Quick read. The backhand is the shot most adults avoid, which is exactly why it stays weak. Start by choosing one hand or two: two-handed is more stable and easier to learn for most people, one-handed has more reach and a cleaner slice but demands better timing. Whichever you pick, the grip and the early shoulder turn decide the shot before you swing. The two-handed backhand is really a left-handed forehand, so your non-dominant hand should be driving it, not just riding along. Learn a slice as a real shot, not a panic bailout, because it wins you time and low balls. Most backhand errors trace to late preparation, not a bad swing. I coach the backhand every week across Northern Virginia, and turning a dreaded side into a neutral one changes how a whole match feels.
Why the backhand is the shot adults dread
Direct answer: the backhand feels harder because it is the shot you have practiced least and the one where a late setup shows up most, not because it is naturally weaker. Players avoid running around it, so it never gets reps, so it stays shaky, so they avoid it more. The way out is to hit more backhands on purpose, with a sound setup, until the side stops being a hole in the game.
Almost every adult I start with has a forehand they like and a backhand they hide. In a rally they will scramble around a ball to hit a forehand rather than take an easy backhand, and I understand why, it feels safer in the moment. But that instinct is what keeps the backhand broken. A shot you avoid gets no reps, and a shot with no reps stays unreliable, which gives you one more reason to avoid it. It is a loop, and opponents find the hole fast. At 3.0 and 3.5, the most common winning pattern in the local leagues is simply hitting every ball to the other person's backhand and waiting for the error.
Here is the reframe I give students: the backhand is not a worse shot, it is an under-practiced one. Mechanically it is no harder than a forehand, and for a lot of people the two-handed backhand is actually the easiest groundstroke to make consistent, because two hands stabilize the racket. The dread is a rep problem wearing a talent mask. So we stop running around it and start building it.
One-handed or two-handed: how to actually choose
Direct answer: most players should hit a two-handed backhand, because two hands give more stability, more topspin control, and a shorter learning curve, especially for adults and juniors without much upper-body strength. Choose a one-handed backhand if you want more reach and a naturally better slice and you are willing to invest in the timing it demands. It is a real trade-off, not a matter of which looks better.
This is the first question new players ask, and the honest answer is that both work at every level, so the choice is about fit, not superiority. What each hand actually buys you:
| Two-handed backhand | One-handed backhand | |
|---|---|---|
| Stability | High, two hands control the face | Lower, one arm must be strong and precise |
| Learning curve | Shorter, forgiving of timing errors | Longer, unforgiving of late prep |
| Reach | Shorter, the two-hand grip limits extension | Longer, one arm extends further to wide balls |
| High balls | Handles shoulder-height balls better | Struggles above the shoulder |
| Slice | Requires switching to one hand anyway | Natural, the grip is already there |
| Best fit | Most adults, juniors, doubles players | Players with good timing who want reach and feel |
My default recommendation for an adult beginner or a young junior is two hands, for one plain reason: it gets you a reliable backhand fastest, and a reliable shot you own beats an elegant shot you miss. The one-hander is a beautiful, high-ceiling stroke, and I coach it happily for players who have the timing and want the reach and the classic slice. But it is less forgiving when your feet arrive late, which for a recreational adult is often, and getting there on time is a footwork problem before it is a swing one. Pick the two-hander unless you have a specific reason not to, and do not switch back and forth. Commit and get the reps.
The grips, and why the backhand punishes a bad one
Direct answer: a one-handed topspin backhand uses an Eastern backhand grip, with the base knuckle on the top edge of the handle, which lets you get on top of the ball and brush up for spin. A two-handed backhand puts the dominant hand near a continental grip at the bottom and the non-dominant hand in an Eastern forehand grip above it. The wrong grip caps the shot before you ever swing, the same way it does on the forehand.
