Backhands,backhands,backhands

This week is all about backhands. I'll analyze Nathan's one handed backhanded, Richard's double handed backhand, and my double handed backhand.

My double-handed backhand

This is my double handed backhand, my new baby. Maybe you have already see me hitting it on court every now and again.
I've always admired the way Agassi used to hit his backhands. Very natural with a very compact swing. When I go on court I hit my double handed much better after watching some videos of Agassi. Yes, the visual channel is that powerful.
Looking at my swing, I start my preparation with a Unit turn. It looks that I am going to hit a one handed since my left hand takes a bit of time to drop close to the right hand. My hands move back at the same height throughout the swing, the same as Brenton (another extremely important aspect).At the end of the backswing my racket is far away from body, much more than on my one handed. Then as the racket comes down it opens a bit and comes down a bit below the ball with just a small drop. I seem to hit the ball flat with both arms stretched at contact just like Agassi and Nadal.

I am not sure where to improve first but I have been trying to make my swing shorter an more compact. Agassi is the model.
I'll be back with a better swing.
What do you think about it?

Richard's Backhand

Richard is on a mission to improve his backhand. He is trying to change his arms configuration at contact. Richard wants to have a stretched left arm like the majority of the pros (and maybe even stretched right arm at contact).

We've been discussing it for a while and it is not easy to find a clear path to follow. Should we change the stroke or should we just try to improve what we have? I think that Richard will change his backhand because he has a clear picture of what he wants his backhand to be like. There is one junior player at our club, his name is Lasse and he has a great backhand. He keeps his left arm straight and possibly even his right arm at contact. Richard is focused and obsessed with his backhand so I think he should change. I'll ask Lasse to record his backhand and to post it on the blog, how does that sound Richard?

Last time we've been on court Richard was a bit disappointed because he thought that he was hitting with the left arm stretched. When we looked at the video later it was clear that he still wasn't. Richard thought that maybe he couldn't change it and I begun to have some doubts as well.
However looking at the new videos and comparing it with the videos that I took of him two months ago there are a few differences and the shot seems much better. And that has led me to believe that Richard is in fact on the right track and he just needs a bit more time.

What to change now:

On most of the shots that Richard steps with a neutral stance he brings his right foot perpendicular to the net. I've pointed out to him long time ago but he still hasn't change that. Maybe he hasn't change that because he still doesn't believe it affects him too much. The big problem appart from injury of course, is that stepping in with the foot like that forces Richard to rotate too early his shoulders and hips. The backhand down the line is out of the question with the foot like that, and even when he goes crosscourt he is loosing a lot of power and control.

What has changed:

By trying to hit with a straight left arm, Richard has improved his extension and followthrough and his swing looks more compact. Richard is finding the hitting arm position with less loop of his hands and that I think it is a good improvement, just feels more compact.

20/05/10


20/05/10


20/05/10


20/05/10


20/05/10


20/05/10


We can see clearly how much Richard has improved his backhand in the last year. Check the followthrough for example on the next three footage.
First after he hits it, he is looking at the ball over his left fore arm.
08/02/09


Much more extension after contact:
05/03/10


More extension, check the followthrough.
20/05/10

Nathan's Backhand

Nathan is on a mission to improve his backhand. In just a few weeks I've witnessed a great improvement, far greater than what I had anticipated. Nathan used to pull back his racket independently from the shoulder turn (very poor unit turn) and his swing looked very big and clumsy. In these next videos, Nathan has already changed his preparation. He now starts it with a unit turn keeping his racket very close to the right shoulder and that his helping him to have a more compact swing.
Looking at the videos we can see clearly where to improve next on Nathan's backhand:

Grip: Nathan's grip is not strong enough, it is very close to a continental grip. In fact the grip Nathan is using would be very suitable for a sliced backhand and that explains as well why the racket is kept open for a big part of the swing. Having a week grip is one of the main factors responsible for not extending the hitting arm after contact during the followthrough and that is what happens to Nathan's backhand. If you freeze the cursor a few frames after contact you'll see that the arm is bended.

