Do Hitting Arms Matter?
The Two Handed Backhand

John Yandell

What about hitting arm shapes on the two-handed backhand?

In the first article in this series (Click Here) we looked at hitting arm shapes on the forehand. The new wave in technical coaching, led by coaches such as Dr. Brian Gordon and Rick Macci, advocates the straight arm forehand.

It's hard to argue against that when you look at Carlos Alcaraz, and all time greats Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. And you can find the straight arm up and down the top 100, and even on the women's side.

Sinner: Double Bend

The point of the article, however, was that Jannik Sinner has a double bend structure and has one of the very best forehands in the game. As important in that article was the point that the obsession with the straight arm in coaching, and especially in serious recreational play, obscures more important underlying fundamentals. Especially when Brian Gordon says very few players can actually hit straight arm anyway.

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John Yandell is widely acknowledged as one of the leading videographers and students of the modern game of professional tennis. His high speed filming for Advanced Tennis and Tennisplayer have provided new visual resources that have changed the way the game is studied and understood by both players and coaches. He has done personal video analysis for hundreds of high level competitive players, including Justine Henin-Hardenne, Taylor Dent and John McEnroe, among others.

In addition to his role as Editor of Tennisplayer he is the author of the critically acclaimed book Visual Tennis. The John Yandell Tennis School is located in San Francisco, California.

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