thank you
a lot of my clients are not using their slices enough because they're most likely
committing one or even more of the mistakes that I'm going to show you in this video and
of course I'm also going to show you how to fix them so let's Jump Right In ideally the
slice of course stays low it has some bite on it and it really penetrates through the
cord it skids through the court the worst thing that can happen is if the ball kind
of sits up here somewhere in mid Court it bounces high and yeah it's just an offer for
your opponent to jump on it so what are some of the things that you could be doing wrong
you could be over correcting or you could be overdoing the under spin now we do know that
the racket face is open when you're making contact on a slice and the thinking could be that oh great
the more I have my racket face open the more cut I'm getting and that's another thing I don't
necessarily like the word cut because it implies a hack and that's something that we're going to deal
with in a minute if you have your racket face open the ball will go up but it's going to sit up your
opponent has plenty of time to get there and nail that ball so as opposed to what a lot of people
think actually at contact point the racket face is only ever so slightly open focus a lot more
on having your correct grip just by having the proper grip you will have the racket face open
but not too open it will actually be kind of squared up so work on getting the right grip it
your swing passes incorrect you could be packing at the ball and a lot of coaches are using the
high to low for a slice and that is only the partial truth because you're actually having
a high to lower to high a swing again one of my coaches when I was a junior said you want
to scrape out the bowl and that really drove it home for me that I don't want to end up down here
because what I'm going to do is either again the ball goes up because my racket face is too open
or I'm going to pull it straight into the net so instead of coming from above the ball and then
continuing to just hack down on it focus more on extending through the ball and of course when the
ball is lower you're not manipulating this way it's your entire body that gets under the ball
and I know what you're going to say yes Roger Federer comes really sharply down on the ball
and the ash body does the same and I want to hit a slice like that I'm still gonna maintain focus
on extending through work on your shallow you and commit less errors with your slice because
I think hitting a slice like ash or fed might not be the most realistic thing for us mere mortals
your preparation for the slice is just as crucial as for any other shot what you're putting in in
the preparation is what you're going to have as a result with that's life so one of the big things
is take that racket back take it all the way back and right now you're seeing the head of
the racket behind my head so there's no such thing you cannot break a plane or something that's utter
so make sure that you're actually using your off hand very actively it has a role to play I'm not
using my right arm here to take my racket back I'm literally just hanging on to the Racket and it's
my left arm that helps with the take back how high you take it back that's individual flavor Steffi
Graf was a little flatter yes Ash and fed are up here but regardless of that the left arm helps
big time what you want with a further take back is that your racket has already traveled has already
gained speed before you make contact because other than that it's all arm you're not getting anything
on the ball you're not getting bite on the ball and you're losing control of course so make sure
that you have that racket all the way back and bring It Forward in one smooth continuous motion
you might be side swiping if we look at footage of really good slicers slicers well yeah slicers
you will see that there is a coming across the body movement but from the take back to contact
Point their side onto the court their side onto the incoming ball and they stay sideways
until they're at the end of their motion then they're coming around because that's the axes
around which your body is basically traveling if you will but you're definitely not wanting to do
this here you're not side swiping so extend out and use your left hand again as a help
by bringing it back actively back you're helping yourself stay side on your belly
button chest faces the outside curtain and you're maintaining control a lot better
try not to use your wrist at all I almost want to say the only time you're using it
is if you're drop shotting if you're carving around the ball but on a regular ground stroke
slice or approach slice your wrist stays fairly firm and it starts from the take back
you're building a box so you have one side of the box here another here here and here
and by doing that you're allowing your elbow to bend and as you're extending forward it's
your elbow that extends but it's not your wrist so what you definitely don't want to see is this
stay in this V between forearm and upper arm and also your forearm and the racket
two v's on the slice another key checkpoint that you're using your wrist too much is when you see
the tip of the racket dropping below the wrist below the butt cap at contact your
racket should be fairly level yes it could be ever so slightly that the tip of your racket
is below your wrist but it definitely doesn't want to be this here and coming from back here
maintaining that wrist position extending through and you want to finish here now of
course I still think Steffi Graf had the best slice ever but a not so shabby one is this one
here Ash party so if you're really getting the bug for the backhand slice check out this video