hey guys you know what the easiest shot is in tennis is the backhand slice but i'm not
talking about the technical part of the slice it is actually quite challenging i'm talking
about physically what is the least physically demanding shot in tennis and it is absolutely a
one-handed backhand slice now if you want to learn how to hit a backhand slice i have several great
videos on that there's a lesson with shamir that's fantastic where i teach shamir how to properly hit
a one-handed backhand slice when we're talking about technique there's going to be a few things
that you need to keep in mind you definitely want to hit the modern one-handed backhand slice
not the classic one where you're trying to clear a table that's in front of you like this that's old
school you don't want that you can get slice that way don't get me wrong if you have a slightly open
racket face even going forward it will create slice but the better way to do it is the modern
way in which you are going to hit across the ball and the movement of the racket is going to be
high to low and then back up to high i often compare this with the letter u you're going to
start above the level of your left shoulder if you happen to be right handed you're going to go down
towards the ball and now you're going to go back up to the level of your right shoulder in relation
to your right hand which ends up looking like a letter u take a look it goes from here to here
now what you also have to keep in mind is that the slice needs to be hit with a more neutral
racket face while you can get slice with an open racket face often at the recreational level it
will result in a ball that sits up a little bit too high now it can get a little bit complex
because we can also get a low trajectory with an open racket face for example on a chip return but
that's a subject for another video generally speaking if you hit your slice with a big
swing with the racket face too open it's going to result in a ball that sits up and can be attacked
by your opponent so what you need to understand is how slice is created at the high level and
it is by going high to low with the racket so if we go from a high position to a low position the
ball will spin this way and that creates underspin and you don't need an open racket face to make the
ball spin this way in actuality the more neutral the racket face is the lower the trajectory the
ball will be and the more power you will get on your slice and how do you achieve a more neutral
racket face at contact intuitively well you're gonna have to make the timing a little bit delayed
on the slice what i teach is to make contact slightly in front of the tip of your front foot
i'm right handed so it's going to be my right foot so if i make contact here naturally the racket
face is going to be more neutral the more in front i go naturally the more the racket face opens up
all this stuff that i just explained is by no means easy in fact if you're at the lower
recreational levels you're gonna have a hard time learning the shot i'm gonna be honest with you
there's a shot that's difficult to learn but i would actually recommend that you wait until you
reach the 3.0 level to start incorporating this slice backhand into your practices especially
if you happen to have a two-handed backhand and are not very comfortable playing the backhand
with one arm however what is easy is how this shot is hit it's easy on the body
and i'm going to explain to you why we're talking about the forehand we're swinging up if we're
talking about the one-handed or the two-handed backhand we are swinging up we're talking about
the serve we are swinging up towards the ball the one handed backhand slice is a shot where
we are swinging down so the racquet will pick up a lot of momentum from going high to low
also it is a shot where the racket head can be below the angle of the handle when it's struck
this will often result in side spin but these two shots and the same family they are very similar
shots you cannot hit a backhand topspin shot where the racket head drops below the level of the
of the hand you could do it the high level players are able to do this but it feels
very awkward to do when it comes to the backhand side you want that racket to be
at least neutral to your grip so the racket head needs to be
in a neutral position related to the handle or it can actually be slightly above the handle
on balls that are higher on the slice however you can very comfortably make contact with the
racket head a little bit lower and this will not influence your slice in a negative way
so for those two reasons the fact that we're going high to low and that we can angle the racket more
downwards means that this shot is what i call the lazy shot so a lot of players don't bend they just
drop the racket head down they go high to low and they hit the ball like this and they're able
to achieve slice so it's not very demanding on the body and therefore i call this the lazy shot
and don't misunderstand me the i want you to try hard on your slice i don't want you to hit it
the lazy way so are you still going to have to bend the same rules apply as on any other shot
that if the ball is low you got to stay low and it's actually not that great of an advantage to
hit a slice where the racket head drops down this is not optimal if you get a low ball the
best thing you can do is to get really low on that slice and still keep that neutral position
of the racket head because what will happen if you have your racquet position in this way is that you
have more range of motion you can swing down more than if you're already down when you make contact
this doesn't leave you a lot of room to go across the ball so what ends up happening with a lot of
players is that any ball they get on the backhand side they end up slicing it and this becomes such
a bad habit that even if these players practice a one handed backhand or a two-handed backhand
they're so comfortable they're so used to hitting backhand slices is something that's very
difficult to get rid of in a match situation so if you're one of those players the immediate thing
that you can do is improve your energy level on the slice which will improve your slice so don't
be too loose don't be too relaxed don't be low intensity when you're hitting your slices put some
effort into it bend your knees accelerate a little bit faster make sure that you have the correct
mechanics in the long term what's going to happen if you only slice this will be a disadvantage yes
i know there's some elite level players like steve johnson who only slice the backhand yes this can
work of course but generally speaking it is a disadvantage because the slice is going to be
the slowest shot in your repertoire it's going to be hit way slower than a one handed backhand
a two handed backhand then a forehand and especially the serve i saw an interesting
stat and that was the average forehand speeds on the wta tour and you know who had the slowest
forehand by far it was monica nicolescu and why is that because she only hits forehands with a
slice so if you fall into the trap of only hitting the easiest shot in tennis which is
the slice i understand why you're doing it because it's an effortless way to play but you have to
realize that you're gonna have a hard time being aggressive on that side and you have to break this
muscle memory and do not allow yourself to hit any slices in practice i play a lot of players
who only slice in matches what i tell them you are not allowed to hit any slices when you're
practicing with me everything needs to be hit either with a one-hander or a two-hander or whatever
backhand you have you need to avoid the slice and rip your backhand shots what i was able to do
with some of my players is after a few years of completely avoiding the slice in practice
this eventually clicked and in a match there was enough muscle memory there there was enough trust
there enough confidence to finally start hitting backhands in match situations so guys there it is
you know that the backhand slice is the easiest shot in tennis when we're talking about how much
effort it takes i'm sure you're wondering hey nick what is the most physically demanding shot
in tennis i can tell you without the shadow of a doubt the most physically demanding shot in tennis
is an overhead that's hit while the player is moving backwards there's nothing in tennis that
is more exhausting and the exact reason why this is the case i'm gonna cover in a future video