Spring loading the backhand
Resznotes asked 4 years ago
Hi Tom and Dan,
I notice that on Tom’s backhand, he brings the bat back toward his body in a very spring-like setup before he unloads on the ball. Your/his wrist is deeply flexed. Can you address that, please and explain why it is important? My backhand is decent, but I do not have nearly that amount of “coil” in my pre-hit movement. Should I change, or is it a question of style and preference? When I add extra coil I definitely miss the table more often, at least right now. Is it something that should be part of almost all of my backhand topspin shots or is it an advanced enhancement of a more basic stroke?
Thanks for your help!
Tom Academy Coach answered 4 years ago
Hi Resznotes,
Ok so I do think this is an important part of the backhand topspin shot. Coiling the bat back like this with the wrist allows you to generate more spin by releasing the wrist forwards and over the ball through the contact and also adds wrist acceleration to the shot too. It also means you can really point the wrist in the direction you want the ball ti finish.
With this spring like feeling it is still important to keep the shot compact and not over extend so it is too long. You don’t need this so much st all on backhand drives, as the wrist is more fixed and stable in this shot.
Try to focus on adding a small amount of wrist to start with and build it up into your topspins. Another important thing is that the main energy of the shot is still created by the elbow and forearm and the wrist shouldn’t come in too early, it’s best to coil the wrist back like you said and then release it through the ball contact so there isn’t too much movement with it and the shot becomes unstable.
I hope that all makes sense and let us know if you have any more questions on this or need any other advice on it 🙂
ResznotesI’l work on it, Tom. Thanks! To me it seems that you did not have that spring-loaded look in the backhand topspin video, but subsequently I saw other videos in which your wrist was really cocked back so that the top of the bat was directly pointed toward you. I began to wonder if that was the backspin that we should strive for, or if you were doing that to generate more spin or something else.
It’s interesting that you mentioned that the level of wrist coil helps determine the direction of your own hit. I’ll see if that plays out for me when I practice. In the end, I’ll remember to keep the shot compact and maybe slowly add a bit more wrist.
At some point I would like to see a video on how to generate down the line shots. It seems a lot easier to do on the forehand than on the backhand.
Thanks again,
Susan
That’s true, I think it’s more obvious in some videos on the backhand than others. I think like you said keep it compact and don’t over do the wrist movement or the speed to start with. Pointing the wrist out at the end you should definitely feel you have more control over the direction. We have a video on the early backhand switch which might help you with this shot.
Cheers, Tom
Great stuff, Tom. My brain is full!
