The Pro Slice
and Your Slice

John Yandell

What would it be like to try to hit slice backhands against pro level topspin? How would that affect your technique - not to mention your psychological state of mind?

In the first article in this series, we saw the phenomenal levels of underspin the top pros generate on their slice backhands, ranging up to over 5000rpm, and averaging around 3500rpm. That makes the slice the fastest spinning shot in the pro game. (Click Here.)

In the second article, we looked at how that spin is generated by breaking down the stroke into technical components. We saw the amazing wrap around backswings, the radically downward forward swings, the shoulder high contact points, and the seemingly abrubt, sideways direction change after contact with the across the body finishes. (Click Here.)

One of the open questions in teaching and playing is whether all those technical elements are really necessary in the pro game. Or is it possible, even in the modern game, to hit a flatter slice with a less radical swing pattern--more on the model of Jack Kramer or Ken Rosewall?

For this article Giancarlo Andreani, our incredible video editor, and I decided to experiment with that question. Giancarlo's slice is hit pretty much dead on the pro model, with a wrap around backswing and a downward swing that finishes across his body.

He played Division 1 college tennis, has been ranked in the Open Division in Northern California, and played on USTA teams at the 5.0 and 5.5 level that have competed for national titles.

I learned to hit my slice in the 1960s with a wooden racket more on the Rosewall model. So my backswing is more compact and the swing plane is flatter than Giancarlo's. It was good enough to help me win two Norcal 4.5 singles tournaments 10 years apart (that was 7 matches in 9 days in each one, thank you) and reach a top 20 ranking in both the 5.5 and senior divisions.

So we wanted to see how our contrasting styles and levels of play worked against pro levels of topspin. The answers we developed are far from definitive. But I think they are interesting and suggestive and may help you evaluate the kind of technical swing you want to develop for yourself at your level.

The Set Up

Using our Ace Attack Ball Machine, we simulated topspin forehand at two levels. (Click Here for more info on this amazing piece of equipment.) First we picked a ball speed that we thought was equivalent to 5.0 pace in USTA competition in Northern California.

We gave the ball enough topspin to jump off the court and a trajectory that created contact heights between waist and chest levels. Then we both tried to hit slice drives with as much pace as we could and still keep the ball in the court.

Interestingly either technical style worked fine on this ball. Giancarlo definitely was creating more underspin, and some of his balls were bouncing just inches off the court surface on the other side. My ball was bouncing somewhat higher, but was still low.

The video shows the technical differences. Giancarlo's backswing is like Federer's. His hand reaches the top of his head with his elbow bent 90 degrees or maybe more, and the face of his racket is actually on edge or perpendicular to the court.

In my backswing my racket hand reaches only about shoulder level. The racket doesn't go nearly as far back, the elbow is bent less, and the racket face is close to parallel to the court rather than turned on edge.

In the forward swing, Giancarlo's racket tip comes all the way down close to the top of his socks. As we saw with Federer and Nadal, the racket is way below wrist level, and most often stays that way all the way through the swing. In comparison, my racket tip stays at about waist level with the racket tip still above my wrist.

Giancarlo's finish extends less distance outward to the target, is much lower with his hand just above waist level, and crosses much further to his left side. These are all the characteristics of the pro slice.

My finish is extended more forward, is significantly higher, and crosses much less to my left side. So yes, more of a classic slice drive.

Pro Spin

The second half of the experiment was to take the speed, spin, and bounce height of the ball up closer to actual pro level, and see what happened then both in terms of the type of ball we could both produce, and in terms of the shapes of the swing.

We know from our high speed cameras studies that in the pro game, a forehand drive typically comes off the court with about 3500rpm of topspin. Using the Ace Attack, we were able to match that spin level.

We also gave the ball a higher trajectory with a higher launch point than in the first experiment. This, in conjunction with the spin, caused the ball to bounce higher with a contact point that was around shoulder level.

So what happened then? For Giancarlo, the change in the ball didn't create any real problems. In fact, his technical motion looked extremely similar.

The same high wrap around backswing. The same downward swing pattern. And the same finish, low and across the body with the racket tip still below the hand.

The only difference was that on the super high balls, his extension forward was somewhat reduced, so there was also probably some increase in the sharpness of the downward swing angle.

He was producing some major underspin and again was able to control the ball and generate low skidding bounces. Using the high speed camera in we measured his out going spin and found it was in virtually the same range as Federer and Nadal at around 3500rpm.

For me, the change initially caused major problems. I was sailing a lot of balls long and floating some that went in much higher than in the first scenario. I felt that I couldn't really take control of the ball and make it do want I wanted. I felt I needed more racket speed - a lot more.

So I started swinging faster. After hitting a few dozens balls, things started to get better, and I was able to produce controlled shots on at least some of the attempts.

What was interesting though was what this adjustment naturally did to my technical swing pattern. I was not conscious of the changes, but the video showed that on the pro level ball my motion had morphed somewhat in the direction of Ginacarlo's.

My backswing was higher, reaching eye level. I was also rotating the plane of the racket closer to on edge. My finish was also lower and further across.

However my racket head didn't move as radically down as in the pro model, and the tip stayed at around wrist level. Which may explain the differences in spin levels. My shots had about a third less spin than Giancarlo's, coming in at around 2400rpm.

Which probably explains the quality of the balls I was producing. I simply wasn't able hit the same type of slice drives. The difference in the pace between my ball and Giancarlo's was also much more pronounced than in the first experiment.

Conclusions?

So those were interesting experiments. Based on our limited experience, it does appear that there is a correlation between the speed and spin in the modern game and the way technique has evolved on the slice backhand.

It may well be that the exaggerated backswings and sharp downward shape of the forward swings are necessary to deal with the weight and height of the pro ball.

And there is one more caveat that probably adds additional weight to that hypothesis. Although I believe we simulated the spin and the trajectory of the pro forehand quite accurately, we probably didn't match the speed.

By timing the duration of the flight of the ball between the baselines we estimated that the speed of our simulated forehands was probably only about 80% of the actual tour velocities. If so then the difficulty of hitting through the ball with an older style slice drive is probably even greater.

Of course we didn't have Rosewall or Budge or Kramer out there for our test, and it's obviously true that world class players could generate significantly more racket head speed than I did in our tests.

Going back to the previous article we saw that on lower balls players such as Novak Djokovic used swings that were closer to the classic model. But that may actually reinforce the ideas that when the ball is really high, hitting a slice on a 90mph forehand spinning at 3500rpm requires more radical technique.

I tend to think that's true. But I'm not convinced that on many balls in the pro game, players couldn't also drive more directly through if they wished to or adapted their swings.

And then there is the converse point, for the rest of the world. What happens in club tennis when players pattern their slice backhands on the pros just for the sake of patterning them on the pros?

I think in many cases club players are hitting more underspin than they actually may need, sacrificing pace, and adding difficulty and complexity to the swing pattern that can produce inconsistency.

At that level I think the more traditional slice drives can still be a very effective weapon in rallies, on approaches, and even in situations like passing shots where players just assume heavy topspin is required. Those are my thoughts, but what are yours - let us know in the Forum.