Quick Answer: A reliable pickleball backhand starts with the continental grip (the “V” of your hand on top of the handle, like holding a hammer), which keeps the paddle face neutral instead of closed. From there, one-handed backhands trade power for reach and speed on defense, while two-handed backhands trade reach for stability and power on drives. The single most common backhand dink error is swinging up first instead of down-then-up, which pops the ball up or sends it long.
Grinding out backhand reps at the wall goes faster with a soundtrack — try Amazon Prime free for 30 days and have your next paddle or drill gear at your door before your next open-play session.
Most players’ backhand is the weaker wing, and it shows up first at the kitchen line: a slightly off backhand dink either pops up for an easy put-away or sails long, and both cost you the point. The fix is less about athleticism and more about grip and swing path — two things you can correct in a single practice session.
Grip: continental, not Eastern
The continental grip is the standard for pickleball backhands. Set it by resting the “V” between your thumb and index finger directly on top of the paddle handle, the same way you’d grip a hammer. That neutral position keeps the paddle face square through contact without any wrist rotation. Players who carry an Eastern or semi-Western grip over from tennis tend to fight their backhand dinks specifically, because those grips close the paddle face and force extra wrist manipulation to get the ball back over the net softly. If your backhand dink feels like a fight every time, check your grip before you change anything else about your swing.
One-handed vs. two-handed: pick by shot, not by preference
- One-handed backhand — more reach, faster to set up, the default for kitchen-line dinks, blocks, and quick defensive resets where you don’t have time to bring a second hand to the paddle.
- Two-handed backhand — recruits your shoulders and core for more power and stability, better suited to backhand drives and return-of-serve where you have a full swing and time to set up.
Most players end up using both, switching based on how much time the shot gives them rather than committing to one style everywhere on the court. If you’re still deciding which paddle rewards a soft, controlled backhand game, our control paddle guide covers the specs that matter most.
The backhand dink: down, then up
The most common backhand dink mistake is swinging up first, which flattens the paddle face and either pops the ball up into an easy attack or sends it long past the kitchen line. The correct path drops the paddle head below the ball’s contact point first, then lifts through it with a soft, short stroke — “low, then lift,” not the other way around. Pair that with getting low through your knees rather than hunching your upper body, which keeps your balance and your paddle control intact through the shot. Our pickleball dink guide covers the same low-to-high contact principle in more depth for both wings.
Common backhand mistakes
- Wrong grip — Eastern or semi-Western grips close the paddle face and fight the soft contact a dink needs.
- Pulling the contact point into your body — cramps your swing and kills consistency; let the ball come to a comfortable extension point instead of reaching in.
- Late footwork — if your feet and paddle aren’t set before the ball arrives, you’re scrambling and placement suffers. Our footwork drills guide covers the split-step and lateral-shuffle patterns that fix this.
- Swinging up first — see the dink mechanics above; this is the single most common cause of backhand errors at the kitchen line.
Drills to build a reliable backhand
Set two cones roughly 18 inches apart in the opponent’s kitchen and alternate hitting forehand and backhand dinks at them, switching your target cone every third ball. Alternating targets forces you to reset your grip and paddle position for each shot instead of grooving one repetitive swing — much closer to what a real rally demands than hitting the same shot 20 times in a row. Pair it with wall reps (forehand and backhand alternating) to build the muscle memory before you take it to a live partner. Our pickleball drills guide has a full solo-and-partner progression if you want to build backhand work into a broader practice routine.
Backhand, by the numbers
- 18 inches — the recommended cone spacing for a random-target backhand dinking drill, close enough to force precision rather than just repetition (per The Dink Pickleball’s backhand dink drills).
- 24.3 million — U.S. pickleball players in 2025 per the SFIA’s 2026 Single Sport Report, up from 4.2 million in 2020 — a growth wave that means more players than ever are picking up a paddle with no backhand fundamentals at all.
The bottom line
A weak backhand almost always traces back to two fixable things: the wrong grip and a swing path that goes up instead of down-then-up. Fix the continental grip, pick one-handed or two-handed based on the shot rather than habit, and drill with alternating targets instead of static repetition. For the shot this fix pays off fastest on, see our pickleball dink guide; for a paddle that makes soft backhand control easier, check our best control paddle picks.