A backhand in padel is played on the side opposite the player’s dominant hand. The label names a stroke, not a weakness. A backhand groundstroke follows a bounce; a backhand volley meets the ball before the bounce. A backhand can also be played after a legal rebound from the glass.
The LTA’s forehand and backhand guide explains the side distinction and how groundstrokes may be played directly after the bounce or after a wall rebound. For those different situations, see the volley and playing off the glass. Difficulty with one does not tell you everything about the others.
Which backhand are you describing?
After play, try replacing “my backhand” with one observed moment: “I was comfortable after a slow bounce, but late when the ball came quickly off the glass.” This is a suggested way of making your account more specific, not a diagnosis. Ask what arrived, what you attempted and what happened. If you want technical help, those details give a coach something to investigate beyond the word “terrible.”
An introduction brought onto court
“My backhand is terrible,” she says before the match. Her partner has heard the sentence so often that it now sounds less like a report than part of the introduction.
In this imagined rally, the ball arrives where she would rather it had not. She sends a plain backhand across. The opponents return it. Her partner takes the next shot, and for a few seconds the sentence she brought onto court has no job to do.
An ability allowed to work
The Magician asks what is already available. Here, a familiar stroke has entered an exchange without first becoming the impressive backhand she hoped to own. It has a purpose, a limit and a place beside another person’s reply.
She could turn the useful return into a new demand: play the same shot brilliantly enough to erase every old mistake. Capability would become another performance staged for the story about herself. The card’s Shadow can hide inside that apparent improvement.
At the change of ends, her partner mentions the return. She starts to explain why it was nothing special, then stops. The ball did get across. They did have another shot.
For now, that is an account she can use.