4 Essential Tennis Techniques for Control and Power

 By Paul Dale | www.3amtennis.com

Complete guide to developing a versatile two-handed backhand with professional-level control, spin, and directional accuracy

The two-handed backhand can be one of tennis’s most reliable and powerful strokes when executed with proper technique. However, many tennis players struggle with consistency and versatility because they focus on rigid grip positions rather than understanding the fundamental mechanics that create control and power.

These five essential elements will transform your two-handed backhand from a defensive liability into an offensive weapon. By mastering hand positioning, power generation, and directional control, you’ll develop the backhand versatility needed for competitive tennis success.

1. Bottom Hand Positioning: Controlling Your Contact Zone Length

The bottom hand grip position directly plays a part in the
length of your two-handed backhand contact zone, which in turn fundamentally
affects your ability to handle different shot directions and heights.

Understanding Contact Zone Control

When the knuckles of your bottom hand are positioned nearer
top of the handle, you benefit from a longer contact zone. This extended
contact zone provides more time “on the ball”, making down-the-line backhands
easier to execute.

Knuckles closer to the top of the handle are also better
for high balls, particularly high Returns of Serve. This grip position gives
the backhand more stability overall as you use less wrist work.

Positioning the knuckles of your bottom hand further
around the front of the handle creates a shorter contact zone, allowing you to use more wrist work, which helps in hitting cross-court shots with disguise.
Timing the ball down the line, especially when it is moving faster, is more challenging.

Professional tennis players, such as Novak Djokovic,
demonstrate this principle clearly. His bottom hand positioning almost on top
of the handle indicates preparation for down-the-line backhand execution,
providing the extended contact zone necessary for precise directional control.

Developing Grip
Versatility

When you are developing your game, learn to hit with a
variety of bottom hand positions.

Develop a two-handed backhand with multiple grip positions
rather than adhering to a single fixed grip. Each grip position offers specific
advantages and limitations depending on ball height, speed, spin, and intended
shot direction.

Tennis coaching that begins with fixed grip positions
ultimately limits your competitive development. Instead, focus on developing
complete racquet face control across various grip positions.

Grips should serve the requirements of the racquet head , and
not restrict your tactical options.

The key mind shift involves focusing on racquet face
positioning/angle rather than grip positioning. This approach develops
intuitive adjustment ability that automatically adapts to different balls and
strategic requirements.

2. Top Hand Function: Setting Height and Racquet Face Angles

The Opposite-Hand: Adjusting
the Arms and Racquet-head

Many players use their opposite hand (if you use your right
hand for forehands, the opposite hand is your left hand).

The top hand’s first function involves adjusting your arms
and racquet head to match the expected height of the contact. This adjustment, made through the use of the opposite hand, proves particularly valuable in situations involving high-bouncing tennis balls and returns of serve, where maintaining racquet stability
under pressure is essential.

Proper top-hand adjustment creates a stable platform that prevents late preparation, weak, unstable contact, which typically results in unforced errors or poor ball control.

Setting Racquet
Face Angles

Your opposite hand can also serve as a steering mechanism for racquet face angles, much like a rudder controlling a boat’s direction. Before
beginning your swing, the top hand sets the desired racquet face angle, which determines the ball’s height over the net.

This angle-setting phase allows you to make conscious
decisions about net clearance. Often, under time pressure, players swing at
balls without thinking much about the angle of the racquet face for contact. Using
the opposite hand gives the player racquet head awareness.

Enabling Grip
Adjustment

As your top hand sets racquet face angles for each ball,
your bottom hand should relax slightly and automatically find its optimal grip
position. This relaxation allows two essential things to occur simultaneously.

First, the top hand completes angle setting without
interference from bottom hand tension. Second, the bottom hand automatically
adjusts to its ideal position for the intended shot without conscious
manipulation.

This top-hand dominance of the backhand continues throughout
the swing. The energy for the swing should be dominated by your top hand,
helping create smoother and more powerful two-handed backhands.

3. Power Generation
and Timing: Ground Connection Through Contact Foot

Two-handed backhand power generation requires effective
interaction with the ground through proper contact foot utilisation. The ground
provides your primary energy source and timing reference for consistent stroke
execution.

Developing Ground
Interaction Skills

You really can’t discuss any groundstroke without referring
to the source of timing and power for groundstrokes.

Every groundstroke draws timing and power through our
Contact Foot. It doesn’t matter which foot you use; that’s why you see both men
and women tennis professionals using a wide range of ways to create their
Contact Foot. Right foot, left foot, open stance, closed stance, front foot,
back foot; it’s all the same.

Learn to create effective Contact Foot interaction with the
ground on all ball types. This versatility in ground connection forms the
foundation of backhand effectiveness

Professional tennis players like Andy Roddick demonstrate
this principle by using toe contact to draw energy and timing from the ground,
creating the power transfer necessary for penetrating backhand shots.

Using Ground for
Timing

The Contact Foot also provides your primary source timing
groundstrokes. All timing originates from the foot you designate as your
contact foot rather than from your arm.

Focus your awareness on the incoming ball to judge ground
interaction timing accordingly. Your goal is synchronisation between the ground connection and the ball contact.

Timing is the successful synchronisation between the ground,
your swing and the ball.

4. Adding Spin:
Contact-to-High Technique for Penetrating Shots

Effective spin for the two-handed backhand technique
requires understanding the difference between spinning during contact and
adding spin through follow-through positioning.

Avoid Spinning Your
Contact

Many tennis players attempt to create topspin by
“brushing” the ball with low-to-high swing paths during the contact
zone. This approach reduces your feel for height control and significantly
decreases ball penetration after bouncing on your opponent’s side of the court.

I’m aware that everywhere teaches “brushing” the ball, and talk
up the benefits of creating “spin control”, but they probably are not working
with professional tennis players. If you coach professional players, you need
to find a way to retain the benefits of spin and avoid the negatives of too
much spin.

While low-to-high spinning techniques may seem safer
initially due to increased net clearance, they limit offensive capability and
reduce competitive effectiveness over time. The resulting shots lack the
penetration needed to finish the point.

Implementing
Contact-to-High Technique

Advanced players use a different spin technique. They adopt
a contact (racquet comes from behind the ball) to high swing path rather than
the low (below the ball) to high technique. The critical difference lies in
striking the ball as flat as possible. The
contact-to-high technique involves clean contact followed by a high hand
finishing position. This method retains ball penetration while creating
necessary topspin for controlling the ball and applying pressure to the opponent.

The height of your follow-through (finish) directly
determines the amount of topspin. Higher finishing positions create more spin,
while a lower finish means less spin.

Developing Complete
Two-Handed Backhand Mastery

These four fundamental elements work together to create a
complete two-handed backhand system that provides both offensive capability and
defensive reliability. Mastering bottom-hand grip versatility, top-hand
control, ground interaction, and spin application creates the backhand
versatility needed for competitive tennis success.