Your email address will not be published. The problem with this mentality and a low first serve percentage is that it takes a great deal of pressure off your opponent. If you are happy to slice the ball back, the standard slice technique can be used, making sure that you stay in a low stance, as the ball may stay quite low. Lets dive into the proper technique for hitting a kick serve. 3. The result will help you generate even more topspin. In fact, hitting a slice serve at 75% of your max swing speed can be a great tactic because the sidespin combined with the change in pace will often throw off your opponent. Wrist strains. When executing a tennis slice, the player will swing downward in a slicing motion, angling the racket anywhere between fully flat and entirely diagonal.When the racket and the ball make contact, the racket should be continuously moving in a direction close to perpendicular to the ball. Its strength lies in its speed and difficulty to return. With the topspin, he forces Federer and other opponents to either be pushed too far backward or to take a risk and hit the ball extremely early. Here are a few tips to help execute an effective slice serve: When youre learning the slice serve, it can be relatively easy to overhit as you attempt to generate side spin. The Best Babolat Tennis Rackets (for Every Type of Player). The Top 3 Best Babolat Tennis Rackets Under $100. Tennis Tips for Seniors and Every Tennis Lovers. Rallying. Many players will want to take the initiative from the slicer by hitting an aggressive topspin. Nuanced shots can effectively deceive your opponent, causing them to approach the ball incorrectly while increasing the likelihood that they will not be able to return your shot. On Friday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, the Grand Slam champions earned themselves a nomination for point of the year. If you look at the top players in the world they know exactly how to use topspin and slice shots to their advantages. When a slice shot bounces, the ball stays low, forcing your opponent to really stretch to get to the ball. Approach shots. It is possible to play every single forehand shot as a slice, but this is unlikely to be the most effective way to play. Unfortunately, this approach usually lends itself to tension, which is your serves worst enemy and, over time, can lead to injury. Initially, you may be inclined to toss the ball a little farther right than you do for your flat serve to make contacting the side of the ball a bit more pronounced and establish feel. Get the Intuitive Tennis iPhone/iPad App https://apple.co/3c5IyJpGet the Intuitive Tennis Android App https://bit.ly/3QTK1S7In today's video, I explain. The latter has been a key element of Roger Federers defensive game for a number of years. If you havent had the chance, Id highly recommend you check out our post on the serve trophy pose, which will show you how to get the most out of your serve while incorporating your legs to help you generate power. Advantages of Clay . When a slice is done correctly, the racket adds a backspin to the ball when it is struck. For example, if youre lucky enough to have access to grass courts, keep in mind that the slice serve is a fantastic serve for this surface. On the other hand, if you were to try that same serve against a 65 opponent, then you may find it lands much closer to their strike zone, allowing them to hit an easy return. Regardless of the type of serve you hit, relaxing through your service motion is essential. 2. Up a set and a break, Medvedev served into the deuce court to . Here, well share as much knowledge and experience as we can, so we hope you enjoy it! Grass is tough on the arm, though, because the ball hits the racquet with more speed, and more speed generally means more shock and torsion. The flat serve is one of the most popular and most useful serves in tennis. Because of this added spin, the ball will bounce with significantly less height when reaching the opponent's side.The ball bouncing with less height then makes it more difficult for the opponent to return the slice, since they will have much less time to reach the ball from where they awaited the return. She has even used the shot effectively on hard courts, which is probably more difficult than employing it on softer surfaces. All three have their benefits and all three result in a very different bounce of the tennis . This can put the person slicing very much on the defensive and makes the game extremely hard work. Think of your racquet face as an elevator that you need to move to the right "story" or height to pick up the passenger, a bright yellow tennis ball! This toss placement allows you to achieve the proper racquet angle for those serves. One of the biggest challenges of the game of tennis is adjusting your stroke according to the incoming ball (high, low, topspin, slice, fast, slow, etc. In this article, well cover these topics for each type of serve: Well start by talking briefly about why you should learn the three types of tennis serves. Helpful Tip However, on grass, that same kick serve wont jump nearly as high, so you might rely on your slice serve, which stays low, making it challenging to return when playing on grass. Similar to the flat serve, youll want to place your toss about 12-18 inches in front of you and approximately 6 inches to the right of your tossing arms shoulder at the peak of the toss, allowing for natural contact with the ball. However, the shot is not always . With the kick serve, youll want to contact the ball from bottom to the top of the ball so that youre hitting or brushing up on the ball. Those two qualities can catch your opponent off guard and screw up her timing.

