Tennis BackhandHaving an effective tennis backhand can make a huge difference to your game. Let's be honest for a second, most peoples backhands are considered their weakness not only by their opponents but by THEMSELVES! There are a few reasons for that, the main one being that we are normally so used to doing things on our “dominant” side of our body (which tends to the tennis forehand side), that having to do something on the opposite side of he body feels less comfortable and indeed less controlled. The big difference occurs in our body position. If an object such as a tennis ball (funny that!) approaches us, we are much more used to and therefore much happier to position ourselves to use our dominant limb to deal with it. If the object is on the other side of you, you are not as comfortable having to deal with it using your non dominant limb or even your dominant limb turned "the wrong way around" as in the case of the backhand! How To Improve - Tennis Backhand Tip It seems simple, but the best way to improve your backhand, whether you have a single handed backhand or a double handed backhand is to practise it! The more you hit, the better! It really doesn't matter where the ball goes as long as you are trying to hit it well! Believe me by taking 10 minutes at the start of every time you play to hit as many backhands as you can will pay HUGE dividends in the long run.
Check out this video of a 9 year old player I am working with - can you guess which player(s) he likes? Let's look at a couple of other things that will help you! Keep Your Head Still! One thing you will notice about all good players whether they are playing back hands or forehands is that they keep their head still on the way to the ball, when they hit the ball and even after the ball has gone. This helps keep your eyes focused on the ball - that can't be a bad thing can it? Watch & Think! Try to watch players as many players with good backhands as you can. From there, commit those images to memory and recall those in your "minds eye". Believe it or not, this will actually program your nervous system to reproduce what's in your mind!!
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