The Backhand Smash

In a high level of tennis, players try to avoid playing backhand smashes whenever possible. Fast side stepping, footwork or even meeting the lobbed ball somewhat to the left of the body is usually preferable because most players believe that they can blast the ball away more easily, albeit from an awkward position, than to try a backhand winner.

However, there is a great deal of latent speed in the backhand smash. All that is needed is to follow these series of USPTR Standard Method progressions to acquire a devastating backhand smash:

First, the player has to become familiar to jumping for power. To practice this the coach feeds lobs wide and high to the player's backhand side. The player hits the ball on the run, trying to jump as high as possible when making contact with the ball.

Second, the player makes a determined effort to keep the hips sideways because the de-accelerating of the hips will help to increase the speed of the stroke.

Third, the player here adds more "snap" to the stroke using the shoulder, elbow and wrist as a series of accelerating levers.

The last addition to the stroke is to snap-turn the head away from the net just before the moment of impact to allow an even faster racket head speed.

With practice many players become so adept at the stroke they can actually generate so much power to be able to bounce, on occasion, the ball over the back fence. Once this skill has been acquired there is no longer any need to avoid the backhand smash.