Hi guys Nick here from Intuitive Tennis. Today I want to teach you the most
important aspects of a one-handed backhand slice.
So let's start off with the grip. The grip is going to be a continental grip. Base
knuckle at bevel number two. There have been some players in the past that use a
Eastern forehand grip on the slice with the third bevel on the base
knuckle, but I do not recommend this grip because this grip opens the racket face
way too much of contact and a lot of the slices end up going high and short in the
court. So my recommendation is a continental grip for the backhand slice.
If you watched my one-handed backhand video we talked about having the fingers
closer together on the flat one-handed backhand or the topspin one-handed
backhand and the reason for that was that there's less stability in the hand
in an eastern backhand grip because the fingers are in front and the hand is on
top of the racket and we're gonna have to hold a little bit tighter, however on
the slice backhand we are in a continental grip and the fingers are
gonna be the same as any other shot. With a slight spreading between the index
finger and the middle finger and the reason for this is that this is a softer
contact and we also want the wrist to be very flexible if we need to hit a low
ball on the backhand so you have to hold the racket
with a slight spreading of the index finger and the middle finger on the slice backhand.
So the setup on the slice backhand is going to be identical to the
setup on the one-handed backhand. We're going to make a large lateral step but
that gives us an automatic shoulder turn where our back is pointing to the other
side. It gives us great stability it also gives us the option to hit further
across. It gives us a bigger range of motion in the front of the shot as
opposed to going open into the shot like this. So when you get a slice backhand
you simply are going to turn and make a large lateral step to the side like this.
The arm structure on the take-back is going to be bent on the slice. There are
some players that have a straight arm when they take the racquet up and that can
work. I find it easier however to have a slightly bent arm is more comfortable
and have the racket at least above the shoulder something like this and then as
we drop the racket the arm will straighten and you do need a straight
arm for the remainder of the shot but you can start off in a bent position
like this and then straighten up on the racket drop.
So let's talk about the contact on the backhand slice. There's going to be some strokes
Tennis that hit with underspin that require an open racket face such as a
backhand volley or a chip return where we don't really swing at the ball we
basically block the ball with an open racket face and that ball indeed will
have under spin as it travels to the other side. However, on the backend slice
the racket face is going to be more closed and the main reason for this is
that the contact is more closer to the body. Not in a lateral sense. In the
lateral sense we can have it something like this a little bit further away but
when it comes to the forward backward spacing and this stroke is going to be
here too rather close to the body and the reason why is if you hit it too far
away and that's going to open our racquet face and make it more unstable.
You see I try to close the racket face here it straightens my wrist and
It's a much more weaker position for the wrist.
So now we have the contact a little bit
closer to our body on the slice and the next step is and we're going to hit
across. You have to hit across on the backhand slice. For three different
reasons, for feel, for control and for power and so the feel comes from holding
the ball longer in the racquet compared to slicing the ball forward like this
the ball is going to come off the strings too fast and you're gonna lose
feel that way. So we hit a cross for feel. We also hit across for control the
control and tennis comes from keeping the racket face positioned parallel to
the net as long as possible. So if we slice like this and we lose control
pretty fast so we have to keep the racket face you know parallel to the net
as long as possible and thirdly we get a lot more power on the slice when we use
the power the same way we do on the one-handed backhand and more from the
back muscles like this as we hit across we contract the back muscles and we get
acceleration on the ball this way. So let's talk about how the slice or the
underspin is created. This slice or the underspin is created by swinging high
to low and because we have more of a closed racket face at contact we get the
slice from simply going from a high position to a low position and then
across and that makes the ball rotate this way.
If you hit through the ball
forward like this, you will be able to get slice as well because you're hitting
high to low but you will lose power, you will lose feel, you lose
control and most likely your slices are gonna have a tendency to sit up in the court.
So can you as a recreational player hit
a cross on the slice? You absolutely can, if you maintain this position of the
racquet face after contact and where the racquet angle doesn't change. In other
words you're not going like this you're just keeping the strings parallel to the
net then you go across. You will find immediate improvement in feel, control
and power. You will see that the ball is gonna go much straighter and you're
gonna have the ball go lower as well and it's going to also have more underspin.
This way, while you might get some underspin on the ball, you decrease the
pace of the ball dramatically and your ball will have a tendency to go a little bit shorter.
However you have to remember that the
slice backhand is an advanced shot. So a beginner or even some intermediate
players will not be able to learn the slice right away. They have to master all
the other shots first. They have to learn how to hit topspin they have to learn
how to hit flat and the slice comes later on to their game. You can see
some juniors under 12's or under 14's that they have very weak slices and this is very
understandable, because they're still developing their game and a slice is
something that takes time, but it always comes after you master the
fundamental strokes of the game which are your topspin or flat ground strokes.
Thank you guys for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it. Please hit that like
button. Subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you next time.