A great drill to help you develop a very strong slice is what I call the two five 10 drill. This is where you're going to go out with your partner and hit slices at different heights. And the reason why this is so important is because most of the time in a match, you're not going to just want to hit one type of slice. 

It'll probably get you in more trouble than it will actually benefit you. The whole idea with the two five 10 is that understanding. If I'm hitting a ball two feet over the net, more than likely I'm probably moving forward playing offense, and I can make sure that the ball doesn't travel that high, given my opponent a lot of time. 

If I'm hitting a five foot ball over the net, more than likely I'm just trying to hit a normal rally ball and just mix it up so my opponent doesn't see the same shot over and over again. So I go from topspin to hitting a slice feet ball. It's just going to be five foot over the net. And finally, there's a 10 foot ball in the 10 feet ball. 

What I'm trying to do is buy a lot of time. My opponents probably hit an aggressive offensive shot, pulling me off the court, and I need to buy more time and so you can see how this can really help you.

 So what you want to do with a ball machine or a friend is just simply set the situation where you're hitting cross court and you're going to try to dial in hitting that height over the net.

So we would start by trying to hit eight balls cross court two feet over the net. And this is where if you set the ball machine up or you have your friend, maybe you have or suggest that they hit the ball a little bit shorter so you can move inside the court and work on hitting a little bit more of an aggressive slice, meaning that our path is going to be coming through the ball and our racquet face isn't going to be that open by doing this. 

It's going to set the ball probably two feet over the net if it starts going too high. You need to close your racquet face a little bit. If it goes too low, you obviously need to open your racquet face a little bit. Try to do this drill where you can go eight balls, cross court and try to do it, where you can at least get to maybe three sets of eight. This is a good kind of number to make sure you can do this consistently.

 By doing this consistently, you'll feel really confident that if you get a short ball, you can move forward and attack your opponent. 

The second set of drills is going to be using the exact same sequence of eight balls three times, and this time you're going to have your opponent a normal shot like you're rolling and you're just trying to hit a ball five feet over the net, just like a normal rally ball.

Again, this is a great ball to change it up and give your opponent a different look at different types of balls. So maybe they love the topsin you're hitting and they don't like that mix up, and this is a great way of practicing it. 

So I go out with my partner and hit simply eight balls. Cross Court five feet over the net and make sure you can do this three times. And then finally, I'd go to the last sequence where I'm hitting the ball 10 foot over the net. 

This is another great drill that you might maybe set your partner up where they move around and hit their forehand to your backhand and they're trying to pressure you. You're trying to be aggressive, or you might set the ball machine up, go a little bit faster and pull you off the court. This is where you're going to want to open that racquet face up, buying yourself more time.

 And this is so important that you can do all three because if you can be offensive, you have a good changeup and you can be defensive buying yourself more time. Really, it doesn't leave that much room for your opponent to attack you, and that's why these type of drills are so, so important. 

Go out and practices and really get good at developing a strong slice in all three situations. So no matter what, you have an answer to whatever your opponent's going to give you.