The essence of a slice is that it is the opposite of a topspin. The result will help you generate even more topspin. If youre looking to develop an effective serve thats a weapon, then its crucial to understand and learn how to execute the three different types of tennis serves. Read our weekly recap of the 5 most interesting things we dig up in tennis. Within tennis, the serve is a bigger weapon for men than for women, in part . Rallying. If youre short, the flat serve is more challenging to execute because you have less clearance over the net, which reduces your margin of error. Slower Pace: Kick serves are slower than flat or slice serves. Your opponent can do almost anything he wants with them, especially from a position up at the net. This toss placement allows you to achieve the proper racquet angle for those serves. Another instance when you are using a slice is if you want to surprise your opponent with a drop shot. This leaves it tough for the opponent to hit it back with much pace. Some professionals hit virtually all of their forehands with slice. If you remember, the flat and slice serve toss is 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. Heres a photo that showcases the contact point and racquet angle when hitting a kick serve. To hit a slice, you need to strike the ball with a high-to-low movement, thus imparting backspin. disadvantages of the two backhand strokes in relation to the style of play. ), your position on the court and the direction you want to hit. Basically, a slice causes the ball to rotate backward (toward the person who hit the ball). 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. After watching some players in action, you could be forgiven for thinking that the answer to this question was no, but of course this is far from the truth. However, if you do adjust your toss, keep in mind that a good returner might pick up on the change in your toss and give them a hint of the type of serve and where you might be inclined to hit it. Whether it's to pass that big test, qualify for that big promotion or even master that cooking technique; people who rely on dummies, rely on it to learn the critical skills and relevant information necessary for success. 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. Unfortunately, this approach usually lends itself to tension, which is your serves worst enemy and, over time, can lead to injury. More consistent - means with which one you can hit more or less the same shot over and over again. 3. The same can be said about Federers use of the backhand slice. Instead of hitting through the ball as you would with a flat serve, youll want to hit up. At the highest level, many matches go by without a single sliced forehand being played. Slicing can also be used as a means to aid in the return of difficult or powerful shots.By slicing the ball, this will counter the effects of a powerful shot or one that has a lot of spin, thus making the return much more feasible than with a standard attempt to return. The flat serve gets its name from the fact that minimal spin is applied to the ball when making contact. If something isnt clear or you have questions, please feel free to submit a comment below wed love to hear from you! Ive had the chance to play against great names of the new generation, like Christian Garin, Cameron Norrie, and Kyle Edmund. Many pros, including the legendary Australian champion Ken Rosewall, used the slice backhand stroke as their only backhand. The most common variations are the slice and the topspin. 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. Slice is also an underrated shot, again thanks to that Bollettieri talent-destroying-nonsense. This can put the person slicing very much on the defensive and makes the game extremely hard work. 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. Follow through until your racquet arm is fully extended, with the head pointing toward the ground at a moderate angle. 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. The Best Babolat Tennis Rackets (for Every Type of Player). One of these techniques is the slice, which gives a confounding backspin to a serve or return.Find more information on slice strokes in tennis below. As the previous tip suggests, you must relax your grip and wrist to allow for the wrist to move freely. Home > Instruction > Serve > 3 Types of Tennis Serves, Improve your game alongside our community of tennis players. At MyTennisHQ, we have all played junior, college, and professional tennis. Required fields are marked *.
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Figure 1: Hold your racquet at a 45-degree angle to the fence when you slice your backhand.\t |
3. Slice shots don't bounce as high, either. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. 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!
\n4. When you're moving forward toward the net and you want to drive a low-bouncing ball into the corner of your opponent's court. I seldom make a mistake with my slice but it is very effective at creating UE's from my opponents. Second, changing your grip can be a dead giveaway to your opponent as to what type of serve youre about to hit. 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.
\nThe slice forehand is easy to master, and a fair number of hackers resort to it. When your backswing is complete, your right shoulder is close to your chin, and your right elbow points in the same direction as your right foot. Tennis may not be right for you if you suffer from heart disease or have high or low blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis or osteoporosis. Even at pro level, doing damage is still all about the forehand. A slice serve is a fantastic weapon on any court surface. Take a deep breath, bounce the ball, and consciously relax your muscles, including your grip and wrist. 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. As the ball approaches and you rotate your shoulders to your left, bring your racquet back above your left shoulder. Topspin shots are also used to come towards the net as previously mentioned it pushes the opponent back, which gives you time to advance to the net. Swing forward with a high-to-low motion.
