coil. If you turn the hips too soon your momentum will be going toward the side fence and although you may pull off a shot or two, soon it will doom your chances to remain consistent.
To help the weaker side take control of your backhand, stand and balance yourself on the leg that is outside or farthest away while you lift your other foot or closest foot to the ball up. You will need a partner or ball machine to feed you balls to your backhand. So if you are righthanded and you are feeding balls on your left, you will stand and balance yourself on your right foot (outside foot). You will balance yourself over your outside foot and lift up your inside foot off the ground so you are standing on one leg. Have your partner feed a ball to the side your foot is lifted up on. As the ball is approaching you, push off with the foot on the ground and step out with the leg that is off the ground. Determine how close you need to be to the ball to execute a clean stroke.
Grip Change
Shortly after the split-step, you can see Mark executing his grip change with the help of his non-dominant hand to turn the racquet. By allowing your non-dominant hand to help with the grip change, this allows the dominant hand (hitting hand) to relax, feel the bevels, and settle on the handle when the grip is shifted correctly. The grip change happens just as Mark begins his shoulder turn for the racket take back. Changing the grip as the shoulders prepare is often something club players forget, especially during a long rally. Many times a club player will perform the split step, perform the shoulder turn and forget or at the last moment change the grip and "get caught" in the wrong grip. This often produces a ball heading for a place the player did not intend. The grip change happens once you determine the side the ball is coming to. This means it has changed before you plant your back foot for the step into your shot. You can see clearly how Mark sets his grip well before his front foot moves to step into his one-handed backhand.
You can practice your grip change in many ways. One way is to start by practicing in front of a mirror. Then try to perform your grip changes while your eyes are closed. This will help reinforce the necessary sensory information the brain needs to learn when the grip is right. Adding a step-out during your grip change practice further reinforces fluidity and automation between your step-out and the beginning of your grip change during a match. Remember, the sooner you set your grip, the more confident you will feel in making that step into the ball.
Shoulder Turn
One of the most important part of the shoulder turn is to position the front shoulder under the chin. This is the one of the best ways to measure whether you have performed a good shoulder turn during the backswing. Many times during a rally it is difficult to think about how well you turned your shoulders so developing a habit of bringing your front shoulder under your chin or touching your chin will provide you with quick feedback and consistency. In this sequence you can see how Mark sets his front shoulder under his chin as he completes his backswing. Creating a sufficient shoulder turn helps generate power in your shot.
Quiet Hitting Hand
For the most part, I encourage one-handed backhand club players to keep the hitting hand near their navel while they are turning their shoulders for the backswing. The hand should remain near your navel or at least within the width of the torso for the backswing to help reduce excessive and unnecessary hitting hand movement. This is to help improve timing, help ensure the hitting hand is lower than the ball, keep control of the racket head, and to develop smoothness in the swing forward. Although Mark does this for the majority of his backswing preparation, he does raise the hitting hand to the level of his back shoulder before going forward. This is higher than I like to see most club players perform. When you are learning the one-handed backhand it is important to keep things simple and reduce any unnecessary movements until you have had ample training. What we can learn about Mark's backswing is he is consistent with it. Whether you take your hitting hand back as high as Mark's or with just the shoulder turn and little further movement, be consistent with how you take the racket back.
Making the Smile Pattern
To gain better insight on how your hitting hand should move, you need to pay close attention to the pattern Mark creates during the backswing and forward swing. If you look closely at Mark's hitting hand you will be able to see one half of the smile pattern being created during his backswing. The other half is created during his forward swing and continuing up in the follow-through. The trough or the lowest point of the smile pattern is reached BEFORE and BELOW the contact point. This allows Mark to begin creating the other side of the smile pattern going up through the ball. This helps him impart topspin and because he uses a simple hand pattern in his stroke, this enables him to hit time his shots better and hit more consistently. Some players like James Blake and Tommy Haas make a smaller U pattern with their hand which I think should be duplicated by most club players due to their lack of time on the court to perfect the one-handed backhand.
