Develop More Power on your Backhand – Shoulder to Shoulder Drill

If you constantly struggle to hit your backhands aggressively, and never quite feel like you can hit through the ball, one drill I like to do to get myself in an aggressive mentality is to practice touching my right shoulder to my chin on the preparation phase, and after I hit the ball, touch my chin with my left shoulder on the follow through.

With each backhand, the physical contact of right shoulder / left shoulder will give you immediate feedback as to whether or not you are (a) turning your shoulders properly and (b) hitting through the ball.

It may feel different at first, but like Agassi’s dad used to tell him – ‘just keep whacking that ball hard and one of these days it’s going to go in’. But in all seriousness, it will help you break through the mental barrier of having a ‘weak’ backhand, and help you feel like you can attack the ball from both sides.

Check out this slow mo of Djokovic – 36 seconds for the right shoulder touch, and 2:40 for the left shoulder touch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed3S-X1Xiv4

Sticky Elbow Syndrome

Here’s one of the most common forehand errors I see. People may have reached the point where they can hit with topspin, and they are trying hard to copy a pro with their swing mechanics. But for some reason they just can’t seem to hit through the ball with  much pace.

The bad thing here is when people let that right elbow stick in tight to their waist on the takeback. If that elbow sticks in right beside your waist in the ready-position, then when you turn your body, it stays there. Then, in order to get the racquet through to the hitting position, the only natural thing to do is lift the elbow from your waist to create room. This lifts the racquet well above your head, and it means the racquet must then take a very long arduous journey around your body to the ultimate point of contact (bad). It makes it harder to time the incoming ball properly, and it also makes it much harder for you to extend through the shot.

(Bad chain of events caused from having the elbow too tight to the body.)

Here you can see that my elbow begins right at my hip in position 1. The racquet is forced to go up over my head to position 2 as I try to create space for my arm. As I make contact with the ball at position 3, there is no forward extension towards the net, and very little power is imparted onto the ball. Instead, most of my weight is being shifted from my right foot to my left foot, sideways as seen by number 4.

Again, this bad chain reaction is all caused by tucking my elbow into my waist on the takeback. You don’t want this! Instead, keep it nice and roomy, and re-visit my 3-step forehand guide for the proper demonstration. Check out the Agassi forehand for an example of how you want lots of space between your elbow and body on the takeback.

Here’s the same mistake from another angle. The red line traces the path of my right elbow, and the pink line traces the path of my racquet. As you can see, having the elbow in too tight on the initial turn can cause a large meandering swing, which causes inconsistency and lack of power.

I got some feedback that the above images were confusing, so here I put together a side-by side to try and illustrate the host of problems that are caused by something as simple as having your elbow in too tight.

Figure 1 – The ready position. As you can see, on the left I have my elbows tucked in tight to my body as I splitstep. On the right, I have distance between my elbows and my torso, with the racquet held approximately 1 foot out in front – almost picture wrapping your arms around a small beachball.

Figure 2 – After splitstepping, I start with a shoulder turn. On the left, since my elbow is already at my hip/behind my hip, the racquet is in tight to my body. On the right, after turning my shoulders, the racquet is naturally further from my body.

Figure 3 – As I coil in preparation to hit the ball, the racquet flies behind me in the figure on the left. This is bad. The figure on the right has the racquet closer to my center line, an even there, the racquet is slightly too far behind my center line.

Figure 4 – You can see here that the figure on the right only has to deal with the incoming ball on one vector – or one direction. The figure on the right only has to swing the racquet parallel to the sideline. The figure on the left, however, has to match the racquet to the ball on two vectors – he has to swing the racquet around the body, parallel to the baseline, and then through to the ball parallel to the sideline. This makes it much harder to hit the ball with crisp timing. An analogy would be throwing a straight right cross in boxing, versus a wild haymaker hook.

Figure 5 – As I start the swing at the ball, you can see that the figure on the right is much quicker to reach the contact point. A more compact swing means that the distance from racquet to ball is smaller, and this makes it easier for you to hit the ball at the precise millisecond you want to. In contrast, the figure on the left is much slower to swing through to the point of contact. The slower swing means that you must time the incoming ball perfectly, and if your opponent hits with heavy spin or pace, then you will mis-hit the ball a lot. Typically people that get the racquet behind them too much end up hitting the ball late in their swing, because it takes them so long to reach the contact point.

Figure 6 – Finally, at the end of the shot, rotation is natural for the figure on the right, whereas it is more difficult for the figure on the left. The left figure has had to use their arm to match the racquet to the ball on several vectors, so the shot is predominantly an arm-based motion, and thus will lack not only consistency but also power.

