Backhands and Lansdorp

[lukman41985]

John,

I red your post where you discussed how today's two-handed backhands can be bifurcated into right hand dominated and left hand dominated strokes. You talked about how hitting one-handed backhands and left handed forehands will allow one to determine which hand dominates in their two-handed stroke.

With this information in mind, I re-read Robert Lansdorp's article on the two-hander and noticed that he thinks of the two-hander as a left-handed forehand. However, he also talks about how when trying to teach his students to "leave it out front" he sometimes asks his students to take off the left hand and finish one-handed with the right hand. How can the two-hander be a left-handed forehand, in essence, if one takes the left hand off during the follow through and instead focuses on driving the right hand and arm?

[johnyandell]

Well I can't penetrate the mind of Lansdorp on that one. Suffice it to say what he does seems to work for him. He may call it a lefthanded forehand--and by the way I never said it wan't two-handed, remember--it's both arms--but his model is more Agassi like which weights the front arm more. Obviously any two-hander by definition has components of of front arm (one handed backhand) and back arm (left handed forehand)--the question is how should any given player use each arm???

[starvoise]

I can share what I have understood from Lansdorp during the time my son worked with him about the backhand and leave it out front part: He makes them do it so the kids get the proper feel of the raqcuet head actually going up and throught he ball at the same time. It is almost as if you were trying to ectually throw the reacquet across the net. Since you have to let go with the top hand, you don't bring the racquet head up the back of the ball too fast and pull out of the stroke. The genious in this is that it works no matter what the grip structure is. Of course, he would never tell a kid that's the way to play, he only insists that the player hits this way from time to time just to reinforce the feel of hitting through and double check balance.

[johnyandell]

Makes sense. Seen him do the same thing with Sharapova. He must be doing something right, don't yu think?

[starvoise]

Makes sense. Seen him do the same thing with Sharapova. He must be doing something right, don't yu think?

He is, isn't he?

My kid started hitting the ball at least 30 % harder and more consistent at the same time after only a week with Robert. For what is worth, my backhand got better after doing those drills on the ball machine also and it was a very good two hander to beging with...(yeah, right)...

[kenknight]

Starvoise, how old is your kid? If you're taking lessons from Lansdorp, that means you're in PV/Torrance area. I just moved, so I'm now very close to there, and he needs a hitting partner at the 4.0 level, just ask.

[starvoise]

Starvoise, how old is your kid? If you're taking lessons from Lansdorp, that means you're in PV/Torrance area. I just moved, so I'm now very close to there, and he needs a hitting partner at the 4.0 level, just ask.

Sorry to dissapoint you, but we are not from Cali, my kid travels to work with Robert. I
wish we were closer to him though...

Oh, to answer the question, my son will turn 11 next month.

Will be more than hapy to hit with you when we go down there for his next session. I figure maybe after the open, I don't know yet. Thank you for the offer, we will stay in touch.