\nRelease the racquet with your left hand as you do this. 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. Additionally, if the forehand slice has been hit with side-spin, you will need to recognise this and allow more space if you aim to reply with a forehand, as the ball will spin into your body if your opponent is right-handed. It gives the opponent more time to get to the ball. Add to that the ability to hit your serve at different speeds to throw off your opponent, and you can begin to see why developing various types of serves can be such a huge advantage. If well placed, the flat serve can be extremely challenging to . 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. After that, I somehow ended up with a flat slice (something similar to Rosewall's backhand), probably in my attempt to firm up the face on contact. Since a big flat serve has a lower margin for error, its worth being thoughtful when you choose to use it. Tsvetana Pironkova and Monica Niculescu have both enjoyed success using this tactic, particularly on grass. Reference: tennis slice vs topspin. Lastly, it can be difficult to hit a winner with a slice. Like all slice shots, the forehand version is hit high-to-low, with the strings brushing under the ball. Low bounce: as the name suggests, flat serves have minimal spin. As a result, you should aim to toss the ball directly above your head and slightly behind you, so that when you can swing up to contact the ball, youre coming from under the ball. 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. \"https://sb\" : \"http://b\") + \".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js\";el.parentNode.insertBefore(s, el);})();\r\n","enabled":true},{"pages":["all"],"location":"footer","script":"\r\n
- Slice slows the ball down. A ball hit with any kind of spin travels slower than a flat one. 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. Not a Team Sport. However, with practice and the proper technique, you shouldnt need to swing considerably harder to create more spin. Learn with comprehensive resources to help you improve your game. When you want to surprise your opponent with a drop shot. Advantages of a Tennis Slice The result can be a very low-bouncing serve that is hard to return. As a result, the overuse of a hard flat serve can lead to giving away too many free points or forcing you to rely heavily on your second serve. The sports divide into a few tiers of serving advantages. Your email address will not be published. The ball often stays low to the ground after it bounces. Straight flips can be much easier and quicker as the pips are less sensitive to spin. In general, slicing can be very effective, but considerable precision is needed to use it frequently against a strong hitter. As a result, when the flat serve hits the court, it tends to bounce low and continue straight forward from where it lands in the court. Only people who haven't really played tennis (or have played and don't use a one hander) believe this myth (aka 90% of this forum). The ball will naturally bounce less on grass, which plays terrifically with the slice serve, which also doesnt bounce high. On your side, there is pressure to hit your second serve in, which forces you to take some pace off the serve and subsequently gives your opponent more confidence in their return. The slice can be a useful weapon, but it does have some disadvantages. However, flat shots with little topspin won't bounce high - they'll almost skid across the court. 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! 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. Regardless of the type of serve you hit, relaxing through your service motion is essential. 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. But don't use it as a substitute for your flat or topspin forehand. Slice shots that are hit from lack of confidence or in a desperate attempt to just get the ball back tend to float, and they travel through the air slowly. On the other hand, if youre down 15-40, a big flat serve can be a considerable risk. The flat serve uses a minimal amount of spin which allows the ball to travel faster and bounce lower. Nonetheless, the shot can be very useful in a variety of situations, and some professionals have enjoyed quite a bit of success using it as their main option on the forehand side. 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. Tennis Interviews. 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. While you should strive to maintain an identical toss for your flat and slice serves, the kick serve falls into a category of its own, with a different toss that allows you to generate the necessary topspin. Retrieving a wide ball. As the ball approaches and you rotate your shoulders to your left, bring your racquet back above your left shoulder.\n
Your stance resembles the stance you take when you step up to the plate and get ready to swing a baseball bat in both cases, your hands are up around your left shoulder. 6. 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. Hitting a very high lob with some slice, by cutting under the ball with a flattish swing, can give you time to get back into a rally. A player can add topspin to a shot by hitting the ball in a down-up movement, which causes the ball to rotate towards the opponent. Disguise is key, so you will prepare as though you intend to hit an aggressive topspin, and, at the last second, cut under the ball with a high-to-low action, perhaps adding some side-spin for good measure. 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.
Michael Kernicki is currently the Head Professional at the Indian Creek Country Club in Miami Beach.
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