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[xerxes]

An Effective Backhand Slice 
By Paul Annacone
Illustrations by Jim Chow

An effective slice can add some much-needed variety to your game.

In today's game, and you see it all the time at the professional leve, players are most comfortable when they’re in a routine of hammering balls back and forth. They like to exchange shots hit from their strike zones, which is between thigh and chest height, and use some degree of topspin on a majority of shots. You can be successful playing this style, but it makes your game pretty predictable. If you work a dependable slice into your repertoire, though, you’ll add some variety to your attack.
A slice is effective for many reasons. If you’re stretched wide, the slice can be a safe, defensive shot that will get you back in the point. When hit as a rally ball, the backspin slows the pace of the shot and keeps the ball low and out of your opponent’s strike zone. And when you’re inside the court, you can be more aggressive with the slice by driving a deep, low, skidding shot that you can follow to net. It’s also the spin you need to be successful with volleys and drop shots. Here’s a quick lesson on the slice for all skill levels.

BEGINNER

OBJECTIVE: Learn the proper swing path and keep your wrist firm.
When players first learn the slice, they sometimes start by drastically swinging down on the ball. Although the basic motion is from high to low (opposite of the low to high you’re first taught for your ground strokes) and back to high, it’s actually fairly subtle. If you hack down severely on the ball, you may put a great deal of underspin on it, but the resulting shot will float and have little pace, penetration, or consistency. You never want to lose that feeling of hitting through the ball. The other thing to stress is keeping your wrist firm. Many players snap or flip their wrists, trying to get pace and spin on the ball, and end up suffering the same problems as those who chop down when they swing.

For a penetrating slice, use a swing that moves gradually from high to low and back to high. This way you hit through the ball instead of chopping at it.

In fact, the swing path of the slice is almost parallel to the court. One way to think of the motion is to compare it to that of a karate chop. You start with your arm bent, and you straighten it out toward contact with a gradual reduction from high to low, keeping a slightly open racquet face. That way you’re still driving the racquet through contact.

INTERMEDIATE

OBJECTIVE: Incorporate your bigger muscles into the shot and learn to cup the ball.
Players who use their whole bodies when they swing are generally more consistent with their strokes. Take the serve as an example: A player who gets good body rotation and uses his shoulders and legs is going to have a more effective serve than someone who just uses his arm. Using the big muscle groups will sustain consistency for the course of the match, whereas using only the smaller ones will cause fatigue (which will lead to inconsistency). With the slice, it’s no different.

To better control the ball’s flight path and add pace to your slice, cup the outside edge of the ball.  If you cup the inside, the ball will float with sidespin.

At this point in your development, you understand the proper swing plane of the slice. You can repeatedly use good technique, but if you’re relying on your arm and hand to power the shot, your slice will never have adequate bite or penetration, and late in a match, when you get tired, it could break down. So stepping into the slice with your legs and stretching your arms out (with your hitting arm moving toward the contact point and your off arm behind you) will involve your quads, chest, and back—your best power sources.

Besides using your whole body to hit the slice, you also need to have good feel and control. That’s where “cupping” the ball begins to become important. When you cup the ball, you cut under and around the outside edge of it. If you’re a right-hander, you’re trying to cup the left corner of the ball (the opposite corner for lefties). This helps control the flight path and adds zip to the shot.
 If you hit the inside part of the ball, that means your wrist is ahead of the racquet face, which will result in more sidespin than backspin on the shot. It takes great talent to control this type of slice because the ball has a tendency to sail. Cupping the outside of the ball is a much more reliable technique.

ADVANCED

OBJECTIVE: Develop your shot awareness and begin to use your slice as a weapon.
As I’ve mentioned, slice affords a player variety because there are several different ways in which you can hit it. At this level, you can call upon all your options, and understanding your positioning and status in the point will help you determine which slice to use. For example, being on the dead run and far behind the baseline would call for a defensive slice. In an even backhand rally from the baseline, you may choose to use the slice as a change of pace to throw your opponent off. And inside the court, you can move forward and use your slice to attack. This is what I call shot awareness— having a clear grasp of what’s coming at you and what shot to use in response. From this perspective, you can use your slice to create openings by getting your opponent out of position. For example, if you’re in a backhand crosscourt rally and you get a ball that lands short, hit a deep, skidding slice down the line to open up the court. Or from the same position you can carve a short, sharp angle that forces your opponent up and wide into an uncomfortable position— almost like a drop shot, but with more pace and less arc. If your opponent has to attack off that, you’ll have a good look at a passing shot. And if he tries to retreat to the baseline, you’ll have an opening on his forehand side. Players with versatile slices, like Roger Federer and Tim Henman, often use this tactic against clay-courters who are leery of coming to net.

