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Hey guys,

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welcome back to my channel.

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Now,

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in today's video,

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I'm gonna be speaking to you about how to hit a double-handed backhand.

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Compared to the forehand side,

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the backhand is generally

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the weakest side for most players,

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and it's a side that takes the longest to learn and master for many tennis players.

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Now,

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I'm gonna be talking about the double-handed backhand in this video,

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and the double-handed backhand is quite a

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complex shot to learn,

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and it's so complex because of the coordination

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needed in order to hit the ball and as well,

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having two hands on the racket

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is a whole lot different to the forehand side with just one hand on the racket.

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Now you've got your non-dominant hand

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involved in the stroke too.

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So, it takes a lot of coordination

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and timing,

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and it will take a lot of practice in order to develop

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a really strong double-handed backhand.

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So, in today's video,

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I'm going to be giving you some really key drills

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to learn the double-handed backhand.

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And each of these drills are gonna be progressions on one another,

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so you can just easily follow along to

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this video to really progress your double-handed backhand.

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So, before we get into the progressions,

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the first thing that I want to talk about is the grip.

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So, with your dominant hand,

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you will want to find

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the chopper grip

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or the continental grip.

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Now if you don't know your grips,

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then I will link another video here that you can go and watch quickly

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that will talk you through all of the different tennis grips in detail.

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But for those of you that know your grips,

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we're gonna go with the chopper grip

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or the continental grip with your dominant hand,

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and your non-dominant hand comes on top,

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and you're going to find the eastern forehand grip

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with your non-dominant hand.

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This grip is great because it allows you to hit with both topspin and

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you can hit through the ball to hit a flatter shot as well.

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Some players play with a semi-western

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grip

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with their non-dominant hand,

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including myself.

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I use a semi-western,

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more of a semi-western grip

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somewhere between an eastern and a semi-western.

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That's just because I play with quite a lot of topspin.

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So, I find that more comfortable for my game to be able to brush up

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the ball and really generate more heavy topspin

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with my backhand compared to flattening out.

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So, now we've discussed the grip,

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we're just gonna get straight into our drills and progressions.

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So, let's get into the first drill.

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Okay guys,

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so for the first drill,

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you don't need your racket,

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you're just gonna grab a tennis ball.

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So, this drill is called the drop and catch drill.

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And this drill is great for learning your timing and your swing mechanics.

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So, with your dominant hand,

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you're gonna hold the ball,

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and with your non-dominant hand,

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you're gonna catch the ball.

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So, you're gonna start with your non-dominant hand up here,

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as if you were

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in the back of the takeback,

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and then you're gonna find

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a nice wide base so that I'm facing sideways on in a closed stance.

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With

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my dominant hand,

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I'm gonna hold the ball out to the side

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with a little bit

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of an angle,

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so if I drop the ball,

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I'm imagining where I would make contact which is out in front and to the side.

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So, I'm here,

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I bounce,

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I hit,

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and I follow through.

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My hand is acting as my racket here.

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So, in tennis,

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the racket is essentially an extension

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of your hand.

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So, if we can learn

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the correct swing mechanic and timing

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just with a ball and a hand,

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then that's gonna really help us when we get to using that bigger racket.

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You're just gonna be thinking to yourself,

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what did I do with my hand?

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The racket is an extension of the hand.

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So, this drill is really,

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really great.

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And again,

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bounce and hit,

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so it really helps with your timing,

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bounce and hit,

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and you can even say to yourself,

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bounce,

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hit.

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So, you can see

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I'm starting here,

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drop,

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and then I'm following through.

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And you could see as I

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come

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and come in to catch the ball,

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my hip is rotating,

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and my back foot

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is lifting up.

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So, this

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mimics what you do with your real backhand.

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Starting here,

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bounce,

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hit and rotate forward.

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I'm finishing with my non-dominant elbow

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up,

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pointing

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to the other side of the court.

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Bounce and hit.

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So, guys,

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once you're comfortable with that,

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once you've done 10 to 20 reps and you've really nailed that down,

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you feel

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that timing is perfect,

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then now you can move on to the next drill.

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Okay guys,

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so now we need our racket in our hand,

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a racket and a ball.

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So,

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this drill is called floor tennis.

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Now,

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you might have heard of floor tennis before,

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it's really,

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really great drill

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for beginners

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to

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learn

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swing mechanics without having

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to worry too much about an incoming ball.

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So, we're gonna put the ball down onto the ground.

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Again,

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we're finding our

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sideways

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position.

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Close start,

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turn to the side.

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The net is in front of me.