Club players who are having trouble timing their one-handed backhand consistently should take note of any inconsistent hand patterns in their stroke. They should engrain the shape of one-handed backhand hitting hand pattern. Often you will see the hitting hand in the forward swing still going down to its lowest point when they make contact. This will cause a player to hit down on the ball sending it to the net. If you think you are having trouble in this area, your hand may be too high in the backswing which means it has to travel a long way to get below the ball before contact. Take a close look at how Mark's hitting hand works when he plants either the back foot or the front foot.
45 Degree Angle
For a one-handed backhand, the 45 degree angle plays an important role in helping you develop a consistent rotation back into the ball. Looking closely at Mark's one hander you can see how his shoulders once the backswing is complete are at a 45 degree angle to the baseline. You can also see when he rotates back into the ball that at contact his body plane rotates but only until it is at most slightly open.
By having front shoulder pointed toward the 45 degree angle, there is a much better chance that the body plane will not over rotate during the hit.
With knees bent Mark takes a commanding step into the ball. Although Mark does frquently step across his body and hits from a closed stance, his momentum is sent forward into the ball by the bracing of the front leg. Mark's back foot moves close enough to the ball to execute a forward step that is not too sideways. His forward step also lines up the toes of his front foot in line with the ball path.
The Bounce of the Ball
Another key point to note about Mark's forward swing is he is ready to go forward when the ball bounces, not after. Being ready to go forward has a lot to do with his U shaped hitting hand swing pattern. If you notice his hand goes up when he plants his back foot. When he is ready to come forward he plants his front foot. The racket has stopped on the backswing when he is ready to begin stepping forward and does not continue to loop back like most club players end up doing. When club players do too much with their backswings their consistency goes down and they have a difficult time timing the ball. Mark demonstrates that less is more when it comes to swinging the arm back before he comes forward and through the contact zone.
There are couple areas to consider in Mark's backhand as he makes contact with the ball. He maintains a fixed position with his arm and wrist through contact and into his follow-through. His arm is basically a lever that is connected to a hinge known as his shoulder joint. He also controls his rotation. This allows his racket to stay on course to hit the ball cleanly. The racket is not pulled away or sideways towards his right side which causes numerous errors. He also plants his front foot and rises as he makes contact from the front foot. The front foot holds his body position and acts as a breaking mechanism so he doesn't send his balance past his front foot causing the swing path to change.
Followthrough and Recovery
The followthrough is long and high as his non-dominant arm flies back to balance his weight distribution and to prevent over-rotation. This sideways body position with professional one-handers is a key fundamental that is developed over hours and hours of practice.
You can learn a lot from this point in his swing by carefully analyzing the little things Mark does. When players have trouble hitting cleanly, there are usually three areas that are underdeveloped. The first is their iInability to stop rotation back into the ball and/or the lack of use of the non-dominant arm as a counter mechanism to rotation. The second common problem is using too many joints to adjust the racket head and/or face during the forward swing and just prior to contact: shoulder joint, elbow joint, and wrist joint. The third probelm is the failure to hit off the front foot or makes contact prior to the front foot planting (i.e. forward swing still in the down phase). In order to discipline yourself to produce an good one-handed backhand the elements of Mark's one-handed backhand need to be incorporated and practiced. I suggest that you hit slow balls so that the brain can have a chance to develop the right signals to fire the right muscles for both controlling the racket through the swing and hitting with power.
While Mark executes a beautiful backhand and followthrough, the stroke does not end there. Good players understand that the recovery step that helps get them back into position is paramount. Here we can see Mark's back foot come around for a push off to get back into position. This is often an overlooked portion of a professional tennis player's footwork. It is essential that after you have worked hard to perfect your backswing and forward swing that you also develop your recovery step. This final step in my opinion completes the swing.
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Bungalow Bill is the nom de plume of one of the internet's best known and most prolific tennis analysts, teachers, and commentators. For the last several years, Bungalow has advised, mentored, and entertained players and coaches on the tennis message boards at TennisWarehouse.com. (Click Here to go to the free TennisWarehouse message boards.) A high level player, former USPTA pro, instructor for Vic Braden, and life long student of the game--not to mention avid recreational surfer--Bungalow Bill will also be answering your questions in the Tennisplayer.net Forum.(Click Here.) |
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