Backhand Drills That Fix Your Weak Side

John White

Backhand improvement starts with a decision: hit the shot on purpose instead of avoiding it. Most players know their backhand is their weak side and still organize practice around the forehand, which is exactly why it stays weak. This guide turns the backhand into the session's main event — machine setup, grip-specific drills, depth and direction work, and a weekly commitment that makes the weakness a strength.

Why We Avoid the Backhand

The backhand is avoided for emotional and technical reasons that reinforce each other. It feels less natural than the forehand, produces weaker results, and therefore gets less practice — and less practice keeps it weak. The pattern is self-perpetuating, and no drill fixes it until the player stops feeding the pattern.

The way out is deliberate exposure: schedule the backhand first in every session, give it the best feed settings, and accept the early misses as data rather than confirmation of the weakness. Speed, spin, and placement setup is documented in the official Users Guide. The Tenniix Basic helps here because it cannot be bored or annoyed — it will feed a hundred backhands without judgment, which is exactly the volume a weak side needs.

A second reason the backhand gets avoided is practical: most players practice with partners or preset drills organized around forehand patterns, so the backhand only appears as the second shot of a sequence, after the forehand has already had a full session. The machine removes that bias — you choose the feed, and choosing the backhand feed is the first act of the fix.

Improvement is not a sudden breakthrough, it is a count. Ten clean backhands this month, fifteen next month, twenty after that. The count turns an emotional avoidance pattern into a mechanical training problem, and mechanical problems respond to reps.

Setting the Machine to Your Weak Side

The machine setup for backhand work should be easier than your forehand setup, not the same. A feed that is fine for the forehand can be too fast or too spinny for the side you are rebuilding, so start forgiving and tighten as the count rises.

Setting Starting point for backhand work Why
Ball speed 30–40 MPH Leaves time to set up and commit
Spin Low to moderate topspin Keeps the bounce predictable
Placement One spot, slightly toward your backhand side Removes movement until contact is stable
Feed interval 4–6 seconds Generous time to reset between reps

Keep the settings the same across sessions while the count climbs — comparable conditions make the count meaningful. Only when the backhand count is stable should you raise speed, add spin, or move the placement, and even then one variable at a time.

The one-spot placement matters more than it sounds. A weak backhand cannot be improved while you are also guessing where the ball will land; a fixed feed isolates the stroke, and the stroke is the thing being rebuilt.

One-Hander vs. Two-Hander Drills

The one-handed and two-handed backhands are different strokes with different fix priorities, and the drills should respect that.

Two-handed backhand. The common faults are an early release of the non-dominant hand and a swing that is all arms. Two drills target them: the left-hand-led swing, where you exaggerate the non-dominant hand doing the pushing, and the finish-hold drill, where you hold the finish position for two seconds to keep the hands together through contact.

One-handed backhand. The common faults are a late turn and a wrist that collapses at contact. Two drills target them: the early-turn drill, where you turn your shoulders while the feed is in the air, and the unit-turn drill, where you practice the full backswing rotation before the ball bounces. The one-hander lives or dies on preparation, so the prep drills come before any pace.

Both grips share one rule: start slow and clean, then build. A two-hander that is late every feed needs a slower feed, not a different grip; a one-hander that collapses under spin needs less spin, not more effort. The grip-specific drills are about the fault you actually have, so pick the one that matches your miss.

Backhand Depth and Direction

Once contact is stable, the backhand needs the two qualities that make it useful in matches: depth and direction. A backhand that stays short gets attacked; a backhand that lands deep wins rallies even without power.

Depth drill: set a marker past the service line and count how many of ten backhands land beyond it. A working standard is 8 of 10 deep before adding any other variable. The depth comes from the swing path and the turn, not from swinging harder — if the ball keeps landing short, check the turn and the contact point before touching the feed speed.

Direction drill: alternate two targets on the backhand side — deep center and the corner — and count clean hits on each. The direction change forces the footwork that most backhands lack: you cannot hit a corner from a center setup, so the feet have to move first.

The combination is the goal: deep and directional backhands on command. That is the shot that stops opponents from attacking your weakness, and it is entirely a training outcome — the machine can feed the reps, and the count can verify the progress.

Mixing in Pressure

A rebuilt backhand only matters if it survives pressure, so the final layer adds consequences. Pressure does not mean a faster feed; it means a rule that makes a miss cost something.

Try these three pressure formats in order:

  • The 10-of-15 gate. Hit fifteen backhands; ten must be clean and deep before the drill ends. The gate version is a soft pressure — the rule matters, the pace does not.
  • The restart rule. Play backhand points to a count where any miss restarts the target number. This is the 20-ball challenge applied to the weak side, and it trains focus.
  • The mini-set. Play a tiebreak to seven where every point is a backhand point: the machine feeds a backhand, and you must win the rally from it. This is the strongest pressure, and it should come last.

Pressure work reveals whether the rebuilt stroke holds when it counts. If the count collapses under the rules, the stroke is not ready — drop back a step, rebuild the count at the easier level, and re-test. The sequence is the training plan: exposure, volume, depth, direction, then pressure.

One warning about pressure formats: use them only after the count at easy settings is stable. Adding stakes to an unstable stroke trains the misses, not the fix — the brain rehearses the collapse under pressure rather than the clean contact. The gate sequence exists precisely to prevent that: exposure and volume build the stroke first, and the pressure tests what the volume built.

The Weekly Backhand Commitment

The final piece is a commitment that keeps the backhand from sliding back into avoidance. A simple weekly structure works as a starting point:

Day Backhand work
Session 1 Contact and count: 10-of-15 gate at easy settings
Session 2 Depth and direction: markers and targets
Session 3 Pressure: restart rule or mini-set

Three backhand sessions per week for four weeks is enough to change the shot's trajectory; one session disappears into the old pattern. The commitment is not about intensity — a focused 30 minutes of backhand-first work beats an hour of forehand practice with a backhand warm-down.

Log the count after every session, even the bad ones. The log is the proof that the weakness is moving, and it is the counterargument to the voice that says "my backhand will never improve." The site's skill-level drills article provides ready-made routines to slot into each session, and the settings guide covers the speed, spin, and angle dials if you want to tune the feed to your rebuilding side.

The backhand is not a fixed trait — it is a trained shot. The machine supplies the volume, the count supplies the honesty, and the weekly commitment supplies the consistency that turns a weak side into a reliable one.

Common Questions About Backhand Practice

How often should I practice my backhand?

As a starting point, three focused sessions per week for four weeks, with the backhand first in each session. Volume on the weak side is the treatment; one occasional session keeps the pattern alive.

Should I switch from one-handed to two-handed to fix my backhand?

Not automatically. Both grips are playable at a high level; the fix is matching the drill to your grip's common faults. Only consider a grip change with a coach, and never mid-season.

What speed should the machine use for backhand work?

Start at 30–40 MPH with low to moderate topspin and a fixed placement. The count, not the speed, is the standard — raise speed only when the count stays high.

How do I know my backhand is no longer my weak side?

When the backhand count matches the forehand count at the same settings, and the shot survives the pressure formats. That is the point where the weakness becomes a trained shot rather than a liability.

Should I practice both one-handed and two-handed drills?

No. Match the drill to your grip's common faults: the two-hander's early release and arm-only swing, or the one-hander's late turn and wrist collapse. Drilling the other grip's faults wastes the session.

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