How to do Different Tennis Backhands

Coach Dinoffer and his daughter demonstrate various shots for which a backhand swing is extremely useful.

Here she demonstrates hitting several shots. First, she is hitting wide balls that are just out of reach for a two-handed stroke. She has to recognize when she is in this situation and hit a one-hander. Second, is when balls are short and low. In this situation not only is the ball slightly out of reach, but it's also low and close to the net. The open racket face of the one-handed backspin backhand is needed to get the ball over the net and in to play. Third, is that a one-hander is generally recommended for drop shots, as Colindy(ph) is now demonstrating. The fourth and final situation, when a one-handed backspin backhand is required, is when returning hard hit balls at the body. This occurs most often when returning serve. If she were to try and hit this shot with two hands, she wouldn't be able to get her body out of the way to hit the ball. When a server hits at the body of a two-hander they cannot make this adjustment. It is commonly know as handcuffing the opponent. Of course, there are other times when varieties of spin offers certain tactical benefits. For example, if your opponent doesn't like hitting high deep balls, hit more topspin, since top spin will inevitably bounce higher and deeper than backspin or underspin. On the other hand, if you play someone who is very tall and has trouble getting down for low balls, hit more backspin. Now, let's take a look at the footwork that is required for a two-handed backhand. We all know that good footwork is essential for good tennis. When hitting a two-handed backhand you just have to remember that good footwork is even more essential on a two-hander as compare to hitting with one-hand, since your reach is more limited. Then on the positive side, the two-handed shot has several benefits. First is added power, as Colindy now demonstrates. Pretty hard for an 11 year old. Second is that if the ball get slightly behind her she can still hit it cross court due to the added involvement of the left hand and third, hitting high ball is much easier with two hands as compared to one, and for young junior especially in the girls divisions, they can expect to receive a lot of high looping ground strokes. It is also important to at least briefly discuss the one-handed topspin backhand. After all, Grand Slam Champions like Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Justine Henin-Hardenne, all use the one-handed topspin backhand as an essential part of their repertoire. Generally speaking younger children do not have the strength for a one-handed topspin but some even as young as ten or eleven years old may want to give it a try. They just need to get a feel for the idea that in order to hit topspin the racket face must be prepared slightly close to the ground and that they have to brush up the back of the ball just like any other topspin shot. Take a look. Here Colindy prepares for her one-handed topspin backhand, the way I just described for a review of the basics of topspin. You can also refer to volume three in this series, where many progressions were shared to help someone develop a topspin forehand ground stroke. So how do you decide which style of play to adopt. I recommend giving both shots a try, if the player is curious and then let them make the final decision themselves. Pete Sampras used to hit a two-handed backhand and then change to a one-hander in his early days as a junior player, others like Andre Agassi stayed with their two-handed shot. It really just depends on the individual.