Hello everyone today the topic is the one-handed backhand and what better way
to approach it than by analyzing closely Grigor Dimitrov's awesome one-handed
topspin backhand. Gregor has one of the best backends in the game and it's a
great model to study. Let's take a look at some backhands. Always on his toes,
moving, setting up stepping into the shot and very stable through contact. Now a
split step, turns his shoulder racket head up, step into the shot and really let
that racquet hit through the shot. Keep the racket head behind the ball.
One of the things that makes this backhand so great is how stable he stays
through the shots. His head barely moves his eyes are fixed at contact. Let's take
another look from the front: sideways, stepping into the shot.
letting the racket come around and through. He has a very long
follow-through. He really lets that racket swing. He gets behind the ball
first, then steps into the ball. That lets him keep his body weight going towards
his shot. In slow motion you can really see how well he moves and how balanced
he is.
Let's take a look at each of the different elements that makes this shot
great. Ready position: in the ready position he's neutral, he's waiting to
see where the ball goes and as soon as the opponent starts swinging he splits
step. Here we can see him in the air on the picture on the left side and as soon
as he realizes where the shot goes he's changing his grip. On the picture on the
right you already see him holding and Eastern backhand grip. His left hand is
holding the racket by the throat and it's gonna help him take the racket back,
make the necessary grip changes etc. After a nice split step he knows where
the ball is going and the first thing he does is as he lands he's going to open
his knee. You can see this right here how his knee is pointing in the direction of
where he's going to run. Same thing with the foot you already have the foot
pointing in the direction of the run so he's gonna turn his body and he's gonna
use this left foot to push off as he gets behind the ball. hH gets that racket
head up, the wrist is cocked, a very nice shoulder turn and he's getting ready to
step into the shot with the right leg. His center of gravity is low he's
getting under the ball. As he steps into the ball he's gonna strike the court
with the heel, which we call a heel strike, which is gonna keep him in
balance to be able to hit through the shot. His foot is going to point pretty
much at the post, so it's not straight at the net but it's not
parallel to the baseline either. Look at that shoulder turn, a very full shoulder
turn. Also his shoulders are basically parallel to the ground
very little tilt. The left hand still holding the racket and helping him turned.
I also like this wide stance. He takes a fairly large step into the ball which
will lower his center of gravity and let him stay in balance. After that he lowers
his racket and tries to get the racket head under the ball. The racket is gonna
come from under the ball. It's gonna go out towards the ball and hit around and
forward. His hitting arm is basically straight. Look at the head, amazing, eyes
at contact head totally still, hitting arms straight. His non hitting arm is
still close to the racket. In this picture you can see that the racket head
is slightly below the hand so the racket head is gonna brush from under the ball
up and through the ball. After contact the strings follow the ball. it's a firm
contact. The racket flight is towards the target. His left foot stays anchored
behind keeping his body turned at contact. He is still basically sideways.
Look at the head. He just barely lifts his eye a little bit to watch the ball
but the head is very stable. What I like you to watch here is his racket. So he
released the wrist the racket head is basically going through the shot and
he's releasing the wrist accelerating that racket. The racket is also coming
from down here where it started and it's going up to this position. The wrist is
starting to rotate up. So the racket head started under the ball and under the
hand and here it's already quite a bit above
the hand. The racket head is going to continue moving up from down here where
we started. The racket is going through and up, the hips are still sideways, the
left hand is moving backwards to make sure that he doesn't over rotate. Here
his left hand continues to move backwards as his right arm continues to
move forward. He really throws that arm to the ball.
You can also see how the wrist is totally cocked, so the racket went from
being under the hand before contact the way above the hand. The arm is totally
straight. The scapula are basically pressed together. This really allows him
to stay sideways and not open up too early.
Finally his hips start opening up, his left foot starts coming around, he's
facing the net and he's ready to recover to finish. I will let you look at the
video again I am sure you will recognize all the technical elements that I
discussed. Enjoy it one more time!
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