The high one-handed backhand is one of the most difficult shots in tennis and a
lot of players dread hitting this shot and the reason
why it's so difficult has to do with the biomechanics when we
strike the ball with one hand on the backhand side and
we are a lot weaker when we strike a high backhand compared to a high
forehand see on a high forehand we can connect
the contact with the ball to the core of the body
and it's not only that we can also strike the ball with different swing
paths we can swing straight across we can also swing
down on the forehand when we try to do those things on the backhand it's a lot
more difficult because we're using the back of the arm and the arm cannot
contract backwards and because the arm is contracting on the forehand this is
absolutely no problem at all we can comfortably swing
in different directions on the forehand side so if you try to
swing straight across like this this feels
uncomfortable and it feels even more uncomfortable if you try to swing down
with one arm so the only way to hit a one-handed backhand with a higher
contact is to continue to go up.
and if you watch the best one-handed backhands in the world you will see
that the swing path on a high one-handed backhand is very vertical so players
will use momentum to their advantage so they will not start
high on a high ball something that you could do on your forehand for example
you don't necessarily have to go underneath the ball in order to continue
going up you could set the racket higher and then continue on a more horizontal
path on a one-handed backhand however as i already discussed this feels very
uncomfortable to strike the ball in this direction so what you have to do
is use the vertical momentum and start basically by your waist like
you normally would and then you're going to strike the ball
somewhere around your shoulder and then you're going to continue
going upwards and because of this vertical swing path this
high backhand will have spin on it so you will able to generate
topspin as well.
a lot of players struggle with the timing of playing a high ball whether it
be your forehand side or the backhand side now the same rules
are going to apply to both wings here's one thing you should never do
when you're trying to play a high ball you should never try
to take the ball directly off the bounce and the reason why you shouldn't take a
high ball right off the bounce is that usually
high balls have a high trajectory meaning they're going to bounce
very high and this is not something that's suitable
for a pickup shot right off the ground you're going to very often
not be able to control it and you're going to catch the ball on the frame the
best balls generally to pick up right off the
ground are flat balls with a low trajectory so
obviously you don't want to take the ball
above your shoulder level because you're going to be very weak once the racket
gets above this point so you have two options
you can either take the ball on its way up or in other words on the
rise or you can let the ball fall below the apex and take it on the
way down and both methods are perfectly fine to
use and they're going to depend on the different circumstances and let me just
give you a couple of examples so if you have a really easy high ball it is
actually very unnecessary to take that ball
on the rise this ball is not going to come through the court very much in
other words it's not going to push you back
it's a non-threatening ball and it'll be a lot easier to wait
and let the ball fall below the apex and then hit
a high one-handed backhand on the other hand if a high ball has a lot of
penetration meaning that it's going to bounce
and the trajectory is going to be high but the ball is also going to go through
the court that means that if you wait for the ball
to fall below the apex you're gonna have to back up
very far and sometimes very close to the back fence and this is a very difficult
way to play tennis you're not gonna be able to be very aggressive when you get
pushed that far back so in those cases you might be better off
trying to take a high ball like that on the rise and remember that any time
you're taking the ball on the rise and in the case of a
one-handed backhand where you're going to attempt
to take a ball on the rise around the shoulder level the timing of this
is very subtle and it's not so easy so you have to make sure that you move your
feet and have a lot of intensity on this type
of shot
a lot of players neglect the high one-handed backhand
in practice simply because they dread hitting the shot
and yes it's an annoying shot it's not comfortable to hit the backhand
up here it's far more comfortable to take the backhand
around the waist but guys what's going to happen when you play a match you will
definitely get some high backhands and what a lot of
players end up doing is slicing the high backhand
or backing up and putting themselves in very defensive situations
so guys you have to get the reps in you have to practice this shot
in non-match situations so that you get more comfortable
making a higher contact on your one-handed backhand