During a backhand rally, a sharply angled slice can throw off your opponent’s rhythm by drawing him off the baseline and wide of the court.
 

[xerxes]

Slice Backhands of Rosewall and Henman 
The careers of these two great pros are separated by decades, but their slice backhands are timeless.

By Cliff Drysdale
Photos by Russ Adams, Clive Rose/Getty Images

In the last 30 years, the way the game is played has evolved dramatically. But one shot, the slice backhand, has made it through virtually unchanged. Ken Rosewall, a fixture in pro tennis until the mid ’70s, had one of the best slice backhands of all time. Tim Henman’s slice is in many ways identical. But if you look closely, you’ll see some subtle differences that separate Henman’s stroke, outstanding as it is, from Rosewall’s all-time weapon.

1 GRIP » Though Rosewall used a Continental grip for his slice backhand, as has virtually every high-level player, he placed his hand low on the handle. You’ll notice that the butt-cap of the racquet is not visible. Holding the racquet like this kept Rosewall’s wrist loose, enabling him to generate greater racquet-head speed and, therefore, more pace. Henman has a more conventional grip.

2 BACKSWING » Rosewall’s slice was the most penetrating I ever played against. It was always deep and the ball felt heavy when it struck my racquet. One key to this aspect of Rosewall’s backhand was that his take-back was not as high in relation to the ball as those of other players, including Henman. As a result, Rosewall’s slice backhand was flatter than most. Henman, who has a higher backswing than Rosewall does, produces more spin and less pace. Rosewall’s lower backswing also kept his racquet more in line with the ball, providing him with outstanding control.

3 RACQUET FACE » In addition to having a higher backswing, Henman also keeps his racquet face more open than Rosewall does, and there’s no doubt he’s going to put some heavy spin on the ball. Rosewall’s racquet face is not nearly as open. He’s still swinging from high to low but with an almost fl at, or perpendicular, face. That, combined with his lower backswing, gives him less spin but more pace.

4 SHOULDERS » A full shoulder turn is a critical component of a good one-handed backhand, slice or otherwise. Both Rosewall and Henman are exemplary in this regard. If we were to go back and view their preparation earlier in the stroke you would see both of them looking over their right shoulders before they begin their forward swings.

5 RIGHT ARM » Both bend their right arms slightly when they take them back, but then straighten them before impact. A common mistake I see with one-handed backhands is a bent arm at contact, which leads to inconsistency because the degree of bend can vary from shot to shot. Even worse, some believe hitting this way is a prime cause of tennis elbow.

6 LEFT ARM » Notice how both players use their nondominant arms for balance. Players with solid one-handed backhands always use their non-hitting arms as a counterbalance. On slices, their arms go up and back in a motion that mirrors their dominant arms.

7 STANCE » Even though both these guys are within milliseconds of contact, they’re still sideways to the ball. Players with one-handed backhands should have this image imprinted in their minds. They shouldn’t begin opening up with their shoulders and their stances until after they hit the ball or else they’ll tend to hit across the ball rather than through it, sacrificing power and depth.
 

[Fabs]

Ano ba ang tamang follow through ng one handed backhand na eastern grip ang gamit?

[jov]

ya, pano po ang grip?

[LitoGarcia]

Ano ba ang tamang follow through ng one handed backhand na eastern grip ang gamit?

Same din bro pataas pa din...

[Fabs]

Thanks Sir!!!

[mikki_blinkme]

still my weakest side. haha! lalo na pah high backhand. pero pag nahuli ko yung bola ng sakto sa inaasahan ko ok naman sya. pero pag hinde sa kamamadali tirahin dahil sa bilis ng bola parating sa backhand ko e taga na lang. hahaha!

[jov]

taga lang ng taga mikki, ok din yun, ahahahaha! 

[mikki_blinkme]

taga lang ng taga mikki, ok din yun, ahahahaha! 

nako ayoko. hahaha! para kahit papano lalandi din backhand ko... lalo na ngayon pag pinapanood ko si gasquet chaka si kuerten. mga idol sa backhand. hehe. di ko kaya ginagawa mong slice e. parang feeling ko ayokong patalbugin delikado lang lalo pag luluhuran ko pa.  kaya mas tanggap ko pang mapunta na lang sa forehand mo kesa tagain mo ng backhand 

[Tennis_Guy]

Ano ba ang tamang follow through ng one handed backhand na eastern grip ang gamit?

