How & When to Use Backspin in Pickleball
This article discusses backspin, including what it is, how it can give you a great advantage in pickleball, and, most importantly, how to do it.
If you’re looking to improve your pickleball game, you’ll want to understand how backspin can help.
What is Backspin in Pickleball?
Backspin, also known as slice, is hitting the ball so it spins backwards. When the ball leaves your paddle, the rotation of the ball is spinning towards yourself. The exact opposite of topspin which you can read more about here.
What are the benefits of adding backspin in pickleball?
There are a few key advantages and times you should consider using backspin instead of topspin.
1) Backspin will give you more time… if you are out of position or trying to move forward towards the kitchen, backspin will allow that extra time. Remember, backspin will take longer to get to your opponent and topspin will get there faster.
2) Backspin is great for resetting the point or when you are on defense… when you are on the defense or not in a strong, balanced position, that is a great time to use backspin. Backspin will cause the ball to float through the air longer which will give you more time to get into a better position before the ball comes back to you.
3) Backspin will make it hard for your opponent to attack… When the ball lands on the other side of the net, it will bounce back towards the net instead of towards your opponent. This will keep the ball lower to the ground making it harder to attack than a ball that bounces up towards your opponent.
4) Backspin can be used on a variety of shots including return of serve, third shot drop, reset, dink and volley.
How to Hit Backspin in Pickleball
To apply backspin, it will be a brushing motion. To apply spin of any kind, topspin, backspin, side spin… think brushing motion.
For backspin specifically, we are going to take our paddle from a high to low motion while brushing the ball.
However, we are not going to be chopping at the ball. Think of the motion more like the Nike “swoosh” Logo.
How to Practice Hitting Backspin in Pickleball
As we discussed above, there are many shots you can use backspin on… Our favorite way to practice hitting backspin is by starting at the kitchen.
Dinking with backspin is the best way to get a lot of touches and master using backspin. You can get your drilling partner or find a wall. The repetitive “nike swoosh” motion will give you the feel you need to apply backspin to the other parts of your game as well.
If you are more of a visual learner, check out the awesome video below by Danea over at All Things Pickleball. In this video, she covers all things backspin and shows you how its done.
