James De Klerk's backhands - 21/7/11

BEFORE VIDEO AWARENESS:


From the start I knew James had some important aspects to improve on his backhand. The video helps us both to know exactly what he needs to change.

From watching the footage I noticed two major aspects in Jame's backhands:

The first is an inefficient full turn and the second is an excessive loop of the hands during the unit turn and full turn. I won't over analyze it because James is already changing his backhand. It should take him a few more weeks of practice to incorporate a few major changes...



The elements to imrove: Inefficient shoulder turn on the power position due to too much independently use of the hands and arms during the full turn on the preparation.



This last video is the type of shot that James will avoid with a better preparation. Why was James so terribly late for that one? He was late because he took his racquet back independently from his shoulder turn. Notice how the maximum shoulder turn was just a little bit more than 90 degrees to the net. Notice as well how the speed of the racquet head as the racquet goes back is probably twice as fast as the shoulder turn. Racquet head at shoulder speed is what we all want...


AFTER VIDEO AWARENESS:


Lots of changes in just a few minutes of awareness:
Racquet head higher and closer to the body on the ready position.
Much greater shoulder turn and less looping action of the hands on the preparation.
These videos show a much more compact backhand and James is already on the right track. I am very interested to see James's backhands in a couple of months...