Now let's break down his (Federer's) slice backhand which is in my
opinion the greatest slice of all time now Federer's slice can produce 5,300
rpm on the ball this is more than Nadal's forehand so
he's producing more spin on his slice backhand than Nadal's
producing on his forehand groundstroke.
Now Federer's technique is very simple but it's very different
to a lot of pros. Many pros will prepare in a very similar position
but then they'll hit the shot and extend out towards their target
so you'll see a lot of the pro players and club players as well
they'll prepare above that left shoulder and as they make contact
they'll go towards their target almost guiding the ball.
Now this works at some level you can produce a good amount of power,
a good amount of spin at the same time but with Federer's slice what he does
slightly different is he tends to lift the racket head
slightly higher than a lot of the pros so instead of having his racket touching
that left shoulder or right above the left shoulder he
creates a bit of space and you can see that sometimes his slice
will start at head level and from this position he's able to now
cut down the ball much more aggressively because of that
higher preparation phase.
So as soon as he sees the ball coming to the backhand, he's decided to hit that
slice, he now turns the body so he gets that
unit term once again and he makes sure that the non-hitting
hand is helping him prepare that racket head
so he's preparing with the left hand holding the throat of the racquet,
so the racquet is now above my left
shoulder but it isn't touching the left shoulder
and i'm pulling the racquet back now using that left hand
so my left hand is actually creating a little bit of tension
in the racket head and in my hand by me pulling back
so instead of just being in this position I'm now pulling the racket back
creating this tension effect which will then
be released during that contact point. Now what this does, if you imagine when
you're going to flick somebody if I flick
somebody just using my middle finger i'm not
going to have that much power but because i'm using my thumb now the
middle finger is trying to go forward but the thumb is holding it back as soon
as i release i have a lot of power on that flick
that's the same principle that we can use on that
backhand slice we get into that position using the left hand the right hand can
almost want to pull down but my left hand is forcing it to stay
back my elbow is bent my right elbow is around a 90 degree
angle in this position and from here instead of now making
contact and going forward with the racket head what federer does
is makes contact and cuts across the body so his elbow
is almost like a pendulum across the body like so
so traditionally the slices this shape feather is is this shape now what this
allows him to do is produce that massive underspin on the ball produce side spin
when he wants to so if he's going down the line from the
outside he can now produce that side spin which will make the ball go
away from the opponent so he's able to hit the ball as hard as
he wants he's able to deal with pace without
slowing down the racket once you start traveling towards that
target it becomes more for guide more for push which once again it can
work but when we compare federer's slice to
most players federer is miles ahead
it's because of the way he swings the racket he's using that pendulum effect
he's creating that power that energy in the racket with the preparation
and then he releases it across the body and he can really
accelerate through the point of contact without having to now guide that ball
he can really rip the ball produce that on the spin
produce that side spin because of the way he hits that shot
so we can all copy the starting base of the feather slice
get the left hand to help you make sure that you get the racket
above your non-hitting shoulder so your left shoulder
for the right hand is out there the racquet is above the left shoulder
and the higher the ball bounces so the higher your contact point will be
the higher you prepare which will allow you to cut down
the back of the bowl you can also work on that finish
instead of finishing all your slices pushing outwards
you can start to work hitting across the body so have this right arm create that
pendulum effect this way as you make
contact