Your Strokes:
Bastiaan One Handed Backhand

John Yandell

I love it when I get to work with players with one-handed backhands. Bastiaan came to San Francisco to work on his groundstrokes, and there it was—a one-hander on the backhand side.

Bastiaan is young, tall, and athletic. He hits a big ball and, with enough experience, could become a dangerous 5.0 player. More on his forehand or slice backhand possibly in other articles, but here let's focus on his one hand drive.

Bastiaan had a great grip—a little stronger than Federer, but not as extreme as Stan Wawrinka. Very close to Lorenzo Musetti. (Click Here to see Musetti's backhand in the Interactive Forum.) I like that. No reason to go more extreme unless, possibly, you are a high level college or tour player.

Bastiaan's preparation was also great. He made a full shoulder turn with the line of the shoulders going maybe 10-20 degrees past perpendicular to the net, similar to the top players. Height and position of backswing all good.

And he completed the turn at about the time the ball bounced on the court. Also awesome. He hit naturally with a closed stance which is dominant at higher levels and helps with that full shoulder turn.