Interactive Forum July 2011: Bernard Tomic Backhands

[johnyandell]

Bernard Tomic has made an impression at 2 Grand Slams. People are talking about his game, and especially his backhand. So for the first time anywhere you can now check it out in high speed video--in all three stances, neutral, closed, and open. What makes it good?

Bernard Tomic Backhands

[johnyandell]

Quicktime version

Bernard Tomic Backhands

[don_budge]

What makes it so good?

What makes it so good? The camera likes it for one thing.

For another thing his backhand...“is repeatable under the vast number of possibilities and conditions that a tennis player is due to play their shots”. It's a very simple stroke without any embellishment. It appears to me that he prefers to use exceptionally good fundamental footwork with the front foot solidly on the ground in order to transfer his full weight into the shot...without all of the exaggerated twisting and leaping into the ball. I really like that! In his "get in position" position he creates three lines...with his feet, his shoulders and his racquet. When he hits in an open stance...he creates two lines with his body and his racquet. He's textbook...just like I teach it, I have nothing to add. Nice flow...beautiful timing! GMann...you're right, you can't teach that. Nice simple backswing...eh Stotty?

I get the impression that he is "swinging" a left hand forehand, only with his right hand still on the racquet. Is his right hand relatively "passive" throughout the swing? Speaking of evolution, will the second hand be found to be unnecessary on the racquet like some speculate about the little toe, will it merely fall off one day? Will a player emerge with two forehands?

I thought the kid had Djokovic on the ropes at Wimbledon. He is impressive and for some reason it feels good to have an Aussie in the mix...even though it isn't the good old classic serve and volley Aussie tennis which of course nobody plays anymore. Maybe it's the accent. Maybe Tomic will break up the little monopoly that the top four have going on...although it looks as if he may merely be inheriting Roger's spot. He's so young and hungry...I have to believe that he won't be happy with just that, he wants it all. The heart, the soul...complete control.

John...it may be an idea to post both the player's forehand and backhand at the same time in these threads...side by side, facing each other, if possible. What the heck...throw in the serve as well. The title of the thread could be “The Bernard Tomic Game...2011”. You could kill several birds with one stone and I think there is a lot of information to be gleaned from seeing the whole enchilada at once. Perhaps instead of examining one aspect of a player’s game just from a technique point of view we could also begin to analyze some of the players tactical objectives as well...judging from their relative strengths and weakness of their whole game. A bigger picture...video is the biggest breakthrough in teaching tennis and golf...can we improve upon the learning process with this tool even more?

Would it be a better angle if the camera were a bit more to the right?



[johnyandell]

All camera angles show something! A lot depends on where we can position at given events--that's limited by many factors. Eventually we will have more of his whole game in the Archives--and more angles. Think more than one stroke at a time would be an overload here. There is certainly a lot to discuss just on his backhand.

[westcoast777]

Double-bent hitting arm structure like Djokovic. In the men's game, where the backswing stays on the hitting side of the body, what are the differences between straight-bent and bent-bent?