Technical Flaws in Pro
Two Handers: Jack Sock

John Yandell

Earlier this year we took a look at the technical problems on the two-handers of two elite tour pros, John Isner (Click Here) and Milos Raonic (Click Here). Now let's move on to the ultimate analytic challenge: Jack Sock.

Sock will do just about anything to avoid hitting a two-handed backhand. He runs around into the alley or wider to hit inside forehands—even if this leaves his forehand side open.

Luckily for him his forehand is huge—with as much velocity and spin or more as any of the top players. So often it doesn't matter that the court is open, since he just hits an unreturnable forehand.

When he does actually hit a backhand the huge majority are slice. Watching an entire set of one of his matches, I saw him attempt only one two-handed drive, which he missed. The rest of the balls he hit on the backhand side were inside forehands and slices.

So why does he avoid his two-hander? Is it some tactical preference? Or is it, as it appears, a lack of confidence?

Bizarre Combination

We can see the answer when we look at high speed video what is going on with his two-hand technical motion. His two hander is a bizarre combination of elements.

First, his grip shift. Unlike other top two-handers, he actually turns the racket face over in the grip shift so he makes contact with the same side of the strings as on his forehand.

Not sure that in and of itself is any problem however as he changes grips on time compared to other two handers. But what about the grips themselves?

Look at his bottom hand. He shifts it much further toward the top of the frame than most current players. His bottom hand grip is a strong eastern grip, verging on a semi-western with his index knuckle on bevel 1.

It's stronger than Roger Federer's one handed grip. It's probably closer to a player like Stan Wawrinka.

Again, unusual, but I am not sure this is some fatal problem either. Rafa Nadal has a bottom hand grip that is only slightly less strong and he has one of the best two handers there is.

Now let's look at the next element. This is the action of his top arm. His grip with the top left hand is eastern—not that different from most other two-handed pros.

But as his forward swing starts he rotates the arms and racket radically back and down until the tip points almost square with the court. It's a radical wiper action and he does it on most balls.

It's obvious in the High Seed Archives that many players also rotate the arms and racket back and down. This increases the arm rotation coming up and into the contact which increases racket head speed and spin--just as players do on the forehand.

But for most two-handers, this is a variable. It's common to see players start the forward swing with the racket shaft parallel to the court surface, or only rotated back a few degrees. For example, Novak Djokovic.

Nadal probably has the most extreme backward rotation among other top players. Sometimes his racket tip points down at the court around 60 degrees.

But Sock usually goes further. As noted he is rotating the racket tip downward approaching perpendicular to the court on virtually every two-hander he hits.

Interrelated Flaws

Again this might not be a problem, maybe even a plus if it wasn't for other factors in the forward swing. The real issue is the same twin problems as Milos Raonic. These are underlying, interrelated fatal flaws.

The first is the distance of his hands and racket from his torso when he starts the forward swing. Like Raonic, there is too much spacing. Compare him to Nadal who has one of the tightest hand positions of the great two-handers.

Both players go away from their torso in the windup. Nadal comes back in tight as the racket starts forward. Sock doesn't.

This wide hands position at the start of the forward swing leads to the critical problem at contact. Like Raonic, Sock overrotates his torso so that it is much more open at contact—approaching parallel to the baseline.

So the timing dissipates the energy in the rotation too soon. The great two-handers like Djokovic, Andy Murray or Nadal are all around 45 degrees to the net with the torso at contact.

The result of all this is that his followthrough is often radically truncated—much more than even Raonic. The bottom hand at times appears to virtually stop. This is where his bottom hand grip does become a liability.

The open torso makes it much harder to pull forward. This is a critical factor for one-handers and the reason they stay so much more sideways at contact. If Sock were more sideways he could get more forward pull from the front arm.

With the bottom hand virtually out of the picture, he is left trying to manipulate the rest of the forward with his top arm. This is what gives his two-hander such a disjointed appearance.

I got a laugh when I asked a well-known coach working with Sock--who will remain nameless—if he thought Jack might be interested in looking at his backhand in high speed video.

"Absolutely not," he said. And he was laughing too. Maybe Sock just doesn't want to know. Or maybe he has had other people hammering him on his strange grip shift. Or on his strong bottom hand grip. Or most likely on the radical, backward wiper rotation.

In fact there is an "analysis" on You Tube that says Sock's backhand problems are his grip and his wiper. It's gotten thousands of views and rave comments.

I don't see it that way. At all. In the hypothetical situation of actually working with him, I'd suggest just one change. The position of the hands in the backswing. I'd just ask him to pull them in much tighter at the top of backswing. Then I'd step back and watch and see what that did to the forward swing.

My guess is that the timing of his torso rotation would immediately improve. And so would his followthrough. Who knows maybe his strong bottom hand grip and radical wiper would then actually become positive forces and his backhand become a weapon approaching his forehand.

One Hander

With Milos and also Isner it's been suggested in the Forum that the solution for all these guys is to switch to a one-hander. In fact I caught video of Sock casually hitting a pretty decent looking one-hander in practice.

I'd agree with that suggestion—if these guys were 10 or 12 or 14—the age Pete Sampras switched from two-hands to one. But at this stage? No way that is going to happen or even be seriously considered. Way too much development time—and in the meantime the backhand side would probably get worse. Much worse.

The real take away from this series on two-hander technical flaws is about how to teach the two-hander in junior tennis. Or at any level.

It is commonly thought that the two-hander is a simple technical stroke. I don't think so. Why do we see these horrible technical problems at the top of the game? You don't see that in pro forehands or serves.

There is great pro variety in two-hander grips, backswings, and hitting arm positions—among other things. The challenge is outlining a technical range that will allow any player to develop an effective, consistent powerful two-hander.

Which leads me to what happens next. In the coming months in the Teaching Systems section, I plan to present a comprehensive analysis of the range of viable technical options and how to teach them. I'm excited about that. Stay Tuned!