Alex Mikhailov:
One-Handed Backhand

Analyzed by John Yandell

The windshield wiper motion has become a standard component in the pro forehand, as we've addressed many times. But more and more you see the wiper finish on the backhand side as well, particularly the one-hander.

You see most often it on the more extreme grip players like the animation of Gaudio here. But players with more classical grips like Roger Federer will use it as well. Why? As with the forehand, it allows them to generate more spin. By turning the racket head over faster, the increase the upward vertical brushing in the forward swing.

Which brings us to Your Strokes for this month, and a very interesting piece of video sent in all the way from Moscow by Tennisplayer subscriber Alex Mikhailov. (We have subscribers now in over 120 countries--love that.)

It's Alex's one-handed backhand with an extreme wiper action. And I mean extreme. In fact, I'm not sure I have seen as much one-handed wiper action anywhere, including the pro tour. Watch the finish actually cross over to the other side of Alex's body before he recovers to the ready position!

The question is how applicable is this type of wiper motion for Alex's game? Can it work as a basic stroke or should it be a variation? How extreme is too extreme? And if a player chooses to hit wiper backhands, what are the differences--and what should they be--compared to the more classical finishes with the racket edge more on edge?

Let's start by looking first at some other critical elements in Alex's swing. Then let's progress to his wiper followthrough and address the questions it raises.

Although it is hard to be certain from the footage, Alex appears to be using a classical eastern backhand grip, something around what we have called a "1 / 1" grip structure. This means the index knuckle and the center of the heel pad are both on the top bevel of the frame (Bevel 1). (Click Here for more info on how this grip terminology works.)

This is about the same grip as Roger Federer. So we can use Roger as a model to compare certain things about the motion, including Federer's version of the wiper.

The clip Alex sent is somewhat problematic to analyze because the video starts with the preparation partially complete. However the preparation appears to have started well with a unit turn.

He is also taking a neutral stance step forward to the ball. As he takes this step, the shoulders have turned reaching about 90 degrees to the net. So that is good as well. (For more on the key elements in one-handed preparation Click Here.)

But one point that jumps out is not the motion in the preparation, but the timing. If you look at top one handers, they almost always reach the fully turned shoulder position when the ball bounces on the court.

Alex, however, completes his turn much later. You can see that the ball has traveled probably halfway from the bounce when he reaches this position. In my experience this tends to make the timing rushed. It can also make the contact late as well as help create some of the other problems we'll address in Alex's swing.

The other point to note about his preparation is the distance between his body and his racket. He has taken the arms and racket out quite far away from his torso. You can see this by comparing the angle of the bend at the elbow. Alex's elbow is at about a 45 degree angle. Federer's, in the animation below, is closer to 90.

This doesn't necessarily create a problem and many top one handers do the same. Tommy Robredo is a good example. The position of his hand and racket is also quite high, again, higher than Federer.

This higher outside move is usually associated with only the more extreme grips, and I do believe it has the potential to create difficulties.

This is because the arm and racket have to travel further back toward the body to get to an inside position for the forward swing. This problem can be compounded when the timing of the overall preparation is already late. All top players straighten the hitting arm when the but of the racket starts to come forward. This is critical to prevent and elbow lead, and also, to make sure the player can use the shoulder to swing the hitting arm structure.

The question is, with the larger backswing move, can you reach this insifde position and get the hitting arm straight for the forward swing. If the timing is off how does this effect the body position or the path of the racket moving outward and upward through the shot?

Without a side view it's hard to be absolutely certain, but Alex seems to reach this inside postion and to get his hitting arm straight more or less on time. Similar to top players this happens at about the time the butt of the racket points forward toward the net.

But what about the position of the rest of his body? If you look at the front shoulder and compare it to Federer--or any top 1 handed backhand--you'll see that Alex's shoulder is too open to the net. This could mean his arm and racket are actually lagging slightly behind or that he is already rushing the forward swing due to the slow preparation and his larger take back motion.

In any case, this shoulder rotation is the start of a series of problems in the forward swing. The shoulders continue to rotate and are open about 45 degrees at contact. That might be ok with a super extreme grip backhand like Gaudio, but again Alex's hand appears to be on top the handle, not rotated behind.

Now we get to the rest of the forward swing and the wiper. If we watch his racket move from contact out through the followthrough, we see the body rotation continue. When the wrist reaches eye level, his shoulders are virtually parallel to the net.

The wiper is so extreme that at this point the butt of the racket is again pointing at the net. His hand and racket have actually rotated around 180 degrees--almost double the amount we see in even the fullest pro wiper actions.

Rather than traveling forward and out along the line of the shot, the forward swing is radically curved from Alex's left to his right. And we can actually see in the vide what this motion means for the actual shot. The ball may have topspin, but is also quite high and looping.

Compare all this to Roger Federer. When Federer adds wiper action to his backhand, he turns the racket tip over more, but far less than Alex. When his hand reaches eye level, the rotation is more like 90 degrees--about half of what Alex is doing.

Also note the position of his shoulders and his hitting arm. The shoulders have stayed virtually square to the net. The hitting arm has traveled outward on a much flatter arc and is pointing directly forward, compared again to Alex where the arm is pointing almost directly at the sideline.

My belief is that Alex can probably spin the hell out of his backhand, but I am not sure what exactly that gets him. Except that it makes it difficult for him to hit through the ball and penetrate the court.

Working Backward

So what should he do? My suggestion is not that he abandon the wiper, but put it on the shelf for a while. Instead he should work back entirely in the opposite direction, and experiment with a flatter drive with a more conventional take back and finish.

First this would mean start the turn with the shoulders sooner or at least making it faster and completing it at the bounce. It would also mean keeping his elbow somewhat more bent and the arm and racket in somewhat tighter to the body, and hopefully slightly lower as well.

On the forward swing the shoulders would stay more sideways, perpendicular to the net or close to it as the racket moves outward through the swing. When the racket reaches the extension point at about eye level, the shoulders would still be 90 degrees to the net, or at most rotated slightly open. At this point, the hitting arm should also be pointing directly forward to the net or possibly slightly past.

Most importantly, the racket face would be still basically on edge. We can see these points in the animation of a more basic drive hit by Federer. This is the position even the more extreme players hit on their basic drives.

Even if I am wrong and Alex's grip is more extreme than it appears in this video the finish would only be slightly different, with the shoulders opened slightly more and the hitting arm and racket traveling only slightly further around.

This flatter drive would allow him to play closer in and use his backhand as more of a weapon. Once he does this, the last.step would be to reconnect with the increased wiper action.

But even then I would recommend that he definitely reduce the total amount of the hand and arm rotation. Unless they are hitting the ball harder than the best one-hander in the world in that green Moscow bubble, copying the wiper action of Federer should produce more than enough spin.

The point to realize in my opinion, is that the wiper should be a variation. This means that the core technical components of the motion are relatively unchanged and the player can vary the arc and spin of the ball manipulating the hand and arm rotation, not having to execute a fundamentally different swing.