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How to hit a powerful one handed topspin backhand: by geoff willilams!

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  • How to hit a powerful one handed topspin backhand: by geoff willilams!

    I have one of the best back hands in the bay area, for one handers. I can hit the back hand flat, at about 100 mph, or slice it low, or kick it high, or drop shot it short. That's the best thing about the one hander vs. the two hander: variety. The reason most pros hit the two hander is: not enough strength as a junior, on the deltoids, to be able to return well with one hand, and hit powerful ground strokes, off the one hander, quickly enough in their progress, to win matches at the highest level.

    How to hit the flat one hander:

    The one hander has to close off his hips, and not leave them open. That's due to the lack of the left hand forehand effect, that the two handers create, with the other shoulder in use during the shot. The one hander has only his right shoulder to effect powerful shot speed, and must coil very early, by closing off the hips, in parallel with the doubles alleys!

    This allows a full coil, and the most voltage/pressure available for flat shots. The non dominant hand, must create the unit turn, very early, by the time the ball bounces, or it will be too late, to coil fully, and you may be over powered, by even a slower ball, if the unit turn has not been made before the ball is on you! The chin is on the deltoid, using the deltoid as a gun sight, when in full coil, before the shot is released.

    We all have a tendency sometimes, to allow the slower pace of the incoming shot to slow our feet down, and slow our body clock/turn down, rather than use a full fast footed attack! The shot must be attacked with the feet as well as the arm/shoulder rotation, to gain the full mph. The torso, must be twisted fully, and coiled fully, before unleashing the shot, but it is a constantly flowing, moving freely, effect.... The shot never pauses or stops moving, in the flat shot.



    The shot contact point, must be a full shoulder width out in front, to achieve full potential speed, otherwise, we give up kinetic potential, and don't reach full mph or mass. The shot is best hit arm barred, with a locked wrist, so that the elbow and the wrist cannot be moved back any further, and the elbow is not bent at contact point, after, and during the contact with the ball. To achieve max. potential coil, the shot should also be inverted, before take back, like a batter at the plate, inverts his bat while waiting for the pitch to arrive, and pronated, after the shot contact point, to achieve max follow through mph. Pronated, meaning, the forearm turns over, so that it faces the sky, after contact, and follow through is completed!

    A common mistake made, even by Fed, is raising the hitting foot heel up in the air, during and after contact. This raises the head up, and "loosens" the shot, rather than grounding it. The plant foot, has to be fully loaded up, and knees bent, and the legs used fully, by attacking the shot with the feet and "unloading" of the knees forward and into the shot pathway. The longer contact of the flat shot, will add mph. A full back swing load, with the non dom. arm coiling the stick, will produce the best/max. voltage on the shot. The swing is very freely produced, with a loose stick hand, which retains the hitting structure, during the whole shot, so that the wrist cannot move backwards during the shot, and the wrist stays locked back, even during follow through/pronation. The hips open up early, and the shot is "dragged", like throwing a frisbee, or a back handed karate chop! It's like a skier, skiing moguls, and not using his hips to turn,but using his knees to turn with. The knees turn out first, the hip follows, and the rest of the shot is dragged behind, with the shoulder at full lock down, from the deltoid.

    The same coil can be used for powerful kicking topspin back hands, but the swing path is different. Instead of straight through flat pathway, the path is low to high, turning the voltage into spin, rather than pure mph!

    The driven slice is a whole different shot, as is the drop shot. The slice is hit with a different grip entirely, a continental grip, rather than a western grip. The swing path is high to low, with the coil wrapped around your neck up high to the rear, and swing path is "cut" powerfully downward, and follow through ends up out front, not wrapped ala wiper blade shot, and beneath your wrist rather than above it, like a volley follow through on a dtl sliced volley.
    Last edited by GeoffWilliams; 10-19-2010, 08:36 PM.

  • #2
    Can you post a video of you hitting backhands? Thanks...

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    • #3
      I can if I learn how to use the sanyo camera I just got! Sure. I have a pulled achilles right now, though. Hurts to move fast.

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      • #4
        lol

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        • #5
          Originally posted by geoffwilliams View Post
          To achieve max. potential coil, the shot should also be inverted, before take back, like a batter at the plate, inverts his bat while waiting for the pitch to arrive, and pronated, after the shot contact point, to achieve max follow through mph. Pronated, meaning, the forearm turns over, so that it faces the sky, after contact, and follow through is completed!
          I don't understand what you mean by inverted.

          Also, confused about pronation here. Are you saying you should pronate the elbow during windup and then supinate during/after contact?


          Originally posted by geoffwilliams View Post
          A common mistake made, even by Fed, is raising the hitting foot heel up in the air, during and after contact.
          Which one is the hitting foot?


