The Two Handed Backhand:
The Four Variations

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By John Yandell

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I had always believed that the two-handed backhand was the simplest shot in tennis, like a left handed forehand, but without all the confusing differences in grips and finishes. I've spent a lot of time on the court teaching the stroke that way, and I've written about the mechanics in my book Visual Tennis, and also on Tennisplayer. (Click Here.)

I say "had" always believed, because I no longer think that's the case. After extensive study of Advanced Tennis high speed footage of pro men and women, I think the two-hander is, in some ways, as complex as the forehand. The high speed footage shows there are 4 versions, each with different technical characteristics. I now think that understanding which version a player hits--or should hit--is an important key to developing the stroke at all levels.

What Elements?

The differences in the 4 versions are in the position of the arms and hands--the most critical element in determining the position of the racket at contact. The hitting arms can both be straight. They can both be bent, either to a greater or lesser degree. Or the front arm can be bent and the rear arm can be straight.

In general, only one of the four versions is commonly taught, that is, the two-hander is similar to a left-handed forehand, and this approach may be limiting the development of many players. So I'm excited to be presenting a detailed technical description of the other versions here for the first time. In particular, the last version, with the front arm bent and the back arm straight, is important to understand. This is because it is the dominant version in men's pro tennis. So far as I am aware this is the first article is the first to identify it and describe it in detail.

Open Evolution

Emerging video data bases are transforming how tennis is understood and taught. I'm proud of the contributions we've made to developing them, both at Advanced Tennis and Tennisplayer. (Click Here for more info about Advanced Tennis high speed video.) Players and coaches now have the ability to compare what they believe to what the top players actually do. The more you study them the more you learn about what actually happens

In the past, I've been known to question teaching beliefs that didn't seem to match video reality. So I don't want to make an exception for myself--in fact the opposite. You could take it as a threat to your credibility as a coach when video contradicts your beliefs. I don't look at it that way. The sport is too complex for anyone to claim they have the ultimate technical understanding, or anything close to it. I think we have to remain open and continue to evolve our thinking. This article tries to do this with the two-handed backhand. At the end, I am going to share some of my own positive experience using this new information about the two-hander on the teaching court.

The problem is the hands and arms look so similar at finish for all 4 versions.

In Detail

So what are the technical specifics of the 4 versions and what makes them distinct? The key is the position of the hands and arms around the contact. Although I had previously studied many pro players in 30 frame video, I was shocked when I studied some of the same players closely at 250 frames. (For info on Advnaced Tennis high speed video, Click Here.) I saw things I hadn't seen before, and initially, they didn't seem to make sense. But gradually I pieced together what was really happening around the contact. I saw the hands and arms could work together in different ways. This is how my understanding of the 4 variations emerged.

Previously, one of the things that had fooled me was the finishes of the top players all looked similar. Almost all two-handed players tended to reach a common position just before the start of the wrap. This is the last point before the motion of the racket starts backward and down. In this position, both arms are bent and the wrists are at about eye level. The position of the left arm is consistent with the biomechanics of a left-handed forehand.

But this finish position actually camouflages how players use their hands and arms in the critical few frames before and after contact. And that's the problem. It's a matter of a few high speed frames around the contact. So like many coaches looking at video, I tended to see what I was looking for--which was the way I taught the stroke.

Let's clarify one thing. It's not that the left-handed two-handed backhand doesn't exist. It definitely does. It's one of the 4 variations. It's also the dominant version in women's tennis. Although it's less common, players at the top of the men's game have used it as well. If you have learned that version, or teach that version, it's not that it is technically invalid. It's just that it is one of 4 possible versions. But that version may or may not be the best or most natural version for you--or the players you coach. This is true especially if you are male, because the majority of top men's players use a different combination.

It's also important to note that, not all of the top players use one variation on all shots at all times. Most players have a dominant version, but you'll see them slip into one of the others depending on the type of ball they are dealing with. Marat Safin, for example, seems to go back and forth between at least three different combinations at different times.

Grips

Interestingly, there seems to be a range of grips that will work with some of the variations, while others require more specific configurations. All the players shift the grip at least somewhat with the dominant hand, away from their forehand grip toward some version of a backhand grip. Some of them, like Moya or Hewitt, end up with a fairly strong backhand grip, with the knuckle of the bottom hand verging on the edge of the top bevel. Some have a mild eastern grip, with the index knuckle on bevel 2, like Agassi or Safin.

