Building A World Class One Hander: Preparation

[scottmurphy]

More great stuff from Chris Lewit. We think alike Chris! Hope to meet you some day. Thanks to Stan the Man for helping launch all this exposure for the one hander.

Scott Murphy

[stotty]

Deep turn and loops

I have been experimenting with the deep turn...on both forehand and backhand. As someone who has always turned a little less, I find it very difficult to turn more and then get everything in synch to strike the ball on the way back. I actually find it significantly more difficult on the forehand than the backhand, though neither are easy.

I am a reasonable player, but I'm old school and learned my tennis in the 70s. I think you have to learn this stuff when you are young and starting out. I like the idea of the holding position and find it an important reference point for coaching. Interesting with the deep, strong turn all the children's rackets venture way over the other side of the body during the backswing...seemingly a little more than these guys?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/rogerfederer/rogerfederer_backhand/rogerfederer_bh_center/rogerfederer_bh_center.html?FedererBHCenterCrosscourtFront1.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/petesampras/ps_backhand/ps_bh_center/ps_bh_center.html?PSBHCenterCourtLevelFront1.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/timhenman/th_backhand/th_bh_center/th_bh_center.html?THBHCenterRear3.mov

All the kids in the article have significant loops. Isn't there a danger with loops like these it's easy to end up late on the ball? I notice Dominic Thiem was late a number of times when I watched him the other day against Murray.

I just wondered if the straight arm presents more difficult timing issues than the bent arm? It does when I try it. The bent arm seems an easier, quicker method to take the racket back?

I have to say all the kids in the clips have beautiful, full looking backhands. The foundation looks lovely for the future. It's so nice to see them.

[worldsbesttenniscoach]

The kids in the videos are pretty good at the 1-handed backhand, but they are developing some bad habits that will become too ingrained into their tennis games. Notice that they do not have easy power on their 1-handed backhands. Their swings lead to muscled shots, rather than shots that naturally flow with power off the strings.

Their loops are take too long. They position themselves poorly in relation to the incoming ball. Many of them need some tweaks, in the way they track the incoming ball with their racket heads.

I have found that, sometimes, too much emphasis on a "deep turn" actually hurts the overall swing.

Students should put on boxing gloves and practice backhand punches into a huge punching bag. (Backhand punches are illegal in boxing, but useful for teaching leverage in tennis.) The students in the videos would learn to gain more natural power, if they did this drill, & they would learn to position themselves better in relation to impact point between racket strings & tennis ball.

Did anyone notice that the kids in the videos had huge, slow backswings, that generated little power, whereas Stan Wawrinka showed a more reduced, quicker backswing in his video?

[mrtennis]

Those kids (and one adult!) are well coached. I think you can tell this by the similar things that they do when they hit. I had not heard of this concept of the deep turn.

[johnyandell]

Let's get your thoughts on Chris Lewit's latest, "Building A World Class One Hander: Preparation"