The backhand slice is a great shot to disrupt your opponent's timing, so many players aren't used to receiving backspin and that change of pace by having a backhand slice. It really adds this universal component to your game that allows you to throw off your opponent and make sure that they feel unsettled. 

So this is why having a backhand slice is so important and that you want to add it to your game. If you don't have a backhand slice a lot of times when you are in trouble that you're not going to be able to play defense, and it's so important that you're able to play defense with it as well and then turn around and play offense. So when you get those short balls moving in and slicing the ball to set yourself up for a nice, easy volley. 

So now let's go over the three components for having a great backhand slice. Number one is the continental grip, and if you've seen any of the videos where we talk about volleys, overheads, the continental grip is so, so important and the easy way to find it is just holding your racket out with your non-dominant hand and grabbing it just like a hammer. 

Now, the reason this is important is because you don't have to change your grip for a multitude of shots, whether it be a volley, backhand slice, backhand volley, forehand volley overhead or your serve. Once you have this grip down, it's really the universal Swiss Army knife for so many shots in tennis, and that's why you need to learn it.

Number two, it's the take back, and this is so important to make sure you set up your take back as early as possible, or at least as early as you know that you're going to need to hit a backhand slice. And it's really simple once you're in the ready position using your non-dominant hand on the throat, you want to pull it back, and this pull will help you turn your shoulders to take the rack in this position. One of the biggest mistakes I see when players are setting the racket up with the preparation is when they turn their elbows facing down, and by having that elbow face down, it's going to take the racket down. 

We want to focus on having that elbow up a little bit more so as we pull forward the rackets going through the court. Now the biggest thing is making sure that you use that left arm to pull and set the shoulders. 

ou can see how my shoulders is in this position here, which now allows me to uncoil. Not only that, by doing that, it creates this twist and this tension in my hips. So now I can use this to uncoil think of yourself as a spring and by turning and coiling up the spring, you can then release it through the court. And with this take back, we're going to talk about the follow through. And so with that, it's just an uncoiled. If I take the racquet back and you feel that tension, then I'm going to pull the racquet forward and out.

And at the end, you're going to see how my racquets coming across my body and generally is slightly open. What you want to avoid is as you're pulling pulling the racket over like this, I see a lot of players when they're trying to work on their backhand slice is that they flop the racket over or they muscle it over like this. You want to have this action of pulling from right here with your torso through the ball and finishing with the racket nice in front of you. Now, the third most important thing is the racquet face and racket path. 

As we're pulling forward, we're going to set the racket face at contact. And what that means is wherever the racket strings are looking, that's where the ball's going to go. Ok, I'll say it one more time. Wherever the strings are facing a contact, that's where the ball is going to go. So if you pull the racket forward and your racket face is like this, what's going to happen? It's going to sail the ball long. 

You're going to feel like your slices are floating, not going in the court. And so what you want to do is make sure that you pull the racket forward to whatever level that you want the ball to go. If it's here, you're going to drive the ball a bit more. If it's more open, it might be that the ball is low or you're playing defense.

Now, the other element of when we pull is the racket path. As I'm pulling, I'm pulling slightly down, not chopping down. And this also comes back to the thing I was telling you about with the elbow. If our elbow is pointing down, we tend to chop compared to pull forward and we want to make sure our elbows propped up. So as we pull, we're pulling forward, avoiding chopping the ball. So by pulling down slightly, we get that backspin and there's a bunch of different situations you can use this on. Maybe your opponent's hit a really great backhand and you're running and scrambling. You can open up the racquet face and hit a slice and float the ball back, buying yourself time. Maybe the ball is low, then you can close the racquet face and hit a chip. This knifing and stays low and sets you up for the next volley.

 Either way, understanding the racket, path and racket face that contact is going to be hugely important for you to hit the shot that you need in that situation. Now there's one more bonus element that I want to talk about, which is your footwork and footwork on the backhand slice is really, really important. There's two main situations you're going to have using your footwork. One is when you're running along the baseline and the other is when you're moving inside the court. The two footwork patterns you want to make sure you're doing correctly is if you're running along the baseline.

As I set up to hit my slice and I hit it after I'm done, I'm going to bring my foot back around to the ready position and then probably recover to wherever I need to recover. The most tricky type of footwork that were going to really focus on is the cross behind footwork. 

And what this has to do is as you're hitting the ball, you're going to pull your left leg behind you and do a karaoke step to move forward. The whole purpose behind this is to keep your body sideways as you're making contact, making sure that the racquet face is looking straight ahead or in the direction you want to hit it. If you open up too early, even if you're hitting along the baseline, what that's going to do is change your racquet face angle and maybe pull the ball across court if you don't want to go there. So we want to create this alignment with the ball and the racquet face and our footwork.

 And when you understand how to do this, then you become a great mover on the court and you're able to get to more balls and approach feeling more confident, knowing that your footworks right and it gets you closer to that. And that's the other part of why footwork is so important. Especially when approaching the nap by doing this karaoke step, you get to move as you're hitting the ball, getting you closer to net, meaning that the ball doesn't get the drop and you get to hit an easier volley because it's higher.

