For a Better Forehand Flick, Ditch the Windshield-Wiper Technique
The forehand speed-up is one of those shots in pickleball that can either win you the point outright or send the ball sailing into the back fence with embarrassing frequency. If you’ve ever felt frustrated watching your backhand speed-ups land with precision while your forehand flicks seem to have a mind of their own, you’re not alone. This technical breakdown reveals why one of the most common coaching cues for the forehand speed-up might actually be holding you back, and what you should focus on instead to transform this crucial offensive weapon.
Understanding the Forehand Speed-Up: What It Is and Why It Matters
Before diving into the technical adjustments that can revolutionize your forehand flick, it’s worth taking a step back to understand what we’re actually talking about here. The forehand speed-up, also called a forehand flick or forehand attack, is an aggressive shot designed to take a ball that’s sitting up in the transition zone or at the kitchen line and drive it quickly back at your opponents. Unlike a reset or a drop, which are designed to slow the pace down and regain control, the speed-up is meant to do exactly what its name suggests: speed the ball up and put your opponents on the defensive.
Think of it as the pickleball equivalent of a tennis groundstroke, but executed from much closer to the net and with far less room for error. The speed-up is what separates players who can only play soft game from those who can shift gears and apply offensive pressure when the opportunity presents itself. It’s the shot that keeps your opponents honest at the kitchen line, prevents them from crowding the net, and creates openings for put-aways.
For recreational players especially, mastering a reliable forehand speed-up opens up an entirely new dimension of play. Without it, you’re essentially limited to defensive pickleball, always reacting rather than dictating. With it, you become a dual threat who can reset when necessary but also punish any ball that sits up even slightly. The challenge is that the forehand speed-up requires a delicate balance of power, control, and disguise that many players struggle to find, particularly when they’re using mechanical cues that don’t actually match what the shot requires.
The Core Problem: When Wrist Action Works Against You
Content creator Ed Ju partnered with player and coach Cori Elliott to diagnose exactly what was going wrong with his forehand flick, and the findings are incredibly revealing for anyone struggling with this shot. Ed openly acknowledged that while his backhand speed-up was solid and reliable, his forehand version was sitting at around 35 percent consistency. That’s the kind of weakness that opponents will exploit mercilessly once they recognize it, forcing you to hit forehands and then capitalizing on the inevitable errors.
The root cause of Ed’s inconsistency was too much wrist action combined with the wrong mental model for the shot. Like many players, Ed had been trying to execute what coaches commonly describe as a “windshield wiper” motion with his forehand. The windshield wiper cue has been around in racket sports for years, originally borrowed from tennis to describe the topspin forehand where the racket face appears to wipe across the ball. The idea is that you’re brushing up and across the ball to generate spin and control.
Here’s the problem: that analogy, while potentially useful in some contexts, was actually sabotaging Ed’s forehand speed-up. Instead of driving through the ball with forward momentum and controlled acceleration, he was cutting across it laterally. This created a glancing blow rather than a penetrating strike. The ball would come off his paddle with inconsistent pace and direction, sometimes catching the net, sometimes sailing long, and rarely landing exactly where he intended.
The excessive wrist movement compounded the problem by introducing another variable that had to be timed perfectly for the shot to work. Your wrist is one of the smallest, most mobile joints in your body, which makes it great for fine adjustments but terrible as the primary power source for a shot that needs to be both powerful and consistent. When your wrist is doing most of the work, tiny variations in timing create massive differences in outcome. One rep the ball rockets cross-court, the next it dumps into the net, and you have no clear sense of what you did differently.
The Foundation: Footwork and Positioning Come First
Before Cori Elliott even addressed Ed’s paddle work, she zeroed in on something that many recreational players overlook entirely: footwork and body position. This is where the real foundation of a reliable forehand speed-up begins, yet it’s also the element that players most frequently neglect in their rush to fix their swing mechanics.
Cori’s first instruction was to get the foot behind the ball in what’s called a semi-closed stance. This means your feet aren’t squared up to the net and they’re not completely sideways either. Instead, you’re positioned at an angle that accomplishes two crucial things. First, it gives you disguise because your body position doesn’t immediately telegraph whether you’re going down the line or cross-court. Second, it provides a stable base from which you can transfer your weight forward into the shot, adding body mass to the equation rather than relying purely on arm speed.
The concept of “the pocket” is equally important but rarely discussed. This is the contact zone slightly between your legs where you want to meet the ball. It’s not out in front of you like a groundstroke, and it’s not beside you like a volley. It’s in that sweet spot where your paddle can accelerate through the ball while your body provides support and stability. When you make contact in the pocket, you have maximum control over paddle angle and maximum ability to adjust direction at the last possible moment.
