The forehand slice is a great shot to use when you're in trouble or when you need to approach the net, so it's really crucial that you understand the elements of how to use this shot. Because when your opponent's attacking  and you're on the baseline, there's nothing better than using a forehand slice when you're on the run and you can't quite hit your topspin forehand. And when you finally get that short ball, but it's a little bit lower, the forehand slice can help you transition to the net so you can still be aggressive and in charge of the point. 

So now that you understand why the forehand slice is so important, now let's get down to those crucial elements that allow you to hit a reliable and consistent forehand slice whenever you need it. Whether you're playing defense or offense number one, you have to have the right grip and the grip is the continental grip. 

Now you've probably heard that the continental grip is pretty much one of those universal grips for coming forward, hitting a serve an overhead and volley. I really, really encourage you to spend a lot of time working on making sure you have a solid continental grip because it's so valuable, and the way to find the continental grip is really simple. Grab the racket by the throat with your non-dominant hand, hold it on front and grab it just like you're grabbing a hammer and then you should have this chopping action here.

So another way of finding it is just simply holding your hand out and finding this pad here, and you're going to have some bevels on your racquet and flats, the flats on top, you have a bevel and then another flat. So if I'm right handed, I'm going to go round to the right. So I'm going to put that same pad on the second flat and by having it there, it's going to put in that same grip. 

The biggest thing when you're using a continental grip is you want to be able to find the grip without having to look down. If you're having to look down, you don't know the grip. And so really practice a lot by spinning the racket around and seeing if you can find the continental grip without looking around, it needs to be something that you feel not have to look for when you're playing. 

Number two, you've got to make sure that when you're taking the racket back, that you're using your shoulders instead of your arm. So many players, when they're trying to take the racket back with their forehand for the forehand slice tend to swing and they don't use their body, which you really want to do is just turn your shoulders. It's very similar to a volley, and the forehand slice is very similar to a forehand volley. It's just more exaggerated.

 So like we have learned to turn to take the racquet back for our forehand volley, you're going to turn and just go a little bit deeper with your forehand slice.

So that first move is going to take it here by using your body. It makes it so much quicker and you're using bigger muscles to control the ball. So again, avoid taking your arm back. Focus on turning your shoulders.

Now the third part is probably the most important and the most crucial element of hitting a great forehand slice, and that is the racket face of contact and the racket path. If you haven't heard already, the racquet face is going to dictate where the ball is going to go and the racquet path is going to create the backspin that we want on the ball. 

Now, I think one crucial mistake a lot of players make when they're thinking about the racquet path. They have this idea that the Racquet Path is a chopping action coming straight down and this just isn't correct. It makes it harder to control, and it makes it harder to hit it consistently without hitting the frame. What you really want to focus on is the racquet face first, making sure that the racquet face is slightly open. 

So generally when we're hitting a slice, it's just like a ground stroke. We want the ball to go up and then come down, making sure that if we're on the baseline, that the ball is going to go up and go deep enough because we have the racquet face open enough and can come down.

Now, the variation might be if you're playing offense or defense. If my opponent hits a really strong shot that takes me on my forehand side, I need a lot more time. And the way to get more time isn't by slicing it back hard. It's actually by opening the racquet face and then slicing and letting the ball float by me tons of time to get back to the middle of the court. 

The second option is if I get a low ball, if I get a low ball, I don't want the ball to go that high in the air. So what I need to do is close my racket face a little bit more as I'm adding backspin. And with these two things in mind, it gives you this great ability to play defense and buy yourself time, whether you'll be tired or whether your opponent runs you off the court or play offense. When your opponent hits a short ball and then you can move forward and still be in control and be confident. The second part is the path, and there's a ton of different paths you might use depending on your situation. 

The one you want to avoid is what I said before that chopping action, it's going to be a downward slope. Now, if you want to hit a driving type ball, what this really means is you're going to have more drive than backspin. It's almost like thinking of it, like a ratio.

How much spin to penetration do I need if I want to drive the ball with a ton of backspin, a knifing forehand slice? What I'm going to do is drive more as I'm going down. If I'm going to buy myself time, my angle is going to come down more because I want to create more spin to make sure the ball stays in the air longer.

 Again, backspin is going to make that ball float longer. And so if I'm playing defense, I want to open that racket face and create more spin without chopping. If you can do these things, what's going to happen is you're going to be both great on offense when you do get those low balls and you can move forward and keep the ball low, making your opponent have to hit up and giving you the ability to hit down and finish the point.

 But also, when your opponent challenges you and hits the ball in the corner where it takes you off the court, you can send the ball up in the air and buy yourselves tons of time to reset the point and get back in the point. 

This is an amazing skill that a lot of players don't focus on, the ability that when you get pressed, you can make your opponent have to take the ball out of the air or reset the point. This puts a ton of pressure on your opponent, and this is why the foreign slice is so important and so valuable to your game, to making sure that you can deal with balls in a ton of different situations.

