Do you ever feel like your backhand lets you down? Do you struggle to generate any power?
Or can you not consistently hit the shuttle over the net or where you want it to go?
Well over the last 10 years we've helped hundreds of people dramatically improve their backhand with
these four tips we're about to share in this video so let's get to it! A lot of people make
the mistake of having their racket at the wrong angle at the point of contact. What you should
do is have your racket shaft roughly vertical like this between around here and here!
To do this you need to be in a bevel grip. This is where you have your thumb on this ridge or bevel here
but you might be thinking this is a backhand shot so why aren't we using a backhand grip?
Well if you use a backhand grip like a lot of people think to do you might be able to get
your racket shaft vertical but you definitely won't be able to hit the shuttle over the net
and this is why people actually revert to a more horizontal racket angle
and to briefly dive into this a bit deeper having your racket at a more horizontal angle means that
your arm is often further away from you which hugely decreases both your control and power
so moving on to our second tip unlike a lot of shots in badminton where you can use a short
swing to generate power like your lifts or drives the backhand rear court is an exception
you need to use the whole swing and not just accelerate at the point of contact!
Let's take you to the golf course to help you further understand this... we had some advice from
a golf pro the other day who said a big mistake beginner golfers like us often make is trying
to focus solely on the contact with the ball rather than the preparation and the follow
through which ultimately helps the flow of the swing and the result of the shot and this is
exactly the same mistake people make with their backhands so make sure you focus on having a good
preparation and follow through and like golf it should look almost effortless! We're also going
to take one more tip from the world of golf and that is that you can't try and hit it too hard
Golf is very similar to badminton in that the more tense you are and the harder you try and hit it
the more inconsistent you'll be and you'll also lose power - so a bonus point is to stay relaxed!
Now our third tip is all about having the confidence to face backwards. Naturally we
don't want to do this as we don't want to face away from our opponents but facing backwards is
a really important part of the preparation as it allows you to rotate your whole body which helps
you to generate power in the shot! If you don't do this and you face sideways then you can only use
your arm and shoulder which hugely limits your ability to time the shuttle and create power
before we move on to our fourth and most important tip we need to mention that no matter whether
you're playing a backhand drop, clear or smash you want to make the preparation look exactly the same
no matter where you're hitting it to oh and also you should only take a backhand in the
rear court if you really need to as often taking a shot around the head will be much more effective
especially in doubles! Now you know what else is going to limit your ability to time the shuttle
and create power? What you do with your elbow during your swing and there are two parts to
this final tip. Part one is that you need to start with your elbow low - if you start with your elbow
high then you can only generate power from your shoulder all professional players start with their
elbow low and then bring it high enabling them to rotate their whole body and generate power
Part two is maybe the most common mistake we see this is not having your elbow slightly bent at the
point of contact. Now this is important because you need to lead with your elbow first in your swing
with your racket quickly following. This throwing action helps to keep your racket head controlled
whilst also creating power and yeah this can't be done with your arm either too straight or too bent
at the point of contact! Now if these quick tips aren't enough for you to transform your backhand
then you might want to watch our in-depth tutorial here it was one of our first videos so we have to
apologise for how camera shy we were but it is good to see how much you can improve in a year
and hopefully we'll continue to make improvements by consistently working at it, like you should
with your backhand!! We'd also love for you to share this video with a friend who maybe also
struggles with their backhand but before you do that please give the video a like, smash
the subscribe button if you haven't already and we'll hopefully see you on another video very soon