Cori also emphasized keeping the paddle tip low before initiating the shot. Many players prepare with their paddle up around chest or shoulder height, which forces them to drop the paddle head down before they can accelerate it forward. This creates a looping motion that’s visible to opponents and adds unnecessary complexity to the timing. By starting with the paddle tip already low, you eliminate that extra step and create a more direct, compact path to the ball.
These positioning fundamentals might seem basic or even obvious, but they’re the difference between a speed-up that works under pressure and one that falls apart when the points matter most. Your swing can be technically perfect, but if your feet aren’t in the right place and your contact point is inconsistent, the shot will never feel reliable.
Debunking the Windshield Wiper Myth
This is where Cori Elliott’s coaching becomes genuinely transformative, because she directly challenges one of the most common pieces of advice players receive about the forehand speed-up. Cori states plainly that the windshield wiper analogy is misleading and counterproductive for this particular shot. A windshield wiper moves side to side across a flat surface, but that’s not the motion pattern you want for a forehand speed-up.
Instead, your paddle should move forward and slightly upward through the contact zone. The motion is much more linear than the windshield wiper image suggests. You’re not wiping across the ball; you’re driving through it with the paddle face starting slightly open and then closing through contact. This is a critical distinction that changes everything about how you approach the shot mentally and execute it physically.
Cori offers a better mental model: think of closing a book or flipping a pancake. Your paddle face starts open, and as you accelerate through the ball, the face closes. That’s it. There’s no dramatic wrist twist, no sweeping lateral motion across your body. The movement is compact, controlled, and primarily forward. The closing action happens naturally as a result of your forearm rotation, not because you’re consciously manipulating your wrist through space.
This reframing is powerful because it gives you a completely different target for your practice and visualization. Instead of trying to wipe across the ball and generate spin through lateral movement, you’re thinking about pushing through the ball and covering it at the last second with that closing motion. The result is a shot that travels more directly toward your target, maintains better pace, and responds more predictably to adjustments in your setup and contact point.
For players who have been struggling with the windshield wiper model, this shift can feel revelatory. Suddenly the shot that seemed mysterious and unreliable starts to make sense. You can feel the difference in contact quality immediately, and your consistency jumps not because you’re practicing more but because you’re practicing the right motion.
The Mechanics That Actually Matter: Forearm Over Wrist
Once the mental model is corrected, the mechanical adjustments become much clearer. Cori had Ed practice the motion out of her hand first, feeding him balls so he could focus purely on the stroke mechanics without worrying about reading the ball or making tactical decisions. This isolated practice revealed immediately how different the correct motion felt from what Ed had been doing previously.
The first key adjustment is minimizing wrist movement and focusing instead on forearm acceleration. Your forearm is a much larger, more stable lever than your wrist, which means it can generate substantial racket head speed while maintaining consistency from rep to rep. When your forearm does the work, you get the power you need without the wild variations in outcome that come from excessive wrist action.
The acceleration pattern matters too. You’re not taking a big backswing and then whipping the paddle through like a baseball swing. Instead, you’re starting from that low paddle position and then accelerating smoothly through contact. The power comes from the acceleration, not from the size of your backswing. This compact motion gives you better disguise because there’s less telegraph, and it also gives you better control because there are fewer moving parts that can get out of sync.
Body weight plays an important supporting role. Cori coached Ed to lean slightly into the shot, shifting his weight forward without kicking off hard or jumping into the ball. This forward weight transfer adds mass to the equation, which means you get more penetration on the shot without having to swing harder. It’s a subtle shift, but it makes the difference between a speed-up that pushes your opponents back and one that sits up and begs to be counter-attacked.
The finish position is the final piece of the puzzle. After you push through the ball and cover it with that closing motion, your paddle should end up in front of you, not wrapped around your body or pulled across your chest. This forward finish is evidence that you drove through the ball rather than wiping across it. It also leaves you in a better position to react to the next shot, since your paddle is already in the court and ready for a potential counter.
When Ed implemented these adjustments under Cori’s guidance, the difference was immediately audible and visible. The ball came off his paddle with a cleaner sound, indicating better contact. The trajectory was more direct and penetrating rather than floating or diving unpredictably. And perhaps most importantly, Ed could feel the difference, which meant he was building a reliable internal reference for what the correct shot should feel like.
