Learning Danni-Elle Townsend's Backhand FLICK (6.02 DUPR)

How's it going, guys? Back at Carbon Headquarters, and today I'm joined with a new friend. Danny! Hey guys, what's up? So Danny is also Team Carbon, and we just met yesterday. And I was learning a little bit about her story. Danny, what sport do you come from? I'm a table tennis player. Well, used to be a table tennis player. Not anymore. I don't think I've ever met an ex-ping pong player turned pickleball pro yet. Yeah, I went from pro table tennis to pro pickleball. Yeah, because usually I meet like tennis players, and they're teaching me like, you know, tennis-esque techniques. But yesterday when I was joining Danny, she was just absolutely ripping me a new one with her backhand flick below the net. It like, we'll show some footage, and we'll show some like highlight clips of Danny wrecking it on court. But I wanted to learn that from you, because I know the flick from above that height. Yeah. But you hit a shot that doesn't seem possible, and you said it's a... Once-in-a-game kind of shot. Like, because for me, anything can work once a game. It's like a gotcha. Yeah, gotcha shot? Yeah, it's like a gotcha. Gotcha shot. Yeah. Except you did it to me like 15 times at the game, so... Yeah, some things work multiple times. Yeah, against certain people. Ouch. Anyways, okay, let's jump right into it. We're gonna learn the below the net flick from Danny. Yeah, that's the one. I mean, even that one. That's kind of yuck. Yeah, that's the one. That's like... We actually checked my ape index, my wingspan. What is your wingspan? And it's like 6'1", almost 6'2". How tall are you? Like five, nine and a half. Your wingspan is like three inches... Dude, it's ridiculous. So the fun thing about my shoulders, like I can... Dislocate my shoulder. I don't know if I'm doing that, but sometimes I feel like I get a little extra... I get a little extra something, something going on. You're like an anime character. You're like, oh, I need that shot. Dude, maybe that's like my thing. Yeah. I mean, hey, if they needed a movie inspirational character, you are the robot arm girl. Yeah, I kind of find that it's like a hybrid for me. Like it's in between like hybrid and like a flick and a roll. Because I do use a lot of like shoulder. Yeah. And like you kind of have to. But then I don't flick with my wrist. I don't really use my wrist at all. Really? No, so like I don't actually like... It's kind of just the acceleration from my shoulder rotating. So if I keep my hand as still as I can. So my wrist, I just keep it the same. And then my shoulder is actually rotating from the cut. Oh. So I don't even need... I can be at full extension and create force and power. See? I'm at full extension. My arm can be straight and I can still create power. Yeah. So then you can create power from like this way, like lifting. Yeah. You can create power from rotating. And then you can also then just add like the elbow a little bit, just extending. And then you can also add the wrist flying out. Right. So then if you add all of this, you can just kind of have like a hybrid between roll, flick, whatever you want. So I'm just trying to generate as much like speed as possible through my arm at full extension. So I can be fully extended and just rotate my shoulder and then flick through. I've never actually heard anyone talk about... The shoulder rotating. I think that is a table tennis thing. Is it? I think that's like a table tennis thing. Because like when you're... It's called a cantaloupe. Cantaloupe? Cantaloupe. Cantaloupe, like a fruit? Yes, a cantaloupe. Cantaloupe. I wasn't sure if it was an Australian accent thing. I'm like, you mean cantaloupe? No, no, yeah, yeah. I really need to start articulating. No, you're good. No, no, no, because it's actually like a problem. I sometimes like order like water on a plane. