For most of us, the weakest shot in our arsenal is our backhand.
And it doesn't matter whether it's a ground stroke or a dink.
But isn't it frustrating when you go to hit a backhand dink and you either hit
it into the net or you pop it up?
What can you do to be more consistent with your backhand dink? Stay tuned.
[inaudible]
Hey everybody, it's CJ Johnson and welcome to Better Pickleball.
We talk about everything pickleball from gear to instruction to fitness so that
players over 50 can live their best life on and off the courts.
There are a variety of reasons that you may miss a backhand dink,
but generally it's either because the paddle position at impact is either too
low, so it goes into the net or it's too high and creates a pop up.
So what are we doing to create a weak paddle position?
A place you need to look at first is the wrist.
It's easier to control the paddle position with a strong wrist or thinking of it
like a V-shape versus a weak wrist.
But is it only the wrist? I don't think so.
I've been watching a lot of tournament video lately and it's players who are all
over 50 with a variety of different skill levels and there's one common mistake
that we tend to make more often,
which ultimately puts our body and our paddle into a weak wristed position.
We begin to bend from our waist instead of using our hips and our legs.
There are a few reasons for that. Once we hit age 40 and you heard me right,
age 40 we tend to lose approximately 1% of our muscle mass yearly.
In addition to that,
our ligaments and tendons are losing their elasticity,
making the joints less mobile. For many of us,
arthritis from old injuries or simply growing a little older begins to set in
and makes our joints less mobile as well.
With all that being said,
there are things that you can do on and off the court to improve your backhand
dinks. First when you're on the court,
make a concentrated effort to bend from your knees and hips.
Since most of you use the dink as a warm-up,
ask a friend to check your position or grab your phone and turn your video
camera on.
Another way to check yourself is to notice your head position.
If I'm looking down at the court, I'm more likely to be bending from the waist.
If I bend using my hips and legs, my back stays straighter,
my head's lifted and it's easier for me to see the ball.
By using your lower body properly,
it puts you into a position where it's easier to maintain the angle of your
wrist and paddle
In the meantime it helps to start strengthening those muscles off the court.
Now I can hear a few of you already saying my knees, my back,
or any multitude of excuses that you may be tempted to use,
but I know that your dedicated to playing better pickleball and you're going to
give it a try.
One of the most effective ways to strengthen the lower body is with a squat,
but don't worry, I've got you covered.
I'm going to show you how to do it properly,
how to modify it to fit all of your ailments and how to fit it into your busy
life. Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart.
Your toes, your hips are facing forward.
Pull your tummy in. Stand up nice and tall.
I want you to start by simply feeling like you're pressing your hips backwards,
so you're going to feel some of that weight move into your heels.
Your upper body is going to stay nice and tall and you're simply flexing from
the hips in the knees.
It's a feeling like you're sitting down into a chair. In fact,
think of an imaginary chair as we start to go backwards.
Think about sitting back so that you're touching a bar stool,
then a stool that's, perhaps just a little bit lower,
and then maybe a dining room chair or your lounging chair.
Now,
ideally you want to try to get your legs and your body to approximately 90
degrees, but if you haven't been doing that in a while, don't worry about it.
Just this little bit of bend will start to strengthen those muscles.
Once you're down here, you're nice and balanced.
You're going to be able to pull your toes up off the ground just a little bit.
That should be a nice balanced position. As you return to standing,
I want you to feel like you're pulling your glutes together and driving through
the heels to raise yourself up. Even if you don't have bad knees,
you need to make sure you're protecting them and the way that you do that is you
never want to have your knees go forward of your toes.
Your feet should be flat,
in fact I should be able to pick my toes up off the ground at any point in time
in this particular stance.
Now I know you're busy, so to fit this into your busy day,
here's a simple way to do it. Every single time you get up from a chair,
do it without the assistance of your upper body. In fact,
do it five times. Think about how quickly that will add up.
You'll get stronger and no time and your 90 year old pickleball playing self
will. Thank you.
Now go ahead and give this video a thumbs up and share it with your pickleball
playing friends because together we can. Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well