I've got some things that you can do to build a better backhand.
I'm CJ. This is Tony, and we help players over 50
live the best lives on and off the pickleball courts.
Most players are more comfortable with
either their forehand or potentially their backhand.
But more commonly, players are more comfortable with their forehand.
And I think that just has a lot to do with how we're built anatomically.
It's easier for the arm to hang from this position the minute I put it into this
position, when I'm turning the opposite side of the paddle towards the camera.
The minute I put it in this position, my arm is now across my body.
So it may feel a little bit awkward.
But even if it's awkward, you can still
build a consistent backhand because they're very similar on the forehand side.
When the paddle is here, and I feel like I'm pushing the stroke.
Now, on the backhand side, the paddle is here.
So again, it looks very, very similar.
When I make that same motion, I feel a little bit more like I'm pulling the arm.
But regardless, you can still build a good
stroke on the backhand side if that happens to be your weakness.
We're going to start with the fundamentals.
And the very first thing you have to have
is you have to have a good grip to build a good backhand.
There are players that have a grip that
make it very, very difficult to build a good backhand.
So we're going to teach you the continental grip.
And the reason that we prefer the
continental grip is it's the most universal grip from front to back.
So an easy way to learn that is this.
I'm going to take the paddle out of my playing hand.
I'm already so I'm going to hold my hand out like I'm shaking hands, okay?
So that's the very first position I want to get into.
Then what I'm going to do is I'm going to
take the paddle and I'm going to put the paddle face against my hand.
Now what I'm going to do is I'm just going to slide my hand down on to the grip, and
that should be in the continental grip position.
Let me show it to you from a couple of different angles.
If you'd like to get a little bit more in
depth into the grip, click on this video right over here.
You may have noticed that I am standing at the non volley zone line.
We're going to build the backhand using the dink.
Now, the dink is actually a groundstroke,
and the fundamentals for this are very, very similar to the ones that we would use
from the baseline or the back of the court.
The reason that we start up here is when
we start with a smaller stroke, it's much quicker to help us to get our fundamentals
than it is going all the way back to the baseline.
So the very first thing.
Now I've got my great grip.
What I'm going to do now is I'm going to just position the paddle in front of me.
I'm going to do this without a ball.
What I want to start to work on is I want
to understand what the key driver of this stroke, what moves the paddle, and in this
instance, the shoulder is what should be moving the paddle.
So all I want to do is take the paddle in front of me.
It's moving from low to high, and I'm using the shoulder as a key driver.
Now to feel that it's okay, stand up here, flex the knees just a little bit.
Get in your ready position and just put your hand on your shoulder,
just like I've got on mine, and feel the paddle moving.
What you'll notice is I'm not using my wrist.
So there's no extra wrist motion in here.
That adds variability to the stroke.
There's also no elbow motion in here using the wrist or the elbow.
Small muscles, they are going to add more variability.
The more variability we have in a stroke,
the less consistency we have in that stroke.
So the first motion here is just to get the paddle in front of us.
And using the shoulder
as our main driver is to get the feeling of moving the paddle from low to high.
You can practice that out here on the court.
I do recommend that you practice this.
This is called the ghost drill. You can do this.
Ghost drill anywhere. But a great place to do it is in front of
the mirror so that you get a visual of what it looks like to move the paddle.
Just using the shoulder as the key driver, not involving the wrist or the elbow.
Once you've got the feeling of the motion, then we can add a ball to it.
And we're just going to start with that
forward motion, just getting the feel of making the shoulder the primary driver.
So go ahead and let's dink.
So I'm here and I'm lifting up and I'm dinking.
I'm here, I'm lifting up and I'm dinking.
And at first, when you do this, it may
seem very mechanical to hold the arm out in front of you like this.
That's okay. You can put your hand on your shoulder.
But again, you're looking for this to be the key driver.
You don't want to feel this with the wrist.
You also don't want to feel.
I'm going to show you one with the elbow.
I don't want my elbow to be moving up like this either.
I'm really focused on making this the key driver.
Once you've got that feeling, the next
thing that you want to do, or you're going to focus on a couple of things.
We're focusing on making contact out in
front as the paddle does not get behind us.
It's a real common mistake that we see in the backhand is I'm going to bring the
paddle to the point where I think the ball is going to be.
And then I'm simply I mentioned at the
beginning, it's almost a feeling like I'm pulling the arm into position.
I want that ball to travel on the line that my paddle is moving on.
So think about the line and the arc that that ball is going to be moving on.
Okay, let's go ahead and dink.
So I'm here.
I'm back.
Nice.
You see, I'm lifting up, it's out in front of me.
Nice.
All the motion is coming from my shoulder, not from a wrist or an elbow.
The balls moving along the line that the paddle is moving on.
And you notice every time I did this, as
I'm learning it right, we're going forward.
Forward all the time.
So now the third thing, once you've got
the feeling of what it's like going forward, now let's take it at an angle.
So I've got a player in front of me, Sarah's in front of me.
I've been dinking to her right foot, so
now I'm going to dink over to her other foot.
So when we put this in play, now I'm going to the other side of the court.
And what you're noticing here is, as I step in, the motion is the same, but the
panel is following the ball to a different place.
That's what's creating the trajectory and the path of the dink shot.
So contact out in front of you where you think the ball is going to be.
Lift the ball up and over.
When you've got it in one direction, then
go ahead and let's move it to the other direction.
If you don't have a partner to dink with, you can easily do this against a wall.
Again, all I'm doing here is taking the backhand
to the point where I think the ball is going to be, and then using the shoulder
as the key driver of the stroke, I'm moving the paddle along that line.
No wrist, no elbow, none of this.
You may have noticed when I was hitting
that shot that there wasn't a lot of body movement.
I stayed pretty parallel to the net.
I'd move into the shot here or move over for the shot here.
I didn't turn my body in a fashion where I was perpendicular to the net.
When you're hitting the dink, you don't need that.
That position is going to add too much
energy to the shot, which potentially can cause a popup.
It's also a strategic error because the
more I turn my body perpendicular to the net when I'm at the non-volley zone, the
more I open up the court and give an easier shot to my opponent.
Now, if you've got these fundamentals down and you'd like some additional help on
your return of serve backhand, click on this playlist right over here, because
together we can train smart, live bold and age well.