This was great to watch because not only was I looking at my backhand for when I play to improve upon, but the way you're looking at issues with your game and looking at how to improve with it is also helping me to approach the problems with my game. Big thank you from New Mexico 🔥
My backhand is a mess - even I improved it - and I think I have to start at an earlier point than you in your video 😞But your video gives me the motivation and good advice how I can fix it. The only I have to do now, is taking my ball machine onto the court and do it... and take some videos 🙂 Thanks a lot from Germany.
Good video. I love using the ball machine to make technical changes because nothing beats a consistent ball and repetition helps build muscle memory. It's like having a coach hand feed you balls.
Andre from Brazil. I'm a filmdirector. I used to play a lot when i was kid and teenager. And then I quit. after 15 years Im struggling to get back. love your videos. thanks
Great to meet you Andre, glad you’re coming back to tennis! Being a film director is a cool job… I’m really loving video creation (at the lowest level!)
I switched from a one-handed backhand a couple years ago still struggle with wrist position and not closing the face at contact. Will give this a try. Thank you! Javier from SanFrancisco Bay Area
Awesome video, im teaching a friend at the moment for free. He has had 0 tennis experience and is quite uncoordinated as he has never played sports.Would love to see you do a series on coaching a complete beginner from ground up. We are still working on his forehand by regressing all the way to static moves and slowly incorporating different parts of the swing by fixing variables until we can progress to me feeding him a ball. Your way of fixing your own backhand reminds me immensely of the regression i've had to take to teach my friend the forehand.
That’s great to hear!! If you haven’t seen this video yet, it will be really useful for you… th-cam.com/video/s9_UVDaLmCQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=67Lq0ShmjuF5_EYp
@@TheTennisMentor Awesome I'll give it a watch, my mate has some trouble judging distance when I toss him slow balls, the 2nd exercise might help. He leaps into the shot too much when I toss it. So I had to fix a lot of variables before progressing.
Thanks for the vid! I am from Cape town, South Africa and a Tennis coach. Im making the same change but on my FH. Good luck on practising and upcoming competitions!
Love your instructional videos Ashley. This is really top notch training. I'm a 46 year old guy based in Greece and train regularly with semi pros and top juniors. Lately I've been trying to tweak several parts of my game and now gearing up for clay court season it's all about consistency and physicality on the court so it's vital to have a very solid technique on practically every shot as I also don't do heat very well so want to be able to compensate with good and consistent shot making.
2:52 in the clip before, from the aerial view, it looked like you had a continental grip with your top/left hand instead of Eastern. It looked closer to Continental causing your racket face to open up more.
Great video Ashley, watching you all the way from Bahrain :) would love to see you make a vid about string advice for different kind of players and maybe your top 5 strings rn.
Thanks again for your content. I am going through the same process with my for- and my backhand (onehander). It helps a lot, to see and hear your advice and that even an awesome Coach and tennisplayer feels the same way as i do. It is horrific to see yourself on camara and see to have not made the changes that it felt you did. Then it‘s crucial not to be disappointed for too long and focus on the next step for aprovement. Greetings from Germany and keep it up ❤
Great video, Shane from Gold Coast Australia…I’ve just started doing similar with my ball machine and wish I had these phone cameras back when I was coaching full time years ago😅Such a great tool to have for coaching others and self analysis. I look forward to the serve video
Jamie from sunny Portsmouth! Great video. I’m back playing tennis having not played since my school days and I’m loving it. Your videos are a great watch and have been really helpful for me so thanks for all your hard work. Just got to try and get my game up! 😅
Great video man. This may be the tip I needed for my backhand. Just inconsistent and balls would spray everywhere. Never realizing my wrist position wasn’t in the optimal position on take back. DMV in the house! Btw, your forehand video on hand cuffs tip helped my forehand immensely! Keep em coming
Yeah I tried that as well - as I have pretty much the same issue. I also tried this position and it felt so akward. I need a ball machine as soon as possible! Great Video Ashley
I’ve been using SwingVision to review my technique and try to improve. The open racket face in the two handed backswing is exactly what I noticed on my weaker floatier backhands. I plan to try your progressions. No ball machine but fortunately I’ve got some kind practice partners willing to do some feeds. Also trying to hit fewer slices in point play. Nice video! Tennis at lunch today.
@@TheTennisMentor Continental/Chopper on dominant (right) and Eastern forehand on non-dominant/left. I’ll try semiwestern and laying wrist back for non-dominant like you were.
