A short, low-bouncing ball to the backhand is a particularly tough shot for two-handed players, who unlike their one-handed counterparts often don’t have the option of a strong backhand slice to call upon. It’s tough because you have to get down low and stay down low through the shot. You also need to maintain good control of your upper body (i.e. good posture), which requires strong core muscles.

If played well, this shot should resemble a deep, controlled lunge – a movement that requires good control in the legs. The short (i.e. bouncing around three-quarter length – between the service line and baseline), low, two-handed backhand needs to be struck using ‘soft’ hands in order to get up and over the ball, which is easiest to achieve when aiming crosscourt. You’ll also be able to generate more pace when hitting this shot crosscourt (where the net is lowest), compared with down the line (where the net is highest) whereby you have to get the ball to lift up and then come down again, resulting in loss of ball speed. If you achieve a good crosscourt angle off this shot, you can take your opponent off the side of the court, thus opening space up for a possible winner. But even if you don’t achieve a great angle, there’s a good chance you’ll at least force your opponent to get down low and have to play a similarly tough shot in return.

Left: this shows how the shot shouLD be hit – with soft hands, good upper-body posture and a wide base with the shin bone of the back leg parallel to the ground

Far left: this shows how the shot should not be hit – with stiff wrists, body bent over at the waist and feet not wide enough apart.


Do’s and don’ts after contact

Pic A shows how not to hit the shot – with stiff wrists and the body lifting up too soon after contact

Pic B shows how the shot shouLD be hit – by staying low and using the left wrist to come over the ball

The advantage of ‘rolling’ this shot (see point on soft hands below) as opposed to slicing it is that when the ball bounces on the other side it will jump and take the person further out of court. It will also travel over the net faster than with slice. Let’s now take a closer look at the key elements of the short, low, two-handed backhand:

Wide base/good posture Your feet need to be far enough apart to enable you to do a deep, controlled lunge whereby the shin bone of the back leg ends up parallel to the ground. This way it is unlikely you will fall into the trap of bending from the waist to get down to the ball, forcing you to pull up as you hit it – resulting in loss of balance, control and pace. This method of getting down also allows you to watch the ball better because your head is closer to it. This position also enables you to get your racket under the ball more to impart topspin.

Soft hands A common mistake is for players to keep their wrists very stiff – locked, almost – making it hard to get under the ball and turn the wrist over the ball after contact, i.e. rolling the left wrist over the right (for a right-hander). Instead, soften the hands so that you can dip the racket head under the ball (Martina Hingis does this very well) and rotate the left wrist easily over the ball in the follow-through.

Stay low If you lift your body up too early after you’ve struck the ball, you will lift the ball out. By staying down through the shot you’ll get more power and control. A good principal to follow is that the racket and arms go up while the body stays down. Watch how Lleyton Hewitt gets down and stays down low on this kind of ball.

You need to maintain good control of your upper body, which requires strong core muscles

Eyes As with any shot in tennis, the eyes are so important. They should stay on the contact point well after the ball has gone.

Crosscourt To get the ball angled crosscourt you need to hit the outside of the ball. In practice it’s a good idea to put two targets down – one in front of the service line very close to the singles tramline and the other behind the service line. Aiming about a foot and a half over the net (i.e. giving yourself some degree of net clearance), direct your shots to the targets, learning to hit the ball to ensure the second bounce is outside the tramlines of your opponent.

Racket-head speed You have got to really hit this ball, i.e. you need racket-head speed to get the ball to come up and go down again quickly. You can’t afford to push this ball because you’ll likely lose control or even if you get it back it will just sit there for your opponent to attack. Experiment with how much racket-head speed you can generate before you lose control. You are trying to get the maximum racket-head speed you can generate while still feeling safe on the shot. Watch how Maria Sharapova generates huge racket-head speed on this shot.

How the shot should flow this sequence shows how the hands and arms come from low to high while the body remains low throughout the shot. Pic A shows how to get low with the shin bone of the back leg parallel to the ground and the use of soft wrists. Pic B shows the low body position at contact and Pic C demonstrates how the wrist of the left hand is turning over the ball.

Article and Images of Anna Fitzpatrick is Courtesy of ACE MAGAZINE. You can download full pdf here