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Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the Atlanta Tennis Podcast,

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With that said, let's get started with 10 Minutes of Tennis.

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- Today is 10 Minutes of Tennis with World Renowned Tennis Coach,

Justin Yeo, Australian in Puerto Rico.

Justin, I'm getting pretty good at that.

(laughing)

- I just gotta say I'm in Naples Florida today.

- You're in Naples, okay, you're in country.

- Yeah, it is.

- On the mainland.

- On the mainland, all right, well, welcome here.

Naples is a nice place to be.

And we today are going to talk about the non-dominant hand,

the power of the non-dominant hand.

So skipping ahead, hopefully we all understand

dominant hand non-dominant.

So I'm a righty, so that is my dominant hand.

I'm a lefty, this is my non-dominant hand.

Interesting follow up from a recent conversation

about the dominant eye, not to be confused.

So the non-dominant hand, Justin,

you're gonna tell me why there's power in it.

So, okay, go.

- Well, the power is from the importance of it.

A lot of people don't utilize it well enough

on ready dance.

So, Bali, backswing, there's so many things

that are so critical about the non-dominant hand

to change grip.

The non-dominant hand is such an important tool,

which is where basically you can create power.

You're actually put the weight of the racket

in your left hand every time you finish the point.

I mean, I say a lot of people are tight-rigged

because they don't put the non-dominant hand

holding the weight of the racket when you come back

up to your swing on recovery.

So, that can automatically generate a lot more power

because the right hand is loose and you're right on loose

and you can accelerate the racket at the target.

So, there's so many rolls of the non-dominant hand,

especially on Bali, keeping the racket at up,

keeping it further out,

close back in on the take back, trying to keep it

again, weight up here, loose here.

On the backswing on your forehand,

you bring the left arm around,

we've seen, you know, after it comes all the way

around with both arms and then let's go.

Seeing that with John from it as well.

So, the non-dominant hand, not spoken about enough,

especially also even in preparation on the foreword.

You know, there's like a counter-act with faith.

If your left arm comes out, your bum comes out,

you get into a play-fade.

The non-dominant hand is a magic tool.

I don't think it's just spoken about it, none of you.

- And that just pretty much answers my first question

'cause I had a simple first question is,

this is more than just the two-handed backhand.

So, those with two-handed backhands,

talk about that non-dominant hand often.

So, that is the place where it's talked about.

Now, it might also be talked about on the serve

with the toss, but again,

that's got its own job to do, and that's a little bit obvious.

So, what you're talking about is the less than obvious uses of

that non-dominant hand for balance,

for the take-back on the one-handed backhand,

'cause that was gonna be that next question to me,

for me, which is, all right,

well, what does this have to do beyond the serve

in the two-handed backhand?

- Mm-hmm, and then change the grip.

You know, a lot of people struggle with the change of grip,

and the left hand is really,

you keep back to just send the grip by.

You keep your right hand loose.

Yeah, you did hit an important point at the two-handed backhand.

Two-handed is always gonna have the challenge between which one

helps the most tension, because obviously on the back swing,

you wanna make sure your left hand's dominant

when you're back swing, when you're forward, when you're backhand.

But it just still goes the important role of how, you know,

the focus and training and technique

and all these things that need to be around the non-dominant

system, and I mean, I guess a lot of the times I've seen,

we don't talk about it enough.

A non-dominant hand on the ready stance,

we brought that up just a few days, a few weeks ago,

ready stance, there's so critical that if the left hand

is further and outfout, you know, it's allowing you,

it's allowing the rotations that happen,

because they're all those are in, and we've got a lazy stance

and the non-dominant hand is not helping at all,

then that also can be an inflating effect.

On the volley, you've got challenges there

on a two-handed backhand player,

because they've got to come in and decide,

"I'm not gonna do one here,

or am I gonna be a two-handed, you know,

because honestly on the volley,

there's so much easier to hold the rack that up,

and be ready for preparation, there's the downhand.

- And that sends me, I wanna talk about those last two things

you just mentioned, which is the ready stance,

where I've seen, I remember when I first noticed

the elbows out and the left hand on the side

and the right hand on the side was latent hue it

in the late '90s, and he had that just extreme elbows out,

'cause I think he was really not really one of the first,

but one of the obvious, that semi-western forehand grip,

and then the two-handed backhand,

where you realize on the return of serve, especially,

you don't have as much time for a grip change,

so you just put that left hand ready

for a two-handed backhand,

it's just ready to go at all times for the two-handed backhand,

and you can actually turn the grip in your hand,

as you get prepared for that.

But at the net, I don't know a lot of players,

I said mostly the female players

that have that two-handed backhand volley,

I think that's the thing you just stick with as a kid,

but in this case, you're talking about the left hand,

or for me, the left hand,

the non-dominant hand being on the throat,

almost as a balancing agent,

less so than for, to be able to have it on the grip,

as though I'm gonna use it at the net, right?

- 100%, 100%.

Especially if you think about the balance of the racket,

the weight in the middle is easier to hold the racket head up,

that is allowing its tilt from the handle.

So it's just a 100% model.

Here's the thing, all my female players,

every single one, the only way I can teach them how to slide,

probably, it's teaching them how to have a one-handed backhand

position on the baseline,

so that they can learn how to slide,

and if they need to drop for a two-handed,

they drop it in and let the left hand take over.

So, but it's easy to always help them set up

for a slide backhand return,

or as wide as backhand in the rally,

and then it's an easy position that,

when they get to the net,

they're still in the same position as they're happy with,

with the left hand on the throat.

It helps them, if it's nice and relaxed on the forehead,

there's no grip tension.

I find the only challenge always was,

was on return, but really, at the end of the day,

it's just a quick drop in and return,

pop the wrist and off you go.

So, I don't know,

that was one of my city's with my junior tennis player,

is that I'm trying to set a mountain.

- And we see more, more two-handed backhand returns

on the female side, on the return of serve,

I think maybe because the two hands are there,

and it's easier, but again, it's gonna be a coaching thing.

It's gonna be something that they learned

when they were 13 to 16 in that range,

say, this is the thing.

I was picking on Taylor Fritz the other day,

thinking, man, if he only had a decent backhand slice,

a defensive backhand slice on that side,

and I'm kinda yelling at the television,

and then all of a sudden he starts hitting that chip

a little bit more, in the same,

I mean, within minutes of me saying it,

I'm sure he heard me, but started shipping a little bit more.

I think that's one thing that really adds

some defense on that side,

as we see more on the men's side, of course,

than the women's side.

But that's again, where that non-dominant hand,

he's just so used to be in long

and being able to reach with those two hands

the way Jokovic is flexible.

And so we look at the weekend player,

we look at that weekend player,

with the typical league player, the social player,

that says, okay, well, I could do kind of whatever I want.

I'm not great at anything.

But can I just use that non-dominant hand to find that spot?

So I would say, as Justin's saying,

go find your coach, talk to them about using that on that side,

even if it's just balanced,

but we think about that non-dominant hand more

than we would like to.

Justin, yeah, I appreciate it.

Let's follow up again,

because I think there's more conversation to have here

when we can maybe dive into a little bit each of these,

where here's where the non-dominant hand is for balance

on each of these spots,

and here's where it's actually used in the shot.

You good with that?

- Yeah, I mean, Ash Barty number one player in the world,

Hurt a lot of female players that started back in Reddinham,

and it's good the left hand came up, so.

- There you go, we're telling you.

- And you get to take credit for her,

'cause you're an Aussie, she's an Aussie, there you go.

- Well, there you have it.

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