Grip sets the ceiling on every stroke, and the backhand is where a bad grip hurts most, because you cannot muscle your way out of it the way some players do on the forehand. For the two-handed backhand, the setup is two grips stacked: your dominant hand sits at the base of the handle in a continental or slight backhand grip, and your non-dominant hand sits just above it in what is essentially an Eastern forehand grip. That top hand is the key, and I will come back to it, because it is doing more than most players think.
For the one-handed topspin backhand, you need an Eastern backhand grip, which you find by placing the base knuckle of your index finger on the top bevel of the handle, so the palm is more on top of the grip than behind it. This is what lets the racket get above the ball and brush up the back for topspin. Try to hit a one-hander with a forehand grip and the face opens, the ball floats, and you have no spin to bring it down. The grip change is non-negotiable, and it is the same principle I lay out for the forehand in my breakdown of forehand grips and topspin: the grip decides what the stroke can physically do, before technique even enters the picture.
One practical note for the one-hander: you hold the racket in a continental grip for the slice and shift slightly to the Eastern backhand for topspin, so a good one-hander is quietly changing grips based on the shot. That is part of why the one-hander demands more, and part of why a lot of adults find the two-hander simpler to keep consistent.
The unit turn: the backhand is won before you swing
Direct answer: the single biggest fix for a weak backhand is turning your shoulders early, as a unit, the instant you read the ball to that side, so the racket is back and loaded before the ball bounces. Most backhand errors are not swing problems, they are late-preparation problems. Turn early and the swing takes care of itself.
If I could fix one thing on most adult backhands, it would not be the swing, it would be the timing of the turn. The backhand punishes lateness more than the forehand, because you have less margin to adjust a shot on your non-dominant side. So the whole shot is really decided in the first quarter-second, when you either turn your shoulders and take the racket back as one piece, or you wait and end up swinging late and blocking the ball.
What I cue with students, in order:
- Turn the shoulders, not the arm. The racket goes back because your torso rotates, not because your arm reaches back. Think of turning your front shoulder toward the back fence. On a two-hander the non-dominant shoulder leads; on a one-hander the hitting shoulder turns under your chin.
- Do it on read, not on bounce. The turn starts the instant you see the ball coming to your backhand, well before it bounces. Waiting for the bounce is already too late for the non-dominant side.
- Set the racket low. For topspin, the racket drops below the level of the incoming ball during the turn, so you can swing low to high and brush up. A racket that stays high has nowhere to go but flat.
When an adult tells me their backhand feels rushed and cramped, I almost never touch the swing first. I watch the turn, and nine times out of ten they are starting it a full beat late. Fix the timing of that shoulder turn and the cramped feeling disappears, because now the ball is arriving into a loaded, waiting racket instead of chasing one that is still going back.
The two-hander is really a left-handed forehand
Direct answer: on a two-handed backhand your non-dominant hand should be the engine, which is why the best way to understand the shot is as a forehand hit with your other hand. If you drive the racket mostly with your dominant arm and let the top hand ride along, the shot stays weak and arm-driven. Learning to pull with the non-dominant hand is the change that gives a two-hander its power and topspin.
This is the insight that changes the two-handed backhand for a lot of my students, and it comes straight from watching where the power actually originates. For a right-handed player, the left hand, the top hand on the grip, is doing the same job it would do if you were hitting a left-handed forehand. It pulls the racket up and across the ball. The right hand mostly guides and supports. Most self-taught adults have it backwards: they shove with the dominant right arm and let the left hand come along for the ride, and the result is a stiff, blocked backhand with no spin.
So a drill I use constantly: have the player hit a few actual left-handed forehands, one hand, off their non-dominant side, just to feel that arm brush up the back of the ball. Then put the second hand back on. Suddenly the two-hander has topspin and pace it never had, because the right engine is now driving. This is also why grip matters on the top hand, the Eastern forehand grip up there is not a coincidence, it is there so that hand can hit its forehand. If your two-handed backhand feels like a push, the odds are your non-dominant hand is asleep. Wake it up and the shot changes in a single session.