\n

• Slice shots travel in a flat trajectory. You don't have to lift the ball over the net in an arc and then get it to drop back down inside the boundaries of the court like you do with your other shots.

\n

A word of caution: Slice backhands make poor passing shots. When a slice shot bounces, the ball stays low, forcing your opponent to really stretch to get to the ball. Tennis may not be right for you if you suffer from heart disease or have high or low blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis or osteoporosis. By common sense, it is known that in tight situations players have to use larger body parts to lessen the impact of their muscles tightening. Make contact with the ball, with the racquet "slicing" under it, when it's at a point about even with your right shoulder. In tennis, a slice is a type of swing that puts spin on the ball.Players will utilize a slice when serving or returning volleys to give the ball an irregular bounce, making it harder for their opponent to track and return. During a slice shot, the racket travels in a downward motion, before slicing underneath the tennis ball. Disadvantages Of Slice In Tennis Slashes are disliked by many lower-level recreational players. Slice shots never travel with a lot of pace. This motion gives the ball the spin or slice that youre looking for while also making sure theres just enough topspin to bring the ball back down into the court. Only a few top players will use a forehand slice routinely for a rally ball, but on a low-bouncing surface like grass the shot can be effective in preventing an opponent from attacking and keeping them on the move. The slice backhand suited their approach to the game, which was based on control rather than power.

\n

The slice backhand offers the following practical and tactical advantages:

\n

• The slice stroke is simple. You hit under the ball, instead of through and over it, as you do on the flat backhand. Create a free account and explore my latest videos below. Just before you start your forward swing, raise the racquet head to shoulder height, open the face so that the hitting surface faces up, and produce slice by cutting under the ball with a long, smooth stroke.
  \n
  \n

  Figure 1: Hold your racquet at a 45-degree angle to the fence when you slice your backhand.\t

  \n

  3. It gives the opponent more time to get to the ball. Retrieving a wide ball. Slice is also an underrated shot, again thanks to that Bollettieri talent-destroying-nonsense. Many of tennis greats, such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, have relied on their vicious topspin forehand to win world championships and countless titles. He knows like no other how to disrupt the opponents rhythm by using the slice in almost every rally or how to completely catch them off guard with a drop shot. Here too, it is necessary to make a distinction. Slice Forehand & Backhand Generally speaking, coaches and players will talk about three main spots in the service box: Since you can hit your serve in any of these locations, youll have a minimum of 9 serves in your back pocket that you can hit at any given time pretty sweet, right? Rookie Road may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Slow pace and the flat trajectory give your opponent two big advantages: more time and an ideal height, at about a foot above the net, to smash away a winner. 5 Point Friday Of all the serves, the kick serve is arguably the most valuable and highly sought after for players to learn. On the other hand, if youre down 15-40, a big flat serve can be a considerable risk. The underarm serve is most widely employed by players with big serves and a good touch, such as Nick Kyrgios and Alexander Bublik. High bouncing balls are ideal for hitting slice shots, but you can play balls at any height with a slice by bending more at the knees and/or adjusting the height of your back and forward swings. To hit a slice, you need to strike the ball with a high-to-low movement, thus imparting backspin. Not a Team Sport. When a slice shot bounces, the ball stays low, forcing your opponent ","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"

