Ben Johns Unleashes His Secret Lefty Forehand at Worlds

Ben Johns has turned heads at this week's Opendoor Pickleball World Championships by reintroducing a shot most fans had never seen him use.

He is hitting left-handed forehands.

For a right-handed player, this looks like a brand-new trick.

But it is actually an old habit from his early career.

Johns originally played the left-handed forehand in men's singles during 2016 and 2017.

Then he stopped.

The shot disappeared from his game for years.

Now it is back.

And Johns says it is here to stay.

Johns explained the evolution of his playing style had gradually pushed the shot out of his game.

In the early days of singles pickleball, rallies were largely built around powerful drives.

Players stayed back and hit hard.

But Johns later adopted a more tactical approach.

He started relying on drops and moving toward the net to put opponents under pressure.

That style worked for years.

It made him the greatest male player in the sport's history.

But the game has changed again.

Developments in equipment have altered the demands of singles play.

New balls, such as the LT Pro 48 used on the PPA Tour, behave differently.

Paddles have become more powerful.

Spin rates have increased.

Johns believes the traditional drop-and-approach strategy is no longer as effective as it once was.

“Back in the day when people played singles, it was pretty much all drives,” he explained.

“Then, I started dropping and coming in — the cat and mouse style as we know it today — and that required me to just hit backhand slices, basically backhand drops.”

“So I stopped using my left hand and I stopped really hitting a bunch of passing shots, as I would just drop and come in.”

“That’s kind of the style I just continued to play for singles after that.”

But now the cat-and-mouse game has lost its edge.

“You can’t really drop and come in super well with this ball,” Johns noted.

“You can hit accurate drops, but the ball bounces pretty high and people have a lot of spin on their paddles, so they can just take a drop and do a lot with it, so cat and mouse doesn’t really work very well.”

He added that drops remain useful to stay in rallies.

But they are no longer a reliable way to build his game.

Since he does not generate much power with his backhand, the left-handed forehand offers an alternative.

It gives him a weapon he does not have on his right side.

Johns began his campaign at PPA Worlds with a first-round match against Brandon French.

He won 11-7, 1-11, 11-5.

During that match, he unleashed a series of left-handed forehands that caught fans and commentators off guard.

In a post-match interview, Johns conceded that back in his tennis days, he actually preferred two forehands.

He brought that preference into pickleball until it stopped working.

Now it is working again.

But the tournament did not end with a title.

Johns exited the singles competition in the Round of 32.

He lost 8-11, 8-11 to ninth seed Noe Khlif on Wednesday.

Despite the early exit, Johns made one thing clear.

The left-handed forehand is not going away.

“When I do play singles, you can expect to see it,” Johns said.

He is unsure how frequently he will compete in singles going forward.

But whenever he steps on the court, the shot will be part of his arsenal.

The decision to revive the lefty forehand reflects a larger shift in the sport.

Pickleball has changed dramatically over the past decade.

Equipment has evolved.

Playing styles have evolved.

The PPA Tour has grown into a professional circuit with millions of dollars in prize money.

New balls like the LT Pro 48 have changed how the game is played.

Paddles with advanced materials generate more power and spin than ever before.

Players who adapt survive.

Players who do not get left behind.

Johns is adapting.

He is digging into his past to find a solution for the present.

It is the kind of move that defines a champion.

Not just winning, but reinventing.

The left-handed forehand is not a gimmick.

It is a calculated response to a changing game.

Johns has always been known for his court IQ.

He reads the game better than anyone.