Hi guys, I’m Clay Ballard with Top Speed Tennis, and today we’re going to talk about
how you can start hammering those backhands.
It works much like we use a hammer, I’m going to go over the proper wrist actions
so you can get tons of speed, tons of topspin.
I can’t wait to get started on this drill with you guys, so let’s go ahead and do
it.
OK, so the way we use the racket in the backhand is very similar to how we would use a hammer.
And if you have a hammer laying around the house, I recommend you pause the video, go
grab the hammer, and we’ll walk through this drill.
I’m going to show you exactly how to use these wrist actions to create a lot of power
and spin using the motion that you guys already know and are very comfortable with.
So first off, let’s talk about, you know, if I was hammering a nail into the ground.
Imagine there’s a piece of word here, and I’m hammering a nail into the wood.
My wrist is going to create an angle here, it’s going to create leverage and it’s
creating angle between what would be the racket head here, and my forearm.
Now as I release this hammer and hit that nail, you see this lever is going away.
I’m releasing this lever, so that I can maximize the weight that’s in the head and
the length of the hammer to really drive that nail into the ground.
I don’t have to use a lot of force and effort from my arm.
I’m letting the hammer do the work.
If we do the correct motions in tennis, we can let the racket do the work and maximize
the full length of the racket to create a lot of speed.
So once we’re comfortable with this motion, and you’ve done this, you feel this a few
times, the difference we’re going to do with a tennis racket is instead of hammering
up and down with the backhand, we’re going to hammering sideways with the backhand.
That’s going to help you to get a lot more speed.
So as I’m going back, I’m going to imagine this is my tennis racket.
As I’m turning back, just like we’re doing in the backhand drill, and I start my forward
momentum, you’ll see that my wrist has an angle.
And this racket, or the hammer or the racket either one, would have a pretty sharp angle
between that and my forearm.
Now as I’m coming into contact, I’m releasing that angle and letting the momentum happen
from the racket, transferring that energy into the ball.
If I am to hold on to this angle and just spin right through it, well I’m not using
the energy from the racket, or even worse if I’m to push the racket out away from
me and hit it with everything straight, I’m not getting the energy there.
So I want to be actively releasing this racket as I’m coming through contact, and it is
on the way to contact, so it’s releasing through contact.
It doesn’t fully extend until we get all the way through, up to our finish position
here.
So let’s go ahead and grab a racket, we’re going to talk about how we can do the same
motion, incorporating the racket in a couple of those angles with the wrist.
We’ll also talk about how the racket turns over to create the topspin.
All right, so now we’ve got the racket, let’s go ahead and take our backhand grip
we talked about in our earlier videos with that first knuckle right on top on bevel number
one.
Then we’re going to make sure everything else is correct.
Now if I was to take the same position that my hand would be in with the hammer, the only
difference is the racket is going to be turned down at a bit of an angle.
We’re going to be holding the racket differently than we would be holding, you know, the grip
of a hammer.
Definitely don’t want that racket up and down.
So if you’re unfamiliar with the backhand grip, just go back and watch that again.
I’m going to walk you through it in a lot more detail, exactly how to hold the racket.
Now from here, what I’m going to do is I’m going to go ahead and go through the motion
of the backhand.
And as I’m coming forward, this would be the position as my body’s turning and starting
that forward motion.
My racket angle and my forearm angle are pretty sharp here.
My wrist is kind of cocked back, just like when I was doing the hammering motion.
And as I’m coming through contact, I’m releasing this angle to allow that racket
to snap forward and transfer a lot of that speed.
And then as I’m coming all the way through now I’ve just fully released this racket
and it’s nice and in a neutral position and fully let go.
But the key here, is that we’re not trying to hold on to this angle.
You know, we’re not trying to hold an angle through contact.
We’re actively releasing this angle through contact so that we can use this large lever
of the racket to release and get a lot more speed.
Another way to feel this, keep your backhand grip and put your arm directly in front of
you and imagine pulling this racket back and then letting it go.
That’s that same hammering, or that sideways hammering action that we would be getting
if we used the weight of the hammer, and we felt that with the hammer.
So that’s the first piece.
We’re going to get some speed from that by letting this racket go.
The second piece of this is with the wrist action here, not only is it sideways like
this, it’s also up and down.
So in the forehand we talked about how we’re going to turn the doorknob to the right, and
then back to the left as we’re releasing this racket.
The racket’s coming all the way on through, much like the windshield wiper.
In the backhand, we’re going to be doing the same thing, but just the opposite.
As we’re coming through, you’ll notice that the tip of this racket has dropped down
a bit below the butt end of the racket.
So if you’re looking at the center of the racket here, it’s dropped down below the
butt end, and the racket’s angled downward a little bit.
As I’m coming through contact, that racket is then going to kick up, and then turn all
the way around as we’re coming into the finish.