Great video Ashley appreciate the content Couple of questions I have a slinger can you Advise on settings I have a one hander anything different with theses drills thanks again 🙏
For the slinger settings, I like using it positioned on the T (shown) at the slowest speed, feed at 1/3 and trajectory 15ish. The drills can stay the same for a single hander.
Interesting video thanks Ashley. I'm currently trying a higher rear elbow in the take-back to tackle this same problem.. The inherent internal rotation produced closes the racket face. It feels less invasive as the wrist positions are unchanged. What are your thoughts?
JF from Quebec, really appreciate your descriptions, precise and logical, hopefully I can put in practice properly, I'm a one hander, but wondering if I should move to a two hander!
My backhand is my secret weapon, but I've developed a shoulder injury skiing and I have a hard time lifting my arm to complete my follow through.@@TheTennisMentor
Laurean from Tokyo. Nice video, I also try to record myself as much as possible to improve technique. I noticed that on your take back, the strings are still open, then you close them. You record only from the back, maybe different angles (front, lateral) would be more informative, especially regarding the contact. And a question/suggestion: many people don't have access to a ball machine, but can easily practice at the wall. A demonstration of implementing the three steps using the wall would be interesting.
good to see a coach actually hitting the ball from back view and admitting they are still working on a few points. I'm moving from single to double backhand so its great to see takeback and swing path. Think other thing is contact point and what happens to left hand at contact? does it overtake right hand?
Hi Ashley, I'm from India but have been based in Greater London, UK for the past 2 years. I have been trying the same BH with an eastern grip and this helped a lot to visualize. Although I have played nationals in my country before, now I play in LTA grade 4/5 tournaments and apart from the weather adjustment, the technical adjustment is what I have found to be the toughest. I'm used to taking the ball early and my racquet face stays open at contact but also on the follow through my arms go straight and towards my chest, sort of jamming the ball instead of allowing it to flow all the way through to my right shoulder. Any tips on that would be awesome, again great content looking forward to more (maybe a similar video for a better and effective second serve including kick and slice?), cheers!
Hey. I hope you will read this one. If you want to fix your backhand, just bring your right elbow as high as possible. And start that by beginning the shot when the racquet head is down, and just drill for 40 shots, nothing else just from down up and finish the shot with right elbow up. Try it.
The main technical problem I see with your backhand is that the racket head is primarily horizontal during the racket drop. If you don't address this, your backhand will quickly break down during match play. You'll lack consistency, power, and control, especially against stronger players. You can see this for yourself by watching the video in slow motion. Pause the video on TH-cam after the unit turn, then press the "." key to advance one frame at a time until you get to the racket drop position. The next step is to compare your racket drop to that of Djokovic, Sinner, Zverev, or Rune. You'll see their racket head is pointing mostly downwards. Pay attention to how they bend their wrists, especially the right one. In the racket drop position, the right wrist and hand should be mostly relaxed, and the left one should control the first part of the stroke. As the racket ascends to hit the ball, the right hand starts to act, adding power and solidity.
Alon, Paris. Just wondering if you are using closed stance on 90% of your shots by design? neutral on the other 10. No open stance. Hmm. Maybe you can get more power with slightly open? Also makes me wonder if you are right eye dominant and that explains your preference for a more closed stance? Always great content. Thanks. PS happy with your Slinger?
And yes, had the slinger for years now, don’t use it loads but good for hand feeds like this. I made a few videos on it a while back (they’re on a playlist on my channel)
@@TheTennisMentor Are you left eye dominant? If so, experiment with this; move your right hand to bevel 8 so you’re actually feeling like you’re hitting the ball more with your right palm. The path will be more vertical and you’ll create a lot of top spin. You can push off with the left hand and even let go of the left hand immediately after contact so the right hand is free to fly. It’s literally worked miracles for me. I am a 5.0+ player, no exaggeration.
Not sure the racket angle is the real issue, I'd work on footwork first. Shot looked wrong - tight and rotational, as opposed to relaxed and projecting forward through the ball. Looking for you to get behind that ball, seeing the racket drop as you relax your wrists, leaning in and then projecting forward and through the ball. If you look your back foot is in completely the wrong place for an optimum cross court backhand - need to step across with the left, step foward with the right and hit. You end up stepping across with the right leaving you positioned nicely to hit the left doubles corner and then instead do some amazing rotation manoeuvre to spin and hit the right corner. When you switched to hit the inside out which should be harder your feet were actually better placed (identically placed to the cross court) and it looked so much more comfortable.
