hey guys in today's video i'm going to compare the classic one-handed backhand with the modern
one-handed backhand and the one thing that stands out is that the classic backhand was performed
with a continental grip and when this is the case it is a lot more difficult to be vertical
shortly after contact because the wrist is in a very unfavorable position to do so and when
you take a look at the position of my hand in a continental grip you can see there's nothing
really under my hand the tips of my fingers are holding the racket and therefore is a lot more
difficult to have that vertical swing path players with a classic one-handed backhand that utilize
the continental grip often would have the racket face slightly open as they finish the stroke and
this is just a result of the continental grip and because the racket face tends to open up more as
we get the arm further away from the body when the one-handed backhand is struck with a continental
grip that means that it's far more difficult to have power and control at the same time and this
was evident in how the one-handed backhand was struck way back in the day let's go back to the
30s where fred perry used to play so players back in those days didn't really use their body they
struck the one handed back in with a continental grip and it would mostly play the ball out of
the arm so there was really not a lot of body movement and there was a lot of forearm movement
involved and the backhand was a very short stroke overall mostly they would depend on the pace of
the incoming ball to generate power and it looks something like this and with time the one-handed
backhand evolved into more of a body shot where the entire body was helping the arm out and the
one of the first players to have the body involved in the backhand was rod laver so rod laver had a
very modern setup on his one-handed backhand if you ever see pictures or videos of rod laver he
would load the backhand up just like the players do today he would have this v formation between
his front leg and the torso and he would have the shoulder blade towards the ball and he would have
his chin over the shoulder looking at the incoming ball and when the backhand is set up in this
way when we have this huge shoulder turn it is unlikely that players are going to strike the ball
like this because it's a very counter-intuitive movement so naturally when the backhand is set
up in this way there's going to be a rotation into the contact and what this means now not only
will the swing path change but also the racket is going to drop at a different place so take a look
if i start the backhand like this where i'm just turned sideways and i drop my racket the racket
will drop with the strings parallel to the side fence if i get my shoulder blade towards the ball
now the strings are going to drop parallel to the back fence all of a sudden there's more range of
motion going into the contact but it's not only that we also are utilizing torso rotation so we're
going to rotate into the contact we're going to involve the body a lot more so let's take rod
laver for example he used the continental grip on his backhand he used to drop his racket behind the
body like this and he rotated into the contact and this is why i still consider rod laver's backhand
a classic backhand because his racket face was open as he came around the body like this so
when the backhand is struck in this way there's going to be a lot less top spin and all you have
to do is focus on the tip of my racket you can see what happens shortly after the contact so on a rod
laver backhand he used to rotate into the contact and now the tip of the racket used to remain
on the non-dominant side of the body so used to point towards the left so the racket never came
around this way the tip of the racket would stay towards the outside now let me show you what that
looks like i'm not going to allow the tip of the racket to come across the body i'm going
to keep it towards my left you can see there's a very flat ball you can see that second bounce
there's very little spin on a backhand like this you can see i missed that one long
so also there's a problem with control but we can get a tremendous amount of power this way
the problem is that it's difficult to get the ball to fly on a curve inside the baseline and
most likely we cannot for that reason hit it very hard we have to be a little bit more gentle and
most likely rely on the pace of the incoming ball and this type of backhand stayed around for a long
time players such as ivan lendl or even michael stich used to hit the backhand in exactly the
same way the tip of the racket and never really came around if you ever see a ivan lendl back hand
he used to have a really big setup with a big shoulder turn he used to rotate into the contact
but the tip of the racquet never came around this way used to stay towards this non-dominant side
and michael stich hit the backhand in a very similar way and by no means are these classic
backhands such as laver lendl or stich bad backhands they're excellent backhands they can
hit the ball with a lot of power but if we compare a classic backhand to a modern backhand we can see
a big difference and here are the characteristics of a modern one-handed backhand and guys when
it comes to the modern one-handed backhand once players started to switch towards the eastern side
now topspin was a lot easier for the simple reason that when we have the hand in the eastern grip
now the thumb is going to be underneath the racket which makes it a lot easier to go in a vertical
fashion over the ball if you compare that to the old-school continental grip you can see that just
the bottom of our fingers are underneath the grip and this is much more difficult when it
comes to the vertical swing path not only that but also the wrist is in a very unfavorable position
as well in an eastern grip we're dealing more with the back side of our hand which is a lot easier
uh to go in an upward fashion across the ball but it's not only that remember we talked about the
racket face being open the further away we go from the ball and the continental grip this is exactly
the opposite in an eastern grip so once i'm in an eastern grip if i make contact you can see
the racket face is in a neutral position now as i go across the racket remains in a neutral position
this is a lot more favorable when it comes to top spin and when it comes to power the eastern backhand
grip is also a big factor because the wrist is going to be slightly extended and is in a far
more stable position compared to the continental grip so when we have the wrist slightly extended
and now there's a lot more stability in the racket and we can accelerate much faster so there's going
to be absolutely no difference in the setup so rod laver set the backhand up the same way
roger federer sets up his backhand the difference between those two backhands is what happens