Testing Under Pressure: The Speed-Up Game
Technical practice on its own only gets you so far. The real test of any shot is whether you can execute it under competitive pressure when your opponent is trying to beat you and your brain is processing tactical decisions in real time. To create that pressure environment, Cori and Ed played a game where they could only score points by speeding up with their forehands. First player to seven wins, and the loser faces the indignity of getting “forehand bagged,” which is exactly as ridiculous as it sounds but provides real motivation to execute under pressure.
This game format revealed something important that every player working on technical changes needs to understand: there’s a transition period where you have to balance conscious attention to your new mechanics with the unconscious flow state that good competitive play requires. Ed found himself at times overthinking the footwork and paddle angle, which caused him to miss opportunities or hit tentatively. Other times he reverted to old habits because his muscle memory kicked in before his conscious mind could intercede.
This is the messy middle of skill development that nobody talks about enough. You’re not bad anymore because you now know what you should be doing differently, but you’re not yet good because the new pattern hasn’t been practiced enough to become automatic. The game environment accelerates this process by forcing you to trust your adjustments rather than thinking through every step, which is ultimately how the new technique becomes integrated into your actual playing style.
What emerged from the game was that Ed’s forehand speed-up was noticeably sharper and more effective when he trusted the new mechanics. The shots that worked best were the ones where he set his feet properly, started with a low paddle position, and then accelerated through the ball with his forearm rather than flicking with his wrist. The shots that broke down were typically the ones where he rushed his setup or reverted to the old windshield wiper pattern under pressure.
Making It Stick: Practice Strategies for Your Own Game
If you recognize yourself in Ed’s forehand struggles, the good news is that the fix is surprisingly straightforward once you understand what you’re actually trying to accomplish. The bad news is that knowing what to do and being able to do it consistently under pressure are two very different things. Here’s how to bridge that gap in your own practice.
Start with isolated technical practice where you’re not worrying about winning points or even playing cooperatively. Have a partner feed you balls in that pocket zone between your legs, and focus exclusively on the mechanics: feet behind and slightly closed, paddle starting low, forearm acceleration through the ball, paddle face opening and closing rather than wiping across. Do this until the motion starts to feel natural and you can execute it without thinking through every step.
The mental cue matters enormously. Stop thinking “windshield wiper” and start thinking “close the book” or “push and cover.” This simple reframing will change how your body executes the motion, even if you’re not consciously controlling every detail. Your brain is remarkably good at finding movement solutions when you give it the right target, so make sure the target you’re visualizing matches the motion you’re trying to create.
Once the basic motion feels comfortable in isolated practice, progress to cooperative drilling where both players are working on speed-ups. This adds the complexity of reading the ball and timing your setup, but it’s still lower pressure than actual competition. You’re not trying to win; you’re trying to execute the technique correctly as many times as possible. Track your consistency over time and celebrate when you see improvement, even if the percentages aren’t where you want them yet.
Finally, test it in competitive scenarios like the forehand-only speed-up game that Cori and Ed played. This is where you discover whether your technical improvements can survive the chaos and pressure of actual competition. Expect some regression at first as you work to integrate the new pattern into your tactical decision-making. That’s normal and temporary. The key is to keep returning to the fundamental cues when things break down: feet positioned correctly, paddle starting low, forearm acceleration, push and cover.
The Broader Lesson: Question Your Coaching Cues
There’s a larger takeaway here that goes beyond just the forehand speed-up. The windshield wiper analogy is well-intentioned and probably works great for some players in some contexts, but it clearly wasn’t serving Ed and might not be serving you either. This is a good reminder that coaching cues are tools, not universal truths. What works brilliantly for one player might actively hinder another.
When you’re struggling with a particular shot or technique, it’s worth examining not just your execution but also the mental model you’re using to guide that execution. Are you visualizing the right motion? Is the analogy you’ve been given actually helping you understand what you’re supposed to do? Or is it sending you down a path that doesn’t match the biomechanics of the shot?
Cori Elliott’s coaching demonstrates the value of being willing to challenge conventional wisdom when it’s not producing results. Rather than doubling down on the windshield wiper cue and trying to get Ed to execute it better, she recognized that the cue itself was the problem and offered a different framework that better matched what the shot actually requires. That’s thoughtful, individualized coaching that prioritizes results over dogma.
As you work on your own game, give yourself permission to question the advice you’ve received, even if it came from respected sources. Try different cues and see what produces better results for you. Pay attention to how different mental models change your execution. Be willing to abandon something that’s not working, even if everyone says it should work. Your forehand speed-up doesn’t care about what’s supposed to work; it only cares about what actually works for your body, your timing, and your game.
From 35 Percent to Reliable: The Transformation Is Real
By the end of the session and game, Ed’s forehand speed-up had transformed from a liability into a legitimate weapon. The improvement wasn