Fabs bisitahin mo ko  -TG

[jov]

taga lang ng taga mikki, ok din yun, ahahahaha! 

nako ayoko. hahaha! para kahit papano lalandi din backhand ko... lalo na ngayon pag pinapanood ko si gasquet chaka si kuerten. mga idol sa backhand. hehe. di ko kaya ginagawa mong slice e. parang feeling ko ayokong patalbugin delikado lang lalo pag luluhuran ko pa.  kaya mas tanggap ko pang mapunta na lang sa forehand mo kesa tagain mo ng backhand 

ayun mikki, sakto paturo tyo kay sir tG!

[Tennis_Guy]

Kung seryoso kayo ok lang ako dyan 

[Addie_56ers]

taga lang ng taga mikki, ok din yun, ahahahaha! 

nako ayoko. hahaha! para kahit papano lalandi din backhand ko... lalo na ngayon pag pinapanood ko si gasquet chaka si kuerten. mga idol sa backhand. hehe. di ko kaya ginagawa mong slice e. parang feeling ko ayokong patalbugin delikado lang lalo pag luluhuran ko pa.  kaya mas tanggap ko pang mapunta na lang sa forehand mo kesa tagain mo ng backhand 

ayun mikki, sakto paturo tyo kay sir tG!

 nakow!!! yang 2 na yan ... punta kayo sa 56ers bukas!!! punta si Bogs!!turuan kayo ng backhand

[Tennis_Guy]

Daming tao sa 56 pag weekend... tips lang naman sa akin medyo mabagal ako mag tip kaya need more court time bawat isa siguro 2 hours hehe sa amin sa valle libre pa rin ata

@mikki kung sakali dalhin mo yung 6.0 mo na binenta ko sa yo para madali.... may kasama na kasi yong backhand nung binenta ko sa yo baka di mo lang na turn on hehe

[mikki_blinkme]

Daming tao sa 56 pag weekend... tips lang naman sa akin medyo mabagal ako mag tip kaya need more court time bawat isa siguro 2 hours hehe sa amin sa valle libre pa rin ata

@mikki kung sakali dalhin mo yung 6.0 mo na binenta ko sa yo para madali.... may kasama na kasi yong backhand nung binenta ko sa yo baka di mo lang na turn on hehe

cge cge sir bogs.... matatapos na rin exam ni fabs sabay na kami para madali. feeding program ba sir? kasi pag rally baka 5 mins pa lang umayaw na kayo pano ligaw lagi bola ko. haha!

[jov]

taga lang ng taga mikki, ok din yun, ahahahaha! 

nako ayoko. hahaha! para kahit papano lalandi din backhand ko... lalo na ngayon pag pinapanood ko si gasquet chaka si kuerten. mga idol sa backhand. hehe. di ko kaya ginagawa mong slice e. parang feeling ko ayokong patalbugin delikado lang lalo pag luluhuran ko pa.  kaya mas tanggap ko pang mapunta na lang sa forehand mo kesa tagain mo ng backhand 

ayun mikki, sakto paturo tyo kay sir tG!

 nakow!!! yang 2 na yan ... punta kayo sa 56ers bukas!!! punta si Bogs!!turuan kayo ng backhand

tige! tige! pauwi na pamangkin ko sa states kaya ok na! im free as a bird again! 

[Tennis_Guy]

Txt nyo lang ko you have naman my number 

[Addie_56ers]

Txt nyo lang ko you have naman my number 

[daryl]

taga lang ng taga mikki, ok din yun, ahahahaha! 

nako ayoko. hahaha! para kahit papano lalandi din backhand ko... lalo na ngayon pag pinapanood ko si gasquet chaka si kuerten. mga idol sa backhand. hehe. di ko kaya ginagawa mong slice e. parang feeling ko ayokong patalbugin delikado lang lalo pag luluhuran ko pa.  kaya mas tanggap ko pang mapunta na lang sa forehand mo kesa tagain mo ng backhand 

ayun mikki, sakto paturo tyo kay sir tG!

 nakow!!! yang 2 na yan ... punta kayo sa 56ers bukas!!! punta si Bogs!!turuan kayo ng backhand

idol backhand no kuya bogs!!!

[jov]

Txt nyo lang ko you have naman my number 

ok thnx po sir TG!