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like, what would you like to drink? I'm like, yeah, can I get a water? And they're like, huh? And they're like, can I get a water? And then they're like, oh, a water. Yes, I can get you a water. But no. Do you say Annalie Waters? Annalie Waters? Waters, yeah. I love it. It's not you. It's 2026. We need to adapt. Cantaloupe. So in table tennis, like sometimes the ball, you've hit a loop. Yeah. And then the ball's coming back so fast. And the way to change the spin to come back is by getting this like quick feeling of the ball just hitting the top of the rubber. You're getting that slight brush. And that comes from usually this like power over there. And there's another shot called a Chiquita or a backhand flick or like a banana, banana backhand or something. Different things. Yeah. And that's when you hit the ball over the table and it's usually off a serve or something. So then you have to be like fully reaching over the table and contorting your body and being able to get enough spin to change from backspin to topspin. Cool. Okay. This is going to be so nerdy. I love it. This is exactly what this channel is all about. Can I try a few and then you can teach me? Because there's so much movement with your wrist being from like your paddle being all the way down. Also, you know how everyone wants to paddle tip to get down. Yeah. This is a very easy way, right? Just rotating your shoulder. Right. So you actually want less of this if you want to be more consistent. Less of the shoulder? You want less of like this rotation of paddle tip if you want to be more consistent. You actually want to kind of keep your paddle more vertical and then that's when you get that brush. That's the more consistent way and you'll keep the ball like lower over the net. Yes. So you can be more consistent with the height over the net. Right. If you have less twerk down. Yeah, yeah. Torque down. Right, right. Yeah. Kind of like a roll, right? Yeah. So the roll you don't use as much. You kind of want to keep the shoulder from here. You don't want it to rotate in as much. Yeah. You kind of want to be neutral and then lift and you use slight external rotation. Okay. Nice. Oh, wow. Nice. Oh! That's good. Wow. I've never hit like with my shoulder before because usually when I'm on my flicks, I'm like releasing my wrist. Yeah. I want to see how much power you... Because you generally to make the most force, you want to use the biggest muscles first. Yeah. So like your wrist is actually such a small and weak area. Most people are pretty weak here. I have very small wrists. I'm very delicate around here. Like I'm not naturally like huge forearms. So I'm like, what's the most power and force I can get? I have to use the biggest muscles and my shoulders are going to be stronger than my wrist is. Yeah. Interesting. Nice. I don't care if you miss it long. Can you try and hit the ball like here on your paddle and I want you to like wait longer. Wait longer? Yeah. So I want you to try and like, instead of like trying to hit it when it's like the furthest you can hit it. Yeah. I want you to try and like wait longer and then accelerate faster through the ball. And hit it. Accelerate quickly. Closer to the tip of my paddle. Yeah. Like use the bottom corner. Bottom corner. Okay. Good. I think you might be able to get more power. Nice. That's in. Wow. Yeah. I reckon you could have waited longer because the longer you wait, the deeper it's going to be. Yeah. And then that way then you can like get a harder and firmer contact and get it into the core of the paddle. So I'm kind of hitting it here. Yeah. At this length. Can you just toss the ball so I could visualize it? It's like right here is when I'm hitting it. Turn your left foot out. Like turn it, turn your foot out as much as you can. Yeah. And now see how much closer you can get to the kitchen. Yeah. Wait, your toe isn't pointing forward. No. Is this always when you're hitting the flick? If I'm hitting a forehand out of the air. Yeah. I'm putting my weight into my right leg and I'm turning my foot out. Because look how much more reach I can get. If I'm like this, then I'm this way from the ball. Whereas if I'm here, then I can get my weight going into the court. No one's ever told me this. You're totally right. Yeah. And look, now all of your weight is on your left foot. Yeah. And you'll want your weight on that leg. That's why you see like Ben and everybody. Yeah. Like they're always so stable and they're here. And like their weight is here. So then they can extend and they're hinging over their hips. No one's ever told me that I can twist my toe. You're allowed. I've always done this. We're keeping that in. Nice. Look at that reach. Toe point. Okay. Point your toes as the dancers would say. Nice. Oh my God. This toe point is a game changer. I think that's naturally, I get so close to the kitchen. I never flip fault. Like it's very rare. It's just literally like there's something about like, look, I'm not in the kitchen. Yeah. Okay. Bet, bet, bet. Wow. You can