Backhand 101: Stop leaning into your reachback

If ever there was a serial offender of this, it’d be me.

So don’t take this as advice from an “expert” or anything …

Rather, take it from someone who’s learned from THIS mistake.

I first became aware of this problem after watching a video on Ezra Aderhold’s YouTube channel a few months back – this video, to be more specific. In it, Ezra diagnoses a widespread issue for amateur disc golfers when throwing backhand off the tee. Is your curiosity at all piqued?

Here’s the gist of it:

• Many amateurs lean into their reachback, as opposed to rotating the torso into it.
• Erroneously, they think more body movement leads to a greater power output.
• The more the body moves, however, the slower the pull-through tends to be.

Guilty as charged?

Here’s what works better …

As opposed to leaning into your reachback, rotate the hips. To that end, keep the disc close to your body at all times. Then, when you begin your X-step, let it drift away with the reachback. Start your reachback any earlier, and you’ll find the disc will drag YOU back along with it …

Unintentionally, this results in an arched spine – the “lean” I keep mentioning. Staying more upright, compact and patient with your reachback makes exploding into the power pocket easier. 

It makes getting there faster, too.

This will differ from golfer to golfer …

But for me, the easiest way to fix my lean was to keep the disc close to my body until the X-step. From there, without thinking, I remain upright throughout the reachback and pull-through.

Lightbulb.

There are a million parts to an efficient backhand …

Thankfully, this one’s a pretty quick fix.

More distance. More accuracy.

Yes, please.

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