          Originally posted by geoffwilliams View Post
          The hips open up early, and the shot is "dragged", like throwing a frisbee, or a back handed karate chop! It's like a skier, skiing moguls, and not using his hips to turn,but using his knees to turn with. The knees turn out first, the hip follows, and the rest of the shot is dragged behind, with the shoulder at full lock down, from the deltoid.
          Are you saying we should open up our hips early in the shot? I always thought hips should remain closed during this stroke.

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          • #6
            The article is hard to follow and little confusing. A video paints a millions words and saves an awful lot of text. Post a video, Geoff. Any backhand travelling that fast would be nice to see.
            Last edited by stotty; 10-22-2010, 12:58 PM.
            Stotty

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            • #7
              Originally posted by spacediver View Post
              I don't understand what you mean by inverted.

              Also, confused about pronation here. Are you saying you should pronate the elbow during windup and then supinate during/after contact?




              Which one is the hitting foot?




              Are you saying we should open up our hips early in the shot? I always thought hips should remain closed during this stroke.
              Inverted: Imagine Reggie Jackson at the plate, waving his bat, getting ready to hit a home run off a fast ball. He points (inverts) the bat towards the pitcher, a little, just like most invert their forehands. Only the top players invert their back hands.

              Pronation: Closing off the forearm, during the back swing, and then rotating and pronating it, (backwards) so it faces the sky, on the follow through!

              The hitting foot: Plant foot is the foot you put down, on the run, the rear foot, and the hitting foot is the foot you use to step into the shot with.

              The hips are closed during the coil, and open up first to create a "dragged" effect, like throwing a frisbee back handed, or a a karate chop back handed. The hips opening up first, while the stick is still moving backwards in a U turn, creates a lot of extra voltage!
              Last edited by GeoffWilliams; 10-23-2010, 08:42 PM.

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              • #8
                Originally posted by licensedcoach View Post
                The article is hard to follow and little confusing. A video paints a millions words and saves an awful lot of text. Post a video, Geoff. Any backhand travelling that fast would be nice to see.


                Ok. I will take some with my hd camera. There is also a video of me hitting a back hand winner, in the May issue,: 4.5 over 50 years old article, on the first page. (Although I don't invert the shot first.) This back hand was hit off a short ball, to the fh corner, against a local open player who plays a lot of tournys, and hits fh off both sides. The ball travels right past the camera John is holding! It's a cool shot. John said, "We can use that one in the article.", right after I hit it right past his camera a few feet away! It's the shot down on the bottom of the page.



                Also, here is my article on how to hit a powerful one handed back hand over head: http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...hand_overhead/
                Last edited by GeoffWilliams; 10-23-2010, 08:40 PM.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by geoffwilliams View Post
                  Inverted: Imagine Reggie Jackson at the plate, waving his bat, getting ready to hit a home run off a fast ball. He points (inverts) the bat towards the pitcher, a little, just like most invert their forehands. Only the top players invert their back hands.
                  Still not sure what you mean. I don't watch baseball so the analogy is lost on me. When you say you point the racquet at the opponent (or target), which part of the racquet do you point with?


                  Originally posted by geoffwilliams View Post
                  Pronation: Closing off the forearm, during the back swing, and then rotating and pronating it, (backwards) so it faces the sky, on the follow through!
                  thanks for clarification. I think i get it now.

                  Originally posted by geoffwilliams View Post

                  The hitting foot: Plant foot is the foot you put down, on the run, the rear foot, and the hitting foot is the foot you use to step into the shot with.
                  thanks.

                  Originally posted by geoffwilliams View Post
                  The hips are closed during the coil, and open up first to create a "dragged" effect, like throwing a frisbee back handed, or a a karate chop back handed. The hips opening up first, while the stick is still moving backwards in a U turn, creates a lot of extra voltage!
                  To clarify, the hips shouldn't open up completely right? (as they do in open stance forehand and 2hbh)

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Geoff,
                    I am hitting a couple of backhand topspin shots in this sequence.

                    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuaXr5843oQ

                    Am I doing something wrong?

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                    • #11
                      I looked at the video. Thank you for asking me to look at it. The positive: you are consistent in your lull mode (easy rally mode.) You close off the hip well. Your shot is simple, less to go wrong. You step into the shot off the plant foot.