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And then from there,

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we're gonna come a little bit behind the ball,

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just a little bit and to the side of it.

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And again,

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we're gonna start

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where we did

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when we were doing the drop and catch drill,

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and now our racket is here

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with our two hands on the grip that I mentioned before.

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So, from here,

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we're gonna drop down

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and swing through.

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So, now we're hitting the ball,

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but again,

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it's really

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ingraining the technique that we want.

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So, we're starting a high,

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and then we're dropping low

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and then starting high again.

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Now this high to low to high swing is what we need to generate topspin on

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the ball.

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So, getting this correct swing motion ingrained

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from an early start into your tennis,

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into your backhand will really help you to develop a good

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topspin backhand later on as you progress in your tennis journey.

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Make sure you take your time on these ones,

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guys.

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So, it's really important you set up

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right.

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So, I'm a little bit behind and to the side of the ball.

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I'm finding

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my racket here,

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so my strings are pointing to the side,

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a little bit of bend in my knee,

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so I'm looking athletic.

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And then I dropped down,

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I'm finished high.

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And I'm rotating

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forward so that my body is facing

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the net as I finish.

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Now if you have a practice partner,

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you can play this game together,

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rolling the ball back and forth to each other along the court.

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And you can make it a little bit more challenging for each other,

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so

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you can play games such as goalkeeping,

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so then you're

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working on your direction,

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changing direction and hitting

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maybe more down the line or cross court

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to

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get the ball past your opponent.

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So, this

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drill can be

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adapted and progressed

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if you have a practice partner.

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Even if you're on your own,

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you can set targets out for yourself,

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two cones,

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for example.

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And you have to try and roll the ball between

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those two cones.

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So, that's a really great drill to start to develop

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hitting

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in specific

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directions,

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so changing the direction of the ball that you're hitting.

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So guys,

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once you've

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worked on that for maybe 5 to 10 minutes and you're feeling comfortable,

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you've progressed into changing the direction of where you were rolling the ball,

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then now you can start

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in the ready position,

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and then turn

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and then roll.

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So, now we're gonna be looking a little bit more like a real backhand.

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So, we're in our ready position with our racket head above our grip level,

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it's not down here.

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It's nice and upright,

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a little bit of bend in our knees,

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looking ready.

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And then from there we turn our shoulders,

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step forward with our dominant leg,

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so for me that's my right leg.

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And then we found our position that we were in

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earlier,

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and from there you're gonna drop down

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and hit.

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Ready position,

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turn the shoulders,

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step forward,

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and hit.

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So

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guys,

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again,

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once you've done a few reps of those and you're feeling confident,

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that you've got that swing,

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maybe even record yourself so you can see yourself on camera

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and compare it to myself to see if you're getting that correct motion.

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Okay,

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so the next drill that we're going to do is

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we're gonna hit left-handed forehand.

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Now you might think,

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what are you talking about Gemma,

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we are trying to learn the double-handed backhand.

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Well,

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yes,

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but in fact,

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the non-dominant hand on the double-handed backhand plays such a crucial role

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in power production,

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in control,

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in accuracy

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that learning

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your non-dominant hand forehand

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is actually really,

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really important

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to develop the double-handed backhand.

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So, your non-dominant hand plays such a crucial role in extending

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the racket coming into contact and extending

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the racket forward and through the ball.

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So, it's super important for the power of production

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and control and accuracy on the backhand side.

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So, as I said earlier,

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with your non-dominant hand,

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you're gonna use the eastern forehand grip and you're gonna choke

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up the racket,

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so where your

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non-dominant hand would be

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if you take

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your dominant hand off.

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Simple.

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So from there,

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again,

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like we were doing at the start,

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we're gonna have the ball in the dominant hand,

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rack it

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back here,

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and again,

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we're gonna drop to ourselves

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and come and hit a beautiful

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left-handed forehand.

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Holding the grip quite nice and loose,

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drop

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and hit.

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So, finding that timing,

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finding that coordination

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of hitting that ball with your left hand.

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So, if you really try and feel

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as you're doing this,

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you're extending

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through with that left hand.

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Extend,

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send,

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send,

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and up.

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So, if you're a beginner,

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you don't need to try and put any topspin on this ball at all.

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It's just about bouncing

0:09:59.619,0:10:02.049
and hitting and finding that contact point

0:10:02.340,0:10:04.489
nice and out in front of you and extending

0:10:04.940,0:10:06.119
all the way up

0:10:06.349,0:10:08.010
and across your shoulder.

0:10:10.070,0:10:12.179
So, once you've done about 20 reps of that,

0:10:12.190,0:10:15.960
then now you can move on to the last drill that I'm gonna show you.

