Tennis Two Handed Backhand - 3 Steps To The Perfect Double Hander

Hey guys, Simon and Alex here from Top Tennis Training and welcome to video number one from our two-handed backhand course. In this video, we're going to discuss the three simple steps to the perfect double-handed backhand. Now, the first thing to discuss is when you're waiting on the baseline, which grip should you hold the racket with? Now, when Simon's in the ready position, you can see that he's using his forehand grip and this is most common for the players around the world. The top hand, so it's his left hand, is on top of the racket, it's near the throat of the racket and some players vary it depending on how they hit the ball, how high or low it is. He's still using the forehand grip for his right hand. When Simon recognizes that the ball goes to his backhand, he will use his left hand to change the grip and turn the racket in his right hand into a backhand grip. The grip will then become a chopper grip with the right hand. Imagine holding a hammer or trying to hit the bottom side of your racket onto the court. Now, you have the chopper grip. The top hand will slide down the racket and become a left-handed forehand, so the left hand will be from the side of the racket, giving the impression of a left-handed forehand, a semi-western grip on the left hand. So it's the chopper grip with the right hand and the semi-western grip with the left hand. To make it easier, we're going to come from the top of the racket with the right hand and from the side of the racket with the left hand. Again, the left hand will slide down the racket the moment Simon recognizes that the ball is going to his backhand. That left hand will make the necessary turn to get his right hand into the right grip and then make the ready adjustment to be able to hit the shot. Now let's go back to our three simple steps that we're going to talk about today. So step number one is recognizing where the ball is going and as soon as you recognize that it is coming to your backhand, that first step is getting this right shoulder turn sideways onto the ball and moving to the ball sideways on. The most common issue that we see with most players in that first step is that they start moving to the ball with sidesteps and they're facing the net in that position. So you really want to get the right shoulder turned, notice how Simon's foot, his back heel actually comes off the ground and it allows his right knee to actually allow him to rotate. If you don't lift that foot, it's very tough to put the shoulder across your body. So make sure that you're lifting up that heel and giving that turn fully and then you're going to step forward with the right foot. Now when you're moving to the ball, regardless of the footwork pattern you're going to use, you want that right shoulder facing the ball, facing the net and you want to almost have your chin resting on your right shoulder when you're moving to the ball. This will allow for that good unit turn, that good body turn and then when you start the forward phase of the swing, that great rotational power. Remember guys, the power comes from the trunk of the body, so you want to use as much of that as possible and what better way to do that than to actually pre-turn, so you wind up the core, you coil up and then you release when you're hitting it. Now I haven't done anything with my racket up to this point. Everything has come from that shoulder turn, from that unit turn, so at the start I'm sliding down the left hand, I'm changing the grips and I'm turning my upper body. My racket hasn't gone back at all. Everything is controlled with my shoulders and with my hips. Step number two, reaching the power position. Now the power position happens on every single stroke, so if we look at the serve, we reach this trophy position, if we look at the forehand and the back position here and it happens on the double hander as well, but what is the perfect power position? Now having studied the best players in the world, the best double handers in the world, we quickly realise that they all have a common trait in their power position. Now if you watch players like Agassi and Djokovic, most of them have the racket head much higher than the grip level when they're waiting in that power position. Some players do have the racket down, but that doesn't generate the leverage that you want, so we recommend reaching a position where the racket head is higher than the grip level, as you can see in this position here, and the strings are neither closed or open. They're in that neutral position and a very easy way to find this is by doing a very simple drill. Now a very good drill to find that perfect power position is by doing this. Alex is starting in the ready position, he's going to turn his upper body and his hips as you can see, he's using that right knee as well to pivot, the right foot is coming off the ground so the heel of the right foot is coming off the ground to help with that pivot and that turn. Now you can see the racket head is much higher than the grip and the strings are flat against the fence. This is exactly what we want to reach in that power position. You can repeat this process over and over again until you start feeling confident that you can reach that position without having to have the guide off the fence or wall. So Alex might do 20 or 30 of these until he starts feeling confident and then we'll do it on the court and once he starts reaching that position I'll start hand feeding him balls so he can hit the ball from that position. Now to show the effectiveness of this drill we're going to have Alex demonstrate. Now I'm a single hander and for this drill I'm going to be using my two handed backhand which I haven't practiced, I haven't hit before and I'm going to see how quickly I can improve hitting it with this drill. So the focus of this drill is recreating step one and step two. Once Alex is in that power position I'm going to then hand feed the ball because a hand feed is much easier to control than feeding from the other side. So if you're training with a coach or you're training with a training partner make sure that they hand feed you once you reach that power position. Now this drill is all about Alex reaching that power position time and time again and working from there. I'm not worried about the result, I'm not worried about the finish of the stroke, do I feed the ball. Now Alex how did you feel that was helping your two hander? I felt like I could get into the right position and I knew what I was doing and I felt like I had the time because obviously Simon was feeding once I got into that position so I was able to repeat the process in my mind which made it a lot easier. So I feel like now I can actually start from the ready position and see if I can recreate it while the ball is flying to me. Again the focus is on reaching that power position and a good unit turn. As you can see the backhand is already looking very good just with those two simple steps. Perfect. Step number three the finish. Now two important things to focus on on the finish is number one finishing over your right shoulder if you're a right handed player. Now it's important to keep this left elbow nice and high so an easy way to remember especially for little kids that I coach is to have the elbow nose height so make a big nose with your elbow. Make a big nose with your elbow when you're finishing on the backhand. Now the second important part to focus on on the finish is to have this back foot, this is my left foot if I'm a right handed player, coming around to aid the recovery and help with the rotation. Now depending on where Simon is recovering on the court, depending how far up the court he is will depend on how far that left foot travels around. Now if he's more up the court and has to recover backwards that left foot will come around much more. Now he's able to push back. If he's wanting to recover sideways the foot will come to the side and similarly if he's moving backwards he's now leaving that foot behind so then he can recover forward and be in a good position for the next shot. It's important to remember that the left foot has to come around only after the stroke. Only after I make contact and I've completed my rotation will that left foot come around to complete and help me rotate. What I don't want to do is to just pivot on that foot and rotate while I'm moving my left foot. This will encourage me to just pivot on my foot. It will take away the use of my obliques, the use of my sides, the use of my rotation and that's one of my primary power sources so if you take that out of the shot you'll feel weak and you'll probably end up missing the ball. Now we don't want to leave that back foot behind if we want to generate power. Now if we're taking power, if our opponent's hitting the ball hard, the power's already on the ball, we can leave it behind and we can either stroke the ball or we can jab the ball and we can leave that foot behind because the power's already on the ball. But if we're generating, we want to use as much of our muscles, as much of the rotation as possible to hit the ball effectively. Thank you guys for watching. That was the three simple steps to the perfect double-handed backhand. Now video two will be live in the next few days so make sure you check your inbox and your junk folder for that email with the link to the video. We'll send it as soon as it's live. Now if you haven't done so already, do subscribe to our channel as well. All the best guys and see you soon.