Build A Reliable Backhand From Grip To Balanced Contact

A double-handed backhand in tennis uses both hands on the racket: your dominant hand nearest the butt cap and your other hand above it. Start with a continental grip in the bottom hand, an Eastern forehand grip in the top hand, an early shoulder turn and contact slightly in front of your body. Build a compact, balanced stroke before adding power. For right-handers, the backhand is on the left side; left-handers reverse the movement directions below.

Choose your playing hand and the part of the stroke you need to fix; use the result as your next practice cue.

Set Different Grips For The Two Hands

A continental bottom-hand grip and an Eastern forehand top-hand grip is a useful starting combination. It is commonly taught, not the only workable setup. Tennis.com’s backhand guide uses this combination as its starting point.

The two hands have different positions on the handle. Do not simply put both hands into the grip you use for your dominant-hand forehand. Establish the bottom hand first, then add the top hand without disturbing that position.

To locate the grips, look at the handle from the butt end, with the racket head pointing away and the strings vertical. The eight flat surfaces are called bevels. Number the top surface 1, then count clockwise. Keep that numbering unchanged for both hands and both player types. Switching the numbering direction for a left-hander would make the instructions ambiguous.

Player	Bottom Hand: Continental	Top Hand: Eastern Forehand
Right-handed	Right index-finger base knuckle on bevel 2	Left index-finger base knuckle on bevel 7
Left-handed	Left index-finger base knuckle on bevel 8	Right index-finger base knuckle on bevel 3

These positions follow the continental and Eastern grip bevels for each hand. The base knuckle means the knuckle where the index finger joins the hand, not the joint nearer the fingertip.

Keep your hands adjacent without overlapping. Wrap your fingers comfortably rather than squeezing hard. If you cannot yet find the bottom-hand position reliably, work through the continental grip guide before trying to coordinate the whole swing.

Check The Grip At A Rehearsed Contact Position

Slowly place the racket where you intend to meet the ball: off to your backhand side and slightly in front. Check whether you can present the strings toward your intended target without twisting your wrists at the last moment.

If the racket face looks awkward, stop and recheck the grip rather than compensating with a faster swing. A slow rehearsal separates a grip problem from a timing problem. Once the position is comfortable, return the racket in front of you and repeat the movement without a ball.

Do not use the grip check to force your arms into a rigid shape. You are looking for a workable racket face and comfortable hand positions, not a pose that you must hold unchanged throughout the stroke.

Turn Early, Then Use Your Feet To Make Space

Begin facing the net with your knees slightly bent and the racket in front. As soon as you recognize a backhand, turn your shoulders and racket together. This unit turn prepares the stroke with your body rather than leaving your arms to pull the racket back alone.

For a right-hander, turn until you can look over your right shoulder toward the incoming ball. A left-hander looks over the left shoulder. Keep watching the ball as you prepare; the turn is part of getting ready to hit, not a separate movement completed without reference to the feed.

Next, use adjustment steps to place the ball beside you rather than directly in front of your stomach. Turning early does not automatically create enough room. You still need to move into a position from which your arms can swing without being trapped against your body.

For an easy practice feed, begin with a neutral stance. A right-hander steps the right foot toward the net, leaving the left foot farther back. A left-hander reverses those feet. Let your weight move forward as you swing.

This turn-and-step pattern is the learning setup in Tennis.com’s guide, not a requirement for every backhand. Use it to make gentle feeds manageable before trying to reproduce the stroke from less comfortable positions.

Judge Spacing Before You Judge Power

You should not need to pin your elbows against your ribs or lean sideways to reach the ball. If either happens repeatedly, make the next feed a footwork exercise: turn, move into position and use a short swing.

When you are cramped, swinging harder does not create more room. When you are reaching, extending the swing does not correct where you stood. Keep the feed gentle enough that you can notice the spacing and change it before contact.

After each shot, bring the racket back in front and reset your feet. That reset matters in the drill because the next feed should begin from a ready position, not from wherever the previous finish left you.

Meet The Ball Slightly In Front And Swing Upward

For the first hitting drill, ask for feeds that bounce and reach around waist height. Contact should be off to your backhand side and slightly in front of your body, not beside your rear hip. This follows the USTA’s beginner backhand guidance.

“Forward” does not mean directly in front of your stomach. You still need space on the backhand side. Think of contact as a place your preparation and footwork allow you to reach, rather than somewhere you try to find by stretching at the last moment.

Use this sequence in a slow rehearsal, then carry it into the feed:

1. Let the racket head move below the intended contact height.
2. Turn back toward the net and swing forward and upward through the ball.
3. Let the racket continue into a comfortable high finish instead of stopping at contact.