So now it's time to take action for your forehand slice. It's really important to understand the major concept for the forehand slice, and that's all about how you take the racket back and we´re swinging through the ball using our body and also the racquet face of contact because that's going to control whether the ball goes higher or lower and how far we come down on it, which is the racquet path is going to control the amount of backspin. And it's really not that hard if you already know how to hit a great volley. 

And this is going to be like an exaggerated volley, so I'll show you what I mean. The very first thing is, I want you to get used to turning and notice how when I turn, I'm using my body, I'm turning my body here. From this turning action, I can take a step forward and then pull the racquet forward by pulling the racquet forward. 

That's going to be the energy that I'm going to use to put through the ball. So all I want you to do is go ahead and shout a couple where you're going to pull the racquet forward. Make sure that as we pull the racquet forward, we're not going to flop the wrist over. We're going to really make sure we pull the racquet forward and keep the head of the racquet behind the wrist.

Even if I pull it forward a little bit, the head of the racket is behind the rest. I want to avoid where it's parallel or almost like flat. So again, we're going to make sure we pull the racquet and have it coming out. And so now we're going to incorporate a ball. 

And with that, what we're going to do, it's not really care about where we're hitting the ball and that comes down to the racquet face and racket path at contact, what we really focus on is making sure to keep the head behind the hand as we pull it all the way forward. So we're just going to drop and then pull forward, and you're going to feel probably a little bit of backspin. If you're hitting completely flat, then it won't feel that way. When I'm pulling the racquet forward, my racquet slightly coming down, but it's OK if you have a slightly open racquet face. So again, I'm going to drop, pull the racket down and get really good at just turning turning. Now you can really see how it's not that hard if you're not risking it. 

The two biggest mistakes players make is they start risking it when they're trying to hit the slice. The next big mistake is they're just using their arm instead of using your body. And this is what these action steps right now really encourage you to do is get used to using your body.

You can see how the logo on my shirt right now goes away from you because I'm turning my body compared to logo, not moving because I'm moving my arm. The next part of the action steps is really starting to fine tune your racquet face of contact. 

Again, remember that wherever the racquet face is facing, that's where the ball's going to go. So as we're pulling, if your rack face is too open, guess what's going to happen? The ball is going to go really high. Also, the racket faces too close and we're not achieving that racket head behind the hand. Then guess what's going to happen? The ball is going to go in the net. So as we pull, we want to experiment a little bit. Start with the racket face really open as you're pulling forward. And when that happens, the ball is going to go very high and then slowly, incrementally start closing it down until you hit the ball in the net. 

And so by doing this, you really start measuring and telling yourself exactly what type of racket face angle you need because there's no exact one perfect racket face for every situation. You might be in trouble and you might need to gain some time, meaning you have to hit the ball higher above the net. You might not want to game time because you're moving forward and you're taking a low ball.

You want to make sure that ball stays low as you approach the net, and that means you're going to require a different racket face angle. But as long as you understand this and train this, you're going to be able to reproduce the type of ball you need for any situation. So in summary, number one, you've got to have the right grip. 

Again, the continental grip is the most widely used universal grip for the serve, the volley, the slice being forehand and backhand. So spend some time learning it,  really dedicate yourself to being able to find that continental grip without having to look down. Number two, the take back the take back is so important because by using big muscles, it makes you ready to hit the slice and also makes it effortless compared to using your arm and having the muscle put more pressure on your shoulder and your arm. 

You can just turn your shoulders and easily set up one more great benefit of using your shoulders and the forehand slice is the return of serve. When a ball comes in really hard and you don't have time to hit that topspin return, you can just turn and hit a chip forehand slice and send it back, depending on if you want to send it back with more driving  pace, or if you want to float it back and get it back deep and restart.Set the point so your opponent doesn't have an advantage. 

This is also a big benefit by just turning your shoulders, that you'll be ready much quicker. Number three is the racquet face and racket path at contact. If you understand these two things, it really gives you a leg upon any opponent because you're going to be able to hit whatever type of forehand slice you need, whether it be driving, having the racquet face not as open, whether it be floating open the racquet face, whether it be knifing, making sure that path is going through the court and creating more penetration than drive or coming down more with the open racket face and having the ball float. Whatever the situation demands, you'll be able to figure out exactly what type of forehand slice you need to make sure you keep yourself from an opponent or stay offensive.

Finally, after you understand the racket face and racket path at contact, then you have to follow through. And really, it's just like the volley just elongated. So as I'm coming through it, I'm going to let my racket fall out towards my target and just naturally let it go through. What I want to avoid is kind of wrapping around like a normal forehand, so it's not a normal forehand. We're going to go through just like if we would finish a volley here, we might go a little bit longer and a little bit more exaggerated. And that's all you need to hit your forehand slice.