My daughter is 16 and she has not been playing tennis for long. In fact, until a couple of weeks ago, she hadn't played in a year. I noticed something unusual with my daughter's backhand and I don't know whether to try to get her to change. You see, my daughter is right-handed and she chokes up on her one-handed forehand. (This could be because she has been using a heavier racquet although she just started demo-ing a good women's Babolat racquet.) Anyway, when she switches to her backhand, she takes her left hand and places it towards the end of the racquet as compared to her righthand; in other words, she is cross-handed. She is able to hit the ball over the net sometimes but she often lifts the ball up and I think this is going to limit her going forward. I never heard of anyone hitting a backhand cross-handed so I searched on the internet. (I found this site in the process but I didn't see anything here about this particular problem, although someone talked about hitting a two-handed forehand and it was noted that, occasionally, a player with a two-handed forehand may not have time to switch hands so the backhand may end up being cross-handed.)
I don't want to be a pushy parent but I am afraid that this will limit her and it's not too late for her to learn a "normal" backhand. What do you think?
09-01-2010, 09:59 AM
clock-
I'm pretty sure hitting with a setup like that would make her backhand much worse than with a traditional two handed grip. Forward swinging with that setup is kind of limited because it pulls on your non dominant shoulder more and there is no way to get any wrist movement into your shot. I'd try to make sure she uses proper form, or maybe if she's really good hitting like that try a left handed forehand.
09-01-2010, 12:37 PM
Lawn Tennis
This is very interesting. Let us know what comes of it. To me it almost sounds like she wants to play left-handed.