Why Your Two-Handed Backhand Misses EVERY Time (Fix This Grip)

Have you ever wondered why on your two-handed backhand, it always goes short or into the net or it would go super high anywhere but the middle? Today I want to share with you the experience that I had when I did lessons in my past students. Most of the players that had two-handed backhand issue was the problem with this. They would miss down or into the net or long anywhere but middle. So if you have those kind of problems, stay tuned. I had a really good backhand, two-handed backhand but it was very heavy. It wasn't very flat so I had a very heavy topspin backhand but the thing is you would use it to set up for my forehand where I could flatten it out or hit heavy. I could do everything on my forehand but I couldn't flatten it out and I couldn't really put away shots with my backhand. The main common issue that I see on the backhand, the grip. A lot of you know which grip you have to start with. I think a lot of you had coaching or on the internet you know which bevel your knuckles go. We're not going to be talking about too much on the left hand today but we're going to talk about the right hand where it needs to be. It's okay to do a semi-western forehand. Let's say you're a lefty forehand. On the left hand, it's okay to do a forehand grip on the semi-western which is if you go here. Let's say we're going to go around this way. This is bevel 1. This is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and the side 6 which is the bevel 6 is where your knuckle goes. Your left hand knuckle. If you have that grip, it's fine. You could be holding the bevel 6 or bevel 7 which is this side and like an eastern forehand. You could have those two grips but the right hand is where a lot of people don't know where to put it. On the semi-western left hand, if you just put the right hand very comfortably, your right hand is almost to a point where it's like an eastern backhand grip. Eastern backhand grip is actually the knuckle. A lot of people get confused but the right hand knuckle, the index knuckle on bevel 1 is called an eastern one-handed backhand grip. Going back to the grip, I'll explain why I explained this right now later. The left hand is on the semi-western grip and if you're comfortably putting the right hand on the grip, a lot of times you're going to be putting it near the eastern one-handed backhand grip. What that does is it closes the racket face when you take it back. Let's say I'm that way and when I take the racket back, it's going to close the racket face naturally. Now, I'm not even turning my wrist that much but the racket face is super closed about 45 degrees and as you're coming out to hit the ball, as you're coming out to hit the ball, you have to somehow square out the face and you can't contact the ball super far out in front. You have to contact the ball a little bit more here to make it more comfortable and then what happens is as you're coming to hit the ball, because you have to square out, you're lifting the racket and you're doing it abruptly or too fast and if you do it too early, the ball would sail. If you do it late, you would hit the net. So you're basically hitting anywhere but the middle. Today's video was going to be actually about the tilt of the shoulder on the two-handed backhand depending on what type of grip you have but I was going to do that video later and I'm going to do this video first talking about the grip. I would advise you, recommend you guys if you're having trouble with the backhand, try to change your right hand to more of a continental or a little bit even further. So I actually hold it further than, I actually changed it because I was watching Chung, I was coaching Chung, I was watching a lot of these players at the top and one thing I wanted to improve while I was coaching was my two-handed backhand. I was actually trying to improve myself because when I improve, I do a better job of coaching to my students and my players back at home or you know junior players who are developing, they don't struggle with the same thing that I've been going through because when you're going to the top level, you need your backhand to be at a certain level and the thing is if you have a certain pattern that you play with all the time, they're going to read it and try to exploit that. So if your heavy backhand is great and they can't do anything, that's great but you always want to add variables to your game where the opponent can't anticipate and they're always guessing on your next moves. The greatest backhands in the game, I felt like most of them had more of an open racket face than a closed racket face in the back. So that's why they're able to hit through more and the thing is players who actually had the textbook grip of semi-western grip on the left hand and a continental on the right hand, they were actually using their wrist to open up and square up to be able to transfer all of your energy into the ball rather than hitting it at an angle going this way. So that's why their backhands had plow through and they could hit through, drive it and actually hit winners off their backhand instead of just setting up for their forehands by just hitting it heavy which what I was doing and a lot of pros do that too because it works so well because if you're hitting up here on the backhand and you're hitting heavy, it's really hard to take control on that backhand but I wanted to do both. You don't want to just hit heavy. I wanted to drive it through. Anyways, that's a long explanation of why I learned this but be careful with the right hand. That right hand needs to be slightly more open and it can help out if you're closing a lot with the left hand. It can help out with the right hand as you're opening the racket face here. It squares it out