Argentine backhand

The Argentine backhand is a hockey term .

With this striking technique, the player, with a very low posture, leads his stick across the floor and hits the ball with the backhand edge of the stick shaft. Objectively more correct would therefore be the designation as a backhand strike.

This technique creates a higher impulse and gets more mass behind the ball than with a backhand in an upright position, so that it can be accelerated more strongly. For this reason, the stroke is trained very intensively, especially in the upper hockey leagues and in the national teams. However, the high forces that can occur during this blow often damage the shaft. Another disadvantage is the difficulty in controlling the trajectory of the ball.

The Argentine backhand is only allowed in field hockey. When indoor hockey hitting is generally prohibited.

The most dangerous Argentine backhands in the world at the moment have Ellen Hoog (Netherlands) and Santi Freixa (Spain). This stroke was first shown at the end of the 20th century by the Argentinian hockey player Fernando Ferrara. In the English language it is also known as Korean backhand or, more precisely, reverse hit .

Web link

Argentine backhand, video on YouTube ( Memento from 7 July 2015 in the Internet Archive )