Brushing up the back of the ball helps create topspin, the ball’s forward rotation. Do not try to manufacture that rotation with a sudden wrist flick. For this progression, the useful task is to coordinate the upward swing with clean contact, not to chase the most spin you can produce.

The finish should follow the swing rather than become a pose you rush to reach. If you focus only on getting the racket high, you can miss what happened at contact. Check the ball strike first, then whether you finished comfortably enough to reset.

Let The Top Hand Contribute Without Fighting The Bottom Hand

The USTA describes the top hand as the “driver” and the bottom hand as the “passenger”. Treat that as a learning cue, not an instruction to make the bottom hand completely passive.

For a right-hander, the top hand is the left hand; for a left-hander, it is the right. Allow that hand to contribute to the forward-and-upward swing instead of trying to pull the racket through entirely with your dominant hand.

Rehearse with both hands still on the handle. Keep the movement slow enough to notice whether your grip tightens or your wrists twist as you approach contact. Return to the grip checkpoint if presenting the strings requires a last-second correction.

The aim is a coordinated stroke. You do not need a numerical split of effort between the hands to practise this cue, and the draft sources provide no such figure.

Build Control With Gentle Service-Line Feeds

Stand near the service line. Have a partner stand across the net and gently feed to your backhand, allowing the ball to bounce and rise to a comfortable hitting height. Aim into the opposite service box, well away from its edges.

Keep the feed and target consistent at first. That makes it easier to tell whether a change to your grip, preparation or spacing helped. A difficult feed can hide the problem you are trying to work on.

Rehearse, Hit, Then Add Small Adjustments

Rehearse: Make five slow shadow swings. Check the grip, shoulder turn, contact position and balance. Use the same preparation you intend to use with the ball; a rehearsal that skips the turn will not check that part of the stroke.

Hit: Play ten feeds with a compact swing. After each shot, return the racket in front and reset your feet. Aim for a ball your partner can return rather than maximum pace.

Add movement: Ask your partner to vary the feed slightly so that you need one or two adjustment steps. Keep the same large target. The added task is arriving at a workable contact position, not hitting harder because you had to move.

Change one thing at a time. If you alter the grip, swing size and stance together, you will have little basis for deciding which change improved the next ball. Use the next set of feeds to test a specific correction.

Match The Correction To The Miss

A missed target does not by itself identify the cause. Use the flight of the ball together with what you felt at contact. A cramped strike calls for a different first correction from a clean strike that repeatedly travels long.

Cramped Contact Needs More Room

If your elbows feel pinned against your ribs, return to the turn-and-spacing sequence. Use your feet to put the ball beside you before swinging. Keep the swing compact while checking whether contact now feels less crowded.

Do not start by changing the grip if it passes the slow contact-position check. First test the part of the movement that directly addresses the cramped feeling: where you stand relative to the ball.

Late Contact Needs Earlier Preparation

If you repeatedly meet the ball near your rear hip, begin the shoulder turn earlier. Prepare when you recognize the backhand rather than waiting until you feel rushed.

Keep the feed easy while testing this change. The objective is contact slightly in front, not a faster last-second pull with the arms. If you still cannot reach that position comfortably, recheck spacing as well as preparation.

Long Balls Need A Swing And String-Angle Check

If balls repeatedly fly long, shorten and slow the swing, then check whether the strings are tilted upward at contact. Use the slow rehearsal to inspect the racket face rather than guessing from a rushed finish.

Do not respond by forcing the racket face sharply downward. Return to the intended contact position and a controlled swing, then test the same large target again.

Net Balls Need A Contact And Upward-Swing Check

If balls repeatedly hit the net, check the string angle and whether you are swinging upward through the ball rather than only across it. Confirm that the racket head moves below the intended contact height during preparation.

Keep the feed around a comfortable hitting height while making that check. The aim is to restore the basic forward-and-upward path, not to scoop the ball with a wrist flick.

Progress After Repeatable, Balanced Contact

Use seven controlled balls out of ten as a practice target, not an official standard. Count a ball only when it lands in the target box, contact feels clean and you finish balanced enough to reset.

Repeat that in two rounds before moving gradually farther back or beginning a gentle cooperative rally. This checks more than whether you happened to get the ball over the net: the target, contact quality and recovery all remain part of the task.

If control disappears when you move back, return to the easier feed before adding pace. Re-establish the same grip, early turn and contact position there. Keep the progression tied to a stroke you can repeat, rather than to how hard your best backhand travelled.