Pro pickleball player Connor Garnett breaks down the two-handed backhand
Last Edited
Jun 18 2025
Category
Instruction
Connor Garnett, currently the No. 3 ranked singles player on the PPA Tour and coming off a silver medal at the Atlanta Pickleball Championships last month, is known for his two-handed backhand and is here to break it down in 5 easy steps.
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Breaking down the twoey
TIP #1: HIPS AND CORE -- This is where the power comes from. Think of how you throw a medicine ball or do band rotations at the gym. That feeling in your hips and core is what gives you the power on your shots. Feel sturdy in this area as you rotate into the ball and let your arm get brought out by the hips. Players who rush their backswing oftentimes lose power. But if we let our hips bring the paddle out and accelerate only once the paddle starts moving forward, this makes our swing much more efficient.
TIP #2: LOW TO HIGH THROW -- This is crucial when starting the acceleration and hitting through the ball. The backswing can vary player by player, but if we have our paddle tip below our wrist and then throw that up and over the ball (i.e. throwing it up and having the left hand turn over to see the back of it), this gives us the topspin to keep the ball in.
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TIP #3: CONTACT POINT -- Oftentimes people try and step in as the ball is getting to them and they hit the ball late. This also causes players to lose power. We want our contact point to be slightly in front of our hips, so we can easily accelerate after the shot. Avoid getting caught up with having a perfect backswing at the start, because the contact point determines where the ball is going. As you get more comfortable with this, you can reprioritize the backswing.
TIP #4: LEAD WITH THE SHOULDER -- When making contact with the ball, we want to make sure that our body weight is moving toward the ball and going in the direction we want to hit. A good way to make sure we are doing this is by leading with and having our front shoulder move through the ball. This allows us to avoid lifting our chest or popping up when we finish the shot.
TIP #5: FINISH WITH YOUR WEIGHT COMING FORWARD -- In line with leading with our shoulder, we also want to make sure that we finish our swing and have our weight come through the ball and naturally let our arms follow through. Having our weight and legs driving through the shot (and not lifting up) allows us to gain that power from our lower body and have a more effortless swing.
TROUBLE SHOOTING: There are two things that we want to check in on are if we are not getting easy power or generating enough topspin. The power comes from the lower body and having a compact swing where our momentum is carrying us into the ball. What can hurt this is if we are using too much arm in our swing or lifting with the upper body -- both things result in less power. If we feel like we are not getting enough topspin, we should drop the tip of the paddle below our wrist on the backswing and be very intentional with that low to high motion.
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