  Slice, or backspin, causes the tennis ball to spin back toward the source of impact (you). I got a chance to play junior and professional tournaments across the world, and in 2015 I began playing as the #1 player for Pepperdine University, a great division 1 school. About a 90-110 degree bend at the elbow. A "slow" surface such as clay will interact with more of the ball's surface area and there will be more friction placed on the ball. disadvantages of topspin -easier to judge it's bounce pattern -requires more technique -if too much is applied it may go too low and hit net advantages of slice -low bounce -harder for opponent to read bounce pattern -doesn't require as much energy as topspin disadvantages of slice -it's a defensive shot -slower bounce -gives opponent time to think After all, if you have a question, its likely another reader does too, which helps our entire community. The type of tennis court surface that you play on can have a major influence on how the game is played as well as on the effects of Tennis on your body. If youre playing on a clay court, you may love your kick serve, where you benefit from the higher bounces that make this serve even more challenging to return. It always adds to the entertainment value when it is played well. Tennis Interviews. How To Hit The Perfect Tennis Forehand Slice In 5 Simple StepsThe forehand slice in tennis can be a real weapon if you master the technique and use it at the. Over the years, many techniques have been developed in tennis to make shots more difficult to hit. 5. However, its often one of the most challenging serves to develop. Second, changing your grip can be a dead giveaway to your opponent as to what type of serve youre about to hit. easier to learn and to apply slice shots, and have better feel and control . Generally, the taller you are, the easier it will be to execute a hard flat serve because you have more clearance over the net and, therefore, a higher margin for error. Lastly, it can be difficult to hit a winner with a slice. As your game improves, learning all three types of serves will allow you to compete at a higher level by bringing variety to your service game. Using this technique, you can make it very difficult for your opponent to return your shot with topspin, making the slice a great defensive shot. The slice backhand suited their approach to the game, which was based on control rather than power. The sports divide into a few tiers of serving advantages. In this section, I will look at some of the circumstances in which a forehand slice shot can be played successfully, and the broad technique which should be used. Many pros, including the legendary Australian champion Ken Rosewall, used the slice backhand stroke as their only backhand. Required fields are marked *. Second, it can be difficult to generate power with a slice. They are something you should work on and get better at but in the end, are extremely fun to use. Kevin is an LTA-accredited coach, and is world ranked in the over-55 age group. The result will be a more fluid motion that helps you achieve a better serve. Disadvantages: Less consistent Worse aim Two hands Advantages: More consistent Better aim Disadvantages: Less power More effort required Quora User PTR Teaching Pro, Racquet technician Author has 468 answers and 678.1K answer views 7 y The one handed backhand really only has two obvious weaknesses in the hands of a top player. It tends to put you on the defensive quite often, so you must be physically and mentally prepared for that. Turn the racquet face as you bring it back so that the hitting surface ends up facing upward, as shown in Figure 1. To be successful with this tactic, you will need to stay low and develop plenty of racket-head speed, to allow you to control the trajectory of the ball. Reaction time: The same speed that makes it difficult for your opponent to return a hard flat serve can make it challenging for you to field a well-executed return off of a flat serve because youll have less time to react. If you are a beginner or recreational player, or a junior just considering your first full-sized racket, you will be pleased to know that Babolat offer a range aimed squarely at you. This brushing action means youre allowing the strings of your racquet to make contact with the outermost edge of the tennis ball, which causes the ball to spin and ultimately kick up off the ground when it hits the court. Follow through until your racquet arm is fully extended, with the head pointing toward the ground at a moderate angle. The essence of a slice is that it is the opposite of a topspin. To achieve this, play the return rather like a volley, with a continental or Eastern grip, a short take-back and a punchy, high-to-low action. Disadvantages A low margin of error: Easily, the biggest downside of the hard flat serve is that it's challenging to keep it in, let alone place it well in the service box. The good news is that youll use the continental grip for all three types of serves, so you only need to learn this one grip if youre not already familiar with it. On slice shots, the racquet doesn't come around and up, making an arc. Advantages of a Tennis Slice Modern tennis is dominated by the use of topspin shots. The Austrian said: "Very difficult because, I mean, I . Again, this is in favor of the two-handed backhand. Slice will make the ball stop short after it hits the court, so it is the obvious choice if you want to hit