More thoughts on the 2 handed backhand variations

[gsheiner]

John,

I recently reread out your article on the variations of arm positions. It was superb but it left me with one overriding question. You mention having people hit one handed backhands or left handed forehands to see which arm dominance might be better and therefore which variation might be better.

You also pointed out that almost all top male pros ( with the exception of Agassi and Nadal who hit straight/straight and a few who hit bent/bent) hit straight left arm and right bent. Everything here applies to righties.

So I went out to the courts determined to figure out :
A) what combo I used --turned out to be straight/straight
B) what the right arm action feels like .

And, after playing around for a short time it seems to me that the right arm action is a one handed backhand ( with a solid grip) hit with the elbow maintained at 90 degrees.

And, I came up with a number of other observations:

1. Although I couldn't hit a one handed backhand as hard with the bent elbow as I could with a straight elbow I could hit a nice, controlled, rolled topspin backhand using a lot of arm rotation ( external) with a some shoulder lift.

And, when I added the left hand it was much easier to hit a topspin backhand than with a straight/ straight combo.( I know Nadal does this but he uses big time arm rotation on his 2 hander)

Actually my backhand improved immediately.

I believe that having the front arm bent facilitates topspin generation because the right arm is in a much more convenient position for the "windshield wiper" or "biceps/pecs contraction" or however you want to define the modern topspin motion.

2. By keeping the front arm bent the contact point moves from 12-18 inches in front of your front leg as for a regular onehander to opposite your front leg. And actually you can easily now hit off your back foot. I believe this is a huge advantage to this combo. You can be late or hold the ball and still hit a good shot.

3. Anytime you want to really flatten out the shot and rip it you can easily just straighten out the front arm and step in and contact the ball way in front as for a regular one hander.

So, all in all, it seems to me that the reason this variation is dominant is that has all the advantages:

Easy to generate heavy spin;
increased hitting zone;
can easily be converted into conventional shot for hitting early or flatter.

I also wondered if by having people now hit 3 options --lefty forehand,onehanded straight arm backhand,onehanded backhand with bent elbow you might get a better sense of which variation to try with them.

By the way I don't advocate anyone hit a fulltime bent elbow backhand as I believe it would kill the elbow.

Looking forward to your comments and all the best for the holidays.

Glenn

[gsheiner]

One more thing

In case my last post was a little confusing my goal was to discover the feeling of the right arm in the straight/bent variation of the 2 hander.

This led me to the bent elbow one handed backhand experimentation.

Glenn

[johnyandell]

Very interesting! Actually this is just the kind of experimentation I hope the articles are stimulating.

It could very well be that the bent arm--assuming a fairly strong grip--allows you to wipe up faster and hit more topspin more easily--although some of the bent/straight guys like T. Johannson are also known for hitting flat. Also not totally sure about where the contact point moves--sometimes it looks to me to be more in front when that back arm really straightens out. I wasn't certain and wanted to study that more which is why I didn't discuss it in detail in the article.

Also not sure you are going to see many of bent/straight guys go back and forth and totally straighten out the front arm. I do see some floating toward another position. Some guys hit flex and bent/straight and Safin seems to have the most range--but I'm not sure about teaching this. Not sure it's wrong either.

Anyway glad the article stimulated you and increased your understanding and maybe even improved your backhand!!

[gsheiner]

More on the bent arm

Actually I started playing with the same concept with the slice backhand and again I discovered new things.

By keeping the elbow bent it reduces the power but allows more of the spin effect --good for floating slice and maybe drop shots with good disguise. Of course the contact point is further back which again is an advantage at times.

However by straightening the elbow just prior to contact and contacting further in front I was able to hit a much more penetrating slice.

I think you have pointed out that Federer does similar things on his forehand.
At times he straightens out his elbow ( he does it early as you have pointed out) but I would venture a guess that sometimes he will straighten his arm for contact if he decides at the last second to hit a flatter ,more penetrating ball. Also at times of course he does the opposite and bends the elbow further at contact to get more spin.

So basically I think that by understanding and incorporating the different shots that can be produced by different elbow flexions and extensions adds tremendously to shot variety and disguise.

I am guessing that this variety and disguise is what leads to magicians like Federer.

Glenn