Stan Wawrinka's Backhand

[johnyandell]

Would love to hear your thoughts on, "Stan Wawrinka's Backhand"

[gzhpcu]

Great article: I hope that with Wawrinka and Federer and others the one-handed backhand will have a comeback.

[klacr]

Would love to hear your thoughts on, "Stan Wawrinka's Backhand"

One word: Perfect.

Great article: I hope that with Wawrinka and Federer and others the one-handed backhand will have a comeback.

Wawrinka, Federer and (you forgot one) LaCroix
But in all seriousness...

I'm with you Phil. Hoping the one-handed backhand makes a comeback. To me, the one handed backhand is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of all shots when done correctly. Wawrinka's backhand is a thing of beauty, but not just for the visual, but also for it's power, spin and versatility with stances and contact heights.

For me, my favorite element of the Wawrinka backhand is the deep shoulder turn. Chin looking over the right shoulder. Tremendous model


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[arturohernandez]

Great article

I agree completely. My son and I both hit with one handed backhands. Since he began hitting his at 11 and I started at 16 back in the days of synthetic gut, we have adopted slightly approaches. He tends to come over the ball a lot more with the whole arm. I am more like Federer in that I slowly uncoil the arm in the straight arm position. I can say that his backhand has so much action on it. It's very heavy and very reliable.

The second bonus is that he can slice and volley very well with one hand. He is just getting to the age 15 where he is starting to realize how much variation hurts most junior players. He can just sit there and slice and topspin for three or four shots and easily elicit an error.

I think Wawrinka has added some modern elements that allow him to overcome the limitations of a more classical backhand.

But the developmental trajectory is longer and my son has suffered in his results with the growing pains. I think most coaches will try to make the path as easy as possible.

One interesting note is that my son can still hit with two hands. His shot is very reliable but much less lethal. I wonder if all the wrist problems with some two handers has to do with artificially having to inject power from the off hand.

You would think that Fed and Wawrinka would have more wrist problems than two handers.

[sfrazeur]

I want to read that article by the militant European coach who says that the one-hander was so inferior it should never be taught. Ever. To anyone.

That would be a very interesting read.

[johnyandell]

SF,

You know he told me all about how great it was. That went something like "Rafa beat Roger! Rafa beat Roger!" But he never sent the article. Or maybe I got annoyed and deleted it... I like opinion not zealotry...so we have missed out on his wisdom.

[jryle1]

It's an absolutely beautiful stroke. So elegant, yet extremely powerful. I actually did a little experiment last night. I consider my one hander to be my biggest strength. Especially when returning in doubles. At the moment my grip is a 2/2, both heel pad and index knuckle at the top of the grip, but I find at times I struggle to over it when it's high or when it's nice and slow and high. Last night I shifted my heel pad around to slightly behind the handle and the difference was phenomenal. I could drive it a lot easier with more topspin, however, we play on artificial grass here and the ball bounces extremely low, if at all so on the returning it wasn't ideal.

One thing I also noticed was my upper body was more controlled but today my back is in bits, in between my two shoulder blades and my lower back is very tight. I was obviously rotating more through it but I was definitely more solid, with more power and more spin, it's interesting.


Quick question - is there any plans to get some High Speed footage of Wawrinka's strokes? The collection is building and it would be cool to have footage of a pretty unique and powerful player.

[johnyandell]

Stan is on the list.

[jryle1]

Stan is on the list.

He's on the list now or he's in the works? I can see him in the regular stroke archive alright

[johnyandell]

For more high speed.

[klacr]

The high speed stroke archive reached perfection and completion with Berdych.

Wawrinka would be a nice of course but any more players on that list would just be the cherry on top of the whipped cream on top of the caramelized banana on top of the peanut butter brittle, bacon would be in there somewhere as well.

Stan's backhand is a stunning shot to see live. The balance, timing and consistency of his preparation never fails.

His slice backhand however...

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[scottmurphy]

Fabulous article on Stan's backhand by John. I'm still in awe of what Stan was doing with his backhand in the Nishikori match at the Australian Open. One howitzer after another from all over the court, (not to mention how well he slices) and against the guy who arguably has the best two hander on tour.
There are currently 22 players in the top 100 who hit with a one hander and they all hit it extremely well. Yes, in the US it's hard to find juniors who hit with a one hander but thank God that in Europe and South America it's still a relatively popular option. In my work and travels in Europe over the last 10 years I've seen plenty of juniors with beautiful one handers.

The fact is that despite all the best information, some players just aren't cut out to hit a two hander and that should be pretty obvious to pros who are inclined to heavily promote it. Nothing against the two hander but if it doesn't suit someone the one hander is often the better way to go.

Of course those of us with one handers tend to be biased but I've heard a number of really good two handers say the one hander is the "coolest" stroke in the game. I think the big plus for the two hander is the ability to counter big serves with big returns although it's not to say that can't be done with a one hander and that argument always makes me think of Roger completely neutralizing a monster serve with a slice return deep and in the corner.

Here's hoping Stan, Roger, Grigor, Almagro, Robredo, Kohlschreiber, Gasquet, Thiem and the rest of the boys, along with us teaching pros who love the stroke, can continue to inspire young players to develop the one hander. For me anyway, the game would be far less interesting without it.