reach that. Dani, this is insane. This is, I'm not even trolling. Like this is actually, I can reach so much further and I feel more balanced. Yeah. Look how much you're like, that's how you, that's how you do your lunges, right? Side lunges. We'll point your toe out like a little bit further. I mean, now I can like, you can like get so low too. Oh shoot. That's bad. That's good. I'm going to put it here. I want to like see it, how it works in application. Let's go Dani. Oh, something to look for. I forgot about this. Yeah. It's easier to hit the backhand roll, flick, everything off a backspin ball. Ah, uh-huh. Because the spin is going the same direction and then you have more spin to work with. You can hit it from lower. Yeah. This is why I act, this is another reason I think that you see it more in women, in men, like men's. Yeah. Than in women's because most girls hit like an aggressive, like rolling like this. Yeah. It's actually, oh I've lost the ball. It's actually very hit like hard to hit the flick off that type of aggressive ball. Uh-huh. Because like the spin is like then having to change the other way. Right. Um, and then the ball's more likely to fly out. You have less to work with and you have less time. Yeah. So I always look for the flick when flick or roll, when it's like off this ball that is like backspin. Uh-huh. And then I have more to work off. Yeah. Generally. You can flick off topspin, of course, but it's like easier to pinch like the middle and then you can like have more reach. Okay. Okay. Yo, Frank, check this out. It's over the net. She just taught me that. It's toe pointed that way, bro. This is a cheat code. Dude, it's fucked. That's why we say it's a once in a game kind of thing. That one was pretty low. So yeah. That's crazy. It's like silly. Like it shouldn't, it shouldn't work. It should not work. That's so good. I love how you can get down the line on that. Cause I think it's going cross, but it's going down the line. Yeah. I think like the biggest thing is like waiting. Yeah. Cause even just myself, I was like self-coaching. Some of them I was trying to hit too early again. Yeah. And that's like the same thing. Like you want to be able to like, I like the feeling that you want to keep the ball on the paddle as long as possible. Yeah. Cause I feel like a lot of people like try and quickly hit the ball. Right. And then like, you're not actually hitting a better shot. Yeah. I choose better shot and quality over getting the ball there quickly. Most of the time. Unless you're going for a bag. It's that and then putting your arm back. Your other arm, put it as far back as you can. But like, keep it there. You want it before the shot. So you don't want to go like this, but you want to be like already like here and then hitting it. So it's like counterbalance. Cause you want to be able to try and get into the kitchen with your body. Yeah. As much as you can while being balanced. Right. Cause at the moment, sometimes you're still like going like this. Yeah. And then your chest isn't even in front of the kitchen line. Try and get as much of your body into the kitchen as you can. Okay. That the one? That might be the one. I don't like where your feet are, but that's okay. How far can you get away from the net and like still touch it? How far can I? Wait, are you there? Yo, you're like actually a whole foot above me. I have to be here. And then also like, look at the height difference of where I can touch the net. So like my, I can be here and hit the ball as well. Oh. So I could probably touch further. And it's like, also how far can you be back and then also be balanced? Right. And like, can you hit a ball from that full extension? Yeah. Like for me, like I think that I almost can. Like I think I can be from here and like still hit a ball. Yeah. That's like fully at my full extension and like create power. Yeah. And like still be somewhat accurate. Wait, how tall are you? Like five, nine, five, nine and a half. Five, nine and a half. You're only an inch taller than me, but you have like over a like. You're so much more. All right. Okay. All right. Okay. We're going to end the video here. All right, guys. Make sure to go follow Danny on her Instagram and YouTube. Show her some love. Go support her on the PPA tour. PPA tour. MLP. Yeah. That's where I'm at. PPA Asia. PPA Australia. PPA America. America. And then MLP Australia. MLP America. All of the above. Let's play everywhere. Let's freaking go. Peace.