One Hand Backhand Slice:
Speeds and Ball Flights

John Yandell

In this series we have been looking at the technical characteristics of the slice backhand, and also the differences in the swing shapes between the so-called classic slice and the more extreme modern slice. (Click Here.)

A natural question is what are the flight characteristics of each version? What are the differences in the amount of spin and how do these differences affect the bounce height at the other end of the court?

Using a pocket radar gun (Click Here for more on that) and a high speed camera, I designed an experiment to see. My three great friends, Scott Murphy, Karsten Popp, and Giancarlo Andreani agreed to help me by letting me measure their slice backhands.

All have been 5.0 NTRP players or higher and Karsten in fact once had a world ranking. And they all have different versions of the slice. Karsten, completely classical, Giancarlo fully modern, and Scott somewhere in between. Perfect for doing the comparisons!

We set up a ball machine to throw a rally speed ball with an outgoing ball speed of about 50mph that bounced to about mid torso level. I then asked all 3 to hit a matching rally ball back with underspin.

First we measured the speed of their slices. All three matched pace with the incoming ball virtually perfectly, with average outgoing velocities for all three of 50mph or a little higher.

So what about spin levels? Karsten's classic slice with a relatively level swing plane measured an average of 1500 outgoing rpm. Interestingly, that is the exact number of rpms Vic Braden found decades ago when he measured Ken Rosewall. (Click Here to see rare footage of Ken's backhand.)

Scott's slice has a somewhat more downward swing plane than Karsten. His rpm average was higher, a little more than 2000.

Giancarlo's slice, which has a larger backswing and a modern, more extreme downward swing came in at 3200rpm. His motion looks virtually identical to Federer, and interestingly his rpms were virtually the same as well. (Click Here for more on slice rpms of Federer and other pro players.)

So what did those differences mean at the other end of the court? We set up some concrete blocks with a yardstick in the middle. Then we used the high speed camera to record the relative bounce heights of all 3 players.

I expected the amount of slice to correlate with the bounce height. And that's what the camera saw. The more rpms the lower the bounce.

Karsten with 1500rpms had an average bounce height of 29 inches. That's about mid thigh . Scott with 2000rpms had a lower bounce height. His bounce height was 27 inches, a little lower than mid thigh.

Giancarlo at 3200rpms had the lowest bounce height. That was a little over 24 inches. That's knee level or a little above.

Compare all that to the incoming topspin balls they were hitting which were in the mid torso area, about 48 inches or 4 feet give or take. So the slice balls were bouncing about half as high.

That's a big height adjustment for the opponent. It's a factor that can make the slice a tactical weapon. It's much harder to unload on ball at that height with maximum pace and topspin.

Slice Speed Versus Topspin

But a final factor in choosing to hit slice is not just the bounce height but the speed of the slice versus a topspin drive. You hear the argument that you give up significant speed with slice and that therefore topspin is superior.

It does appear in watching great modern slice players like Roger Federer that the extreme slice velocity is significantly less than a topspin drive. It would be great if the ATP had a comprehensive public data base on this--which they don't.

But what could we determine in our experiment?

Karsten hits virtually all slice. And Giancarlo has a two handed backhand. But Scott hits all one handers. He has a great one-handed topspin backhand with a strong eastern backhand grip, verging on semi-western.

So we put the radar gun on his topspin backhand. Remember his slice was averaging 50mph off the racket.

So what about his topspin? On the same incoming ball that we used to measure speed on the slice, his topspin backhand speed averaged 55mph. So that's 10% faster, not insignificant.

But then the question becomes what works best in actual play? What if you are dealing with a lot of high hard topspin forehands? What about returns? What effect does the lower slice bounce have on opponents?

Let's remember that the classic slice drive was good enough for two of the greatest players in tennis history, Ken Rosewall and Richard Gonzales for example. They never came over the backhand. I think it's reasonable to say that even as older players and using wood rackets they could mow down any 5.0 player in the country with a high tech racket and poly string.

A friend of mine a few years ago became the number one 45 and over player in the world. He hit nothing but hard, classic slice on both sides, forehand and backhand.

I hit with him a few times and that was a tough low ball. Lots of times it seemed the only option was to return slice with slice.

Yet the mania for topspin persists. There was a guy I used to play at the San Francisco Tennis Club with a one-hand backhand. He had been a minor league baseball player and was a good athlete, but didn't start really focusing on tennis til his 40s.

He had the belief that to be the player he aspired to be, he needed to hit topspin backhands, virtually exclusively. And this included all backhand returns.

So when I served I hit him nothing - and I mean nothing - but kick second serves to his backhand. I never hit first serves, I just bounced it up to his shoulders. The result was almost comical to watch.

The guy virtually never made a return. I mean almost never. My service games were basically 4 kick serves. It was very unusual for me to have to hit more than a couple of groundstrokes or volleys if he did manage a return, which was usually weak.

It drove him crazy. His strong belief was that he was better than I was. And the rest of his game wasn't that bad.

But in his service games he had the same problem because at the earliest moment I would hit him a heavy spinning forehand high to his backhand. The result was usually the same as with his returns. He couldn't make the ball.

He was always angry after I beat him, which I found satisfying because of his personality. Eventually he switched teaching pros and learned to hit slice returns and that made it a little more competitive. But probably psychologically that change was even more damaging because he never beat me, and finally he stopped calling me to play.

His attitude was like a lot of guys who didn't grow up in the game. They watched pro tennis and thought that, at the club level, they had to play that same way to have success and self-respect.

There is a great lesson here. Regardless of your ability to hit topspin, you need to develop a slice, and at least at first, probably, a sound classic slice. That's what this series has been about!

So next we'll create some detailed physical and mental models for doing that. Stay tuned.