The Backhand Lob of Justine Henin - 網球

http://0rz.tw/e32Ud
The Backhand Lob of Justine Henin
The Belgian uses perfect disguise for maximum effectiveness.
By Lynne Rolley

Justine Henin is a big player for such a small woman. I just saw her play
when she was 10 years old and it was apparent even then that she was
tremendously talented. Her signature shot, the one-handed backhand, was well
on its way to becoming the beautiful stroke it is today. There’s nothing
Henin can’t do with her backhand. In this sequence we see her produce one of
the most difficult shots in the game, the backhand topspin lob.


1. Disguise is key for an effective topspin lob and there’s nothing about
Henin’s preparation that signals that she’s about to hit one. Instead, she
gets directly behind the ball and positions herself as if she’s going to hit
any other passing shot. The racquet is up behind her head and her shoulders
and hips are turned, which is critical on a one-handed backhand. You can’t
see it in this photo, but her left hand is cradling the racquet at the throat
to assist in her shoulder turn. She’s also bending her knees and loading her
weight on her back foot.

2. Henin begins to drop the racquet head under the ball. Her left hand is
just coming off the throat, which gives you an indication of how much she
uses it to guide the racquet. She has an extreme grip as opposed to the
classic Eastern backhand grip. I’d call it a semi-Western backhand, because
her hand is so far around on the handle. Her balance and posture are
excellent, and her head is very still as she begins to transfer her weight to
her front foot.

3. Only now can you tell that Henin is going to hit a lob. Her racquet head
has dropped very low so it’s well under the ball. She’s going to bring her
racquet up quickly to brush behind the ball and lift it over her opponent’s
head. Her hitting arm is extended out and she’ll make contact well ahead of
her front foot. Her head has not moved since the ? rst frame.

4. If you compare this frame to the previous one, you can see Henin’s
sharply vertical swing and how she’s rotated her arm to produce the topspin
she wants. She can do that because her extreme grip keeps her racquet face
more closed than a conventional Eastern. I also like how her left hand stays
back to counterbalance her hitting arm. She has fully transferred her weight
to her front foot and sent the ball on its way, yet her head is virtually in
the same place it was in the first frame.

5. The momentum resulting from Henin’s extreme upward swing path and the
extension of her hitting arm has carried her slightly up onto the ball of her
front foot. But Henin has maintained perfect posture and balance, showing
that she has excellent technique and strong core muscles.

6. It’s interesting to see that Henin has kept the same 90-degree angle
between her racquet and forearm in the last three frames. Instead of using
her wrist to flick the racquet as you might expect, she rotates her forearm
and shoulder to produce a sharp upward sweep. Though we can’t be certain,
this may be because she decided to hit the lob at the last instant. Either
way, she disguised and executed it perfectly.
--
leumas 不是打單反的
有辦法學juju的絕技嗎 呵呵..

--