The Lesson Process:
The Backhand

Kerry Mitchell

The process of improving your backhand can be even more daunting than the forehand learning process we addressed in the first article in this series. (Click Here.) In general, most players struggle far more with their backhands compared to the rest of the game, with the possible exception of the serve.

In my experience, many problems on the backhand, whether a one-hander or a two-hander, stem from the nature of their early instruction. In the first lesson the student is told to turn the feet sideways, step, and swing.

This seemingly straightforward advice can start a player on a path to years of frustration. In this article I'll address the hidden problems in that advice and then show you how to turn the process around and make your backhand a steady part of your game.

Just as in the forehand lesson that I described in the previous article, I have the player start by hitting backhands close-in at the service line. This tells me what I need to know about the stroke much more clearly than if they start from the baseline.First, I look at the footwork, then what their turn looks like, and how much control they have (or do not.)

Turn

The most important aspect of any groundstroke is the turn. Just as on the forehand, the backhand turn has to come from the hips and shoulders, not simply from the feet. Many instructors, either out of lack of knowledge or laziness, start the teaching process by having their students turn their feet sideways to the net, but neglect the critical role of the body turn.

The usual result is two-fold. First, the student never develops proper rotation. Second he is trained to chase the ball with the front foot.

By "chasing the ball" I mean that the student learns to reach the ball with a step across the body with the front foot. The rear foot and leg and the torso are never correctly loaded or positioned.

The illusion with this type of foot work is that at the step you really are in the turn position. But this is completely false. The hips and shoulders are not fully rotated at the right time, and the racket is not in position to begin the forward swing.

Except for the slowest and lowest balls hit hear the center of the court, the chasing step makes the stroke difficult to control. This often causes a player to bail out on the backhand drive and hit with slice. This can become the only option, rather than a strategic decision. The tendency may be more severe for one-hander, it is common with two-handers as well.

Two handers however often obscure the problems caused by the cross step by compensating with the top hand. One handers with the same basic problem sometimes see two-handers doing a little better and then conclude they need to switch from one hand.

But this ability to compensate is often hiding the fundamental problem. Changing to a two hander does not automatically solve it. Many players change without realizing this, when a sound one-hander may be much better suited for them physically or for the style they want to play.

Solutions

So how should players address these underlying problems, whether they hit with one or two? The solution is a restart in learning the footwork. I know this is true from experience.

I went through this exact process myself 15 years ago when I was forced to switch from a two-handed backhand to a one handed.I discovered that my second hand had been disguising my poor footwork for years, possibly contributing to my severe left wrist injury.

As I mentioned, footwork is even more critical on one hand, so when I converted to one hand I was lost. Driving through the ball under pressure was an almost impossible feet.

Luckily I could slice well, since I already used that extensively in combination with my two-hander. But I was baffled by my problems with the drive.

The solution emerged on a whim, after a lot of frustration. I had been working on my open stance forehand. Randomly, I started trying to hit my backhand with an open stance.

The difference was nothing short of phenomenal. I could literally rally under pressure hitting a topspin drive backhand wit in a two week period. Within a month the topspin to slice ratio was about 70/30 (much like my two-hander had been). This experience led me to understand the role of footwork on the backhand not only in my game, but in my teaching.

Serendipitously while I was working this through I discovered the work of Bob Hansen, the coach at the University of Santa Cruz. His work pushed me to use my hips and shoulders more in creating the turn position.

Bob had already outlined an entire methodology for footwork and ball alignment based on the open stance set up. That seminal work is here on Tennisplayer.net (Click Here.)

Believe it or not I hit open stance on my backhand for almost two years. This laid the foundation for my footwork, and today I flow between open and neutral stance hitting with ease.

So how can the average player develop proper footwork, body turn and alignment? Start by simply trying to hit easy balls exclusively open stance, off your outside or left foot.

What you will notice first is that you will stop short of the ball and feel like you must reach to make contact. This simply reveals how the problem of cross stepping or chasing with the front foot creates poor ball alignment. Stopping short and too far away from the ball is an attempt to leave space for the front foot to step across.

The second thing you will likely notice is a lack of open stance power. This usually comes not only from reaching for the ball, but also from an incomplete turn in the open stance. The impression of a completed turn, but this is not the case if power is lost when hitting open stance.

The animation above shows the sequence. An immediate full turn with the hips and shoulders, followed by the set up on the outside foot close enough to the ball and in position to hit open stance. The hips are the key to this. (Click Here to see my article on True Alignment.)

The hips should be basically perpendicular to the net and the right shoulder blade should be pointing at the net, be turned even a little further. The posture should be upright. This means an imaginary line from the shoulder blade to the hip should be perpendicular to the net.

