so we had a couple of backhand lessons and I'm just going to
repeat some of the things that we talked about then because I
still see some of those mistakes first you still have that little bit of a hitch here
where you're going you're going here and there's a little bit of a hitch so it's not a flowing movement
when you set up you set up really strong like this you know extend your right arm a little bit more
like this extend here feel a little bit more of a pressure on your shoulder blade chin is going
to be over your shoulder as you're preparing your Racket and then on the other end you want to make
sure that the elbows go up and that you rotate all the way kind of like the things that we did
the last time you were here when we were on this court so a good preparation a good finish and we gotta
try to get rid of that little hitch that you have so go down the line right now here we go
remember we talked about like go ahead and go in your backhand and take a swing take
a swing remember we talked about this like your elbows are still pointing forward here
this is something you have to continue to work on like you have to get this at the end so what happens
a lot of times is this is generally for all your Strokes is that the body is not that involved so
you're swinging a lot with the arm and you're not helping the arm with the body so on your
backhand a lot of times they say you take you take your racket back and you're just going like this
you're just lifting the arms up and the upper body is really not rotating that much so remember you
go here to here get the elbow to go a little bit further back and then at the same time in your
prep phase on the other end of the stroke you want to turn a little bit more this way so you
turn more this way and then you turn more this way so overall more more rotation of the body
probably the best one you hit so far that was nice good good
now another thing that on the backhand that's not optimal is your swing path so when you I'm
seeing this but when you see it in slow motion you're going to see it even better
is the following your racket goes here and the racket tip never really goes through this way it
stays on this side and then wraps around your head like this so you're not getting a lot of range of
motion you're going here to here like this so the racket does need to come through a little
bit here so go ahead and stand on the baseline I'm going to show you the swing path put your racket
at the contact Point go ahead and turn sideways turn sideways all right so here's a contact
point so you're more going like this okay so the tip of the racket is always pointing that way on
your backhand right so what I like to happen is the following the tip of the racket is going to
go across and up but it's going to go through a little bit this way you see through and then back
do it again you go through and up and then back like this you see this this that's the correct
swing path on the two-handed backhand so at one point the racket when it's up it's also pointing
in this direction and then it's going to go back so yours is more pointing this way the
whole time okay so you're getting less Force through the ball does that make sense yeah
yeah so so you can practice this dry if you want but let me show you again it's this this this here
let me show you one more time you go here here here that's the backhand swing path this this this
yours is more going like this often like this
that's also sometimes a result of a too little body involvement the arms are
working in isolation where you're not really using the rotation that much and you're just
swinging like this this can happen naturally when you're just lifting the elbows up see
the racket really doesn't go through it just kind of Scoops up on the ball this
way so with rotation this is going to be a little bit more natural progression okay
better
okay let me hand feed it right next to you we're gonna we're gonna take it back a step go
right here in the Middle come you feel tight and don't push on the ball like don't like this zone
right here when you're making contact that's what I want you to understand so from here
to here the racket should not go through so in other words you shouldn't go in this Direction
with your with your racket the racket needs to go across that's important the racket head
goes through but this part right here your hand goes across so you're going like this
is the important thing that you have to understand you don't want to go
like this here and then and then up you're going immediately across watch immediately
across but the racket head goes through the ball you see this this is the movement
so you have to focus when you're hitting to get this right here it's almost like in the
gym right if you have a cable you know those cable exercises and you're going you're going
like this you pulling that cable across the body this way like this that was a little thin come again
that was a little bit thin again
better another one come
better again
okay come on across the body that was maybe the best one you hit so far okay let me feed you some
more to the side so you focus on the same thing it's an across movement it's a circular swing path
but the thing on the two-handed backhand because we're using two hands it's going to be naturally
more flat so the racket head is going to go through the ball more it's going vertically
up and across but it's going through does that is that confusing or does
it make sense so you go you go this see this right here this this right
here as opposed to here or as opposed to here where it's too thin like that
good
better
okay good
okay good okay how did that feel towards the end better you know it it was coming naturally it
was coming better right it's feeling better yeah it looked a lot better towards the end
one thing I will say when you get a ball that's a little bit higher on your backhand
it's going to be more unnatural to go up with the elbows it's going to be more natural to
have this right elbow down so when the ball gets above your chest height when it's between your
chest and your and your head and you're taking backhands up here now it's going to be more
natural to keep this elbow down and swing like this so what I'm telling you to do applies to
balls that are between your chest and lower okay now interestingly when the ball is below the waist
there it also becomes a little bit more tricky to go up you might have to shorten your finish
a little bit so the ideal strike point on any shot but especially the backhand is between
the waist and the chest and there is going to be super beneficial to get those elbows not
only as high as possible but also as far back as possible so you can utilize more torso rotation
in my head I'm trying to go as far as I can with the swing that you see yeah but I'm tight
it doesn't really go there you know oh you feel tight with your muscles yeah okay so I'm trying
but it doesn't really go you look bigger than the last time I saw you you've been training a lot no
you're looking stronger oh really look you do whatever you can as far as you I feel better as
long as I'm because what happens when I'm playing yeah most of the times okay and the probably had
a play Emma in someone okay gotcha yeah you said that she doesn't finish and sometimes I feel the
same way I'm I stop here you know that's true but the difference between your backhand and
Maci's backhand is that Maci will sometimes stop here but her racket path is correct she goes here
what I was pointing out today is that sometimes your racket string that you're going very thin on
the ball like this so you're not so you're just going over the ball you're not going through it
enough and you're hitting the ball too thin you're going like this because you have to go more like
this playing yeah they're trying to put topspin and then it doesn't even have the you know two
to pass right I understand what you're saying I wouldn't worry too much about topspin on the
two-handed backhand it's gonna naturally have some topspin if you go low to high but it's not
going to be as easy to generate heavy top spin on the two-handed backhand compared to your forehand
just because we have two hands on the racket and we have some limitations because of that