Interactive Forum December 2014: Two Handed Backhand--or One?

[GeoffWilliams]

Her foot work after shot is more dynamic with the one hander.

[stotty]

As a coach who teaches mostly two-handed to his students, I have often wondered about this one. The problem is most of the kids at my club start so young that the two hander is just easier to learn and use. Couple this with the fact younger kids will do so much better in tournaments in terms of results using two hands. Now factor in ambitious parents who want results and you start to understand why the world is largely two-handed. There must surely be many coaches like me who work in a similar predicament.

The girl looks she can go either way to me. She could be one handed or two. But I love her follow through on the one hander. I have coached kids who look like they could go either way too.

I know it sounds crude but if I cannot get the two hander to look right, then I get my student to opt for a one hander. Other than that I am guilty of sending them down the two handed route. That said, on balance, I find the two handed the better option if kids (adults too) can do it well enough. It copes better with higher balls...and the boys/men can brace better on returns against the bigger servers.

The big thing with the two hander is not to neglect or delay too long the introduction of the slice backhand. The Brits are quite good like this. Murray has a decent sliced backhand because coaches here are mindful not to neglect the shot. That said, the younger coaches over here are starting to neglect it.

I think Wawrinka, Federer and Dimitrov have done a good job of keeping the one hander alive...for now. Long may it continue.

By the way I think Chris Lewit is amazing....a great coach who shares with others. He is the best guy you've had in the house (Doug too) when it comes to communicating and sharing with us troops on the ground.

[John Yandell]

Quicktime version

Two Handed Backhand--or One?

[John Yandell]

Two Handed Backhand--or One?

When Chris Lewit sent me this video of his student Elizabeth I thought her two-hander looked excellent. A nice swing, shape, very smooth, good extension. Then I saw the one-hander that followed. It's obvious that for this player the one-hander is visibly more explosive, and actually even more fluid than her two. And so the question becomes: how many kids--or adults--have two-handers that may be functional and even good. But might never know what their potential really was as a one-hander. Thoughts?