One Handed Backhand in Open Stance Tennis Technique & Strategy Guide

Hey, Tomas from Field Tennis. Ever tried hitting a one-handed backhand in open stance and felt unstable or underpowered? Probably yes. So in this video, I'm going to talk about what things to do, what technical elements you need to hit a one-handed backhand in open stance when you have to, and how it's different from the forehand open stance or even two-handed backhand open stance. Okay, let me demonstrate to you something. First, I place the camera right in front of me so that you can see the amount of rotation that I'm going to use when I will demonstrate forehands, two-handed backhands, and one-handed backhands in open stance. So the forehand is very comfortable in open stance. So let me demonstrate. It's very comfortable because forehands have a lot of rotation. The upper body rotates close to 180 degrees. I can go from here with shoulders all the way here. I rotate my hips, and staying in open stance or semi-open stance facilitates that very easily. It's very comfortable, and it generates a lot of power contrary to what tennis coaches are telling you that keep forcing you into neutral stance and brainwashing you with constantly stepping into the ball. The open stance on the forehand is the most commonly used stance in tennis at pro level and higher skill level, and one of the reasons why you're staying at lower skill is because you just keep trying to step into the ball. So the open stance two-handed backhand is also very comfortable. Now I'm not a two-handed backhand player, but what Serena and Venus Williams, and now also you can see a lot of Yannick Sinner, they're constantly playing, or the Williams sisters were constantly playing open stance backhands because they were taught from very early age to stay open even on this ball. That's not kind of ideal, but they were able to play very comfortably. Why? Because two-handed backhand also has a lot of rotation, so shoulders rotate all the way from here to here, and so there's a lot of rotation, and so when you have a lot of rotation of the upper body, then staying in open stance, it's very easy, very comfortable to execute. Now when it comes to one-handed backhand, something is different because if I try to hit an open stance, one-handed backhand, and I rotate my shoulders a lot through the shot, I'm not going to hit the ball cleanly, very difficult. Now this one I will since they're coming very nicely to me, but surely you can see that that's not the right technique in the backhand. So if I step into the ball in a neutral stance like a normal backhand, then this would be the right technique, so you can see that I'm staying more sideways. Now not completely, but way more sideways than I was when I was hitting a backhand or a forehand. And so when you come into the open stance, one-handed backhand, you have to try and stay more sideways, and that is quite tricky. This ball went really well, and you will see from the back camera, and maybe from there, because my technique was correct, I was able to stay more sideways while I was in open stance, and that's why I hit the ball very clean and controlled it well. So in the next step, I'm going to show you two keys that are necessary for you to be able to hit one-handed backhands in open stance and hit them well. Okay, here's another visual demonstration. One camera is here, one camera is here for the backhand. So let me show you first neutral stance that you see the difference. So when I'm hitting a forehand neutral stance, and I can nicely step into the ball, I have a lot of rotation coming into the ball, so I'll show you one more. I have a lot of rotation, which helps me hit the ball, the shoulders rotate, the hips rotate. When I hit a one-handed backhand normal in a neutral stance, then I want to stay more sideways because the technique of one-handed backhand requires that. If I try to hit with a lot of rotation, stepping into the ball, and I try to hit like this, you're going to have a lot of problems. That's one of the most common problem on one-handed backhand, which is the over rotation. So now, because I don't have the ability, because of this technique limitation of the swing path limitation, I cannot rotate so much to get so much power out of the backhand. Then I try to compensate that by using my legs and hips more dynamically for this shorter path that I have rising into the ball, and get the power there. So if I hit the backhand again, and I try to hit it harder, then the way I get power is using my leg drive a lot and rotate my hips. So here's another one. So I drive like this into the ball, and I stay more sideways, and I'm not completely sideways, but at around 45 degree angle, I have to stop rotation to control the swing path. Now when I'm done with that and I can recover, then of course I will continue my rotation so I can recover, but this rotation is not part of the hitting. The hitting is more linear, and the body has to stop rotation. So I have less rotation in the backhand, and I have to compensate a lot with this leg. So now that you understand this, that I have always a little deficit of power on the one-handed backhand, because I don't have so much rotation, I compensate this deficit of power with a lot of leg drive. And that is the first key of hitting one-handed backhand in open stance well, is that you have to really coil in your hips and load this leg well to get as much power as you can from this leg and hip rotation, because normally your mistake will be that you get to the ball, you get in an open stance, and your leg will be quite straight before you're hitting it, and now you feel no power, right? So even I cannot, like, this is very, very weak, right? So I need to coil and really rise very dynamically, very explosively out of my left leg and hit the ball to generate power, because I'm going to thrust my hips here, and they're going to drive the energy up into the body. So that is key number one. And key number two, do not allow over-rotation, because over-rotation wants to happen. Your body wants to come out of the shot, and yes, you get more power, but very poor control. So you have to be really conscious and control over-rotation, get the power from your leg and your hips, stay somewhere around 45-degree angle, and you're going to hit a decent one-handed backhand in open stance. So in what situations do we usually play an open stance one-handed backhand? I'm going to show you a return of serve.