What is ISR?
Part 4: Two Handed Backhand
John Yandell
In previous articles we explored how arm rotations occur on the serve (Click Here), forehand (Click Here), and one-handed backhand (Click Here). Now let's look at the two hander. It's maybe more complex to understand because we are looking at both arms.
But as we have said it's less about the technical terminology than just understanding the movement and positions. The point of this series is to understand this trendy terminology and integrate it into correct stroke models—and maybe gain some insight into what makes them great.
Regardless
Regardless of the exact ready position, top players take the racket back with both hands, with the racket basically on edge. They may take it back higher or lower and in various shapes in the backswing.
But at some point they almost always drop the arms and racket below the level of the ball. They do this with a double arm rotation.
The bottom arm rotates to the left or externally. The top arm also rotates to the left, but this is internal rotation.
