Andre Vaz Pinto: Pierre’s Backhand Part II

This is some of the videos that I took two days after the first recordings :

This is a much better shot than any of the other videos that I recorded you before.

(see previous post).

I think your grip is stronger than the older videos. Although it’s not exactly clear it seems that your right hand knuckles are a bit more parallel with the handle of the racquet than on your previous videos. However I still think you can rotate your knuckles more to make your backhand grip stronger.

Notice how on these videos your racquet head was much higher and vertical than before and your contact was much more in front too. However you can still work on that!

In my view these are the main priorities to improve your backhand:

1 - Grip (already discussed see previous post)

2 - Racquet head vertical and closer to the shoulder at the end of the backswing and unit turn and holding on to that position even while stepping to the ball ( view Brett’s Backhand post):

3 - Trigger position where the racquet is horizontal and parallel to the baseline with the strings facing the back fence:

4 - Contact point much more in front of the body. How to have that early contact??

Starting with a stronger grip, and then having the racquet more vertical at the end of the unit turn and while stepping to the ball, we should just use gravity as the way to smoothly achieve some relaxed acceleration, while the racquet falls into the trigger position, following then towards the contact in front.

5 - Keeping the head and shoulders relaxed and still through contact and right after contact. The shoulders should stretch, and the hitting arm should remain fully stretched during the follow through. By keeping the left hand back to the back fence and the head still from contact point till the end of the follow through keeps the shoulders perpendicular to the net:

I leave you now with your pictures during all of these time frames of your swing for comparison:

End of the backswing: (try having your racquet more vertical with left hand directly above the right hand and maybe with the racquet closer to your left shoulder)

Trigger Position: (try having your racquet horizontal and parallel to baseline. Strings towards the back fence. Imagine that you want to hide the strings from the camera!):

Contact point in front (your contact point seems good. Much better than in your previous videos. With a stronger grip you will be able to have a contact even more in front while keeping your wrist comfortable: