
Three Lines
Perfecting your Payload Delivery System
Let’s do a rerun of the Three Lines we covered on the one-handed backhand and apply them to the two-hander – travel line – foot line – shoulder line.
Line 1: The Ball’s Travel Line
Read the travel line of the ball, react, and use your legs to set up your stroke.
In 1 thru 3 Marat has read the travel line of the approaching ball and he moves within comfortable hitting distance.
Remember awayness? How could you forget.
In 4 Marat is sufficiently away from the travel line to enable a parallel (to the court) racket at contact.
Too close and he’d be forced to eat soup… spooning with two-hands.
Line 2: The Foot Line
The image below reveals Marat’s foot line. If you draw a line between Marat’s back and front foot, it points in the general direction of the forthcoming Connect 3.

The foot line provides a power delivery system – a Closed Delivery – a delivery line – allowing Marat to shift the various forces through and into a perfect contact.
Line 3: The Shoulder Line
I’ve included the full sequence, below. In 4 thru 6 we also see the shoulder line, which allows Marat to get the main hitting shoulder and racket fully away from the ball, and into his (looped) backswing.
In the free running animation, below, we see each of the three above lines, and also a quality demo of how to deliver on them … as well as a perfectly engineered Connect 3.
To recap:
The Travel Line requires you…
- – read,
- – react and
- – set up with leg work for a ? ….(brainwashing time, people!)…

…Foot Line,
- – which provides a Closed Delivery system for your efforts.
The Shoulder Line…
- – is necessary for a full backswing and racket head prep.
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