Your Strokes: Carl Sutherland: Slice Backhand

Is the radical high to low swing the best model for most players to hit with underspin?

"Swing High to Low" to hit the underspin. It’s one of the great truisms we all believe about hitting tennis balls. It’s up right there with "Swing Low to High" for topspin. And if we look at most of the pro one-handed slice backhands, with their radically downward swings, you would be hard pressed to argue. As the animation of Federer shows, the path of the racket on the forward swing is usually inclined dramatically downward, with the tip of the racket sometimes almost touching the court.

But is this the way the average player should approach the shot? I don’t think so. It’s an example of the technical differences that should apply at different levels of the game. Not everything the top 20 players in the world do applies to the rest of us all the time–and the slice backhand is one good example. Not that I don’t I love Roger Federer’s slice. But if we are looking for an ideal model for most players I am going to go back in time to the great Don Budge.

Before: Carl’s downward swing…