This is also true for most of the women. Typically they hold a mild eastern grip with the index knuckle on bevel one, for example, Clijsters, Davenport, and Sharapova. But others, like Venus and Serena, don't make it that far. Although they rotate their hand toward the top of the frame a significant distance away from their forehand grip, you couldn't really call the way they hold the racket with the bottom hand a backhand grip. It's at best a mild continental, or somewhere in between an old style eastern forehand and a continental. As I said, on some variations that seems to make more difference than others. In a future article, we'll see how a fundamental flaw in his grip structure limits Andy Roddick's backhand in this way because of the variation he chooses.

A more limited range of grips than the forehand: an eastern grip with the bottom hand paired with an eastern or a mild semi-western with the top.

The players also hold a range of grips with their top arm, although the range is less extreme. You see Agassi with a classic eastern grip with his left hand, bordering on the edge of a continental. Others shift the left hand downward to a modern eastern, or even a mild semi-western.

Straight/Straight: Agassi

So what are the specfics of the 4 variations? The first version is "Straight/Straight," with both arms straight at contact. The best example is Andre Agassi. Although I have claimed in the past that Agassi was a great model for the left-handed forehand, the reality turns out to be something close to the opposite. Both of his arms straighten out before contact and stay straight well out into the followthrough. This is before they move to the finish position with arms relaxed and bent.

Of the 4 variations, this one appears to have the most front arm contribution to the stroke. That is, it is hit the most like a one handed backhand. In fact if you look at Agassi it's not hard to imagine him just dropping the back arm off and hitting a fairly good flat one handed backhand drive. The Straight/Straight version is relatively unusual in pro tennis, although there have been other great players who used it, including Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Jim Courier. Marat Safin appears to usea slightly less extreme version on some balls.

Agassi uses what I would call a continental backhand grip with his index knuckle on the second bevel, and part of his heel pad on the top bevel. This is paired with a conservative grip with the left hand, on old style eastern forehand that is even verging on a very mild continental. This appears to be the same grip structure as Kafelnikov and Safin. Courier on the other hand hit it with a stronger one handed backhand grip, with his index knuckle closer to the top of the frame. He pairs this with a mild semi-western grip with the left arm. Although his arms were both straight at contact, this grip combination appears to push Courier's contact point further in front. Agassi and Kafelnikov on the other hand tend to make contact more to the side--although the contact is still clearly in front of the front leg in the netural or closed stance.

If we look at Agassi in the animations we can see that at the completion of the turn, his right arm is already straight. With his left arm, though, it's harder to tell. During most of the backswing, it's tucked in close to the torso, with the elbow bent or at least somewhat flexed. This can be confusing, because it looks like the hitting arm position associated with the left-handed forehand version.

But watch what happens as Andre starts forward to the contact. The bend in the left arm disappears. In the last 10 frames before the contact, it's definitely completely straight. But this happens only about 1/20th of second before contact--too fast for the human eye to see.

As the forward swing starts, the right arm stays straight while the left arm straightens out. Together the arms form a triangle shape with the torso, and they maintain this as the racket moves to the contact. Look at the angle of the wrist of the right hand. It's similar to a onehander. This is different than all the other players who tilt the wrist down to the some extent. It's an indication of the role the front arm plays in the stroke.

The same triangle shape continues well out into the followthrough, for another 20 frames or so in the high speed footage. At that point, both elbows start to relax and bend. 10 frames later the arms are in the familiar finish position. So all the shifts and changes in the shape of the hitting arms--from bent to straight and back to bent again--takes place in about 40 high speed frames. That's around 1/6th of a second! No wonder it's impossible to pick clearly watching pro tennis in real time.

John Yandell is widely acknowledged as one of the leading videographers and students of the modern game of professional tennis. His high speed filming for Advanced Tennis and Tennisplayer have provided new visual resources that have changed the way the game is studied and understood by both players and coaches. He has done personal video analysis for hundreds of high level competitive players, including Justine Henin-Hardenne, Taylor Dent and John McEnroe, among others. In addition to his role as Editor of Tennisplayer he is the author of the critically acclaimed book Visual Tennis. The John Yandell Tennis School is located in San Francisco, California.