Here’s the video

Agree or disagree? Be sure to leave a comment below 😀

John McEnroe Serve

Likes

Lateral shoulder turn is extreme to enhance lefty spin.

Swings up at the ball nicely

Good rhythm

Dislikes:

Shoulder flexibility looks poor – probably because he’s super old here.

Could use his legs for more power generation

Hitting shoulder does not come all the way through the shot onto the other side of his body on the follow-through.

Create a Gameplan

In most cases before playing a match you know something about your opponent. You either know who they are, and have played them before, or you have some clues as to their calibre. Even if you have none of these things, you can study them during the warm-up. What looks best and worst about their game?

As much as possible, you should study your opponent as they play other matches. Look at their technique. Refer to my ‘Things not to do’ post to try and identify problems with their technique. These flaws can then be exploited.

For instance, if they play with very straight legs, you know their movement is going to be poor. You should test their movement back/forward and side to side. They will also have a very hard time with high looping balls over their shoulder height since they wont have spring in their legs to help them hit through the shot. Volleying at the net vs. someone who has stiff legs is good because with stiff legs it takes them longer to recover after each shot.

If they have a very western grip and like hitting the ball with lots of topspin, then test whether they are capable of returning your  low slices.

If their grip is continental, then hit with heavy topspin, and they will struggle to no end.

If they keep their arms too straight on their backhand, they will struggle with high balls to that side.

If they have a big looping swing instead of a compact one, then they will require perfect timing to connect with the ball. Try mixing up the pace of your shots during the rally – hard ones, loopers, slice, etc.

If they are a serve and volleyer, stand in closer on your returns to rob them of time to get to the net. They’ll have to hit their first volley from far back in the court.

If they’re uncomfortable and bad around the net, then consider hitting short slices to lure them in.

If they’re out of shape, go for long rallies hitting neutral shots down the middle to tire them out, and if you feel comfortable with your shots, get them running side to side using wide angles.

The possibilities for exploiting poor technique are almost endless. But generally you can trust that if someone just looks to be technically poor, that they will generate lots of errors.

Anticipate the Serve

So, if you understand proper tennis technique, and the biomechanic limitations caused by improper technique, you can not only improve your own game, but you can readily spot flaws in your opponent’s technique, allowing you to anticipate where the ball is going before they even hit it.

Hitting the ball this far behind you on the serve can lead to shoulder problems as you physically cannot get your shoulder through the shot. It can also cause back problems if you arch your back on your serve. Plus your opponent will see it coming a mile away.

Do you have a certain opponent you have trouble anticipating the serve with? Comment below and we can figure it out!

Return of Serve

Here’s a summary of all you have to do:

1. Correct Ready Position
2. Wide base, with feet 1.5-2x shoulder width apart
3. Good balance, back straight
4. STEP IN as they toss, and splitstep as your opponent hits the ball
5. Turn shoulders as soon as the ball leaves their racquet
6. Attempt to keep the racquet out in front of your left shoulder, minimizing racquet take-back as much as possible
7. Attack the return, maintaining the forward momentum from your step(s) into the court.

Check out my article on return of serve mentality under the strategy section.

Volley Technique

On low volleys, you want to keep the tip of the racquet pointed up, and basically use the exact same technique as above, except bend your legs a lot, almost like you’re doing a very deep lunge. As above, you cross over your body slightly when you step.

On high volleys, you use the same technique as much as possible – keeping the racquet out in front, and keeping the motion as compact as possible. Especially on high volleys there is a tendency for you to let the racquet swing too far behind you, and this makes it almost impossible to connect with the ball as you are moving forward, the ball is moving through the air, and your racquet is at an unknown angle somewhere behind you.

Court Positioning on the Volley

In the above video I’m trying to demonstrate how by moving into the court, you can dramatically reduce the area your opponent has to potentially pass you. The red box is my maximum coverage when I am standing at the service line, the yellow box is my maximum coverage when I am 3 steps closer, and the green box is my maximum coverage when I am 2 feet from the net. You should strive to be at that 2 feet from the net range if you are ever going to the net. Yes, you may have to hit your first volley from farther back as you move in, but you don’t want to stop moving in unless you get very close to the net. From here, you can cover the court much better.

The Serve

The hardest shot to master. Expect it to take at least 4-5 months of 3x weekly practicing before you feel any comfort with your serve. You just have to hit thousands of serves because it is not a movement done in any other part of your life.

There are many components to a good serve, and you must start with the basics, layering on additional components only when you can do the basics without thinking.

Here is what I would think about.

