there it is that feels better and better guys in today's video I want to give you a progress report
on my one-handed backhand for you guys that don't know in the year 2023 I'm doing something called
the project one-hander I have hit a two-handed backhand for 40 years so there's a lot of muscle
memory stored in this action what I'm trying to do in this year I'm trying to improve my
one-handed backhand and I'm going to record myself doing so and take you guys along for the ride
and this Series has already started I made a video that you can check out I'm
going to link it in the description I actually played a set and a lot of you
guys were wondering Nick why would you play a set when you're one-handed backhand is
not improved yet isn't it too early yes that is true when you're changing your Technique
it's probably good to lay off matches so you can build the correct muscle memory
but I just wanted to play this set and see what my level is with my one hander
and I'm glad I did play those couple of sets because the level on my one in
the backhand is not where it needs to be by any means and in today's video I also
want to clear up a few more things that you guys were wondering about so I'm definitely
not switching to a one-handed backhand the two-handed backhand is one of my favorite
shots it was always my bread and butter it is maybe not my most powerful shot that would be
my serve and I do think my forehand is faster than my two-handed backhand but my two-handed
backhand was always steady it would always go in I would make very few mistakes with
it in a very clean technique so no I love my two-handed backhand and I'm not switching
so this project is basically an experiment to see whether you can improve a shot after developing so
much muscle memory doing things a different way because like I said guys it's been 40 Years of
hitting a two-handed backhand and I can see the difficulty of this muscle memory when I hit my
one-hander I'm going to tell you what my biggest challenges are right now I have a very hard time
with the grip I'm not going to lie because my Continental grip on my right hand right hand for
my two-handed backhand is causing problems because I'm so uncomfortable going Eastern
backhand and I really have to keep reminding myself keep forcing myself it just feels really
uncomfortable for me to hold the racket like this now you're probably thinking Nick why not
just hit the one hand backhand with a continental grip I do think it's a sub-optimal grip for one
hand there it's possible to hit the one-handed backhand this way but what I do find is that one
of my other issues which is the Finish where my racket stays towards the outside as I'm finishing
this so a very flat swing path a horizontal swing path is further ingrained with this Continental
grip so in order for me to develop Top Spin on my one-hander this grip surely helps not
only is my thumb more underneath the racket making the vertical swing path easier but also
holding the racket with an Eastern backhand grip makes going backwards a lot easier than it does
with a continental grip naturally when we hold the racket like this it's more likely to stay on this
side this has to do with the position of the wrist so as I'm turning my hand over this way it's going
to be a lot easier to flip that racket and point it towards the back fence which brings me to my
number one problem which is my finish when I hit my one-handed backhand my racket as a tendency to
not only stay on this side but even if I force myself to go further back it stops somewhere
here and I would really like the racket to go further back this is a super important element
that you see the greatest one-handed backhands in history have this finish where the butt cap
is pointing forward and the tip of the racket is pointing towards the back fence this is what I
would like to achieve on my one-handed backhand and I'm having a very difficult time in doing so
but here's the good news I can do it especially when I hit the ball a little bit slower so here's
the thing with muscle memory when you hit the ball at Max Speed you're more likely going to
Resort the muscle memory or in other words make the stroke more intuitive now my intuition on
the one-handed backhand is based on wrong fundamentals this is a very important thing
for you guys to understand you have to realize that the intuitive tennis methodology is built
on the correct fundamentals being in place so that intuitive elements can take care of themselves if
you have the wrong fundamentals then you will also have wrong intuitive elements on your Strokes so
it's very important for me to build the correct fundamentals starting with the grip starting with
the preparation phase which is also sub-optimal at times where I go kind of through the bottom here
my hand really doesn't go up so I don't have much of a racket drop so I'm trying to keep
my hand a little bit higher and then dropping around back it into the slide here but the vast
majority of problems are shortly after contact and again going back to my previous point when
I hit the ball slower I am more in control of what happens shortly after contact it's still going to
be tough to control that part of the stroke the racket is still moving fast but I have to force
myself to hit the ball a little bit softer and then gradually increase the pace that's how you
build the correct fundamentals if you just go out there and Blast the Ball and hit it fast it's very
likely not going to result in any changes but guys the good news is that I can finish back here there
are no physical limitations that I thought that I had so I was very much on the impression that my
shoulder is locked back here and I can't go back very far I thought this was a physical limitation
but the good news is that after me hitting one-handed backhands for more than a month now
I can comfortably go back here without any pain so my shoulder is free in other words so just a
matter of me forcing this movement on every single backhand so that eventually becomes muscle memory
so guys I'm going to keep training hard on my one-handed backhand yes don't be surprised if
you see me still hitting a two-handed backhand I do plan to play some high level matches where
there's no way for me to use a one-handed back and I'm gonna get destroyed so if you see me hitting
a two-handed backhand this doesn't mean that the project one-handed backhand is over I'm going to
continue to work on my one-hander throughout this year I'm going to keep you guys updated
and it's going to be really interesting to see the before and after at the end of the year.