Your Strokes:
Ryan Dickerson Backhand

Analyzed by John Yandell

Last month we looked at American junior Ryan Dickerson's forehand and found that it was a great technical model for the advanced modern forehand, and that he and his dad had built it in part using Tennisplayer footage (Click Here). This month we look at his two-handed backhand and it's a similar story.

This is a high level technical shot with many pro elements. Some elements, such as the stance, probably apply only to higher level players. But all two-handers can learn a lot from Ryan.

But I also have an important point for Ryan that will probably make the shot better and also more effective at higher levels. So let's take a look at it and break it down into its components.

Preparation

Ryan starts his backhand with an amazing, gigantic shoulder turn. Watch that this turning with his body is also what initiates the racket preparation.

The shoulders and hips start to turn. The racket starts back as a function of this unitary body motion. There is very little independent arm movement with the hands and racket basically staying in front of his chest.

Watch how this shoulder turn continues past perpendicular to the net. That just looks powerful doesn't it?

Also note the timing of the turn. As we have seen so many times with so many technically superior players, the shoulder turn is completed around the time of the bounce on the court.

This is a huge lesson for club players. The turn needs to be complete around the bounce. I've said it before and it's still a near universal problem. But one that is easily corrected at all levels.

Now let's look at the backswing. The one corrective comment on Ryan's forehand was that his backswing could have been somewhat more compact and to the outside as in the ATP model developed by Brian Gordon and Rick Macci. (Click Here.)

That's even more true on his backhand. Watch how Ryan's arms straighten and his hands and racket go back behind his body with the racket angled sharply toward the side fence.

ATP Backswing

Compare that to Novak Djokovic who Brian and Rick use as a model. Novak's arms are more relaxed and also slightly more bent. The backswing goes back and slightly to the outside. The racket face closes slightly toward the court.

From this position, Novak initiates the forward swing with the pull of the bottom right hand. As the racket "flips" and both the arm and racket stay on his left side.

Compare that to Ryan. His racket flips as well, but it takes him around 1/10th of a second to get from his backswing position to the position where Novak initiates the forward swing.

Is that significant? Yes, when in pro tennis the time between hits is around a second, 1/10th of a second can be huge.

But there are two added advantages to the outside backswing Brian Gordon has demonstrated. The first is the path of the swing. From the outside position the movement of the racket is more directly forward into ball. it is still curved, but the curve is flatter, so in effect the swing is more linear.

The second advantage is that the outside backswing "turbo charges" the shoulder muscles as Brian describes it. It creates a stretch shorten cycle.

This means the relevant muscles are stretched in the opposite direction just before they contract in the forward swing. The result is a motion that is more compact, takes less time to execute, and is more powerful.

Not that there is necessarily anything "wrong" with Ryan's current backswing. But it's closer to the model of the swing's on the women's tour. As he plays at higher levels, compacting this aspect of his motion could make a difference in both power and time.

Contact, Extension, Wrap

Be all that as it may, Ryan still has a great early contact point. Note that unlike his backswing, he does have the ATP men's hitting arm structure, with the front arm bent at the elbow and the rear arm straight at contact.

Look--especially with his long arms--how far that puts his contact in front of his body. It's about a foot in front of his front leg. And note the rotation pattern of his torso in the forward swing is also great--about 45 degrees to the baseline. This is in accordance with the pro model.

This early contact is related to another fabulous element in his swing. The extension of the forward swing. Watch how far his racket comes outward toward the other side of the net.

The spacing between his hands and torso must be two feet or more. That's fantastic. Then from this extended position, the backwards wrap and the deceleration phase naturally follow.

Remember, extension causes racket head speed. Then racket head speed causes the wrap. Not the other way around. The wrap is how the racket slows down.

But some coaches think it's the opposite and stress having players wrap. This forced, mechanical wrap reduces extension and creates unnecessary tension.

Sometimes with stroke movements that last fractions of a second it's hard to separate cause and effect, but the relationship between acceleration and deceleration can be a critical difference. Ryan has that part down.

Stance

And finally, what about that stance? It was interesting that top eastern junior coach, Kevin Patrick sent in this footage of Ryan shortly after our articles on the surprising backhand stance choices in high level tennis.

Our studies show conclusively that the top players prefer closed stance on the backhand. The wide stance allows for more turn in the preparation and then more hip and shoulder rotation in the forward swing. (Click Here.)

Ryan has this advanced stance variation and you can see the benefits of it in his motion. Which brings me to one of my favorite questions.

What technical elements should which players at which levels copy from the pros? This is a point that is often misunderstood when people read our work using high speed video to analyze the world's best players.

We want to understand pro tennis on its own terms for its own sake. We want to see fundamentals that apply to all levels. But we also want to see what elements are variations due to circumstance or level of ability.

This I think is the case with the closed stance backhand--it's an elite element that isn't necessary to have a great backhand at all levels.

We also see the pros hit plenty of square or neutral stance backhands with great results. And this simpler stance is the place to start for the majority of players. When you have the other elements in place like Ryan or better yet Novak, then it's time to experiment with something like the extreme closed stance.

In any case, it's great to see a young player with high quality swing shapes influenced at least in part by Tennisplayer. Maybe if Ryan has a positive experience compacting that backswing Kevin will send us some new footage. Stay tuned!