Backhand Lesson: Slice vs Drive (When, Why & How?)  

Interesting! It’s good to know your strengths and weaknesses… makes for quicker decisions!

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You’re welcome Javi… legend!

Totally agree!!

@@TheTennisMentor I don't have a backhand slice that floats up in the air or drops the ball short in the court or sits it up like you see with so many club guys who have weak slices who make the mistake of opening their strings up too much under the ball for if the face is too open that cause all this weak high floating sitters that runs usually out of gas and drops short down in the court or becomes sitters up at the net because the energy is going up in the wrong place. So I don't have that kind of slice. I don't always skim back the slices going all across the body using the L-Finish. I do use that way to slice drive sometimes, and I know most players like to slice drive that way, but I find it more better instead to just buggy whip the ball instead using Fed's Backhand swing instead of always skimming it across the body. I like Federer's Swing so I use that to buggy whip the ball on my backhand whether slice or flat. The net clearance is anywhere from 2 feet to just only a few inches. I made the change to Fed's more compact swing because it helped increased the strike zone range for me instead of just hitting with an open face from just the hips which as you said limits your range of motion and makes it more difficult to drive off the lower balls. So You're right, I used to be under a national coach and was coached to drive the ball with the hips using an open racquet face which results in a big swing size needing lots of court space for the swing and I found it limiting and awkward although that's how we first learn to drive the ball Because when you have an open racquet face, you are limited in what you can do with the racquet head because of the swing size. You can't do much with it. So you have to compensate with doing all this extra footwork just to get yourself fast enough around the ball in order to be able to use it and it takes also longer to execute so if you use a bigger swing size you would need higher levels of fitness. With the L. Finish I did have to change over to the backhand slice grip in order to use it and then change back again to the backhand grip for topspin. But with Fed's backhand, I don't have to change grips to drive sidespin or to drive flat. I can do both using just the same swing and grip. That's why I like his backhand. So I saw the open face way that i was coached to drive the ball with as like having a big albatross swinging around that just gets in the way of the ball and half the time it felt like you was muscling the balll you was doing more work off the ball with the strings than the racquet was doing on the ball when I was coached to drive the ball with the strings.. . I think switching over from using a big swing to a more compact swing was more better suited for me. For now I no longer had to put up with swinging that big albatross all around anymore and got rid of the arm dragging on the ball.. There were other setbacks too in using a big swing, for with a big swing you could end up hitting off the wrist if you got caught up in the middle of your loop jammed on a fast heavy ball and cause possible wrist strain or injury.

You are so welcome!

Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll work on it!

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I hope it helps Aidan!💪

Doesn’t get much simpler! Thanks for watching 💪

Thanks a lot Tim, great to have you! 🤝

You’re welcome Dan, thanks for watching!

Interesting! Thanks for your comments. Definitely a good tool to add variety!

Yes, The Avenue Tennis (Hampshire)