72: Trying Crazy New Things On The Pickleball Court (and Listener Q&A) 

I used Eastern backhand at the kitchen early on before I realized I needed to commit to one grip. It is indeed extremely powerful for counters, especially on high balls. I think sitting on this grip could work for a right side player paired with an alpha left side partner who allows you to shift and sit backhand. It's actually strong on all high balls, not just back hands, as you can counter paddle side shoulder with it similar to the scorpion/stop sign/pancake. It's the same grip as full western forehand flipped over, so you can potentially hit forehands with it, but much harder on lower balls. You can potentially hit very sharp angle forehand cross court dinks with it. Ben Johns actually moves his grip almost to this for some of the crazy angle dinks he does. But I would probably try to grip shift for most dinks, and hit 2 handers for the middle dinks. I can actually see this being the future for some right side specialists.

Gonna go practice that eastern… actually all of my game 😂

Is this Eastern changed just at the kitchen? I always wondered how much Pros changed grips during play. Seems like Ben Johns has to be somewhat Western to scoop his backhand dink. Maybe you have already covered that?