You make excellent points. My footwork is definitely under par on my backhand and agree that my stance is too closed. Years of not playing but coaching has led me to pick up many bad habits.
![ร้อยพ่อพันแม่ - WanMai [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XY2pNYASEbg/mqdefault.jpg)
This was great to watch because not only was I looking at my backhand for when I play to improve upon, but the way you're looking at issues with your game and looking at how to improve with it is also helping me to approach the problems with my game. Big thank you from New Mexico 🔥
Great to hear that you found it useful! I’ll do another on my serve next month 🤜🤛
Hey dude! Eli here, from CA. Thanks alot for all videos🙏 Very informative, and well done. Reigniting my love for tennis!
Hey Eli, great to have you here!
My backhand is a mess - even I improved it - and I think I have to start at an earlier point than you in your video 😞But your video gives me the motivation and good advice how I can fix it. The only I have to do now, is taking my ball machine onto the court and do it... and take some videos 🙂 Thanks a lot from Germany.
Work through the process, it may take some time but it’ll be worth it!
Good video. I love using the ball machine to make technical changes because nothing beats a consistent ball and repetition helps build muscle memory. It's like having a coach hand feed you balls.
Thanks for showing us Ashley!
You’re very welcome!
Andre from Brazil.
I'm a filmdirector. I used to play a lot when i was kid and teenager. And then I quit. after 15 years Im struggling to get back.
love your videos. thanks
Great to meet you Andre, glad you’re coming back to tennis! Being a film director is a cool job… I’m really loving video creation (at the lowest level!)
I switched from a one-handed backhand a couple years ago still struggle with wrist position and not closing the face at contact. Will give this a try. Thank you!
Javier from SanFrancisco Bay Area
Boshoff from South Africa. Awesome content. Helps me a lot in coaching my daughter and teaching her the correct technique early on.
Thanks for watching!
Awesome video, im teaching a friend at the moment for free. He has had 0 tennis experience and is quite uncoordinated as he has never played sports.Would love to see you do a series on coaching a complete beginner from ground up. We are still working on his forehand by regressing all the way to static moves and slowly incorporating different parts of the swing by fixing variables until we can progress to me feeding him a ball. Your way of fixing your own backhand reminds me immensely of the regression i've had to take to teach my friend the forehand.
That’s great to hear!! If you haven’t seen this video yet, it will be really useful for you… th-cam.com/video/s9_UVDaLmCQ/w-d-xo.htmlsi=67Lq0ShmjuF5_EYp
@@TheTennisMentor Awesome I'll give it a watch, my mate has some trouble judging distance when I toss him slow balls, the 2nd exercise might help. He leaps into the shot too much when I toss it. So I had to fix a lot of variables before progressing.
Thanks for the vid! I am from Cape town, South Africa and a Tennis coach. Im making the same change but on my FH. Good luck on practising and upcoming competitions!
Jovanni from US-Georgia, struggling 3.5 player and I am struggling on the backhand side, thank you for this video!!!
Nice to meet you, I hope it helps!
Love your openness great work! Closing the strings as you come down from the draw back definitely helps👏
Love your instructional videos Ashley. This is really top notch training. I'm a 46 year old guy based in Greece and train regularly with semi pros and top juniors. Lately I've been trying to tweak several parts of my game and now gearing up for clay court season it's all about consistency and physicality on the court so it's vital to have a very solid technique on practically every shot as I also don't do heat very well so want to be able to compensate with good and consistent shot making.
2:52 in the clip before, from the aerial view, it looked like you had a continental grip with your top/left hand instead of Eastern. It looked closer to Continental causing your racket face to open up more.
Super helpful video! Great to focus on racket face position. Chip from San Francisco
Great video Ashley, watching you all the way from Bahrain :) would love to see you make a vid about string advice for different kind of players and maybe your top 5 strings rn.
Thanks for watching! I’ve made a couple of videos on strings with my friend Paul who is the head stringer the Championships, Wimbledon
Thanks again for your content. I am going through the same process with my for- and my backhand (onehander). It helps a lot, to see and hear your advice and that even an awesome Coach and tennisplayer feels the same way as i do. It is horrific to see yourself on camara and see to have not made the changes that it felt you did. Then it‘s crucial not to be disappointed for too long and focus on the next step for aprovement. Greetings from Germany and keep it up ❤
Great video, Shane from Gold Coast Australia…I’ve just started doing similar with my ball machine and wish I had these phone cameras back when I was coaching full time years ago😅Such a great tool to have for coaching others and self analysis. I look forward to the serve video
Great to have you Shane!