1) Proper grip. You want to use a proper serving grip, not some pancake paddycake loser grip. You’ll see this all the time with recreational players who only care about serving the ball in. But this means they will always be stuck with a lame serve. Every time they do it wrong, they’re hammering in bad habits. So you want to start with the harder to learn, but proper grip.

2) Point your left toe at the right net post. Your right foot should be about 1-2 feet behind your front foot.

3) Shoulders should be turned, so that if you were to draw a line from your back shoulder to your front shoulder, it would extend towards the right net post.

4) Shift your weight onto your back foot, then back to your front foot.

5) Toss the ball, directly above your head. An ideal toss would land slightly inside the baseline, perhaps 2-3 inches.

6) As you have tossed the ball, reach up with your left hand to create shoulder rotation in the up-down axis.

7) Bend your legs, and continue to stretch up with your left hand.

8) Explode up with your legs and swing up towards the ball, keeping your head up.

9) Land on your left foot and recover quickly ready for your opponent’s return.

—

But if you are a beginner you’re never going to be able to do so many things all at once. There are too many moving parts. So you have to break it down at first and then build on your foundation. Here is how to do it.

1) Starting with the racquet behind your head, check to make sure you have the proper stance.

2) Toss the ball and reach up with your left hand.

3) Swing up and out at the ball, spinning it into the court. At first you will likely feel like you are only carving the very side of the ball due to your grip, and you can expect many balls to bounce on your side of the court, or go into the net headed straight left. To compensate, you must try to hit the ball very very high and off to the right of the court. Even try to hit the ball over the fence on the right side of the court in order to get it to spin into the service box.

4) Once comfortable with the above, incorporate an increased shoulder turn both sideways and vertically.

5) Increase your leg bend and hip bend. Practice exploding upwards at the ball.

For a very technical understanding of the elements of the serve, I found this article to be interesting and useful.

The Slice

There is both a forehand and backhand slice. Both are useful tools to keep in your arsenal. Probably 95% of players only ever practice the backhand slice, but the forehand slice can be useful in certain situations, and it should be practiced as well. The grip is the same as your volleys – continental. The idea is to put backspin on the ball.

There are three kinds of slices 1) A floating slice that takes a long time to land, and gives your opponent no pace 2) a knifing slice that stays low and skids through the court, and 3) a dropshot, which lands 1-2 feet in front of the net, and bounces no further than 3 feet from the net.

Ideally your mechanics on each shot would look exactly the same, and only the angle of the racquet face would determine which of the three options you choose to hit. This way your opponent has no idea what to expect.

The basic swing mechanics are 1) turn your shoulders, 2) the racquet drops to parallel to the court, or descends towards the ball from slightly above. The grip is a volley grip, and you are putting backspin on the ball as you cut under it. On the backhand slice you want to keep your shoulders closed even after you hit the ball, and you want to extend your left hand back, almost squeezing your shoulder blades together to maintain balance. You want to step in through the ball, either with a shuffle step, or karaoke step (left foot moving behind your front right foot) as you move into the court through the shot.

The backhand slice (approach)

Notice in the above gif:

1. I keep my head on the same level throughout the shot, keeping good balance and my eyes on the ball.
2. I keep my legs bent and move through the shot.
3. My font leg steps from my heel to my toe to facilitate transfer of weight forward and through the ball
4. My back leg moves in a karaoke step behind my front leg, to continue forward momentum through the ball.
5. I keep my shoulders parallel to sideline throughout the shot, and extend my left arm out behind me as I hit the ball to maintain that parallel structure in my shoulders.

I do not chop downward at the ball, or think about “carving” the ball for spin. Instead I hit through the shot and move through the shot.

The Forehand Slice

Notice how in the above GIF:

1. I start with a shoulder turn, and my non-hitting hand on the racquet
2. I step heel to toe with my leading foot
3. My back foot karaoke steps behind my front foot to keep forward momentum
4. While I try to keep the racquet as compact to my body as possible, my forward lunge causes it to lag behind me, generating power. Had I thought of taking it behind me, my swing would have become much too large and unwieldy.
5. My head stays relatively level, but there is still too much up and down movement.

Dropshots

For dropshots, it’s best to disguise them by hitting them toward your opponent. Visually it will look just like a regular slice for the first second, which robs them of time to get there. If disguise is not so important, it’s generally best to hit it to their backhand, typically the weaker side.

Forehand Dropshot (approach)

Notice in the above GIF:

1. I try to keep my legs bent and my head on the same level.
2. I keep my eyes on the ball well through the shot.
3. I step heel-to-toe, and land on that leading foot after a forward hop, maintaining forard momentum.
4. I follow through the shot in an upward motion. I do not chop down on the ball. Following through with the body and racquet is of great importance to maintain control of the ball.

