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Carl Sutherland: Slice Backhand

Analyzed by John Yandell

"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.

Recently I had a chance to do some work with Tennisplayer subscriber Carl Sutherland that highlights the issue. Carl came in with a pro style swing, with the racket face moving downward pretty dramatically. The problem was that the shot was inconsistent and tended to float much more than he wanted. If we look closely we can also see that even though the swing plane appeared somewhat similar to the pros, there was one significant difference. This was the finish. Carl's finish was a lot lower and more sudden than top players.

Even though the pros swing radically downward when they slice, they usually don't really stop at the bottom. The racket continues outward and upward, coming back to shoulder level or eye level at the finish. Why? It probably has to do with creating racket head acceleration. By continuing through the shot and allowing the racket to decelerate as it is rising, they probably maximize racket head speed at the contact.

This explains the paradox many players have experienced of having to finish high to really stick an underspin drive. If the racket trails off too soon and finishes too low it probably means that it was traveling more slowly or even starting to decelerate at the contact. That means less ball speed and less control of the spin. It explains the inconsistency and lack of pace many players, like Carl, experience when they try to hit a slice like their favorite players.

But that leads to another question: why do the pros swing downward so steeply in the first place? It's a good question, one of those without a clear answer. Some coaches like Robert Lansdorp feel that the top players don't hit through the ball nearly enough when they slice--something he criticized his own student Pete Sampras for throughout his career. (I believe his exact technical analysis was: "Pete's slice sucks.") And there has to be at least some truth to that--besides swinging downward quite sharply, sometimes Pete had very little upward followthrough on his underspin backhand.

My own feeling is that the incredible levels of ball speed in the pro game probably require a more severe downward swing pattern on most balls. If there was a much better way to slice, some top player probably would have figured it out. But it appears the reality is that the pros need to hit radically downward to generate the 2500rpm plus that it takes to control the ball with underspin in the modern game. (Click Here for an analysis of the spin levels in the pro game.)

This wasn't always the case though. The top players of previous generations hit through the ball much more directly. You could call it an underspin or a slice drive. Check out the incredible animation of Don Budge. In my opinion, it's more or less the perfect model for this shot for most players today. Watch how the plane of the swing travels almost directly through the line of the shot.

Basically the hitting arm is straight with the racket face set open at about 30 to 45 degrees. As the racket head moves through the line of the shot the angle of the racket face generates the underspin rather than the swing plane. Note that the finish is at eye level, similar to the model for the topspin drive. The swing pattern is in fact very similar for both shots. The only real differences are the angle of the racket face and the slightly increased torso rotation.

This is the pattern Carl and I used with fabulous results. It allowed Carl to drive through the ball with slice, be more consistent, but still vary the pace and the amount of underspin. Compared with the extreme downward angle of pro swing, there is much less chance of error, it also makes the transition between the topspin and the slice variations easier and more natural, because there is so much less variation between the two patterns. If you look at the after video of Carl he looks great! Really a nice solid, fluid, underspin drive.

There is probably a transition as you move up levels and increasing the downward thrust at a certain point might be required. High level junior tennis, or college tennis, or low level tour tennis. But at times you will even see some of the pro players closer to our Don Budge model. Look at the animation of Tim Henman. It's probably closer to Budge than Federer, at least on this ball. So maybe Lansdorp is right and the slice drive is something that could be better even at the highest levels of the game in some situations.

But if driving through the ball with slice was good enough for Don Budge, it's probably good enough for 99% of Tennisplayer subscribers--or more. The bottom line is that hitting the extreme slice is something not too many players will probably ever have the pleasure of having to worry about. Meanwhile you can have a versatile, powerful, and consistent slice of your own, just like Don Budge or Carl.