most of the ideas for my videos I'm getting straight from the lessons that I'm teaching and
it just so happened this last weekend I ran into three of the most common issues that people face
when they have a two-handed backhand so in this video I'm going to show you what they are and then
of course how to fix them the first issue that I'm seeing is not necessarily so much a mistake but
it's to my mind a missed opportunity to gain more Rhythm and also more power and control and that is
when players are taking the racket just down and back so of course in the beginning when you are a
newer player it is so much easier to just take the racket down and back and come from down and back
here to up high over your right shoulder and there is a video actually of Serena Williams showing her
daughter how her dad taught her Serena the backend and she keeps repeating down and back however when
you do watch Serena's matches you do see that she has a loop so having a loop will help you to get a
smoother rounder motion and more control over your back end however when you're returning the just
down and back and then basically just blocking the ball is a great option because you just simply
don't have the time for a big takeback and here's an example of Ash Barty's how she's returning
so ash here on the return a very very compact takeback a little bit of a loop but she's not even
following through because she just doesn't have time so the way that you're describing a loop or a
c shape is that on the takeback you want to work on having the racket face above your hands and
your hands should stay between your shoulder and your hip this can be individual some players do
have it here some players have it a little lower but you definitely want to get into racket head
above your hand and then letting the racket Head Drop and now you see the racket head is below the
hand and below the incoming ball so you're letting the racket Head Drop and really ideal would be if
your racket face points slightly down and from this point on here you're pulling up and forward
to contact point and the contact Point wants to be in front of you two handers generally don't
have their contact points out as far in front as a one-hander but you definitely do want to have
it out in front and at contact point you want your racket either neutral or ever so slightly
closed because that helps you to give the ball Top Spin which gives you net clearance and which
gives you depth and here's a great little drill that we just saw Carla alcaraz do to get the feel
of what you're racking head needs to be doing when you want more of a loop so let's check it
out the next issue that I'm seeing a lot is that two-handed backhand players don't extend
long enough they're pulling across their bodies a whole lot and therefore depriving themselves of
control and also of power so what you want to do instead is really paying attention to your
off hand your off arm so your non-dominant hand becomes more active on the forward swing so when
you're turning on your unit turn it's your more dominant arm your bottom hand that facilitates
that turn a little bit more however on the forward swing your left for me my left arm
if you're a right-hander is the one that should dictate the extension a little bit more so one
good way to work on the extension is to not start the breaking of the elbows before your
left arm is fairly straightened out you don't want to hyper extend it but you will see in
the examples that I'm going to show you that the left arm extends long long long long long
and then comes over the extension then of course also helps you to finish correctly don't want to
finish here don't want to pull it across your hips you want to finish High over your right shoulder
almost that your racket touches your back I can't really show you that because I don't
have enough mobility in my upper body anymore I'm actually when I'm hitting a two-hander I'm
finishing here better would be all the way so that your elbow points forward to your opponent
and your butt cap does as well last issue that I see quite a bit is that players think because
they have two hands on the racket they should hit a harder ball and and that sinking leads
to literally just using their arms so on your two-hander you've got to work on a low base
and the loading of your back leg so this here you can generate as much power if I'm
coming from my back foot here and I have a long stride I can now really use all the energy that
I'm creating by pushing back into the ground that flows up through my body and forward so
that is how I get pop on the ball and here's a good little drill on how to feel that a little
better go ahead and fix a pull rope slightly lower than your hips on a fence or wherever
you want to fix it and engage your entire body here here I feel like I can really accelerate
and you see how I'm engaging my entire left side if I'm just using my arm at some point I'm going
to get tired if I do that over the duration of a match and it feels completely jerky it
doesn't feel round it doesn't feel like I can control the ball so again use your entire body
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