The Extreme Closed Stance: Two Handed Backhand Norm?

[johnyandell]

Would love to hear what you thought of "The Extreme Closed Stance: Two Handed Backhand Norm?"

[dpremsagar]

Just a couple of months ago, I noticed Djokovic swinging (rotating) his back leg 'during' his backhand shots and it's been eating away at my mind everytime I try to figure out how he times that to add juice to the shot.

Thanks to this article, now I get it. He is not rotating his left leg during his closed stance shot to generate power. Its more of a recovery/balance step around the time the swing reaches its completion.

Let me know if I am wrong.

Wonderful article. Thank you John.

Also could you explain, if the top pros' preffered stance on 2HBH is closed stance, what situations prompt them to sometimes use neutral stance? Higher bouncing balls? Balls sitting up to be attacked in mid court?

[johnyandell]

Thanks for the good words.

And yes you are right. The rear foot stays well behind the outside shoulder when the players can set up. If it were to swing around earlier, it would disrupt the rotational pattern. But this is a common coaching mistake--teaching the recovery step too soon.

As for the use of other stances, you see neutral more in the center of the court and also when hitting down the line from close to the sideline. Interestingly they have little problem handling high balls from closed stance even at shoulder level.

You see open from deep in the court--look at Nadal in the high speed archives. Obviously these guys can do it all and probably flow naturally into the stance that feels right for a given ball. Part of it is probably timing and positioning and whether it is rhythmic and fluid to set up the closed.