Backswing

For many players, the backswing has to be shortened. I do this by having the player place the hand or hands near the rear hip. The key is to get players to turn, to set up properly and then to swing forward from this compact backswing position and not take the racket significantly further back when the ball approaches. From this position, players will usually make a small, compact loop to change the racket direction - but this happens automatically.

Swing Trajectory

As players start to feel comfortable with the preparation, I move on to the swing plane and the finish position. For some players just the footwork and turn adjustments seem to solve all problems. For them, the swing trajectory starts to straighten out very quickly.

But others need to make a conscious effort to change the swing path. As with the forehand, the path on which the racket travels in the forward swing is crucial to power and control. To create this, the swing trajectory of the racket face should travel from the inside to the outside.

If a player has spent years setting up on the dominant front foot, he is likely to start the swing too far to the outside, swinging either straight at the ball or even from the outside in. (John Yandell has written about this problem in Andy Roddick's backhand, Click Here.)

This problem with the direction of the swing contributes to the tendency to slice under pressure. But the slice swing, due to the same poor footwork and racket position usually travels too far across the body, from the player's left to his right. This destroys consistency and control, as well as the natural power in a slice drive.

In reality on the topspin drives, the racket trajectory should start close to the body and move toward the outside of the ball. Often with a player with a really poor swing pattern, I will actually have them push the strings towards the side fence first to guarantee the swing moves to the outside.

This may seem counter intuitive, but is necessary in some cases to retrain the swing pattern. The common tennis adage of hitting the outside of the ball is not an accurate description of the swing. What you should visualize is the face or edge of the frame passing from the inside through the ball.

As you might have noted from my earlier articles, I'm a firm believer in classical finishes. This is particularly true on the backhand. The classical finish is the most efficient and practical way of learning tennis.

Complicated backswings and followthroughs lead to poor preparation and bad timing. Many players have it backwards and focus on these pro level elements when their fundamentals are unsound.

Two Handed Finish

First let me talk about the two-hand finish position. The left arm is in the double bend position (elbow and wrist) with the left hand near the right ear. The racket itself is in a vertical position, not thrown over the shoulder which is so popularly taught these days. The racket over the shoulder position only creates a short, wristy swing which makes power with control difficult to achieve.

On the one-handed backhand, the shoulders and hips stay perpendicular to the net with the racket standing vertical. From the right hand through the shoulders to the left hand should form a straight line (not bent elbows). I f the dominant hand is out of alignment, then the player is probably pulling across the body in some form or fashion. This lack of alignment can also be caused with the pulling of the hips open as the swing starts.

Timing

Just as I described in the forehand article, hitting open stance requires slightly different timing. The contact point will now be just in front of the edge of the body, not out in front of the front leg.

The big discovery you'll make is the extra time you have to focus on the strok itself. The ball will travel at least 6 to 8 inches further into your stance than before This will make it much easier to deal with high balls that cause problems in the neutral stance.

The Racket Head

The teaching image I use for the position of the racket head - which is sometimes but not always the reality - is with the racket head above the hand. This overcompensation corrects a common tendency, which is to reach down for a low ball by dropping the head of the racket in the mistaken assumption that the racket needs to be very low to create topspin.

I use the term "wobbly look" to describe this. The racket head is late reaching the finish position and/or travels too far back toward the back fence. To read more about how to use this image in one of my backhand articles, Click Here.

This wobbling destroys the integrity of the hitting arm position, and make the swing unstable and wristy. As John Yandell has shown, to lower the racket, in reality, top players rotate the entire hitting arm structure backwards. (Click Here.)

The head of the racket head should always be supported by the wrist position as the player swings, and this is what many players find this image of the racket head above the wrist helps them create. One great advantage to this is that a player can drive through higher balls with more ease.

Obviously the learning process involving these elements doesn't always move along as quickly as the student wishes. Previously learned footwork can be quite ingrained.

Initially there is often a loss of power which again can frustrate the student. But with the correct footwork and a better turn power will return and usually increase. The only real question is whether as a student you have the time and belief to put in the work.

Neutral Stance

As with the forehand, I'm not against neutral stance hitting at all and at times it is a necessary adjustment on lower shorter balls, or misjudged balls. But the order of the feet and the set-up to the ball has to be done correctly.

When hitting with a neutral stance the ultimate goal is to place the front foot in the direction the player would like to hit the ball. But I like my students not to go back to a neutral stance for a while because it is easy to slip back into old habits.

A steady backhand is essential to being a great competitor. Following these steps to develop them and that will put you on the path toward that goal. I know because I have proven it to myself and seen it with dozens and dozens of my students over the years.

Next: the serve!