Release of the right hand: One of the most important elements (and very often neglected) to hit a compact backhand is to make sure that the non hitting hand doesn't release the racket too early. All the pros release the other hand from the racket on the lowest point of the backswing, very close to their back pocket or hip, when the racket is pretty much horizontal and is almost parallel to the baseline. Although the front angle view on Nathan's backhand videos is not the best to see exactly when Nathan releases his right hand it is easy to guess that his right hand does in fact go out to soon because the racket does not reach a parallel position on the lowest point of the backswing. That's why Nathan is hitting the ball with backspin (slice)and not topspin.
I've been on court with Nathan after the videos, and it seemed to me that Nathan already improved this particular element of his swing.

Keeping the head still during contact and the extension and stretching the shoulders and keeping the opposite arm back after contact and during the extension and followthrough are very important aspects to master the one handed backhand.

Footwork, weight transfer: While observing the videos it seems that Nathan can improve his swing if he can stay lower while moving into the ball, if he can do a bigger last step so he can become more balanced and transfer more power into the ball. Of course to do that he needs time and a good split step and a better athletic foundation (stance lower and wider) would help him greatly.
Another point that is extremely important not just to Nathan but to any player is the ability to hit the ball with open stance. That will allow Nathan to improve his preparation because he will start to rotate his upper body and shoulders before bringing his right foot across.

As I am writing this analysis I am conscious that Nathan has already fixed some of his technical issues and I am sure that in the coming weeks you will be able to witness Nathan rock and rolling his backhand. Watch out!

12/05/10


12/05/10


12/05/10

Brenton Bacon

Thanks Brenton, for sharing your high speed videos with all of us in my blog. Brenton plays state league for Sorrento and he's the number two in the team.

In the next couple of days I'll be analyzing Brenton's technique. I'll start with the Backhand, then Forehand and serve.

Brenton's Serve

The serve, although more complex, is the easiest shot to analyze because there is no footwork involved and so there is less variety with one's technique.

When I first saw Brenton's serves on video I was very surprised to find so many imperfect elements on his swing, especially after being on court with him. Trying to return his serves is not an easy task.

07/05/10 (foot fault!)


07/05/10

I'll start my analysis on these aspects: toss, stance, trophy position, leg drive and contact.

Toss: The first I saw from Brenton's serve was that the toss wasn't curved. It was straight vertical. You can see it from the front angle video. All the pros toss the ball with an arc that goes from the right to the left or left to the right if you're left handed. Maybe it Could be that Brenton was still warming up his serves, or it was just a fluke after all the trajectory of the toss can only be seen from the front angle and I have only two serves. I have a feeling that it was not a fluke, and it makes since specially with the stance that Brenton uses .

Stance :

Brenton serves with an extreme lateral pimpoint. He brings his back foot not only to the side but it is even in front of the front foot. It seems that Brenton is reaching out towards the toss. Players who use the lateral pinpoint such as Ivanisevic, Rafter and Safin, plant the back foot on the side but behind the front foot.

Trophy position, leg drive, contact:

To execute a good serve you need to make sure you have a trophy position. The trophy position consists in having the tossing arm up, the racket tip pointing up, the elbow in a sort of an "L shape", and the knees at the maximum bend, and the shoulders and torso rotated. Players reach the trophy position when the ball is pretty much at the highest point of the toss.
At the first sight it seems that Brenton has nothing wrong with his trophy position, but I think that is not quite so, and it would be impossible to find it with a normal video or with the naked eye. When the left arm and racket comes up into the "L shape" the tossing arm is already dropping and his knees have started to extend a little bit earlier. In fact the knees extend before Brenton has reached the maximum drop of his racket. The consequence is that when the knees explode the racket still has a long way to go till the contact is made. When Brenton makes contact his knees are bended and that means Brenton has lost already some leg drive on contact.

07/05/10


How to improve:

I think the first thing Brenton should change is his toss. A toss with an arc and more towards the head or his right side (he's left handed). He should still keep the ball in front of his head at contact just like he is doing.
Changing the toss would make it easier to make sure that his back foot doesn't come in front of his front foot. I think there seems to be an advantage with the normal pinpoint stance where the back foot is located just behind the front foot. He could even try the platform stance for his serve, where the back foot doesn't come forward.
Next, Brenton gotta make sure that his racket come up a bit earlier till he reaches the power position. That would probably make sure that the knees explode just a bit before the contact is made.

07/05/10


I have little doubts that Brenton can improve his serve a lot, and I'm sure he will. I reckon that if he is serving over 180 km/h with little leg drive, means the 200 km/h mark is more than accessible. Good luck Brenton and keep blasting those balls!

