🏠 Home › Fundamentals › Classic Lessons › The One Handed Backhand - Power and Control

The One Handed Backhand:

Comprehensive unified tennis knowledge base — Fundamentals, Stroke Analysis, Reference Library, and more

The One Handed Backhand:

Power and Control

John Craig

After the left hand releases (Click Here for more about the left hand role) what should the dominant right arm do to create power and control? The keys are understanding the movement of the butt cap, the movement of the racket face, and crucially, the internal rotation of the hitting arm from the shoulder.

John Craig is using Roger Federer as his model with a classic eastern grip that puts the hand on top of the racket. Coming up to the contact and through it correctly is what creates consistency and racket head speed. The release of the wrist? Something that happens long after contact and not a factor in power and spin.

Figure from The One Handed Backhand:

John is a former Division I Collegiate player with over 35 years of playing, coaching and teaching experience. He is an Elite member of the USPTA, and has been an avid player, student and coach since his passion for tennis flourished in 1976. Based in Orange County, California, John has developed hundreds of students into quality players over the course of 3 decades.

John has held a variety of prestigious tennis positions, including serving as the Director of Tennis at the legendary John Wayne Tennis Club in Newport Beach, CA. John was also the founder and Director of The Edge Tennis Academy, a high-performance Junior Development program, also in Newport Beach. In addition to developing his latest project - Performance Plus Tennis, John is also a Pro at the Newport Beach Tennis Club.

Figure from The One Handed Backhand:

Source: tennisplayer.net archive — The One Handed Backhand - Power and Control.docx (John Yandell teaching library, 2002-2022). Extracted and rendered as HTML for Tennis Future Lab.