And any time you can hit a higher volume doubles or singles, you're going to have more of an advantage than hitting a low ball. That has to be above the net. Now it's time for the action steps three one handed backhand slice. Now it's really important that you understand the two major elements, which is by taking the racquet back with your shoulders. 

You can then release that's one and by two. It's all about the racquet face and the racquet path, meaning that the path which are going to go slightly down creates a backspin. But the face of contact is going to elevate the ball or send the ball in the net. So the very first thing we want to work on is just getting into a habit of turning here and pulling the racquet out. So we're going to practice this turn and pull the racquet out. 

ow, one thing you might notice is that when I'm pulling the racquet, if you look at my racquet face, it's very open. If I were to hit the ball right here just like this, the ball would go very high in the air and we don't want that. So what I want you to do is just get used to this and let the ball go high in the air. For right now, it's totally OK. Just make sure as we're pulling, we're pulling slightly down on the racquet, so you should feel the ball rolling off the strengths.

So after we shatter this a bunch of times, what we're going to do now is just toss in the air, pull the racquet back and gently come through a couple of big mistakes a lot of players make. If they start pulling through and they flop the racket over or they start pulling through really fast. We don't want to make either one of these mistakes be nice and gentle and soft. One thing that's really important to understand is that power and slice don't mix. 

Slice makes the ball float, and when you add power to it, well, it's going to float even more and you don't want that. So we're not trying to be very hard or firm or even very sharp with the ball because we're not trying to hit a biting slice that goes through the court, which is more penetrating and that will require us not to hit as much slice.

We're just trying to hit a general purpose slice and get used to the technique. So all I'm going to have to do is toss it up, turn and hit,the ball is going to go high in the air. And what you're going to notice is that if it goes high in there with maximum, that's exactly what you want. Now let's do this a couple more times. Toss it up. I'm pulling with my shoulders, pulling forward with my shoulders and then probably I can't even help it, but I'm starting to adjust the racquet face. So the next part is just that as we're pulling forward adjusting the racquet face to the right angle.

If you find that the ball is going really high is because when you strike the ball, the racquet face is open. So what this means is as I pull for it, I'm going to pull my wrist for just a tiny bit to make sure that contact the racquet face isn't so open.

 If you find the ball going to net, then what's happening is you're over pulling the racquet and having to go to close. We want to have it slightly open because we still want this ball to go a little bit higher and then come down to the court. So from right here, you're going to take a ball and start adjusting and tinkering with the racquet face. 

And this is so important there is no one perfect racquet face because it really depends like we talked about before the situation. If you're in a defensive situation, you want their active face to be very open, so the ball floats a lot more and gives yourself more time. If you're not in a defensive situation, you won't hit more of a biting slice or you don't want the racquet face to open and you don't need so much downward swing. 

So it bites through the court and it penetrates the court. Those are two characteristics that you can't just go out and do instantly. But if you practice feeling where the racquet face is and seeing where it goes after you hit it, you'll start to connect and create this association to what type of racquet face you need and how much downward size you need, depending on the situation you're in.

It's really important to you practice these things and practice it in a nice, easy environment like this. I don't have balls coming to me, and I can just toss in the air and then really work on hitting the right height over the net. 

Now what I want you to do is practice five to ten balls where you're hitting the ball 10 feet over the net. Not very hard. It's going to float in the air. Then I want you to practice another five to 10 balls, where the ball is only going probably three to four feet, maybe even five feet over the net. This is going to be more penetrating. You're going to start to feel the difference of how much downward action, depending on how much spin you want and also the racquet face at contact, which is going to dictate how high or how low of the ball is going to go. 

So in summary, number one, you've got to have the continental grip. This is the Swiss Army grips of tennis. You've got to know it. Be able to spin your racket around and find it. 

Number two, the take back and the swing, it's really just in the shoulders, but make sure as you take the racquet back, your elbows up a little bit more and not down. So as you uncoil and swing, you have that nice follow through that is nice and smooth.

Number three, making sure you understand the racket face at contact and the racket path. This is going to create the direction of the ball is going to go and the amount of spin you want, and it's also going to let you really be able to get out of any situation as you're put into because you understand, Hey, my balls floating, I need to close that racket face or hey, I want to hit more of a driving ball so I need to not come down on the ball as much and go through it with a little bit of a downward action.

Now, footwork is the last part, and by understanding footwork, it'll help you recover and get back in the court for the next shot. If you're along the baseline, make sure as you're hitting, you finish hitting. You can bring your. Around back to the ready position so you can move inside the court. The other footwork pattern is that when you're going to move forward, you're going to use that karaoke step bringing your foot behind you that allow you to move forward as you're hitting the ball and get you closer to that. So you'll be able to hit an easier volley when approaching. Now that you understand this, go out and practice because by practicing, you're going to make this muscle memory and you won't have to think about it. And I'll just become second nature when you step on the court.