One-Handed Backhand Commonality?

[lukman41985]

I'm quoting this from the thread entitled "Love It" in the General Comments about TennisPlayer forum:

My pro tells me that Tennis One videos show that there is a point in the one-handed topspin backhand, at the start of the foreward swing, when the racket face is parallel to the back fence, and that all the players do this. I am curious as to whether this is a crucial commonality to the stroke among the top pros.

Your pro is quite perceptive and correct--the question is whether that position is a cause or an effect and what happens if you try to copy it...not sure yet what I think the answer to that is either.

Well, if you are as curious as I was about this whole issue, check out these videos below. In each video, observe the position of the right arm, the hitting arm, about 3 to 4 frames before contact--JHH, Fed, Sampras, Henman, Haas, Srichaiphan, and Rafter all have the racquet face parallel to the back fence on their neutral, center of the court, rally backhands. I wish I knew what rate these movies were playing at I could approximate how many seconds before contact each player reaches this position. But moving on, each player has their elbow bending the slightest bit, with the left hand cradling the throat of the racquet, but moving into contact, the elbow straightens. Could this be the hitting arm position for the one-handed backhand? I think so. See for yourself. Go frame by frame through each movie. Seriously. Stop each movie at that 3 to 4 frames before contact point and observe each player. What do you guys think?

[johnyandell]

Right! They all get their hitting arms straight well before contact. In fact if you look at a lot of video of Sampras you find that on many of the balls he missed, he was really late getting to this position--he's later in general that most of the others.

If you want to time things from the video, it's 30 frames/second.