Are you suffering from a weak or inconsistent backhand?
If you do today, I'm going to share with you the four most
common mistakes I see players make on the backhand side.
Stay tuned.
Hey, everybody I'm C.J. Johnson.
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One of the most common questions I receive is C.J..
My backhand is worse than my forehand.
What can I do? No doubt about it.
For most of us, our backhand is a weaker shot than our forehand.
There are four common mistakes that I see
players make on the backhand side that lend to a weak backhand.
So let's get into those mistakes and see if we can fix your backhand.
Number one is the grip.
It's pretty common to see tennis players use some type of an Eastern forehand grip.
What an eastern forehand grop would be is
on the forehand side, the palm of the hand would be facing the net.
That puts you in a more powerful position
on the forehand side but puts you at a disadvantage on the backhand side.
I recommend a continental grip.
I think a continental grip for pickleball
works efficiently on the forehand side as well as the backhand side.
Even if you're coming from tennis and you're used to a different style
of grip on the forehand, oftentimes it's hard to change grips fast
enough because the pickleball court is so short.
And that's why I tend to like
the continental grip just a little bit better.
So if you're thinking about a continental grip, what that would be like is the V
of the hand is actually up on top, kind of off to the side of the paddle.
And when I say V of the hand, what I'm talking about the V that's
created between the thumb and forefinger of your hand.
If you'd like more info on the grip, click on the link that just came up.
It's a detailed video on the grip. E
ven if you know that you have a good grip, I talk about grip pressure in that video.
Most people aren't aware of how tightly
they hold the pickleball paddle, and that creates so many mistakes at all
levels. So make sure that you check it out.
The next most common mistake that I see is using the forearm alone.
Now, when we're up here, I come up to the non-volley zone.
Yes, my body is going to stay straight and I'm going to use the arm alone.
But when we're back in the court towards
the baseline or midcourt and I'm going to do groundstrokes,
which is where more people have problems, I see a tendency of people to keep their
body very straight to the net, a term that I would call square,
very square to the net and make this type of motion.
The problem with that motion is all you're
using would be your small muscles of your arms.
So you're using your forearms,
using your tricep a little bit of the bicep to use this type of motion.
Unfortunately, that leads to a lot of inconsistency,
,control problems and definitely a lack of power.
A third common error, I see would be in the footwork.
I alluded to this just a little bit in the last segment.
A square stance
would be so that I am standing in a parallel line to the net.
Now, on the forehand side,
there are a lot of times where you'll see players have a fairly open stance
on the forehand side and it's effective on the forehand side because I'm still
in a position where I can use my core to generate power and speed.
On the backhand side, we've already talked
about how this position promotes an arm alone motion.
But if I don't use the right footwork,
I'm not positioning myself correctly for the bounce of the ball.
I'm also not putting myself in a position where I can use my core.
What is the correct position for the backhand groundstrokes?
If I'm here, as I see the ball coming to my backhand side,
I want to turn my body so that I'm now perpendicular to the net.
I've got my feet and my shoulders perpendicular to the net.
If I went from this position here
to this position here.
I now can place myself, so I have a swing at the ball where I can
use my core to generate some speed for the shot.
I kill two birds with one stone, I put myself in a position to make solid
contact by turning in this direction and I can now add my core.
Let's see what that looks like.
The fourth most common error I see and I see this on both the forehand
and the backhand, I guess in my opinion, probably more on the backhand side because
of the position we have to take to actually hit the backhand.
And that's not watching the ball all
the way to the paddle. When you don't watch the ball
to the paddle there's a greater chance that you'll hit an off center
shot.
I have a separate video on watching
the ball with some drills to the paddle, b ut what you should do is as the ball's
coming and you've turned your body so that you're perpendicular to the net,
I like to try to spot the holes on the ball.
That also helps to indicate to me
which way that ball is spinning, and it subconsciously allows me to move
closer or further away from the ball based on what I see.
When you turn for the correct footwork so that you're perpendicular to the net,
make sure that you're watching the ball as it comes all the way to the paddle.
So my gaze should come here.
I don't want to be hitting a ball that's here while I'm looking forward.
Now that you're aware of the most common mistakes, I've got a playlist to help you
to develop, a consistent and powerful backhand. If y
ou got value from the video, give it a thumbs up and share it with your
pickleball friends, because together we can
Train Smart, Live Bold and Age Well.