Jamie from sunny Portsmouth! Great video. I’m back playing tennis having not played since my school days and I’m loving it. Your videos are a great watch and have been really helpful for me so thanks for all your hard work. Just got to try and get my game up! 😅
Great video man. This may be the tip I needed for my backhand. Just inconsistent and balls would spray everywhere. Never realizing my wrist position wasn’t in the optimal position on take back. DMV in the house! Btw, your forehand video on hand cuffs tip helped my forehand immensely! Keep em coming
Sam from Somerset, but living in Argentina. Love watching your videos, so well made - clear and instructive. Thanks so much!
Somerset and Argentina!! Beautiful parts of the world!
@@TheTennisMentor Agreed!
Yeah I tried that as well - as I have pretty much the same issue. I also tried this position and it felt so akward. I need a ball machine as soon as possible! Great Video Ashley
Adrian from The Philippines here. Nice tips
Trying to apply it here.
Fernando from Brazil here. Thanks for your videos. I bought the Head Speed 2024 after seeing your video at Head HQ.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge ❤ Steven in PHX, AZ USA
My pleasure, you’re in the squad now!
I’ve been using SwingVision to review my technique and try to improve. The open racket face in the two handed backswing is exactly what I noticed on my weaker floatier backhands. I plan to try your progressions. No ball machine but fortunately I’ve got some kind practice partners willing to do some feeds. Also trying to hit fewer slices in point play. Nice video! Tennis at lunch today.
Video footage is so valuable! Do you know which grips you’re using for your BH?
@@TheTennisMentor Continental/Chopper on dominant (right) and Eastern forehand on non-dominant/left. I’ll try semiwestern and laying wrist back for non-dominant like you were.
Great video Ashley appreciate the content
Couple of questions
I have a slinger can you Advise on settings
I have a one hander anything different with theses drills thanks again 🙏
For the slinger settings, I like using it positioned on the T (shown) at the slowest speed, feed at 1/3 and trajectory 15ish.
The drills can stay the same for a single hander.
Gavin, Ireland.
I have a similar problem but in the opposite direction, racket too closed in the backswing.
This is very useful, thanks.
Glad to help Gavin!
Grazie from Italy!
🙏🙏
Hey coach Sam here from Lebanon thanks for your video 🙏
Ashleigh Barty style…. Slice slice and more beautiful slice on backhand 👌👌👌
Let's see if Barty can win one game against the men with that... oh dear, they handled her every ball with ease.
Interesting video thanks Ashley. I'm currently trying a higher rear elbow in the take-back to tackle this same problem..
The inherent internal rotation produced closes the racket face. It feels less invasive as the wrist positions are unchanged. What are your thoughts?
Interesting, I’ll give it a go!
Hi, I’m Riivo from Estonia. You make great content 👍
JF from Quebec, really appreciate your descriptions, precise and logical, hopefully I can put in practice properly, I'm a one hander, but wondering if I should move to a two hander!
Nice to meet you… why are you considering the change?
My backhand is my secret weapon, but I've developed a shoulder injury skiing and I have a hard time lifting my arm to complete my follow through.@@TheTennisMentor
Love your videos Aida from Puerto Rico
Laurean from Tokyo. Nice video, I also try to record myself as much as possible to improve technique. I noticed that on your take back, the strings are still open, then you close them. You record only from the back, maybe different angles (front, lateral) would be more informative, especially regarding the contact. And a question/suggestion: many people don't have access to a ball machine, but can easily practice at the wall. A demonstration of implementing the three steps using the wall would be interesting.
Thanks Laurean, you’re right about filming from different angles! And I like your hitting wall suggestion
good to see a coach actually hitting the ball from back view and admitting they are still working on a few points. I'm moving from single to double backhand so its great to see takeback and swing path. Think other thing is contact point and what happens to left hand at contact? does it overtake right hand?
The open racket face is not a problem per se tho? Am I right? It is just harder to time it when the ball comes fast at you
Correct
New subscruber here. Do you have any videos for one handed backhand? Thank
Welcome! I have an old video on the slice here th-cam.com/video/UdtGLRBQW_M/w-d-xo.htmlsi=EUAQjxJM1pfMWZsG but not the single handed backhand yet!
watching from Accra, Ghana.