The slice backhand is a skill, not a bailout
Direct answer: the slice backhand is a distinct, high-value shot that floats low and stays low, buying you time and forcing your opponent to hit up, not a panic shot for balls you cannot handle. It uses a continental grip and a high-to-low swing that carries backspin. Every serious player has one, and building a real slice makes your whole backhand side more flexible.
Recreational players treat the slice as what you do when a ball jams you and you cannot set up a real backhand. That is a waste of a genuinely useful shot. A good slice does three things a topspin backhand cannot: it stays low after the bounce so your opponent has to lift it, it slows the point down when you need a breath, and it lets you handle a ball that is above your comfortable topspin height. For a one-handed player the slice is nearly free, because the grip is already close. For a two-hander it means learning to take one hand off and slice with a continental grip, which is a skill worth the practice.
The mechanics are the mirror of topspin: instead of swinging low to high and brushing up, you set the racket a little above the ball and swing high to low, contacting the outside and bottom of the ball so it carries backspin and stays down. The common error is chopping down too steeply, which floats the ball up and sits it up to be crushed. A good slice travels forward more than down, skimming the net and dying low. I teach it to every player eventually, because a backhand that can go either topspin or slice is a backhand your opponent cannot pattern, which is a real edge in the kind of USTA league match play most of my adults are heading into.
The four phases and the one error in each
Direct answer: the backhand breaks into four phases, the turn, the drop, the contact, and the follow-through, and there is one signature error at each: turning late, dropping the racket too little for topspin, meeting the ball too far back, and stopping the swing short. Fix them in order, because a late turn causes most of the errors downstream.
Same as I do on every stroke, I break the backhand into phases so a student knows which link is failing instead of trying to fix the whole thing at once. Here is the map, with the error I see most at each stage and the fix:
| Phase | The common error | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Turn (preparation) | Starting the shoulder turn late, so the racket is still going back at contact | Turn on read, not on bounce. Racket back before the ball bounces |
| Drop (loading) | Racket stays level with the ball, so there is no low-to-high path for topspin | Drop the racket head below the ball during the turn so you can brush up |
| Contact | Meeting the ball too late and too close to the body, cramping the swing | Contact out in front, off your front hip, with the arm or arms extending |
| Follow-through | Stopping the swing at contact, which robs pace and spin | Finish up and across, over the opposite shoulder, letting the racket travel |
The reason I fix them in order is that they cascade. A late turn forces a late contact, and a late contact forces a short, defensive follow-through, so the player who thinks they have three problems usually has one, the turn, showing up three times. This is the engineering habit I bring to coaching: find the upstream cause, not the downstream symptoms. The same ground-up, one-fix-at-a-time approach drives the serve breakdown I use, because a stroke is a chain and you fix the first broken link, not the last visible one.
How to practice the backhand between lessons
Direct answer: the fastest way to build a backhand is to stop avoiding it, hit far more backhands than feels comfortable, and drill the shot with a target rather than just rallying. Shadow swings groove the turn, wall practice gives you volume, and cross-court backhand rallies build the pattern you will actually use. Reps on your weak side are the entire game.
The backhand improves on a simple principle: it is your least-practiced shot, so the fix is disproportionate practice. A few ways I have students work it between our sessions across NoVA:
- Shadow the turn. No ball. Practice the shoulder turn and racket takeaway until it is early and automatic. Because the turn is the whole shot, grooving it without a ball removes the pressure and builds the timing.
- Hit a wall or backboard. A wall gives you huge volume with no partner, and it does not let you run around your backhand, because the ball comes back fast. Stand back, hit backhand after backhand, and let the wall expose your late preparation.
- Cross-court backhand rallies. With a partner, rally backhand to backhand cross-court and count how many you keep in. This is the exact pattern a match tests, and it forces reps on the side you would otherwise hide.
- Deliberately favor it in points. In practice sets, make yourself take the backhand instead of running around it. You are trading a few practice points now for a whole side of your game later.