So I’m getting that same windshield wiper effect, but just in the opposite direction.
So if I’m just taking this racket and looking from this way, the racket is going to be kicking
up.
This would be prior to contact, this position here.
This would be at contact, this is going to be about parallel with the ground, maybe a
little bit down because it’s still on the act of kicking up.
And then post-contact it’s going to turn all the way around this way.
If we’re looking from a side view, instead of that happening in this direction straight
up and down, it’s going to be happening as I release at a 45° angle, out away from
my body.
So that’s going to allow me to really get that topspin on there in the upward kicking
action of the racket as I’m hitting the ball up and out, that’s what’s going to
allow the strings to grab the ball and create that topspin.
So again I’ll go face on one time here, and then that up and out motion is putting
the spin on the ball.
So you need to feel like that racket is going out away from your body, and kicking up at
the same time to really maximize that spin.
So hopefully that’s going to allow you guys to feel this in kind of a different light.
I’d go through these motions a couple times.
Work along with the video, and now let me give you some drills.
I’m going to walk through some very specific points on how I want you to practice this.
All right, so we’re going to break this down into three separate pieces, then we’re
going to work on a couple drills as we’re doing this.
So the first piece, we’re going to imagine a ball is coming, and we’re just going to
do some shadow work here.
I’m going to take my step forward as my racket is coming and dropping down, I begin
the forward momentum with the racket.
I’m going to let the tip of the racket drop a little bit below the butt end of the racket.
So the tip is dropping down a little bit.
This would be when I’m maximizing this angle, this lever like we did with the hammer.
I’m going to come up through contact, let my racket swing up and out away from my body.
So my racket is moving up and out this way.
And I’m going to pause at contact here, where my racket is basically parallel with
the ground.
I’ve released a little bit of angle in my wrist, and I’ve also started to turn it
back to the right, just like I’m turning a doorknob to the right.
So position number one, position number two, contact, and then position number three is
we come on around.
I’m going to let this racket continue forward and turn all the way around until now the
butt end of the racket is facing the opposing side of the court.
So it’s kicked all the way around, and I’m going to finish here with the butt end of
the racket facing the other side.
I’ve put all three of these together into one fluid motion, it’s going to look something
like that.
So first off, start pausing for two to three seconds in each one of these positions.
Position number one, number two, contact, number three, the full finish.
Two to three seconds pausing in each one of those.
100 repetitions in each position, then we’re going to do 100 repetitions doing the exact
same thing, without any pauses.
We’re going to make that one fluid motion, another 100 reps.
Once we’ve done the reps without any pauses, we’re going to go ahead and grab our ball
hopper, toss a few balls up behind the baseline here.
Again I’m going to stay a few feet behind the baseline, try to really extend out and
make contact in front of my body kicking up and out.
And we’re going to hit a few shots about 100 shots, getting that into the proper positions,
hitting some tossed balls.
So go nice and slow, between repetitions I recommend you go back to pausing in the correct
positions, making sure that you feel those motions really get that ingrained and then
go ahead and hit some more balls.
100 total shots, with the pauses, without the pauses, and then tossing a ball.
You guys are going to be well on your way to ingraining this motion and hitting better,
harder, faster, more spinning backhands.
So good luck, I’ll see you guys soon.
Hi guys, I hope you all really enjoyed this video.
If you did enjoy this video I have a great bonus for you all.
The perfect thing to add to your backhand is a killer forehand.
And I’m going to give you a preview of one of the videos from the Topspin Forehand series.
You can watch this entire video plus the entire series absolutely free of charge, if you click
the link that’s popping up in your screen, or down below in the description.
I look forward to seeing you guys much more in the future, and good luck with that backhand.
If you enjoyed this video, again, click the like button, +1 this video on Google, and
if you have any questions put them in the comments below.
I’ll see you all soon.
…and make this L-type motion with our arms.
Then the racket needs to be pointed out at basically a 45° angle.
The racket’s going to be at a 45, and the tip of the racket from the butt end, will
be pointing right over toward 3:00.
That’s the first motion that we want to get into.
So as we’re loading up, the racket tip is going to be pointing out toward 3:00, and
at about a 45° angle.
Now the second move is where really the magic starts to happen, and that’s the loading
of the forearms.
This is called a stretch-shortening cycle.
So any time you’re going to have a lot of power and fire your muscles with good speed
and good power, we need to first stretch those muscles and then fire them.
So what’s going to happen here, from this first move, we’re now going to make a motion
which would be very similar to turning a doorknob to the right with your wrist.
So as we’re doing the first motion, first piece here, racket’s out to the right.
Now as I’m coming back, I want to go ahead and turn my hand to the right as though it’s
a doorknob.
And I’m going to do this until the tip of my racket now instead of pointing at 3:00,
is all the way back to about 7:30.
Now don’t mistake this with your…