Getting the biomechanics of your swing working correctly is essential to hitting a successful backhand. In the brand new series on SquashSkills with amateur player Paul Miles, we filmed a one on one coaching session and explained the key elements of the swing that allow you to hit with more pace and accuracy.
We regularly receive queries from our members about the inconsistencies with their backhands and their inability to generate power.
One of the major reasons that these issues arise is down to a lack of rotation at the beginning of the swing. Players often try and generate extra power at the end of the swing by opening up the shoulders and over rotating.
Paul had a number of small issues within his swing that were preventing him from hitting the ball with both power and accuracy. These were primarily around his preparation, spacing, and lack of rotation at the beginning of the swing.
These are common faults that are often found within the amateur game. Hopefully, this series gives players the ability to identify similar issues within their own swings and remedy them using the advice contained within the playlist.
There are a number of subtle coaching points that can make a huge difference to your ability to hit a really clean squash ball on the backhand side.
The playlist can be found here, and a variety of different practice sessions can be found below should you wish to try and add some of these elements into your own game. Remember that when making technical changes to your swing, you need to give yourself the space to practice outside of your match play.
Once you’ve increased your ability to hit with pace and power on the backhand, you can start to zoom in on hitting harder more attacking dying lengths, where you focus on getting the ball dying in the back corners.
Good luck!
Put it into practice
You may find it challenging to practice this on your own if you are unable to hit consecutive drives off the back wall. If you are unable to do this, it may make sense to work on it with a partner or coach who is able to feed you. If that’s not feasible, you can always feed yourself in the middle of the court and practice setting up correctly and getting the swing elements working together.
Focus on backhand only, drives off back wall if you can do so, or if not just feeding into service box and then driving. It’s hard to rotate and crunch balls into service box.
Routine based, feeds opening up into channel stuff (time for beginners with feeds)
Check out our SquashSkills balance/stability sessions, this one works particularly on your ability to lunge and rotate
Related content
Backhand technique with Jethro Binns
Check out Jethro’s guide to the backhand where he demonstrates many of the key points covered in the series with Paul.
Once you’ve got your technique working well, think about how you can use your clean ball striking to attack the back corners with dying length.
Want to understand the backhand diamond starting position in a little more detail? have a read of the blog to find out more.
Let us know how you get on with the sessions, we’d love to hear your feedback!
Not watched the full playlist yet?
Check out the full series here and learn about clean hitting on the backhand as we dive into the technical elements of the swing and explain the key technical points that make up a successful backhand swing.
Watch the playlist in full