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The One Handed Backhand:
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The One Handed Backhand:
Skill Progressions
John Craig
Picture this: you hit a solid, deep approach shot off your opponent’s short ball and you close on the net expecting to put away an easy volley. Instead, your opponent lobs.
In the final article in his series (Click Here for the others) John Craig presents a wonderful series of original drills including examples with one of his junior students to develop all the elements outlined in previous articles.
What I really love of about this article is the use of the short court and the emphasis on technique over power at the foundational level. John talks about his own development of the one-hander and how he used drills practicing by himself—as well as feeding drills—to develop a gorgeous looking technical one-hander.
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.
Source: tennisplayer.net archive — The One Handed Backhand - Skill Progressions.docx (John Yandell teaching library, 2002-2022). Extracted and rendered as HTML for Tennis Future Lab.