0:10:16.280,0:10:16.750
Okay guys,

0:10:16.830,0:10:18.700
so now we're actually gonna start hitting

0:10:18.989,0:10:20.539
double-handed backhands.

0:10:20.710,0:10:22.679
If you don't have a partner to hit with,

0:10:22.750,0:10:23.859
don't worry at all,

0:10:24.109,0:10:26.830
because I'm gonna show you what you can do if you don't have a partner,

0:10:26.869,0:10:29.059
you can simply just drop the ball to yourself

0:10:29.270,0:10:31.869
and hit backhands and really learn how

0:10:32.190,0:10:34.140
the swing mechanics work.

0:10:34.390,0:10:37.059
You're gonna hold the ball in your non-dominant hand,

0:10:37.710,0:10:38.840
finding your

0:10:39.650,0:10:41.400
chop a grip with your dominant hand,

0:10:41.690,0:10:42.599
and from there

0:10:42.969,0:10:44.559
you're gonna find this position,

0:10:44.770,0:10:45.840
the ready position,

0:10:46.250,0:10:47.929
you're gonna bounce the ball in front

0:10:48.580,0:10:49.359
and hit.

0:10:49.500,0:10:49.859
So again,

0:10:49.940,0:10:52.849
you're just gonna drop the ball to the side and in front of you

0:10:53.299,0:10:53.500
up,

0:10:53.739,0:10:54.690
rack it up

0:10:55.340,0:10:55.820
and hit.

0:11:00.119,0:11:03.489
So, try to throw the ball up a little bit high so that you have enough time

0:11:03.729,0:11:05.609
to put the hand onto the grip,

0:11:05.929,0:11:06.890
take the racket back,

0:11:07.049,0:11:08.640
drop and swing through.

0:11:08.969,0:11:11.690
So, the key focus here is to find that back

0:11:11.690,0:11:15.260
position that we've been finding in all the previous drills,

0:11:15.289,0:11:16.039
and from there

0:11:16.289,0:11:18.000
you want to drop the racket

0:11:18.289,0:11:18.770
down,

0:11:19.830,0:11:19.849
low,

0:11:21.489,0:11:23.200
finding the contact point around

0:11:23.369,0:11:24.679
waist height

0:11:24.969,0:11:26.330
in front and to the side of you.

0:11:27.010,0:11:27.940
And then from there,

0:11:28.140,0:11:28.989
you turn

0:11:29.340,0:11:29.909
and

0:11:30.219,0:11:31.859
finish over your shoulder.

0:11:41.630,0:11:42.640
So, with these shots,

0:11:42.799,0:11:44.669
try and think about your net clearance.

0:11:44.880,0:11:47.559
Try and think maybe about trying to generate some topspin,

0:11:47.609,0:11:51.799
so getting low to high on the ball and brushing up the back of the ball.

0:11:52.000,0:11:53.900
I know there are a lot of things to think about there,

0:11:53.960,0:11:54.119
guys,

0:11:54.200,0:11:57.669
but if you go through each of these drills one by one and focus

0:11:57.880,0:11:59.909
on each of the points that I've been saying,

0:12:00.080,0:12:02.719
then slowly but surely you'll be able to progress

0:12:02.833,0:12:03.302
into

0:12:03.703,0:12:05.482
a really solid backhand

0:12:05.742,0:12:08.172
that will help you to win more matches,

0:12:08.223,0:12:12.293
and you won't feel like you have to rely only on your forehand side,

0:12:12.502,0:12:15.653
you might even find that your backhand turns into a weapon for you.

0:12:16.143,0:12:16.422
So guys,

0:12:16.502,0:12:17.703
that's the end of this video.

0:12:17.783,0:12:19.172
I hope you really enjoyed it.

0:12:19.302,0:12:19.932
If you did,

0:12:19.942,0:12:23.982
then please give this video a like and subscribe to my channel for more videos.

0:12:24.205,0:12:25.556
like this one to come.

0:12:25.846,0:12:26.085
Also,

0:12:26.205,0:12:28.685
if you want more help with your double-handed backhand,

0:12:28.726,0:12:30.565
then down in the description box below,

0:12:30.606,0:12:32.236
you can download my free

0:12:32.565,0:12:33.075
guide

0:12:33.286,0:12:37.116
that talks you through each essential step of the backhand stroke

0:12:37.486,0:12:41.835
with visual aids and instructions to help you really master the stroke.

0:12:42.005,0:12:42.366
So guys,

0:12:42.526,0:12:45.166
thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.