Hey guys in today's video i'm going to show you how to hit the forehand slice and there's a whole
family of shots that have very similar technical characteristics so it's a good thing to learn how
to do forehand slice because it might help some of the other shots and these shots are the forehand
volley the forehand drop shot the forehand chip return and forehand squash shot so if you learn
how to hit a forehand slice you will also improve your chance of learning these other shots as well
and let's start off with the grip it's going to be a continental grip and you want to set up your
forehand slice with a high starting point the tip of the racket needs to be above the shoulder and
now you're going to start coming down towards the ball this is what's going to create the underspin
if i go from a high position to a low position the ball will spin in this way and this creates
underspin
and the backhand slice is a much more intuitive shot compared to the forehand slice and this
is why you don't really see the forehand slice very much on the tour yes there are
some players like monica nicolescu who slices her forehand or fabrice santoro used to have a
two-handed slice forehand but you don't really see this shot on the pro tour and the reason is
it's not really an intuitive shot and this has to do with the biomechanics so on the backhand if i'm
hitting high to low and then across the body you can see there's nothing in the way the racket can
freely move across the body I have all this free space in front now on the forehand slice if i go down on
the ball and then have the racket go across you see that my body is in the way and this is why
this is not an intuitive shot so this brings up the question how much we should turn when we set
up the forehand slice so you definitely don't want to be too sideways because now you're completely
blocking the swing path and you don't want to just go straight down on the slice this will interrupt
the stroke and this will turn it into more of a chopping motion you won't be able to accelerate
as much so in order for the racquet to freely move across the body like this we need to start
off the forehand slice a little bit more open so you don't want to turn too much
you want to face the ball more as you're setting up your slice
and when you do that you can see that the racquet will naturally move more
across the body the movement is going to be high
to low and now as we continue going down on the ball you can see that the racket will move across
the body and then up so just like the backhand slice it's a u-shape i'm starting high
i'm going down on the ball and i'm finishing high this is the forehand slice swing path
another factor that makes the forehand slice a less intuitive shot than the backhand is the
position of the wrist so on the backhand slice the wrist is in a neutral position as we're executing
the shot you can see on the forehead slice i have to bend my wrist backwards so the wrist needs to
be in an L shape in order for us to execute this shot properly so it's really important that when
you hit your forehand slice that you don't use your wrist if you make a wrist movement before at
or after contact this will take all the slice out of the ball so if you come at the ball like this
and now you're snapping your wrist you will not get a lot of slice on the ball
and you might end up with some kind of side spin or something else that's unintentional and you
will lose control quickly so it's crucial that you keep your wrist in this L-shape throughout the
entirety of the forehand slice in order for you to control the ball properly the contact is going to
be very similar to the backhand slice if you're interested in learning how to hit the backhand
slice i have several videos on the backhand slice and one in particular deals with the contact point
on the backhand slice that's interestingly further behind the body and on the forehead
slice it's going to be very similar so first we have to determine when would we hit a slice
so it's not going to be on a ball that's coming very deep into the court or it's not going to be
on a ball it's coming very fast the forehead slice would be a dangerous shot to hit because
if we have a slightly open racket face we might miss the ball long so when are we going to hit
a slice it's going to be on low balls that are in front of us so usually on balls that
have very little penetration we are going to step towards the incoming ball so in this case
the contact is going to be around the tip of the front foot this is where you want to make contact
on your forehead slice and just like the backhand you don't want to make contact too far in front
because what will happen is that this will open the racket face and when you slice with
an extremely open racket face like this this will send the ball too high and your opponent is going
to have an easy chance to put you under pressure so you want to close the racket face a little bit
and naturally the further back we go the more the racket face will close well unfortunately
as i described on the forehand slice we're gonna use this shot when we get
pulled into the court on low balls this is the best time to utilize this shot and naturally
because we're going to be stepping in towards that ball the racket face will be slightly more open
and a shot that you do see a lot at the high level is the squash shot which is basically a
forehand slice that's hit in distress and there's a couple of ways it's executed so one way is to be
completely stretched out and the player is barely getting to the ball and they're basically slicing
the ball back in play or in an even more difficult situation the player will actually have the ball
be behind a little bit and now the player has to reach back like this and hit a slice from this position.
because these shots are executed under such distress there might actually be
some wrist movement so when you completely extend the arm out it's very difficult
to bring the arm back in and you might have to use your wrist a little bit to bring the racquet back
towards you in order to generate this slice even more so when the ball gets
behind you you might have to bend the wrist a little bit in this position in order to generate
the proper angle of the racket face and then you have to continue going down on the ball like this
but generally speaking the squash shot has the same fundamentals as the forehand slice basically
you're gonna go high to low this is the key to the squash shot you go high to low
and now your intention with this shot is to basically get the ball back in play
hopefully it can stay low and you might have a chance to neutralize the point
so while the forehand slice can be a good addition to your game i see a lot of players who are
over using it especially at the recreational level and that's why i call this shot the lazy shot so
players will sometimes instead of bending down and hitting a forehand they will bend with their back
like this and then end up hitting a forehand slice because that's really the only option
they have so my advice to you is to always have the intention to hit your forehand because you're
giving up the opportunity to hit your forehand the regular way which is a much better shot than
a forehand slice let me just give you one example i was looking at the data of average forehand
speeds on the wta tour and on the very bottom of the list the forehand that was going over the net
at an average of 50 miles an hour was monika niculescu she had the slowest forehand by far
so when you're slicing your forehand you got to understand that you're basically depending
on your opponent to make the mistake this is not aggressive tennis so here's what you should do
instead you're always going to have the intention to hit your forehand and you're going to let your
slice come out intuitively so you will know when it's time to hit like a squash shot or forehand
slice as the only option if you do it the other way and plan to hit the slice ahead of time often
you will do it unnecessarily so and you're giving up an opportunity to hit an aggressive forehand
maybe even for a winner i can tell you that when i play when i hit the squash shot i don't plan
it ahead of time it's the last ditch effort to get the ball back in play and this is how you
should treat your forehand slice don't make it a habit make sure that you learn how to do it that
you possess it it's part of your repertoire but only use it in true emergency situations.