Dropshots are typically hit only when you are inside the baseline after your opponent has hit a weak or short ball. One effective technique is to prepare as though you are going to hit a powerful approach shot, and then at the last second chip a dropshot and approach the net.

If you are running in quickly towards a short ball, and are going to hit a dropshot, you have to try and land the ball closer to the net (I typically try to land the ball right on the net), as your forward momentum will tend to push the ball further than you would think.

You must always follow your dropshot to the net, and stand approximately 3 feet from the net awaiting their return. If it is a good dropshot, your opponent will  be forced to hit the ball upward, and you can then volley it into the open court, or alternatively hit it right at them hard. Hitting a volley right at your opponent when you are both at the net is usually the best shot as you increase your margin for error (no lines involved), and it is very difficult for them to get out of the way.

Even if your dropshot is crummy, you still must follow it into the net as it puts pressure on your opponent to pass you.

Bad Forehand Dropshot

Notice how here, I strike down on the ball with no follow-through, and I do not maintain any forward momentum through the shot. I do not follow through with my back leg, or continue in towards the net. I am just standing static. This makes it very hard to control the ball, and it also telegraphs your shot to your opponent so they can see it coming a mile away. Not to mention it leaves you flat footed and in poor position (probably).

Also in the above GIF you can see how I take my eyes off the ball right before I hit it because I am too eager to see where it will end up. On dropshots especially, you have to watch the ball.

One effective tactic when your opponent gives you a weak ball, is to feign as though you are going to hit a penetrating forehand approach, then hit a clean little dropshot to follow in to the net.

Approach Fake-out

If you do not follow your dropshot into the net, your opponent should simply dropshot you right back. Since they are so close to the net, it is an easy shot to hit, and you have little time to react if you are at the baseline. If your opponent dropshots you, conversely, you should always dropshot them back if they are not at the net. If they DO follow their dropshot into the net, you can either try to hit the ball softly and low and their feet so they pop it up, or lob it over them to their backhand side. Pros frequently go for the sharp angle dropshot crosscourt, but this is dangerous since if your opponent gets to that ball, they have a clear shot up the line to pass you.

To practice your touch around the net with dropshots and angles, practice playing with an opponent. Both  players start at the net, and one holds the ball on top of the net in the center of the court. Let go of the ball, and it will fall to one side. From there, have fun trying to use angles and spin to beat your opponent while keeping the ball in the mini-tennis court. The guys over at essential tennis have a video of themselves playing this drill out. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=158&v=r3fVeqbHscA

Top 10 Most Common Groundstroke Mistakes

Groundstrokes

If your racquet is down too low when the ball is bouncing high, and you are making contact up above your head, the result is that you have poor extension through the ball, your power declines, you must hit with a high trajectory and/or lots of spin. It is possible that you may hit the ball on the frame of the racquet. Note that this is not necessarily bad if you are intending to return the ball with a high looping trajectory.

If you have the wrong grip (not western enough), you can expect the ball to fly long with no spin, or even over the fence if your opponent is hitting the ball at you with topspin.

If your legs are stiff, you can expect poor power, constantly reaching for the ball, shoulders too open (no splitstep), and that you continually lose points when the ball is hit short in the court or low height.

If your stance is closed off, you will likely hit the ball late, and it will go out wide of down the line. Your hips cannot come through the shot.

If you are consistently hitting the ball too late (going wide down the line), it may be that your swing is too big, you are too slow to turn, or your footwork is too slow.

If your shoulders are too open, you will likely see the racquet going way behind you, the ball flying all over the court / loss of control, and either wide down the line or wide crosscourt.

If you fail to drop the racquet below the ball before swinging, you can expect to hit a lot of balls into the net. This is usually caused by / goes together with poor knee bend.

If you are taking the racquet back instead of doing a unit turn / shoulder turn, your arm may be too straight, resulting in the racquet going behind you, erratic results, poor control, and a slow motion. You will have poor body rotation and poor racquet head speed.

If your leading toe is not pointed in the right direction (towards your opponent), you will be off-balance after the shot, and your body momentum will continue in the direction of your toe – off the court potentially. Your shots will be more defensive in nature and not penetrating.

A lot of juniors get their elbow in too tight to their body, which facilitates a wild take-back of the racquet, and difficulty controling the swing. Instead you want to keep the racquet well out in front of your body in the ready position, and maintain that distance between your elbows and hips throughout the swing.

Try and pick out what things I’m doing wrong in the below two videos! It’s fun being a critic!

And hopefully now you know enough to scoff at other people’s poor technique next time you’re out on the courts.