a short ball to surprise your opponent. The major difference is that the racquet shouldn't be pointing straight up, at a 90-degree angle, like a bat. This photo was snapped at the height of the toss so you can get a sense of accurate placement. {"appState":{"pageLoadApiCallsStatus":true},"articleState":{"article":{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-26T22:57:30+00:00","modifiedTime":"2016-03-26T22:57:30+00:00","timestamp":"2022-09-14T18:12:05+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Home, Auto, & Hobbies","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/33809"},"slug":"home-auto-hobbies","categoryId":33809},{"name":"Sports & Recreation","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34001"},"slug":"sports-recreation","categoryId":34001},{"name":"Tennis","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34033"},"slug":"tennis","categoryId":34033}],"title":"Slicing and Dicing, Tennis Style","strippedTitle":"slicing and dicing, tennis style","slug":"slicing-and-dicing-tennis-style","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Slice, or backspin, causes the tennis ball to spin back toward the source of impact (you). If you are under pressure in a rally and are forced to stretch very wide to retrieve a ball on your forehand side, it is unlikely that you will be able to play a topspin shot. When hitting a flat serve, here are a few tips to keep in mind: Many players enjoy hitting a big flat serve and rely almost exclusively on it as their first serve even if they only make 10% of them. Slicing does have disadvantages, so ideally it is used as a variation or in specific circumstances. Believe it or not, when the pros hit a kick serve, their racquet is traveling at roughly the same rate or faster than their flat or slice serve. Table tennis forehand smash. Related Tags. Key points about the tennis forehand slice: The forehand slice is a little unfashionable, but it is certainly not obsolete. Slice shots can be good for making an opponent really stretch for a ball, but it is difficult to hit them with much pace. This can put the person slicing very much on the defensive and makes the game extremely hard work. Oh, and I had lunch with Brad Gilbert once. Copyright 2017-2023 Rookie Road Inc. All rights reserved. . Home > Instruction > Serve > 3 Types of Tennis Serves, Improve your game alongside our community of tennis players. What Does Game, Set, Match Mean In Tennis? Some professionals hit virtually all of their forehands with slice. Disadvantages Of Slice In Tennis The slice forehand has many advantages, but using it for rally balls on slow surfaces like clay and some hard courts can result in the ball bouncing slowly and steeply, seemingly asking to be attacked. A flat groundstroke is usually more challenging to hit while keeping the shot within boundaries of the tennis court since there isn't much topspin. In contrast, a sliced groundstroke will appear to be rotating anti-clockwise. Babolat have been producing tennis equipment since 1875, and today they manufacture a range of rackets that offers something for everyone. The slice serve is a highly effective serve that can become a huge weapon when perfected. Thats where variety is king and why learning the three different types of serves is crucial. MyTennisHQ is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to websites like TennisWarehouse.com and Amazon.com. Aerodynamically it will appear to rise and then dip, kicking forward and up off the court surface when it lands. Heres a video that showcases the kick serve, including the toss, contact point, and racquet angle necessary to generate topspin. As the previous tip suggests, you must relax your grip and wrist to allow for the wrist to move freely. Follow through until your racquet arm is fully extended, with the head pointing toward the ground at a moderate angle. You can find his 2020 book: ', Seniortennisclub.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to. Think of your racquet face as an elevator that you need to move to the right \"story\" or height to pick up the passenger, a bright yellow tennis ball!

  \n

  4. If players like to attack the net and volley, they slice a lot. Sliced returns need to be controlled with precision or else a volleyer can pick them off, especially in doubles. Tennis is not recommended for individuals who.

  \n

  If you hit this shot from a comfortable, set position (at about the center of the baseline), your racquet should be pointing toward the right netpost.

  ","description":"

  Slice, or backspin, causes the tennis ball to spin back toward the source of impact (you). Your ability to hit more than one type of serve will allow you to be more competitive against different players and on various court surfaces. There are several advantages and disadvantages of clay tennis court surfaces, including using red clay and green clay or Har-Tru. Turn the racquet face as you bring it back so that the hitting surface ends up facing upward, as shown in Figure 1.

  \n

  This position makes it easy and natural to brush your strings under the lower portion of the ball, producing backspin. Stand quite close to the table, an arms length away. Upper Body Exercises Safe for Tennis Elbow, How to Choose a Grip Size for a Tennis Racquet, How To Handle The High Bounce To The Backhand Side In Tennis. Like all slice shots, the forehand version is hit high-to-low, with the strings brushing under the ball.