Many tennis players are of the belief that the only way to slice a backhand is
by opening the racquet face and then carving underneath the ball. While it is
possible to hit a slice in this manner it is not what we see at the
professional level. High-level tennis players will have a neutral racquet face
at contact. So in today's video, I'm going to show you why the neutral racket face
is crucial and how you can use it to improve your backhand slice.
First, let's examine how we achieve under spin on the ball. So on the backhand
slice if we open the racket face up the ball will get underspin. So if I hit a
ball with an open racket face I will be able to get slice on it. However, if I hit
the slice very hard then the open racket face might cause the ball to stay up too
high.
A better way to create under spin on the backhand slice is by going high
to low. So professional players will start with their take back around their
shoulder height in some cases even higher and now the next step is going
down towards the waist area. So it's this high to low motion that creates under
spin and now the next thing that happens on the professional slices is that some
players will keep their racket level as they go across the body and other
players will have the tip of the racket and dip down ala Federer when they slice.
So what creates the underspin is this high-to-low motion. So if I go from a
high position to a low position I get underspin and now the way you want to
hit your slice is with a low trajectory and this is where the closed racket face
is crucial. You want to be able to hit a slice backhand that doesn't bounce very
high on the other side and the other person would have to bend down and
hopefully you can draw an error that way and the best way to create that is with
the neutral racquet face at contact. And this is how you achieve the neutral
racket face of contact. You're actually not going to be aware how the racket
face is positioned when you hit the ball. There's too much acceleration in that
part of the shot. So players are unaware how exactly their racket face is
positioned. Of course they can feel if they open the racket face way up but
they will not be able to differentiate between racket face that's slightly open
or completely neutral. So the only way to create this neutral racket face at
contact what you see from the professional players is by changing your
timing on the slice. And the way you're going to change your timing on the slice
is by taking the ball later.
Here's what happens if you take the ball too early on the slice. So if I have a
continental grip and if I take the ball too early or too far in front of my body
becomes very difficult to create the neutral position of the racquet face. I
would have to bend my wrist down in order to straighten my racket.
Naturally, the further in front I go the more the racket face opens up. In
order to make good contact on the backhand slice you must have the correct
footwork and what happens at the professional level is that you will
rarely see an open stance slice backhand like this. Only in emergency situations
will you ever see a player attempt a shot like this. Instead players will step
around with their dominant foot. So they will do a lateral step with their dominant
leg and now automatically the shoulders are turned and we have this sideways
position. And now when you make contact you should never go past the tip of your
front foot and you adjust the timing by waiting on the ball longer. So as you are
stepping around with your dominant foot you should never go past this point.
And there are several advantages why you must make contact later. So if I make
contact around the tip of my front foot see naturally the racket face is more
neutral I don't even have to adjust it. It is very unlikely that the racket face
will open up if I hit the ball this close to my body. On the other hand if I
go further out front naturally the racket face opens up. So by waiting
longer naturally the racket face will be more neutral. Another advantage of
waiting longer on the slice is that if I make contact around the tip of my front
foot it's going to be easier for me to connect the slice to my body. So the
further in front I go I would lose the ball it's very difficult to hit a cross
with power. So if I wait longer and make contact later now I can hit across and
connect it to my back muscles, I can squeeze my shoulder blades together and
I, therefore, get a lot more power on the ball, something like this.
There are going to be exceptions on the open racket face. When we're talking
about a chip return for example where we're not really swinging at the ball
we're just absorbing the pace, there in fact we can have a slightly more open
racket face. Another example where the racket face will be more open would be
on low slices. So the lower the ball goes the more you have to open the
racket face to make the ball go over the net. It would be very unlikely that
you're gonna make it over the net with a neutral racquet face on a low slice.
So if you want to hit hard low slices that are gonna be tough to handle for
your opponent you have to do three things. Number one, you have to make a
lateral step. Number two you have to go high to low and number three you have to
wait for the ball and make a later contact. If you achieve that you will be
able to hit your slice intuitively with a more closed racquet face and will be
therefore not letting the slice sit up and you're gonna hit it with a lower
trajectory and it's gonna be very difficult for your opponent to handle.
Thank you guys for watching this video. Leave a comment in the section below I'll
be happy to respond, hit that like button and subscribe if you haven't already.
I'll see you next time.