There are some interesting aspects of the two handed backhand we need to look at. First, look at how the two hander uses the same overarching principle as the forehand. Rather than swing the racket or arm at the ball, top players rotate their torso and lift their arms to get the arm and racket to come forward. Can you see how Safin's hitting arm lifts upward to the ball before contact? This motion, which also occurs on the forehand - looks to me like the arm motion used to bowl a bowling ball. The entire arm lifts forward and up.

The second aspect of this stroke I want to examine is the role of the wrist and forearm in this shot. Before I get into the wrist and forearm motion, please remember that the power from all shots comes from torso rotation and through powerfully pushing your hand and shoulder through the ball. Momentum into contact - whether it comes from torso rotation or a lifting of the arm - or wrist and forearm movement - is only useful if it translates into a powerful push through the ball on impact.

Now onto the wrist and forearm. When the hitting hand is by the left hip, the wrist lays the racket back and angles the racket down. This down angle is significant and has the racket pointing to the ground at around a 45 degree angle. As the arm lifts to the ball, the racket will go from being angled down to the ground at 45 degrees to parallel to the ground on contact. What drives this angle from downward to parallel to the ground? The wrist and forearm rotating outward. We are going to look at this movement in the next article. It is very important, however, to note how this wrist/forearm rotation exists within the context of the arm lifting to the ball and the torso rotating into the ball.