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

[chrislewit]

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.

Thanks. I agree with your observation: if it doesn't look right, if it looks like the arms are asynchronized or "fighting," the player may be a one handed candidate

Best
Chris

[lobndropshot]

How old is this student?

Geez, doesn't everyone teach players both (one handed backhand, backhand slice (Graf) and two hander). Why specialize, or pick one thing? Why not spend ten years practicing it all, and then decide. Or, use all of the above and have a ton of variety that throws off the opposition, and generates a ton of angles.

What hand do you throw best with?

[arturohernandez]

A long road ahead

Hi Everyone,

I posted a thread a while back with my son who had switched from two to one around 12. At the time he still had trouble with timing and felt vulnerable on that side. That was about a year ago. Now he is able to hit the one hander very reliably. Still has issues with returns but his slice handles most of the work just fine as a reliable alternative for a 15 year old. He still hits with a two hander for fun on occasion. But it feels cramped to him. It is reliable but not nearly as explosive.

The most interesting part is how similar the two strokes are. The rhythm to me feels the same when I look at them and don't obsess over the body parts. My son also took his two handed rhythm and then adapted it to one hand over time.

The second observation is the large windup and the pivot back to the center. Traditionally she should lean on the front foot more but Wawrinka uses a style similar to Elizabeth's (and my son does the same). They seem to just pause and then let their body go. Lifting the back foot and leaning on the front foot may be an old school one hander.

So my feeling is that the one hander looks good but that she may get into trouble if she doesn't time that rotation just right.

I have a younger daughter who is 9 and plays with two hands. She looks somewhat cramped on her shot like Elizabeth. Eventually, she may follow her older brother and switch to one.

I think the real question is what Elizabeth prefers. If she likes hitting with one, then why not do it.

Michael Youzhny has variations on two/one and even a borg-like hybrid backhand.

It is all about feel on that side so I think a one hander will give her more feel either way.

But eventually she will have to buy into it.

And it will require development of strength and coordination to develop it. If I am not wrong it requires the coordination of more parts of the body.

So I say switch as long as she (and her parents) know that it won't be as reliable as a two hander in the short run and Elizabeth really wants to.

I can say that my son has a very good backhand volley and a backhand slice. Now that his topspin backhand has matured he can really bother others by mixing it up. I have seen him hit two slices, one topspin, and then another slice. Sooner or later his opponent misses while my son takes no risks on his shot.

But he is 15 now and it has been three years. I think if the slice is introduced and she is comfortable she will kind of switch on her own. But it will take longer to mature...

Arturo

[hockeyscout]

What hand do you throw best with?

Both my daughter and I throw equally well with right and left hands. Virtually no difference. I shoot hockey as a left hander, and play golf as a right hander. The best test of this is getting an athlete to pick up change off the table or floor, drop money, and ask them to pick it up. I tend to do it with the right, so I'd naturally be a right hander I would guess. I made a BIG mistake with my younger one in her development, I did not teach her on Monday how to play right handed and on Tuesday to play left handed. That was a major error. It would have given neurology a day to set, and I would have had an ambidextrous athlete. I got a second daughter and I will teach her how to play left on day one, and right on day two and split it up until she is in her teens. That is if she wants to play, however, she looks like a carbon copy of her old sister except she's bigger and moving around a lot more.