Nice to meet you!
Hi Ashley, I'm from India but have been based in Greater London, UK for the past 2 years. I have been trying the same BH with an eastern grip and this helped a lot to visualize. Although I have played nationals in my country before, now I play in LTA grade 4/5 tournaments and apart from the weather adjustment, the technical adjustment is what I have found to be the toughest. I'm used to taking the ball early and my racquet face stays open at contact but also on the follow through my arms go straight and towards my chest, sort of jamming the ball instead of allowing it to flow all the way through to my right shoulder. Any tips on that would be awesome, again great content looking forward to more (maybe a similar video for a better and effective second serve including kick and slice?), cheers!
It's all about extention,shb,dhb or forehand.
Hey. I hope you will read this one. If you want to fix your backhand, just bring your right elbow as high as possible. And start that by beginning the shot when the racquet head is down, and just drill for 40 shots, nothing else just from down up and finish the shot with right elbow up. Try it.
The main technical problem I see with your backhand is that the racket head is primarily horizontal during the racket drop. If you don't address this, your backhand will quickly break down during match play. You'll lack consistency, power, and control, especially against stronger players.
You can see this for yourself by watching the video in slow motion. Pause the video on TH-cam after the unit turn, then press the "." key to advance one frame at a time until you get to the racket drop position.
The next step is to compare your racket drop to that of Djokovic, Sinner, Zverev, or Rune. You'll see their racket head is pointing mostly downwards. Pay attention to how they bend their wrists, especially the right one. In the racket drop position, the right wrist and hand should be mostly relaxed, and the left one should control the first part of the stroke. As the racket ascends to hit the ball, the right hand starts to act, adding power and solidity.
Yes, I mention in the video that I’m too tight, I need to relax my wrists a little more to encourage the drop. Mines closer to Cameron Norries 😅
Alon, Paris. Just wondering if you are using closed stance on 90% of your shots by design? neutral on the other 10. No open stance. Hmm. Maybe you can get more power with slightly open? Also makes me wonder if you are right eye dominant and that explains your preference for a more closed stance? Always great content. Thanks. PS happy with your Slinger?
Good observation… I’d like to be more neutral, I should watch myself more often!
And yes, had the slinger for years now, don’t use it loads but good for hand feeds like this. I made a few videos on it a while back (they’re on a playlist on my channel)
Move your right hand another bevel counterclockwise!
Not a bad idea, I have tried it in the past but always come back to conti/eastern
@@TheTennisMentor Are you left eye dominant? If so, experiment with this; move your right hand to bevel 8 so you’re actually feeling like you’re hitting the ball more with your right palm. The path will be more vertical and you’ll create a lot of top spin. You can push off with the left hand and even let go of the left hand immediately after contact so the right hand is free to fly. It’s literally worked miracles for me. I am a 5.0+ player, no exaggeration.
Nick, Aspley Guise UK. Great channel
Chris ...from San Diego
Melbourne Australia
Great to have you here
Good plan to work on the backhand before you play Johnson! Still think even with Jake Macey backhand you are going to lose :P
Not sure the racket angle is the real issue, I'd work on footwork first. Shot looked wrong - tight and rotational, as opposed to relaxed and projecting forward through the ball. Looking for you to get behind that ball, seeing the racket drop as you relax your wrists, leaning in and then projecting forward and through the ball. If you look your back foot is in completely the wrong place for an optimum cross court backhand - need to step across with the left, step foward with the right and hit. You end up stepping across with the right leaving you positioned nicely to hit the left doubles corner and then instead do some amazing rotation manoeuvre to spin and hit the right corner.
When you switched to hit the inside out which should be harder your feet were actually better placed (identically placed to the cross court) and it looked so much more comfortable.
You make excellent points. My footwork is definitely under par on my backhand and agree that my stance is too closed. Years of not playing but coaching has led me to pick up many bad habits.
United States - Georgia
Nice to meet you
Greetings from Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Great to meet you!
Tommy from North Carolina
Great to have you Tommy!
daniel - italy
Great to meet you!
Looks like you are also not closing your racket face a little on the racket drop. Most pros do that.
Germany
Serbia 🇷🇸
Great to have you here
To fix it you can take your left hand off!
After the ball is hit , yes.
😂😂 I do when I coach (as you saw on the very last shot!)