07/05/10

Brenton's Forehand

Brenton's Forehand. Brenton starts his preparation with a unit turn. As his shoulders start to rotate, the left hand starts going up till about shoulder height with the racket head only a lit bit higher. Then the hand and racket starts to drop with the strings facing the ground on an angle. From that point, Brenton starts preparing his hitting arm position and then he makes contact in front of his body with the arm stretched.
Brenton, like Nadal, Verdasco, Philippoussis, Schrichapan among other players, hits his forehand with a stretched arm technique at contact. This technique allow players to hit more in front and with more powerful rotations. Normally their shoulders rotate 180 degrees or more, where the back shoulder normally finishes pointing to the net. At contact players have their shoulder parallel to the net and after contact and during their followthrough they rotate another 90 degrees. In Brenton's case that doesn't happen. Brenton contacts the ball with the shoulders parallel to the net but after contact his back shoulder doesn't rotate forward. He muscles the shot with his left fore arm without support of his shoulders.

The question we have to ask is why doesn't Brenton rotate his shoulders more. I think the reason is because his knees extended too early before contact and so he is unable to use enough leg drive into his forehand. In other words when the knees are ready to explode his racket swing still seems a bit late, and when the racket finally catches up some power from the legs are lost because the knees extended too early.

So are the knees extended too early or is the racket swing late? I think his swing is late because it is too big.
After watching Brenton's videos over and over again and comparing it with the pros I noticed that Brenton's forehand swing seems too big because he drops his left hand from shoulder height, to waist height before going up again to contact. If Brenton can keep his left hand and racket higher for longer without dropping as much before accelerating towards the contact, his entire swing would be much more compact and therefore his knees would probably extend at a better timing and he would be able to rotate the shoulders more after contact.

Another important aspect of Brenton's forehand that is related with the previous one is that when the right hand leaves the racket after the unit turn, the arm is kept in a semi extended position and drops as well (with the left hand). I believe if Brenton can extend his right arm out more and keep it from dropping until his got a maximum bend of the knees (power position), that would as well contribute to make his forehand more compact.

Anyway this is just my perspective and although I've been spending some time analyzing Brenton's forehand, there is still a lot to see and to find. That is the magic of the high speed video, if you keep looking at it and comparing it with the pros you might get every now and again a great insight. The data is there for us to find the answers. On court we gotta go through the effort and try to change, but that is where the fun is...

When I was rallying with Brenton I felt the weight of his ball, heavy topspin. I think that if Brenton can hit the ball so well with his technique now, it is scary to think how his technique might turn out if he improves his already powerful forehand.









On this shot Brenton steps in with the right foot (neutral stance). Notice how the front foot is pointing directly to the net to help out the rotation. The right foot should have been in a angle and not pointing directly to the net since it would be very hard for Brenton to hit it down the line. This low and short balls are tougher for all the players who hit with a stretched arm technique.
07/05/10



As a curiosity we can see Brenton's racket through the strings, just after the unit turn.
Keep an eye on Brenton's left hand throughout the swing. It goes up to shoulder height, drops till waist and then goes up again till contact. I think Brenton can improve if he can make it more impact.
07/05/10



07/05/10



07/05/10




Watch how Brenton starts his preparation with a simple turn of the shoulders. Great unit turn!
07/05/10



07/05/10



07/05/10



07/05/10

Brenton's Backhand

Brenton has a very compact backhand. He is a great model for everyone willing to improve their double handed backhand. Brenton starts his preparation with a Unit Turn. As Brenton turns his shoulders the racket moves back and both hands stay at the same height throughout the backswing. These are two of the most important aspects for anybody who wish to master the double handed backhand, (Unit turn and hands moving back at the same height)and Brenton does it greatly. As soon as the ball bounces, Brenton has a full turn and he is ready to start the forward swing. His racket head is vertical and his right elbow is very close to the body. As soon as he starts his forward swing the racket head starts to drop. Brenton has a very small drop of the racket head when he establishes the hitting arm position, (just like Safin).
On contact Brenton seems to have a flex flex configuration of his arms. That is just one of the four different ways that players may have their arms at contact. Players like Juan Carlos Ferrero, Dementieva and Safin hit as well with a flex flex variation. After contact, Brenton's racket follows the line of the shot for a few frames before going outward and up.

Where to improve?

