Pierre’s Backhand review

 Pierre, these are your Backhands first recorded on the 19th of June and then two days later the improved version of your shots. First your initial videos:

01

Your Backhand is very interesting Pierre. You have a simple swing, you have a good transfer of weight from the left foot into the right before making impact on the ball. 

05

07

After studying these three videos the most important element you can easily improve is by having a better grip. A stronger grip. The weak grip you have Pierre, affects your unit turn, Trigger position, contact point and follow through and extension.

Of course other elements you could also improve like a better rotation and early rotation but the grip is still priority number one.

Let's start from the beginning:

As the ball comes to your Backhand, You start by slightly changing your grip. You've got a week drive Backhand grip on those videos.  Have a look at some of the pro's grips:

 :

Why is the grip so important for an efficient 1 Handed Backhand? Some of the reasons:

1 - Because you can make impact more in front of the body while keeping the hitting arm fully straight. 

2 - You are better equipped to handle the higher balls at contact. The very low ones you can always slice if you so wish!

3 - You can have a more exaggerated trigger position which can allow you to accelerate through the  contact.and making it easier to generate topsipin.

4 - A stronger grip decrease the risk of wrist, elbow or even shoulder injury. The one handed backhand requires a strong grip at contact. Some players with weak grips when hitting a topspin BH may instinctively try to protect their wrists and therefore may put their elbow at risk by bending the elbow at contact. 

  

On the previous post about Brett's backhand, we saw the same grip problem. It is very common in recreational play. 

Lets see how you start your Unit Turn and backswing:

From these three pictures we can have a better idea of your swing. Sometimes pictures are even better than videos because you can have a good look at them. Your racquet has been horizontal from the start to the Trigger position. 

Looking at picture three you have a weak trigger position. Compare it with Federer: 

:

 Fed has his racquet horizontal (like yours!) but very importantly is parallel to the baseline!! That cannot be achieved with a weak grip. You cant reach this crucial position without making your grip stronger. 

 Comparing this last picture with yours Pierre, notice how we can't see Fed's strings from this angle while we can see all your strings.

 With a strong grip and with the help of his left hand still on the racquet!, the maestro is able to position the racquet head lower than the right hand just a few milliseconds before impact just before getting the racquet head level for contact and above the right hand after contact. This way he produces topspin and power.  These next four pictures is what usually coaches mean by saying that we should swing low to high. Not so easy to understand exactly what low and high means without visualising with pictures or videos:

 What about your contact point Pierre. Are you hitting the ball too late? The contact point depends on the grip, preparation and stance. Let’s see your contact points:

The interesting aspect about your pictures at contact is that it resembles the contact of a slice backhand. The slice backhand contact point is much further back than a topspin one handed backhand. It makes sense because your weaker topspin grip makes it much more comfortable to make contact a bit later or further back. 

This is how you finish your backhands. I could see the slice finish and the bent arm finish.