The Modern One-Hand Backhand

I stumbled over an excellent video by Tom Avery on maximizing the one-hand top spin backhand stroke. This video is concise and covers his instruction from the proper points of view, making Tom's explanation easy to understand.

As soon as he had covered the basic parts of the stroke and completed a full swing from preparation to finish, I was reminded of one player, Roger Federer.

I remember years ago after winning a major match (those days when we were more likely to see Roger run around his backhand), he was asked what part of his game he wished to work on the most. "My top spin backhand", was his reply. Well, we know what has become of this - it's one of the most graceful and accurate one-hand backhand swings in the game.

Transitioning to the Slice Kick (Topspin) Serve

About 17 or so years ago I moved away from a flat first serve to a slice (which doesn’t imply kick/topsin) serve. Prior I was tossing more directly into the court rather than more down the base line and ripping it. Flat power (relative to level of play) serving, using so much forward motion of the body can be quite exhausting, inefficient use of the body and the over-the-net-and-in-the-service box window gets much smaller.

Also, many returners, even at lower levels, can be quite accomplished at nailing a flat serve or just blocking it back, perhaps dropping you.