5 Common Backhand Mistakes Pickleball Players Make (At All Levels)

one of the shots we see players struggling with the most is the backand now it makes sense it's just not as easy to hit the ball leading with the back of your hand as it is the front of your hand so I can understand why people have more trouble on the backhand side and that's why today we're going to go into five big mistakes that we see on the backhand side at the recreational level predominantly but really these tips can help you amp up your backand at every level I'm Nicole havich this is prime time

pickle ball let's dive into today's topic missing one of our videos is like missing an easy putaway don't let that be you subscribe now to be clear today we're talking about the one-handed backhand Drive ground stroke one-handed backhand flat or with a little bit of Top Spin the same Concepts apply before we dive into these mistakes I want to clarify one non-negotiable that needs to be present on your one-handed backhand drive and that is an infront contact so you need to be sure to turn early enough get your feet set well well behind the ball

arrive in time and get that contact out in front unlike on the forehand where you can get away with a late contact from time to time I I don't recommend hitting with a late contact but if you do get there late when you're desperate you can still hit a pretty good shot with your forehand and a late contact with a one-handed backhand it's very difficult virtually impossible if you're going to be late you're probably going to have to switch up to a slice because with a slice you can have a bit of a later contact

but if you want to hit a strong one-handed backhand Drive non-negotiable contact well out in front now that we have that squared away let's dive into the big mistakes that I have for you today and how to fix them mistake number one is what I often refer to as the slapper and basically it's when you are hitting your backand and it looks just like a backhand slap uh you're using mostly wrist no body you're not letting it swing from your shoulder you're very limited in terms of what you can do with the shot when you're

just slapping it in this way with control as well as with power you really want to make sure to get a good strong shoulder turn get your hitting side shoulder all the way under your chin so that you can then uncoil into the shot starting from your legs and using your body to hit that shot and not just your wrist and forearm that is one of the key things you're going to want to work on immediately if slapping is something that you do as helpful as we think the tips we're sharing in today's video are

there's more to achieving success on the doubles scord want a complete a toz step-by-step blueprint for playing winning doubles pickle ball check out our dominating doubles system today go to doubl system.com to learn all about it mistake number two is having separate separation between your arm and your body now I see symptoms of this problem popping up in various ways such as instead of your elbow pointing down it's pointed forward you might have your paddle down and against your body you're not turned enough and whatever other thing you're doing that is causing your arm to

be away from your body you want your Bice really tucked up right against your body again your Chin's over your shoulder your paddles high in the back so that you're nice and coiled you're then going to use your uncoiling to swing that arm forward it's going to separate from your body heading into contact and you'll finish nice and loose over to the off side you really need to learn to use your arm as a whip on your ground strokes on both sides and here we're talking about the backand so you're going to have it nice

and tucked up against you so that you can turn an uncoil and whip it around that's what's really going to allow you to have a powerful backand that you can ramp up or ramp down in speed as you wish simply by controlling your uncoil so be sure to get that arm tucked up against your body as you're turning and preparing for that backhand if you're enjoying this video please go ahead and hit that like button and subscribe to this Channel and also hit that notification Bell icon so you can be notified anytime we release a

new video and that brings us to mistake number three which is not dropping your paddle head enough now what do I mean by this you want to start with your tip up when you take your paddle back to initiate the shot and then you want to let it tip down and get under the ball so get your paddle under the ball and come up and through now depending on how flat you want to hit it or with how much Top Spin you want to hit it you'll come down a bit more or a bit less

you'll get down further if you're going to hit some more Top Spin and a bit less if you're going to drive it flat but you're always Fighting Gravity a little bit right and you do need to typically hit somewhat up on that shot cuz the ball doesn't tend to bounce very high either and in addition to that you do want to let your wrist drop down some so that you can use your forearm and get a little bit of Leverage on the end of the whip remember how I said you need to learn how to

use your arm like a whip on your backhand side well letting that paddle Head Drop will allow you to engage your forearm at the very end of that shot to give it a little extra as you come through contact not a ton but some you need to really be able to let your arm fly and that is a part of it at the very end of the shot so start with your tip up Let the paddle Head Drop under and then come through and finish around another issue that often comes up if you don't drop

your paddle head down enough is that you're going to come across the ball and end up hitting Sid spin when you didn't mean to so your drive is going to come off very side spinny so if you do find that it probably means that you're not dropping your paddle head down enough so most of the time you are going to want to get your paddle head dropping a little bit under the wrist if you find you're not doing that definitely take a look at this this is a very common problem on the backhand side and

I see it being overlooked often you'll definitely want to take a look at this see if you're doing it and clean it up if you are mistake number four is not using your non-dominant arm correctly so first and foremost it is helpful to use your non-dominant hand as you set the paddle back particularly on your one-handed backhand ground stroke you want to have that off hand there to help you really get nice and turned for the set and then in addition to that when you drop into the swing and you're coming through you want to

send that non-dominant arm back acting as a counterbalance so that it can really let your dominant hitting arm fly through the shot if you let the two come through together your dominant arm is not going to be able to travel at top speed significantly reducing ing your power potential depending on how much you're wanting to let your arm fly on any particular backhand you're going to need a little bit more or a little bit less of a counterbalance use your non-dominant hand and arm to set the paddle at the beginning of the stroke and then

use it as a counterbalance during the swing to maximize your power if you watch really good players that with a strong one hit the backand you'll see that across the board they're using their non-dominant arm effectively to help them hit the best shot possible and that brings us to to mistake number five which is pulling your eyes off of contact too soon this is a very common mistake players rush to look at where their ball is going as opposed to really completing their shot if you lift up your head too soon it pulls up your

torso and brings your swing up a little bit higher than you meant to and it can cause you to sail the ball longer than you meant to you're also increasing the opportunity and likelihood of having shaky off center off The Sweet Spot contacts you really want to commit to keeping your eyes on the ball just a fraction longer it'll feel like a long time but it's really only a fraction longer keep that chin down the eyes on contact through contact before you pull up to look over to the other side and finish your shot I

see this problem so so very often you really want to keep those eyes down a bit longer it will help stabilize your entire shot and you'll hit much better back hands much more consistently as a result the quart is not moving the ball is moving so keep your head down and your eyes on that contact longer it will really help your shot these five backhand mistakes are certainly not the only mistakes that could be made on the backhand side but they are five very big ones so if you see yourself in any one of these

mistakes you'll want to take steps to correct that immediately and your backend will jump to an entirely new level if you see yourself in more than one one and take steps to correct it well your backand will be unrecognizable compared to what it is now it'll just be so much better when you improve and stabilize your backhand side you'll just be a much happier and better player and the chances of that resulting in more wins is high a big thank you to Taylor Bryant for his help with this video If you enjoyed this video please

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