A local logistics note: on a busy summer afternoon at a public court, backhand-to-backhand cross-court drilling needs a cooperative partner and a bit of court time, which is easier on a weekday or early morning than a packed weekend. I map where and when to find that in my guide to finding a tennis partner in Northern Virginia, and if you are just getting started, my guide to starting tennis as an adult here covers the court access that makes real practice possible.
When to bring the backhand to a coach
Direct answer: bring the backhand to a coach when you keep steering around it in matches, when it feels cramped no matter how hard you practice, or when you cannot decide between one hand and two. Those are the cases where an outside eye saves you months, because the cause, usually a late turn or a sleeping non-dominant hand, is hard to see from inside your own swing.
You can improve a backhand on your own with a wall and honest reps, and I encourage it. But the backhand is the stroke where self-diagnosis fails most often, because the errors are upstream of what you feel. You feel a cramped, weak contact and you work on your swing, when the actual cause is a shoulder turn that starts a beat late or a top hand that is not driving. From the side those are obvious in one swing; from inside the motion they can hide for a whole season, which is the same trap I described on the serve.
That is the honest case for a lesson on the backhand specifically: not that you cannot build it alone, but that a coach removes the guesswork on the parts you cannot see and settles the one-hand-versus-two question for your body in one session instead of a year of drifting. If your backhand is the side opponents keep attacking, a private lesson built around it tends to change match results faster than any other single fix. I coach players at every level across Northern Virginia on my adult lessons, on public courts from Arlington and Falls Church to Vienna, so the work can happen where you actually play. Turning a dreaded backhand into a neutral one is one of the most satisfying changes to coach, because it does not just add a shot, it removes a target.
FAQs about the tennis backhand
Should I hit a one-handed or two-handed backhand?
Most players should hit two-handed, because two hands give more stability, easier topspin, and a shorter learning curve, which is why it is my default for adults and juniors. Choose one-handed if you want more reach and a naturally cleaner slice and you have the timing to handle a less forgiving stroke. Both work at every level, so pick one, commit, and get the reps rather than switching back and forth.
What grip do I use for a backhand?
For a one-handed topspin backhand, use an Eastern backhand grip, with the base knuckle of your index finger on the top bevel so your palm is more on top of the handle. For a two-handed backhand, the dominant hand sits near a continental grip at the base and the non-dominant hand sits above it in an Eastern forehand grip. The slice uses a continental grip in either case.
Why is my backhand so weak?
Usually because you avoid it, so it never gets reps, and because your shoulder turn starts too late, so you contact the ball cramped and behind you. Turn early, on read rather than on bounce, so the racket is loaded before the ball bounces, and deliberately hit more backhands instead of running around them. The weakness is almost always a preparation and rep problem, not a talent one.
How do I get more power on a two-handed backhand?
Drive the shot with your non-dominant hand, treating it like a forehand hit with your other arm, instead of shoving with your dominant arm and letting the top hand ride along. Add an early shoulder turn, a low racket drop, and a full follow-through up over the opposite shoulder. Most weak two-handers come from a sleeping non-dominant hand, and waking it up changes the shot in one session.
When should I use a slice backhand?
Use the slice as a real shot, not just a bailout, to keep the ball low so your opponent has to hit up, to slow a point down, and to handle balls above your comfortable topspin height. It uses a continental grip and a high-to-low swing that carries backspin and skims the net. A backhand that can go either topspin or slice is much harder to attack.
Is the backhand harder than the forehand?
Not mechanically, it just feels harder because you practice it far less and it punishes late preparation more. For many players the two-handed backhand is actually the easiest groundstroke to make consistent, because two hands stabilize the racket. The gap between your forehand and backhand is a reps gap, and it closes fast once you stop hiding the shot.
Coach Arun Josyula has played tennis since age four and coaches adults and juniors across Northern Virginia. He holds an engineering degree and a Master's in Sport Management, and breaks down every stroke through biomechanics and yoga.