much easily than when you have more of an eastern backhand grip which closes it and that way you're opening up too early and the ball is sailing long or you're opening up late and you have to lift your body to get the ball but again, you'd probably hit short or really weak ball because you're not really driving through and you're just lifting your shoulder like this. A lot of coaches and parents want their kids to move in towards the ball and get their body weight moving forward but they know instinctively if they do that, they're going to hit the bottom of the net so they keep lifting to get the ball height and actually get it over the net. They could probably time it right in practice but usually in matches, you're moving around, you're anticipating, you're trying to guess where your opponent is hitting, you never know where they're going to hit so you're always kind of guessing and when you're slightly late, you're always trying to manipulate it and and the backhand just goes to sh**. It just never works in a match. When you're in a practice situation and you're not pressured and mentally you're fine and you're timing it perfectly, it's fine. But the thing is when you go into a match like parents and coaches, they just cannot figure out what their kids are doing. Like their backhand is fine during a during a practice. I don't know what's happening in a match. It's because in a match situation, your mistakes and your flaws are much more pronounced than in practices. Let me show you. Okay, so let's do it the wrong way first. Semi-western grip on the left hand and very comfortably putting my right hand on the grip. I'm going to try to hit normally. It was just fine before. Jeez. Okay, so left hand is a semi-western grip and right hand is comfortably put on the grip and this is basically what happens. You close the racket face. If you lean forward trying to go forward, the ball goes down. Now if you're trying to get it in, you're just trying to lift your body or you have to really lift your arm super high to get the ball going forward. I could open. See, even if I try to hit it well, it goes down a lot. So basically, you have to lift your shoulder up to actually get it moving and the racket face opens up, squares up, and you're able to hit a little bit more straight. Now, same grip on the left hand, semi-western, but if you change your grip on the right hand here, it's a lot easier. If you're just doing it at continental, this is a continental. Feels a little bit weirder, but watch. It's very easy to do. Again, doesn't take a lot. Now if you're forcing a lot on these backhands, it's probably because if you have the wrong grip. The first thing I take a look at when I have a lesson is the grip. The last thing I change is the grip, but on the two-handed backhand, this has been such an ongoing problem for most players. I usually change it in like 20 minutes because we try different things. They just can't do it. Again, change your grip. Left hand on the semi-western, right hand either on the continental or a little bit further to eastern forehand grip. It doesn't have to go all the way eastern, but look at that. Look how easy that is, and if you want to hit hard, look how easy it is to hit hard, but if you have that wrong grip, it just takes so much to get the ball moving. Here we go. See, I really have to force that. What's wrong with the ball? See that? I could try to go higher and hit heavy, and that's a good shot, but it's not going to finish the point unless you're playing like a, you know, you're not playing someone that's great, but it's very tough to flatten out, to drive the ball, and finish the point. Now, like I said, the first thing I take a look at is the grip. The last thing I change is the grip. Grip is one of the most important things on a stroke, on your ground strokes, or any stroke because it dominates how your racket face faces depending on which grip you have, and the grip actually dominates the swing. So, when you have, for example, you have a certain grip, but you want to play the opposite. Let's say you have a western grip like Jack Sock, but you're trying to play like Federer, and you want to look like Federer. It's not going to work. It just physically can't work. Like, physics doesn't work that way. So, if you want to play a certain style or certain way, you have to have that grip because the grip dominates the string. Sorry, the grip dominates the swing. So, make sure you take that into account when you're actually learning swings and when you're analyzing your own swings. Again, the left hand you could put on the eastern or the semi-western, but the important part is a lot of people forget the right hand has to be on the continental or a little bit further, even like on eastern forehand grip to be able to square the racket face. If you are watching this and saying like, yeah, my right hand is always on continental, but you never know. You have to actually film it or you have to have your coach take a look at it because players do fiddle around with their grip and they always go back to what feels comfortable rather than what you're actually doing, what you actually need to do. So, you know, it's always good to check and if it's not a problem, if you're not having problems with the two-handed backhand, you don't need to check. You don't need to make it a problem out of it. So, for the players that are watching this and have that problem of generating power, generating height, generating the plow through, then try this method and see how it works out for you. And again, there's a lot of different ways to fix strokes, but this is one of them for your two-handed backhand that's going short and not having enough power. Try this and leave comments below. See how it goes and thanks for watching. See you in the next one.