Master the Backhand Flick | How the Pros Do It

What's up everybody? We are back with a gameplay breakdown for you guys. Today we're going to talk about the backhand flick, which is personally one of my favorite shots to use in my game. So we're going to break this down here, and then we're going to go outside and show you exactly what we're doing. And without further ado, let's jump into the action. All right, here, let's jump right in. And we've got Alshan and Navratil versus Dakshru and Antaeus. And we're going to see two examples here of the backhand flick and how effective it could be. One was successful, and one quite wasn't. And we'll take a look at it now. All right, so we got Navratil to serve. Boom! There's that first one. And I actually want to go back to this. So a little bit of a high drop here. All right, topspin drop. You can see Tayez lean in with that lefty. And man, this is just a good counter by Alshan. What do you think here, Caden? It really is, right? So with the flick, and this is kind of first rule of thumb, is like the flick has to be more focused on location than the power of it, right? And even though this flick wasn't successful for Pablo, this was actually a really, really smart flick from Pablo, right? You notice Christian's going to try and be a little bit bigger in the middle with Zane's drops, because usually they are very, very good. And noticing that he kind of shifts his weight over to his right a little bit, he would probably expect that Christian is sitting pretty hard forehand looking to poach on that ball. And so he kind of goes right at that left shoulder. Now he gets it a little bit farther out than the left shoulder. And I think that's what kind of allows Christian to wrap around with the two. So I would say personally, if it were maybe a little bit more at the shoulder, it would have been a little bit more uncomfortable. So maybe the location wasn't perfect, but he definitely had the right mindset in where he was trying to go with it. And everything was right until the execution. Yeah, so really good. I think it's just a great counter there by Alshan. And we're going to keep it moving here. We got some middle dinks, topspin dinks. And then look at Alshan with the footwork here. Really running around the backhand. And again, if I see this getting, if we talk about this at lower levels, this is something obviously that you don't really want to do and to avoid your backhand because it's weak. But in this scenario, at higher levels, opening up to your backhand side, just it really just forces a lot of pressure. And this ball that Christian has to hit, it has to be perfect. Yes. Look at his positioning. Yes. And so he has to hit a good enough ball because as you can see, as Christian here, Alshan is off the court in this situation. Look at Zane Navratil. He's actually straddling or even more than straddling that center line. So in this case, where do you think Alshan's options are right here, Ken? Well, one, you have the middle, right? But Pablo is right there with this forehand, right? So the perfect ball really is to go kind of inside out towards the sideline over here, right? Now, you and I have said this before. We don't like really aiming for sidelines. So maybe two feet outside of the left foot is a really, really good ball because even though Christian is kind of setting up something bigger for himself, he's definitely not going for a speed-up winner, right? And so a speed-up's bad because look at the positioning. There's only one guy on the court, right? So he's not going to really speed this ball up. He's going to probably hit more of an aggressive dink. So I would say personally, this ball definitely goes to the outside left foot of Federico. Okay. So just to clarify here. So Alshan could, in this situation, go for some sort of speed-up. But again, we got Federico's forehand in the middle. And if his speed-up is not low enough, then Zane is kind of a sitting duck there. But we're going to see this inside out dink here. She pretty. And again, forcing the half-volley, right? So forces the half-volley, which is a dead dink. And then you're going to see actually Zane... A little fake backswing there. Yep. Step back off the line, but he actually pulls it. Oh, and it wasn't really a... It was kind of like an off-speed speed-up. Yeah. I haven't seen those in a while. So you can see a big backswing here, kind of a fake. And I think this was supposed to be just like a deep dink, right? Yeah. And I mean, he caught him in a great spot. So it's a low ball here, and then we're going to see the flick. Bang. Boom. Little long. Okay. So we're going to go back to this again here. That big fake. We got Federico on the defense, and we're going to see right after... Actually, we're going to go back here. Sorry here. Folks, all right. Right after he hits that ball, what is the first thing that Zane does? He gets in that wide stance. Gets right up on that line and leans in. Right up on that line. Little flick. And again, right towards Pablo Tejas. What do you think about that spot? And kind of to the cross-court player, Caden, what do you think about that? Yeah, I will say it's never the best idea to attack cross-court, but look at the positioning really quickly. You don't really see too many people attacking backhand cross-court. So it is actually kind of a pretty tricky and cool spot that Zane goes to here that obviously works out for them. Now, attacking cross-court, cross-court, backhand, backhand, that's personally pretty wild to me. You don't see too many people who can flick this way. Yeah, a little inside-out flick, right? Most people will let their wrist kind of roll out, and it'll usually go at the person in front of them. But I think personally, this is a really good spot by Zane. Yeah, so again, I think most players in this situation would attack more towards the middle and catch a chicken