The thumb is a key part of the backhand. It gives the shot the backing and stability to drive the racket into the ball. However, the perfect placement of the thumb on the backhand often handicaps the forehand. I’ve written about this before, but it’s one of those things that might need reminders. It’s also one of those things where the paradigm has changed – coaches when I started out used to say that players didn’t have time to change their grip between forehand and backhand. But if you have time to move side to side to cover the wide forehand and backhand, you have time to make a small, subtle change in your grip.

The key thing is that you should generally have a slightly different grip on the backhand then on the forehand, which allows your thumb to more naturally drive the racket into the ball. How do you do this? It’s rather simple.

First, find the perfect grip for your forehand. Experiment, and see how top players do it. (Ask them or a coach.) In general, if you hold the racket out in front of you, you might want to rotate the top of the racket a little to the left (for right-handers), which slightly closes it on the forehand side.

For the backhand, put more pressure on the racket with the thumb, which moves the top of the racket slightly to the right, which slightly closes it on the backhand side. This gives a perfect backhand grip, with the thumb in perfect position to drive the racket through the ball. The actual grip change is small, but the result can be major in improving your backhand. (Or your forehand if you were playing it with a backhand grip.)

Here’s the even bigger key – you must practice this. That means first away from the table (shadow-practice), and then at the table. It has to become reflexive, so that you switch to the proper grip as you move to the ball and start your backswing. When that happens, you’ll find yourself smacking shots from both sides with far greater ease than before – and with the thumb behind the backhand, it’ll have more thump.