Upright Reverse Shot

Today we’re going to look at how to improve your upright reverse. Obviously, we all know the lower reverse, but today we’re going to look at how to hit the upright reverse. Let me show you how.

All right, so what do we need to know about the upright reverse? First of all, the normal reverse, we’re hitting the ball with the side of the stick. As we all know, this is where we like to hit the ball gets you down to power. However, when we’re hitting the upright reverse, we can’t hit it like this. Because it’s kind of difficult, we’re actually hitting the ball with the flat side of the stick, usually not down there, even though you could, but usually on a bouncing ball and upright reverse can be used. And you’re going to try and get context around that area of the stick.

So the big question is, when and why would you use the upright reverse? Well, when you’re hitting the normal reverse download, obviously, the ball is sitting nicely down there. However, if the ball is bouncing, and you want to shoot quickly, then usually the upright reverse can be very useful, because you don’t have time to wait for the ball to finish bouncing. That’s the first moment when you could use it. The second one is if you’re running with the ball. And obviously, the backswing of a normal reverse is quite long. However, the upright reverse can be quite quick. So if you want to surprise goalkeepers, what you could do is instead of when you’re running with the ball, let them think you’re going to hit the normal reverse, you actually do a quick, upright reverse using the tip of the stick. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to start with the bouncing ball and the upright reverse using this part of the stick. What’s important with this is that we don’t lean too far back and try and hit the ball like this, but you’re actually going to try and keep your stick as vertical as you can. What happens then, is if you hold the stick vertically, and try and hit like this, you got to keep your head above the ball. If you go too far back, it’s really hard to get contact and power. If you keep your head above the ball, you have the weight distribution is great yes balance and from here on, you can get great power.

All right, some things to look out for when you’re doing the upright reverse is that because the ball is bouncing means that the ball is going to be higher off the ground, which means closer towards your hands. So what can help sometimes is to use a short grip instead of the long one. Because otherwise, you’re going to have to go and stand on your toes to try and get good context, obviously, because when you should you bend over a little bit anyway, if you use a short grip, then from here is exactly the right height. So play with this and see if you can maybe get a bit of a short grip, whatever feels comfortable. Another tip I want to give is that usually when you hit the ball, you want to step out with your right foot. Why? First of all, you’re protecting your space from the defender. And also the foot that’s closest to the goal as like a steady firm foot as the balance foot is always a good idea. Because the other way around, if you’re on your left side, and you have to rotate from this side, your left foot can sort of get in the way. So if you open up, you can easily rotate when you have your feet like this, and it’s easier to rotate

You can try and hit it when the balls bouncing. But like I said, sometimes you can surprise goalkeepers when you’re running to try and hit the ball. When it’s on the ground. What we’re going to do then is we’re going to use this part of the stick to hit the ball instead of this part. So it’s a little bit harder to get the right contact. But if you get it down, you can get a nice shot out. So important with this technique is that you make sure that the face of the stick where you’re gonna hit the ball is exactly facing towards the goal. Otherwise, if it’s open, you’re gonna get slices out. And if you close it, you’re going to try and get bad contact. So if you focus, make sure your face is good that from here on, you can aim straight towards goal so whichever technique you use, whether it’s the bouncing ball or the Sitting Bull, the most important thing is that you lean in to take the shot. If you lean back, then the angle the stick won’t be correct. You won’t get the nice contact. So that’s the most important thing. Lean into the short. Practice a lot. And maybe you can use it in the game.