I believe no matter how good we are that we can always improve, no matter at what and tennis is no exception.
After looking with some detail at Brenton's backhand and after comparing it with lots of pros, the first thing that pops out is Brenton's extension and followthrough. I think Brenton can improve his extension that is, having the racket following the line of the shot for more time or more frames after contact. When I look at Nadal's footage and other pros I can see that on their followthrough the right shoulder finishes up at the chin and their extension seems to be longer. However it is hard to be sure about it and at the end my analysis just represent my interpretation of the videos. It would be great to know from Brenton what he thinks about his backhand, to know when it works well and when it doesn't, and sort of contact height he prefers.
There is one aspect of Brenton's backhand that almost escaped my analysis. Its a much more clear aspect than Brenton's extension. The answer remains in Brenton's feet. Brenton hits the ball normally with a neutral stance where his left foot steps in (45 degrees to the net). After making contact and just after they reach full extension, normally players pivot with the left foot until it points to the net or even to the line of the shot, bringing as well the right leg out, before recovering back to the center of the court. I've noticed that Brenton seems to hold the left foot down for too long after his full extension, and by doing so he doesn't allow his right leg (and hip) to come forward. For that reason on the high contact balls, Brenton seems to be a bit unbalanced with his weight going backwards. The pros on the high contact balls, just after contact they stretch the front knee, pivot the front foot and bring the back leg to the side and they are are ready to recover to the center.


Check the hands going back together as the shoulder turns!
On this backhand the front foot is pointing to the net, and the reason may be because Brenton was forcing a backhand for the video. I think in a real situation he would have moved differently.

07/05/10


07/05/10


07/05/10




Great unit turn!
Brenton seems unbalanced on this high contact ball. Notice how the front foot didn't pivot after contact, and the back leg didn't came across.

07/05/10



If you freeze the video after the split step when the feet land in the court you can see a big wide stance. Feet are much wider than shoulders. That's a great athletic foundation.
Another high contact ball. Brenton again is a bit unbalanced. The front foot doesn't pivot and the back leg comes across, but it seems a bit late.

07/05/10


07/05/10


07/05/10

Richard's Secret

I think Richard is probably the player who has improved the most in the last year from all of my students. I used to beat him very comfortable, but now I have to be at my best. I think I still may have an edge due to my serve and return, but I'm aware that it may not last for long. When we rally from the baseline he is probably stronger.
So the question we must ask is, Why did Richard improve so fast?

Here is what I think is Richard's secret:

1. Richard is responsible for his learning.
2. Richard is a believer of visual learning.
3. Richard practices constantly.

Richard is responsible for his learning. This is one the most important secrets for all of us who wish to become masters of any skill. Its great to have a teacher and someone to guide us, but at the end we are the ones responsible for learning. that's why Richard become a member of tennisplayer.net, he is always curios about someone else shots, he sees a lot of videos from the pros, etc.
So many times I have students that come for a lesson and they are waiting passively for a miracle. They believe that their learning depends only on the coach's knowledge. They are dependent and feel no responsibility from their learning. In this case learning is minimum until the student realizes that his reality is unique and it is He (with the teacher's help) who must find a way to learn.

"when the student is ready, the teacher will appear"

Richard is a believer of visual learning.

Visual learning has the power to accelerate the improvement of your skills beyond your greatest expectations. Seeing yourself hitting a forehand or a serve will give you a great awareness of what you do. It will create an internal visual image that you can bring back and recreate in the moment of execution. Every time I hit a topspin backhand I visualize Federer's Backhand and easily imagine my own backhand since I've seen myself on video. And that helps me to have a great awareness of my own swing and helps me every day on improving the swing.
We just have to follow the great masters of learning, babies and little kids. They learn by observing. Kids have no fears because they don't judge. They observe without judging. We adults do it all wrong, we become paralyzed by our fears because we judge without observing.
Richard is always keen to see his videos. Who hasn't seen Richard swinging in front of the club house to see his own reflection in the window?

Richard is constantly practicing.
'Repetition is the chariot of genius'. I first heard that expression from Tom Veneziano (www.tenniswarrior.com)and I really like it. Richard practices a lot on the ball machine. The ball machine is such a great tool. Unfortunately not so many players use it. You can hit 300 or 400 forehands in an hour and as long as you stay reasonably focused it can do so much for your game. While using the ball machine you can afford missing some shots in order to observe better what you are doing with your swing. You have time to think and you can take more risks and perhaps try out new ways of swinging that you wouldn't if you were playing with your friends.

