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Today, you're gonna learn how to generate massive power
and topspin in your one-handed backhand,
so that you could start feeling
that fluid whip-like action on your backhand
the next time you step onto the court.
Let's go.
The first step in getting a good wrist position
is all about getting a good ready position.
So we're gonna start here with both arms bent,
about 90 degrees with the elbow.
The hitting hand is gonna be leveled
with the belly button
and the racket tip is going to be pointing generally upward.
And as a result, you should have slight wrist extension.
This is extending the wrist up like this,
as well as this slight radial deviation
or side bending to your thumb side.
And then your forearm will be in a pretty neutral position.
Now in the unit turn,
players are gonna maintain this wrist position.
A common mistake here is to release your off-arm
off your racket too early.
And this is gonna lead to you dropping the racket head
and losing a lot of leverage.
Or you end up tightening your forearm muscles too much
throughout the shot.
So instead, pros will keep their racket tip up
and pointed to the sky by holding the throat
of their racket with their offhand.
And as an added benefit to this,
keeping the wrist cocked up like this
is gonna make it really easy to disguise the slice.
Now, once we get into the backswing,
different players might have different variations
in their wrist position.
Now, while most players will maintain thes same position
from their initial unit turn and throughout the backswing,
you'll also see some players like Tsitsipas
or Nicholas Almagro,
who actually gets a slight ulnar deviation.
And you can see this in the highest point
of their backswing.
And other players like Kuerten will have slight pronation
in their forearm at the highest position in their backswing.
And this is gonna cause the racket face
to actually point up to the sky.
Now with all of these variations,
there's one key that brings it all together.
And this is exactly what position you get
in the hitting arm slot.
The slot is a position that every top player reaches
before they accelerate the racket forward into contact.
This is where their racket will be roughly
in this on-edge position to the ground
and rotated horizontally to be parallel to the baseline.
And then the racket tip itself will be pointing
somewhat to the side.
Now, if you focus on these three key positions
before contact, the rest of the swing
will usually take care of itself.
Now, different players here will have different amounts
of wrist extension before going into their shot.
And a lot of this has to do with exactly
what their grip type is as well.
With a continental grip, your racket will naturally
be on edge if you keep your wrist neutral.
But what happens if we shift from a continental
over to a more semi-Western grip?
Because the racket face here closes.
If you keep your wrist in the same position
as you would with a continental grip,
you're actually gonna just hit the ball
straight into the net.
So in order to orient the racket head
to be more vertical to contact,
we're actually going to have to get a slight wrist extension
depending on how extreme or mild your grip is.
Now by the end of the racket drop,
you will also have slight radial deviation as well.
Again, this side bending to the thumb side
is going to give players the range of motion
to naturally release forward into contact
and to give them leverage at contact.
So here to check this for your side,
if you go to your contact point
and your racket tip is pointing to the side,
then you should be good to go.
And lastly, before you begin to accelerate forward,
players are going to have their shoulder internally rotated
and their forearm pronated.
This motion is exactly what's gonna get your racket
in that position where it's parallel to the ground
and ready to externally rotate
and supinate as you move through contact.
And you can easily tell if you don't have enough
of this internal rotation,
if your racket tip always stays above your hand
throughout your shot.
One of the most satisfying feelings
of the one-handed backhand
and probably the single biggest reasons
why a lot of us players still use this one-hander
is the feeling of that forward
and upward release of the racket.
And that forward release is gonna be unlocked
through ulnar deviation and forearm supination.
But one of the most common things that hold players back
from getting that whip effect is the timing of the release.
It can be the difference between feeling relaxed
or tight at contact and it can make or break
whether your backhand is something of a weapon
or something that you just dink back.
A lot of junior level and club level players that I see
actually have this huge issue of timing the release
of their racket too early and too much.
And at contact, this actually creates
too much ulnar deviation,
which is the side bending to your pinky side.
The way you can tell this is,
if you look at your contact point on your backend
and your whole arm, all the way to your racquet
makes a straight line,
instead of a 90 degree bend right here,
you're probably falling for this error.
This is gonna cause your backhand to move back
into a jam position and oftentimes kill your ability
to unlock that topspin through the shoulder rotation.
And in worst cases,
I've seen players develop a lot of injuries
in both their elbow and their wrists.
So it's something you'll wanna avoid.
So instead top players will release their racket later,
which allows them to retain the angle of their wrist
while still releasing it and keeping it relaxed
for massive racket head speed.
So here's a simple drill progression
to help you get used to this right away.
Start by developing your contact point.
I want you to trap the ball in your racket at the net.
And from here, you're gonna rotate your racket
to roll the ball over.
So you should see here an angle within your wrist.
Now, alternative to using the net,
a training tool that we use all the time with our students
is the topspin pro.
This basically allows you to really steepen
your racket's upward swing path
while still getting used to that contact angle
and really getting feedback
on whether you're getting topspin on the ball or not.
So I'll leave the link in the description down below,
as well as our video, describing how to use it.
Now from here, you're gonna start in your hitting slot
and you're gonna keep a relatively firm wrist.
From here, start hitting the ball very soft
with your wrist staying firm
and end with your racket tip up,
and your wrist still in the L shape.
From here, you're gonna slowly start to relax your wrist
and feel the natural forward and upward release.
This is where that natural power and spin will come from
on your one-hander.
And also, developing this motion in your forearm
and your wrist is gonna help you
to unlock the last variable, the forearm supination.
With the correct wrist angle at contact,
top pros are gonna use external shoulder rotation
and forearm supination to drive the racket up
for massive topspin.
The best players in the world will actually
vary the amount of topspin that they have
by varying how much of this rotation that they get.
For heavy topspin backhands,
players can increase the external rotation
from their hitting shoulder and forearm,
and combining this with releasing the wrist
until the tip faces to their right side.
Players like Wawrinka and Thiem
will typically follow through
by pulling their hitting arm across
and rotating the racket until their arm falls back down
to their side.
On the other hand, some players like Gasquet,
Almagro, and Federer will actually
not rotate their torso forward as much.
And as a result, the racket will follow through
by reversing in the direction at the end.
Now this may happen as a natural result
of rotating your arm out more aggressively
with the relaxed wrist as part of your recovery.
And this will especially happen
if you tend to stay closed for longer.
On flatter shots, pros can decrease the amount
of external rotation that they get,
and instead finish with their racket tip
pointed more up and their strings to the side.
And in some extreme cases, for an extra flat shot,
the racket can point straight to the side
as they completely stop rotating the racket after contact.
In any case, you wanna focus on rotating your entire arm
as one unit and extending your arm out through the ball.
So that's it, athletes.
Let me know in the comments below which of these drills
and instructions changed your backhand the most.
And until next time, go out and train hard.
I'll see you in the next video.