The Joy of 1HBH

Yesterday, I played with Adam. It's been a few weeks since we last played. He was in the process of moving, and then he got ill. Last time we played, he destroyed me. This time, the story was much the same.

Since the last time we played regularly, which was probably over 10 years ago, Adam's gotten a bit smarter as a player. He uses his slice more effectively. He can punish short balls. His serve is steady.

After a 6-1 drubbing in a set, I figured, rather than go through that again, it might be good to just hit around. Adam offhandedly mentioned whether I wanted to work on my one-handed backhand (nice abbreviated to 1HBH) or serve and volley or whatever.

When I first learned to play tennis, I used a 1HBH, and probably played that way for a year. After that, I learned to hit a two-handed backhand (2HBH), and pretty much hit that way ever since. Despite the switch to a 2HBH, my 1HBH was always OK.

Lately, I've played with Ravi and Shrini, both of whom have been trying to hit a 1HBH, so it had occurred to me that maybe, in order to give them advice, I should try to hit more 1HBH, but up until recently, I hadn't really checked out how to hit a 1HBH.

One thing I did know what that the 1HBH and the 2HBH are very different shots. A 2HBH starts with a sideways neutral stance setup. In other words, you start with your shoulder parallel to the side fence. When you finish, your shoulders will be parallel to the net.

The 1HBH requires you to step in front with your right leg (for a rightie) in front of the left leg, in a very closed stance. This facilitates getting your back completely to the net. When you are done hitting a 1HBH, the result is that you are sideways to the net (i.e., shoulders parallel to the side fence). In other words, you end up where the 2HBH starts off.

Anyway, about two days ago, I began looking at what Federer does with his 1HBH. Although I had seen his forehand many many times, I had not seen his backhand very often. Again, the idea was to pass on what I was observing to those trying to master the 1HBH.

Somehow, the comment that Adam made rather nonchalantly made me think, why not? Why not try hitting a 1HBH.

I will say, after half a lifetime of hitting with two hands, it took a little work to try hitting the 1HBH at all, but it felt a lot more liberating. A 2HBH, to me, always feels a bit constrained, that you trade stability in awkward positions for the wild abandon a 1HBH potentially offers.

I had no big objectives for my 2HBH, as I had been fretting my forehand for a while. But transitioning to a 1HBH meant that I had to relearn the backhand, and it has now changed my focus to my backhand, which ironically, is making me a bit more relaxed on my forehand.

The biggest difference with a 1HBH and 2HBH, other than the second hand, is the grip change. I find I have to think about the grip change a lot more.

One place that seems to have benefited from the change to one-hand is my return of serve. Where I tended to blunt back my return of serve on both sides, I feel like I can occasionally drive the shot. I don't know how long I'll keep doing the 1HBH. I know my brother gave up two hands on both sides to go to one hand on both sides a long time ago. I find it interesting that I might be ending up the same.

I'm sure it will take a while before I get decently consistent on the backhand, but for the first time, in a long while, it feels, for lack of a better word, freer, hitting the 1HBH.