{"id":1146,"date":"2026-10-22T01:17:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1146"},"modified":"2026-10-22T01:17:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T01:17:50","slug":"backhand-roll-volley-from-block-to-topspin-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/?p=1146","title":{"rendered":"Backhand Roll Volley: From Block to Topspin Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content-asset videofit\">\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Stop Just Blocking! Add a Backhand Roll Volley to Your Game\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BLO2j7cWfUw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Summary<\/h2>\n<p>Coach Jess (Athena Pickleball) treats the backhand roll volley as the upgrade after you\u2019re comfortable with punch\/block volleys. It adds topspin, pace, and downward pressure at the kitchen \u2014 and she frames it as more accessible than jumping straight to a pure flick.<\/p>\n<p>On the spectrum: a pure roll comes mostly from the shoulder with a fairly fixed wrist; a pure flick is farther out and harder to control with small wrist muscles. Most players succeed by rolling first and letting a little flick appear where appropriate. Two main uses: (1) fourth shot \/ when opponents are still back \u2014 especially a ball into the body you don\u2019t want to wait on the bounce for; (2) a softer roll in a kitchen exchange to keep pressure without needing a full flick winner. Drill the shape (shoulder path, paddle under the ball, send it down) before chasing wrist-only flicks.<\/p>\n<h2>Key takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Roll = shoulder-driven topspin volley; flick is the harder end of the same spectrum<\/li>\n<li>Upgrade from punch\/block \u2014 add brush and downward pace, not just a bigger swing<\/li>\n<li>Use as fourth \/ vs players back, or as a soft kitchen roll to keep pressure<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t skip the roll and jump straight to a wrist-only flick<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Action items<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Shadow 20 BH rolls focusing on shoulder path with a quiet wrist<\/li>\n<li>Fed kitchen: alternate punch volley \u2192 roll on sitters into the body<\/li>\n<li>One game: fourth-shot winners only count if they have visible topspin shape<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"tdd-newsletter\">\n<p><strong>Get the 5 best pickleball tips every week<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com\/v3\/loader.js\" data-beehiiv-form=\"0e5f3fe0-e4d3-4036-8d7f-c33b311980b2\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thedropdrive.beehiiv.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe free<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coach Jess (Athena Pickleball) treats the backhand roll volley as the upgrade after you\u2019re comfortable with punch\/block volleys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,388,381,605,192],"tags":[300,848,301,98,73,685],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kitchen","category-offense","category-technique","category-topspin","category-volleys","tag-athena-pickleball","tag-backhand-roll","tag-coach-jess","tag-flick","tag-topspin","tag-volley"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/03-low-dink-at-the-net-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedropdrive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}