I think that for us to improve faster at any skill, first of all we have to learn how to learn. A child learns to walk, run or riding a bike without any coaching. He can learn a new language in two months without any instruction. All of that he learns by observation and practice.

Thanks Richard

Thanks Richard for sharing your tennis videos with us. I'm sure that your footage will help many players improve their game.

Richard's 2009 Forehands

This was Richard's forehand when I first recorded him even before I started coaching him. From the start his Unit Turn wasn't as good as it should be. The Unit Turn is one of the most important concepts for a player to develop a solid and compact technique. The Unit turn is the first part of the preparation. It starts with the turn of the shoulders with no independent movement of the racket, hand or arm. As you can see on the first forehand, Richard moves his racket first and the shoulder turn comes after. The last three, four years since I've been using this great concept in my coaching,(thanks to John Yandell and his site tennisplayer.net) I've been looking at it with deeper eyes and normally I can detect an imperfect unit turn On most of my students straight away. Sometimes though I need the assistance of the high speed camera to be sure and for the student to see it.
As a result of an imperfect unit turn, the shoulders that start to turn a bit late in the swing, don't turn as much as they could. On his full turn, Richard has his shoulders perpendicular to the net and you can't see his back. If you compare it with my forehand (see Forehand 3) you can see that my shoulders turn more than perpendicular to the net and you can see part of my back.
There is so much more about his forehand, but let us see the new way that Richard found to hit his forehand a year later


08/02/09




08/02/09 (500 fps)



20/11/09

Richard's new Forehands - Open Stance

This is the new forehand. It looks very different than before. I think his footwork is much better and its allowing Richard to be in a better position more often. I can feel the power and consistency on Richard's forehand when we are rallying, much more than I used too. Perhaps the biggest difference on his swing now is that on the forward swing, Richard keeps his racket on edge (flat) while accelerating to contact and I think that is a major improvement and is allowing him to hit the ball with much more power and depth. On the previous videos we can see how the racket on the begginning of the forward swing goes with the strings faced down.
But still there is so much more to improve on his forehand. His Unit turn is much better than before but still not perfect. His racket is moving a bit earlier than his shoulder turn.
On his new forehand Richard brings his racket very high (maybe too high) a bit like Hewitt's forehand although Lleyton keeps his racket more horizontal. On the full turn players normally reach what I call the power position that happens roughly at the same time that the ball bounces and at the last step with the right foot on an open stance forehand. From that point players are fully turned, have the left arm stretched across, with maximum bend of the knees, and are ready to start the forward swing. On Richard's forehand, if we freeze the video at the time that the ball bounces, he has his left arm stretched, he seems to be at his full turn (that could still be better), but he still hasn't landed his last step with his right foot so he lacks ground force (knee bend) and the timing of the rotation on his forward swing is not great. So when he steps with his right foot the left arm is gone and the shoulders have turned already and so there was a loss of power. Maybe as a consequence of all that his extension after hitting the ball is short. Notice how his elbow finishes sometimes too close to the body.
I've pointed out different aspects on Richard's forehand technique. One thing is to have a good forehand and other thing is to turn it into a weapon. I have no doubt that Richard will continue to improve his forehands, and I can't wait to record him in six months time to see the difference.

28/04/10 (Rally with Andre)




28/04/10 (Rally with Andre)




The next two videos were recorded while using the ball machine. On these two forehands, Richard seems to have a better swing. Although we can't see the ball bounce, we can guess that when that happens his power position is much better than on the previous two shots and he has more extension after contact. Was the difference of this two swings from the previous a result of a conscious change of his technique or was it because the ball machine gave him more time to prepare his swing? In fact he is hitting the ball from further back in the court. In that case part of the answer comes down to footwork.

28/04/10 (Ball machine)





28/04/10 (Ball machine)

Richard's New Forehand - Neutral Stance

When using the neutral stance Richard just before hitting the ball his last step with the left foot is too short. He needs a big step so he can get lower and more balanced to transfer his body weight forward. His extension seems short, again his right elbow finishes to close to the body. So his footwork was not good enough for that shot. When the ball is not quick enough, Richard can step in really nice to the ball, but he needs to improve his footwork to allow him to use the neutral stance on faster balls.

28/04/10 (rally with Andre)



28/04/10 (rally with Andre)