In this lesson with 11-year-old Zaichao, I help him improve his one-hand backhand roll dinks and flicks by building a “volley first” instinct at the kitchen line. We start with my “Protect the Line” drill to stop him from backing up and to encourage cutting balls off out of the air, then I introduce a backhand decision tree: take it out of the air first, if you can’t reach then use a fast drop step, and choose either a two-handed backhand when the ball stays in front or a passive dead dink when it gets behind. For offensive flicks, I coach him to prep earlier and simplify timing with a “Set and Snap” motion instead of swinging arm and wrist together.
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00:00 Lesson Goals
00:13 Diagnosing Backhand Issues
01:19 Protect the Line Drill
02:27 Volley First Feedback
03:22 Drop Step Decision Tree
05:25 Applying Options Live
06:33 Bounce Shot Targeting
08:18 Set and Snap Flicks
09:49 Toss and Live Reps
11:19 Wrap Up and Next Steps