shortly after contact and all you have to do is concentrate on the tip of my racket so here's
for example a roger federer backhand the tip of the racket will not stay towards the left side of my
body it will come around so the tip of the racquet is going to come around and now it's going to
start going backwards and this is how top spin is created on the one-handed backhand and when we hit
the one-handed backhand with top spin we can hit it much harder and therefore indirectly generate
more power because we're able to swing freely we don't have to be cautious in other words and we
don't depend on the pace of the incoming ball that much so let me show you one of these backhands
i'm gonna have the tip of the racket come around the body and then point towards the back
fence so let's see what happens you can see there there's a lot more spin you can see that the ball
is bouncing higher in the opposing fence and i can hit the ball a lot harder therefore i don't have
to be careful let me try one more allow the tip of the racquet to come through you can see there
the pace of the ball is actually decreased a little bit this is the truth about topspin
for any shot whether it be the forehand or the serve when we put more topspin on the ball we reduce
the speed but what that means in turn is that we can swing a lot faster without sacrificing
control let me try one more i'm going to try to take a big cut at this one and let's see what
happens that was a little bit better you can see that super high bounce on the other side that is
a top spin one-handed backhand and some of the pioneers of the topspin backhands were guillermo
vilas and stefan edberg these are the guys that i was able to identify as the first players to hit
the backhand with more top spin and the way they struck the ball was exactly like federer strikes
it guillermo vilas used to rotate into the contact and the tip of the racket came around this way and
one key to a topspin backhand is where the racket finishes usually the tip of the racket will point
towards the back fence and the cap of the racquet will point towards the other side let me show you
from this side so the topspin backhand we usually have a swing path that goes vertically across the
body and the tip of the racket goes towards the back fence and the butt cap of the racket is
pointing towards the other side how about a more flat backhand like stan wawrinka so a backhand
like that still has a lot of spin but it's definitely more flat than for example the backhand
of roger federer or richard gasquet and here's the one difference so on the wawrinka backhand the tip
of the racquet will go around the body but it will come through a little more so it's more of a
horizontal swing path resulting in less spin but anytime a we're hitting the ball in an up
across and back fashion we are generating top spin it's just going to be less rpms on the ball than
on a backhand where the tip of the racket is coming more vertically across the ball this
way so let me try to do one of these wawrinka type backhands and i'm going to allow the tip of the
racket to come through the ball a little bit more you can see there it's definitely a more flat shot
and i'm actually whoops i missed that one so again when you hit flat you make more mistakes for sure
let me try one more there's the wawrinka style backhand so the ball is going faster
but there's definitely a lower percentage shot compared to the topspin one-handed
backhand another huge difference between a classic one-hander and a modern one-hander is how the body
is helping the racket go around the body so just picture someone like a pete sampras or dennis
shapovalov these guys would have the arms go so far back i heard a story that pete sampras was
so flexible he could touch his elbows behind his back and dennis shapovalov hits the backhand
in such a way that his hands are almost touching behind the body so i can't do this because i'm a
two-hander naturally i'm going to try to go as far back as i can and so i can go to about right here
but when we do this movement where the hands are going the opposite directions we are drawing more
energy from the core mostly from the back muscles so what happens is that shortly after contact we
start utilizing that left arm going in the opposite direction and now we're helping the
racket go around the body by squeezing the shoulder blades and puffing our chest out
and some players are so flexible that they can go very far back and the first player i was
able to identify they had such a finish was stefan edberg one of my favorite one-handed
backhands of all time stefan was one of the first players who had this huge finish where both arms
were going in the opposite direction after contact so when it comes to the recreational level which
backhand should you use the classic one-hander or the modern one-handed well it's going to be
a little bit of a complicated answer because a classic backhand can actually be quite beneficial
to your one-handed backhand and here's what i mean the one-handed backhand is a very versatile
shot so there's gonna be times where you're gonna have to chip the backhand you're gonna have to
block it or bunt it you will also have to have a backhand volley with one hand and
you will have to hit a slice and playing the backhand with one hand even the classic way
helps all those shots as i stated in the beginning of the video one characteristic of the classic
backhand that had less body involvement and was more played out of the arm and this will sometimes
be the case for example on a bunt backhand you're not going to use your body that much just think
of john mcenroe he used to bunt a lot of backhands this is not a shot that's relying on the body too
much it's basically an arm movement and this is where it's very similar to a classic one-handed
backhand but when it comes to your rally shot the backhand that you're trying to hit aggressively
that you're going to hit most of the time you absolutely have to utilize the modern one-handed
backhand and here's what you have to do first of all there has to be more body involvement so you
can't set the backhand up like this and just use the arm you're doing yourself a big disservice
because now you're relying on the arm which is a very weak way to make power and it's also going to
be less consistent therefore what you have to do is set the backhand up with a big shoulder
turn if the ball is a little bit lower you can even dip into the ball and now when you do this
setup naturally you're going to rotate into the contact now here comes the important part you have
to command your hand to go up and across the body what i say is to go at least to the level of your
dominant shoulder and you have to make the tip of the racket go towards the back fence and point the
butt cup of the racket towards the opposing side so when you hit your backhand in that way you are
utilizing your body in the most optimal way and making the movement of the arm more effortless