I get asked this question a lot. My backhand seems to go everywhere. When it
does go in it doesn't have any power! CJ what do I do?
Today we're going to talk about backhand basics.
Today we're going to talk about
some of the fundamentals, your grip, your stance and your setup. If you clean some
of those up, chances are you're going to start hitting the shot more consistently,
where you want it to go and with a little bit more power. For most people
their backhand is a weaker shot than their forehand for a variety of
different reasons. And they spend a lot of time running around it. I'd like to
know what's stronger for you, your backhand or your forehand? Put it down in
the comments below.
First let's talk about the grip.
I've seen players use a lot of different grips and frankly sometimes those grips
are great for a forehand, like an Eastern grip from a tennis background. It is
awesome for a forehand. That way you've got your palm facing towards the net and it
makes for a very strong and powerful shot. Unfortunately that's not as good a
grip for a backhand. My personal preference is to use a continental grip
all the way around the court. Good for the forehand and equally good for the backhand.
So in an Eastern forehand grip we have our palm facing more
towards the net more towards the front of the paddle. So it looks a little bit
like this. In a continental grip the V that's created by our thumb and our
forefinger right here that sits on top of the paddle.
That's an easier grip to hit a backhand with.
Okay so now you've got a good grip.
What we need to work on is we need to work on your body position. And there's
probably two things going on. First of all if you have a weak backhand you've
probably been running around that backhand so you're not comfortable
with where the ball is in relationship to your body. Chances are you're either
too close to your body or you're reaching too far away. The second part of
the footwork that we'll work on when we do this, is I want to turn my body or
have a closed stance, more of a closed stance than perhaps I do on my forehand.
And what that allows me to do is to use my shoulders and my core to rotate
through the shot to create some power on the backhand. The way that I like to do
this is without a paddle. Start by getting your body moving
correctly. So I'm going to have Jeannie stand at the non-volley zone. I'm going to go back
here to the baseline. All right she's gonna feed to me and I'm going to work on
getting the correct footwork which is the closed stance and rotating the
shoulders and getting my arms so they're they're relaxed and away from the ball.
I'm not reaching and they're not in close to my body.
I'm here and I catch the ball. You'll notice I'm in a closed stance and what I can do
now to finish this off is rotate through with my shoulders so I get the feeling
of what my body's supposed to be doing.
Now that I've got a feeling for the correct footwork I'm going put the
paddle in my hand and I'm going to add two more things to this. When I move into my
position where my stance is a little closed and my shoulders are turned I want to
focus on making the contact out in front of the body and watching the ball come
all the way into the paddle.
The perfect way to practice this is with a game of backhand only skinny singles
and if you click on this it's going to tell you exactly how to do it. If you got
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