Whenever Ben Johns shares pickleball wisdom, I’m cracking open my notebook, taking notes, and then heading straight to the court to practice.

He’s the pro pickleball G.O.A.T., so learning the intricacies of a topspin drive directly from him was something I just couldn't pass up.

“There are certainly various levels of how much power you’re putting into the shot,” noted Johns. “Combined with spin, and based on what you’re trying to do, like a drive or a drop or drive and crash, there’s a lot of different ways to approach what you’re doing with the third shot.”

Most players use their wrist to generate power in their shots, but Johns shared that his power actually comes from the rotation of his hips and torso. 

“It’s a good thing to generate power from your wrist, but you’re going to want to harness it and rely on your body a little bit more because the wrist has a little more variance in terms of its range of motion. Therefore, when you use it a lot, it might not always end up exactly where you want it. You’ll get varying heights and results, even though you got power,” he explained. “You want to have a little wrist motion, but rely more on the twist of the hips for power because that’s much more consistent because this doesn’t have a huge range of motion. Use your hips for power and just stay low through the ball and it will keep the ball low, too, and have it go just over the net.”

Johns also recommended hitting these shots in a fully-closed stance to generate more power. 

Then, he talked about the wrist.

“Your wrist has different varying contact with how much it’s open versus closed, so when you get to right about the contact point, make sure the paddle is a little more closed and with a low-to-high swing,” demonstrated Johns.

Johns also mentioned giving yourself a little more space for your arm to swing with a longer extension, as opposed to keeping your arm tight to your chest because people tend to get caught up in that position.  

If you come from a tennis background, Johns also recommended hitting the outside of the ball to generate more topspin. 

“Come from the outside of the ball to the inside. It’s a very small adjustment because the ball is not big, but it makes a huge difference,” he insisted. “When we’re hitting these drives, instead of hitting just behind the ball, we want to hit the outside of the ball. Envision that you’re hitting the outside third of the ball.”

Don't forget to contact the ball at its peak bounce. 

And soon enough, you’ll be hitting a topspin drive as good as the pros.  

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