[klacr]

Great post Scott!

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stotty]

Perfect backhand...

This is a really good article; one of the very best ones. Absolutely no one can walk you through a world-class tennis shot like John does. And that is what this is, a brilliant walk through...and another good reason why John should never quit the written article for video. The level of understanding is way higher than any other website out there, which is why I will be a poster for life.

One of our most prolific posters on the forum often warns us we are vulnerable to being duped by mainstream thinking. He's right. John's right, too. One minute the one-hander is toast because Federer cannot combat Nadal with it, the next Wawrinka cranks up his game and his backhand late in his career to topple Nadal and Djokovic and seize the 2014 Aussie Open. Don't be duped by trends and fads and people telling you you cannot do this or that, because some player will pop up sooner or later to prove everyone wrong...he will...for sure.

I think the art of good coaching lies in recognising, recognising exceptional anomalies will pop up from time to time and being able to make correct judgements as to when to intervene and when to leave well alone. It's not that I believe in the unorthodox, I don't, but I have a saying: "some players get away with it".

Getting back on thread: I gave up teaching the way Wawrinka initiates his backhand as juniors cannot manage the wrap around the body backswing and the timing issues it creates. I tend to teach the Federer method instead. Most juniors find this more manageable. I do think Stan's backhand is beautiful, though. As Wilander says, Stan's the only one who can hit a dead ball with such velocity of that wing.

I think the Brits do well at teaching the one-handed slice to two-handed players. I feel Murray's sliced backhand is very credible. Slice doesn't get neglected over here. We start teaching it early and the results are decent. Coaches shouldn't consign two-handed players to having mediocre sliced backhands, there is no need for it. Most two-handed players can develop decent sliced backhands. This is one blame that can be put squarely on the coaches' shoulders.

[don_budge]

My Thoughts...on the Stan Wawrinka Backhand

Would love to hear your thoughts on, "Stan Wawrinka's Backhand"

The Stan Wawrinka Backhand

The match may not have been the highest quality. Wawrinka may have lost. But he sure won me over with that backhand. I was watching just him for periods to try and figure how he could hit that thing so hard from anywhere. He has the quickest backswing that I have seen. No matter what kind of ball Novak Djokovic hit to him he had that racquet up and in position to go forwards.

That may be the single most fascinating shot in tennis…that and Roger's forehand.

The return of serve was actually a bigger factor than either of the serves. I like the strategy of Wawrinka getting the ball back into play and trying to reset the point on the return. It makes more sense than making a glut of mistakes.

He seemed to run out of gas in the end which I don't understand. Djokovic is rather amazing on the backhand side as well. He can hit that thing from all kinds of off balanced positions and still put the ball where he wants to. It may not have been the cleanest match…but it was interesting.

This was an extremely well written article. A perfect introduction to “The Stan Wawrinka Backhand” is to debunk the conventional wisdom that has seeped into the modern tennis paradigm that there is only one way to play this game. Even though you have the advantage of being older than I...I can appreciate what exactly has happened to the game of tennis since 1968. That was the year that tennis became “open” and that was the year that I coincidentally began to play tennis at the age of fourteen. If you do the math...that makes me one year younger than you. Ok...it’s not the miles. It’s the terrain.

But interestingly the two hand backhand has been existence since the beginning of tennis. So has the two hand forehand as well. But in or around 1970 Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert emerged onto the tennis scene shortly after the game became open to professionals. There was a tremendous boom in all things tennis during the 70’s and the emergence of Bjorn Borg sort of sealed the deal that the two handed backhand was here to stay.

Mats Wilander:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6QHksg4B2c

Mats knows his stuff!

As the game converted to over sized racquets and was nearly completed by 1984...Nick Bolletieri and Andre Agassi appeared on the scene and this dynamic duo sort of jump started the fad of the two handed backhand...even though Pete Sampras was really the real deal. The two handed game is much less complicated to develop and most if not all of the players coming out of the Bolletieri camp played this style of tennis and they had captured the American coaching paradigm. Or hijacked it as it was.

But the Swedes had their hand in it too. Mats Wilander talks about it in this short video where you can here my voice in the last ten seconds of the tape. Many Swedes emulated the Borg game and it won...to a point on the tour. There were many, many Swedes that followed in Borg’s footsteps and there were an inordinate number of Swedes on the tour for a generation and a half after Borg graced this great game. It caught on from there. From Bolletieri to Borg and some other nether points in between...the modern game of tennis has reached the point to where it is today.

The engineering of the courts ensued shortly after the turn of the century and the combination of these factors created “the perfect storm” that virtually eliminated the one hand backhand from being used in the modern game of tennis.

Thanks for keeping some kindling on the fire regards the one hand backhand. It isn’t dead yet. Contributions as yours are important. I only hope that they are getting the exposure that it richly deserves.

I have a couple of more thoughts with regards to the actual contents of your article. An article that easily lives up to the high standards of your writings and this website.

And that is what this is, a brilliant walk through...and another good reason why John should never quit the written article for video. The level of understanding is way higher than any other website out there, which is why I will be a poster for life.

I'm with Stotty on this one. Again.