Interactive Forum July 2016: Kei Nishikori Backhand

[johnyandell]

Kei Nishikori Backhand

Kei is number 6 in the world and his backhand is one of the reasons. Very very solid! So here it is in a few variations. Check out the backward rotation of the racket tip. What do you make of it? He has a classic bent straight hitting arm configuration like most men pros. But notice the unusual spacing between his hands on the grip. What do you make of that one? Important? Irrelevant?

AND for some close shots of that grip spacing—and a couple of other examples, one with more and one with less---check out Tour Portraits this month!

[johnyandell]

Quicktime version

Kei Nishikori Backhand

[klacr]

Cool shots. Nishikori is known to have one of the best two handed backhands on tour. I'd put him at #3 behind Djokovic and Murray. Benoit Paire is up there as well.

I like Nishikori's deep turn with the shoulder. A key fundamental and one that often gets forgotten about as the swing and contact point end up taking the spotlight.

The grip spacing is interesting on Nishikori. I'm not really sure if one is better than the other, it comes down to personal preference. Ferrer is a player that spaces his hands out quite a bit on the grip, to the point where his left hand is close to the throat of the racquet and that backhand is rock solid. Interested to hear other voices on hear give their opinions on this spacing and Nishikori's preference. I find that most of my students grip their backhands with what looks to be too close, some of them nearly overlapping, similar to a golf grip. I show them other options and they tend to gravitate towards those and their feedback is usually positive.

Back to Nishikori, he's got some great extension with that left arm after contact. Even in slow motion, the racquet head speed looks fast. His hands and racquet head remain calm, not a lot of superfluous movement. Makes it look easy. Good model. Now if only he could remain healthy.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

I don't get it. What's unusual about the spacing of the hands? They look fine to me, nothing like Malisse or Ferrer.

I love his backhand. I think it's the cleanest and best two-hander on the tour. He has slightly more pop even than Djokovic. I have seen him get the better of Djokovic in backhand to backhand exchanges.

His backhand is damn near perfect as you will get.

[johnyandell]

Stotty,
Take a look in tour portraits (Click Here). It's more spacing but whether that is good bad or irrelevant is the question...

[stotty]

Stotty,
Take a look in tour portraits (Click Here). It's more spacing but whether that is good bad or irrelevant is the question...

The portraits show Nishikori's hands wider than they seem in the video. One of the portraits has the hands very much apart. I wonder if that was a shot hit in an emergency rather than his standard grip structure?

Does it matter?

A few years ago I would have said yes because I thought it made the left arm do too much and that a little of the "whip" gets lost.

Now I think differently and think I was wrong, wrong because there are a number of successful examples of tour players who have done well with their hands far more spaced than Nishikori; namely Mallise and Ferrer. It could be that having the non-hitting hand higher helps brace the racket head for the big incoming shots....it may be an asset in some ways. I certainly wouldn't teach spaced hands from the outset, but at the same time if someone walked into my stable with a backhand like Nishikori's, I would be mindful to leave it.

This website has changed and influenced my thinking with things like this. I am much more open minded about technique than I once was. At the same time i am much more clear about what isn't right.

[johnyandell]

I think the first one might be a return? But yes your point is totally in sync with my whole deal with Tennisplayer.