Article by Tom Allsopp

In Chris Oddo’s article he asks, “is its disappearance the fault of developmental tennis programs – ones that opt for simplicity in order to get their junior players to a competitive level at younger ages?”

“But something here doesn’t make sense. If Henin is one of the two greatest female players of the last decade, then why wouldn’t more kids want to imitate their hero and hit the backhand like her? You’ve heard of “I wanna be like Mike,” then why not “I wanna be a queen like Justine?”

I will address Chris Oddo’s questions and more…..

The one handed backhand is definitely not the best option for everyone. It takes much more time to master than the two handed backhand. Robert Lansdorp, former coach of Sampras, Sharapova and Davenport said, “it’s an American idea of hitting two handed backhands, people are a little bit more interested in getting early success, if anyone it’s the parents” If a player, parent or coach wants early success I suggest going with the two handed backhand.

It is easy for me to promote long-term achievements rather than short term success but for many people the chance to get sponsorship and funding is too tempting and there is a chance that developing your one handed backhand could hold you back for a year or two. Pete Sampras said “I was pretty good until I was 14 , then I switched to the one handed backhand and I started to suck for a while.” Try convincing Wilson to give you free rackets because in a few years your volley game will be awesome.

Already we can see the evolution process of the two handed backhand taking over. Parents want fast results because naturally they want their child to be “successful” – coaches want to make their clients (parents and players) happy and also seem to be successful by coaching players who win. Players don’t normally spend years and years with the same coach so it is in the coaches best interest to get the player to a high level as soon as possible and not really worry about the future. So you would have to be crazy to go down the road of the one handed backhand because there is no way your results in the short term, especially as a junior, would be as good as with a two handed backhand.

Players with parents and coaches that have long term goals are more likely to have a one handed backhand, but even from this small percentage of people that prioritize long term success, the one handed backhand will still rarely be adopted because its advantages don’t outweigh the headache of learning the tougher shot.

However, I personally think the one handed backhand has many advantages. Henin is one of the smaller tennis players and if she was to just play like other women such as Serena, Sharapova, Clijsters etc, it would be the equivalent of a light-weight going into a ring with a heavyweight and trying to out power them. Henin won her 7 grand slam titles with her variety on offense and her ability to stay in the points by using different spins. This makes up for her lack of size and strength. Her one handed backhand means that she is more comfortable when using one hand on other shots such as the slice and volley because there is more of a “sameness” as Navratilova put it.

Although we are more likely to see the one handed backhand in the men’s game because the stronger boys can handle it easier as juniors, I think it makes more sense to have a one handed backhand in the women’s game. Women hit the ball hard and relatively flat so the troublesome high ball is not as much of a problem in the women’s game as it is when Federer plays Nadal and has to hit backhands from around his ears all day long. I believe that the women’s game will evolve to using more variety, similar to what we see in the men’s game. Thus making the big girls move all around the court in every direction rather than just east to west across the baseline. Bringing players like Sharapova to the net like you see Federer do would surely work? However, for that you need a player like Muresmo or Henin that have variety in their game and there is no doubt that a one handed backhand helps with this kind of tennis. Long live the one-hander!