                      The negative: There is no mass or acceleration, probably due to the lull mode. The legs/knees/hip don't transfer your weight fully into the contact point. Your stick accel. is not top notch. Sometimes you stop your follow through too early. (Many of these can be attributed to playing at the easy pace, a lull pace.) The contact pt. is a little too far back. The coil is not dynamic enough. Due to the lack of a dynamic coil, there is no "voltage" on the shot. No real force or weight transferred. It's as if you are standing still while hitting rather than attacking the coil and intending to do some damage with your weight/feet transferring into the shot. No coil, no weight transfer, no voltage developed, no spin, no power, no forced errors or winners! But, plenty of shots that go into the court!


                      Watch Kuerten in the stroke archive for reference.

                      To improve: coil more dynamically, and transfer more weight forward, and attack the shot with your feet forward more, to attain mph./voltage/pressure.

                      I see you have a babolat, apd cortex. That stick is muted, compared to the apd non cortex, that Nadal uses. (Paint job.) It also is light, about 334g total mass once, strung (15g), gripped, etc. It is a good stick to add silicone into the handle butt, and lead at the top 10-2 oclock. Try stringing it with barb wire mains/gut crosses, for most spin/power ratio. It's a 16 x 19, open string pattern, which allows for more spin, less control, than an 18 x 20. Of course, control is related to how good the string job is, how suited the mass/bal. is to your own style, and how related the string is to that style!
                      Last edited by GeoffWilliams; 10-25-2010, 08:20 AM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by spacediver View Post
                        Still not sure what you mean. I don't watch baseball so the analogy is lost on me. When you say you point the racquet at the opponent (or target), which part of the racquet do you point with?




                        thanks for clarification. I think i get it now.



                        thanks.



                        To clarify, the hips shouldn't open up completely right? (as they do in open stance forehand and 2hbh)
                        The top of the hoop, points towards the net, at the start of the shot, but not too much, instead of pointing straight up at the sky, if you have time. The right hip opens up first, creating a "dragged" effect, and that's the main thing, to create more power, the hip has to open up first and "lead" the shot. They don't start in the open position, like many do in the open fh, but they do open up almost all the way. But the hip has to lead the shot.

                        Study my back hand in this article I wrote, near the end of the art., labelled: in the final I jumped on short back hands, and you will see the hip opening up first, with a dynamic coil and full follow through.

                        Last edited by GeoffWilliams; 10-24-2010, 02:31 PM.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Thanks for the feedback Geoff. It is a video where I am just lazily rallying back and forth.

                          The point on the coil is taken, the Argentine pro I work out with once a week, has been telling me the same thing.

                          I have luxilon strings with about 24 kilos tension. You don't consider that a good setup?
                          Last edited by gzhpcu; 10-24-2010, 11:07 PM.

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                          • #14
                            Your pro is telling you to put more weight into the shot and hit out front more to make the transfer more effective. Look at Henin, Almagro, Kuerten, Gaudio, Gasquet, Puerta, etc. They all coil as far back as they can when they have time to do so! Look at this dynamic coil by the young Argentine 1 hander, Puerta: See how the bed faces the back fence? You never coil that far. Also, notice how he is chinning the deltoid. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...w=1408&bih=927

                            That's 53 lbs. It would depend on which lux you use. Alu power or alu pow. rough or alu spin is the best for the frame you have, not ace 18g, or bbo, or lux adrenaline, or timo! It's a little low tens for the size of the frame, but some can keep it in at that tens., as Nadal strings at 54lbs, but he only uses the sticks for 8 games, and the tens. does not drop much in that time. To combat the bad lux tens. loss, it helps to string the tensioning crosses higher, by quite a bit, than the mains. Ie, mains at 45lbs, and crosses at 53lbs.

                            The barb wire/gut will produce more power and have less tens. loss strung like that as well. Probably too much power for your taste if you like lux. Lux alu pow/barb wire also has good spin, better than lux alone.
                            Last edited by GeoffWilliams; 10-25-2010, 10:38 PM.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              This writer's observation about hip pushing out while arm still is going back seems first-rate and immediately stealable to me, although I have strong reservations about his western grip, prematurely straightened arm and wrist set in cast iron at contact.

                              Even Justine Henin shows repeatedly, on the Tennis Channel, how her hand moves at contact. Is this turning over from forearm, whole arm or both? I don't have to figure it out since I decided on continental grip for all backhand shots, but I'm likely to suspect that Justine's wrist also alters in some way.

                              I'm with Mark Papas at Revolutionary Tennis (website) on this issue. He says that wrist action is "the dirty little secret" of the 1htsbh. He also advocates a gradual straightening of arm usually up to contact but slightly beyond sometimes.

                              Regardless, I've already incorporated the first idea here-- a great way to add power. Not that one wants maximum power all of the time-- but everybody seems to understand that.

                              Nice exchanges here.

                              "You can hit a backhand with any grip you want." --Martina Navratilova

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