wing, either Federico's chicken wing on his right side or Pablo Tejas' chicken wing on his left side. And maybe that's the spot he was going for. Yeah. We'll never really know unless I ask Zane about this. But again, it's a little bit, yeah, it's a little bit kind of towards that chicken wing, but it ends up being kind of more at his body. For sure. And I think he just, he might have been expecting it. But either way, a really, really good flick. Again, a strong wrist, strong forearm. For sure. And this is a shot at advanced levels that you're going to want to hit because these are balls that are slightly at net level, maybe a little bit below, but you can put some pace on it and cause some trouble on the offensive side. 100%. I mean, there's a reason why, you know, I work out my wrists and forearms so often, you know, and that is specifically for this shot. So luckily I have some strong wrists. My forearms are getting strong. You know, I won't say that it's due to the part of me being single, but my wrists and forearm are very strong. Okay. I don't know what that has to do with anything. But we're going to hop on the court now and we're going to show you exactly how it's done. Bingo. Let's go. All right. We're at the court now. We're going to try and execute this backhand flick. A few things going into this. All right. I need to make sure, one, that I have a very nice wide stance so I can lean into this kitchen a little bit more and find these balls that if I wasn't leaning in for, I would typically have to just let bounce. But because I'm in this wider stance, I'm going to be looking to be a little bit more aggressive by taking these balls in the air. So this wide stance is exactly what I need to lean in a little bit more. I also need to make sure that I am moving my feet in a position where I can have this ball in between my shoulders. If I don't have this ball in between my shoulders, I will lose a little bit of power on the wrist flick and we'll probably lose a little bit of control as well. All right. Once I set everything up, I am cocking my wrist. So my palm is facing my chest. And then from there, it should just be kind of a forearm and wrist motion and push of this ball. So when I execute this shot, it's going to be extending the outside of my forearm outward and then I'm going to be flicking my wrist pretty quickly on top of that. Now, I'm not going to let my wrist flick over, but I do need to flick it outward or downward depending on the height of the ball. So let's show you guys how it's done a little bit. And Jordan's going to hit me a couple of balls and he's not going to know which one is coming. Hopefully. We'll see. There you go. Oh, dang it. So when I'm hitting this flick, it is a shorter, more compact swing. I'm kind of trying to poke it at Jordan. Now, of course, the higher the ball is, we can roll through it a little bit more and get a little bit more downward on it. But typically these flicks are kind of balls that you are trying to just put right at someone's body. So you're poking this ball with a little bit more pace, looking for, you know, awkward spots like the shoulders or maybe the hips or maybe the wings to extend someone. But I will say if you're aiming for wings and going a little bit outside of the body, you do have a higher percentage and chance of hitting that ball out. So I would typically say aim for the body like the shoulders or the hips. All right. So those are really good tips, Kaden. Actually, this is a shot that I kind of don't use in my game a ton, but maybe it's a shot I'm going to be actually using more and more. I like to be aggressive, obviously, out here, out in front. Again, this is totally different than actual roll volley, right? When we talk about topspin roll volleys or something like that, it's a bigger swing. So I would say the difference between a roll volley and more like a flick, Kaden, is we're trying to beat him more with pace. For sure. A little bit more than location. Obviously, location is really important. But again, really extending that forearm and popping that wrist out is really key. So I'll try a couple here. And yeah, we'll try it out here. Whoa, shoot. All right. That was really bad. I don't think you should ever use that. Here we go again. All right. Ah, okay. Kaden first started off with is that wide base. It's so important to do that. And just one key tip here. Don't bend from your waist right here like this. Get really low and make sure you keep your back fairly straight. And I like to lean in like this. And again, anything like this is really good. You don't have to have a super huge backswing, right, Kaden? Yeah, no backswing at all, obviously. You just keep it right here. And again, I try to keep a little bit bent on my elbow. And by the end of my stroke, my elbow is fully extended. That's what it will look like. The last thing I would say is because you're attacking so fast, being ready for the counter is really important. Yep. So that's the last thing I would mention. If you don't get your attack in a good spot, just make sure that you're ready for the counter, kind of like the last ball. Yeah. And I will also mention just for those who are going to try and execute this shot, I personally don't change my grip. I don't know about you, but I am kind of in a kind of continental slash eastern grip right in the middle there. So I'm not changing my grip. I am cocking my wrist a little bit harder. And this is a shot that will put some force on your wrist. So if your wrist is not up to strength, don't just practice this over and over and over again. Maybe mix it up like we are with some dinks and then working on that flick just to give your wrist a little bit of rest. So if you enjoyed this video, you guys want a couple more of these types of videos, comment down below. Check out our most recent videos and we'll see you guys in the next video. Oh, dang it.