Larry Landsman:
Slice Backhand

Analyzed by John Yandell

This month we take a look at the slice backhand of long-time Tennisplayer subscriber, supporter, and forum contributor Larry Landsman. He hits it with many of the elements you see in the slices of the top pros.

But, paradoxically I am going to suggest he go away from much of the pro model. If he does, I think can Larry can remake the slice into much more of a weapon, a weapon that is underused at most levels, but one that could be very effective for him in improving his practice match and tournament results.

Confused at Many Levels

My personal opinion is that the slice backhand is probably the most confusing shot to understand when we look across all levels of the game. It's the stroke that is the single greatest disconnect when we compare the pro game to recreational and/or NTRP play.

Of course we have to be cautious on all the strokes when he comes to blindly trying to imitate pro technical elements. But many of the components on the pro groundstrokes and the serve still translate well at lower levels as we have seen in numerous articles. (Click Here for the Advanced Tennis section and articles dealing with all these issues.)

On the forehand, club players can model pro preparation and the more moderate pro backswings, as well as the extension point in the forward swing on flatter drives. Most recreational players can even incorporate some use of the wiper finish. The pro stroke patterns for the moderate grip one-handed backhand and the various two handers for the most part apply well at the club level.

It's the same with many components on the serve: the racket drop, the location of the contact point, the use of the legs, and the importance of the rotation of the hand and arm in the upward swing.

A Different Deal

But the pro slice backhand is a different deal. A player like Roger Federer may use the slice effectively but copying his swing pattern is far from optimal at levels below the very top of the game.

In pro tennis, remember, the players are often dealing with balls coming at them with 90mph plus initial velocity and 3000rpms of spin or more. The ball is bouncing high off the court and is often struck as high as shoulder level, or higher. Those are tough balls to slice, to say the least.

Over the last twenty years, this increased speed, spin and bounce height, has led to major changes in the shape of the slice backhand. To nullify the pace and the topspin of the incoming ball, the players are countering with incredible levels of underspin, as much as 3000rpm with examples reaching 4000rpm or higher. That's 3 times or more the amount of spin Vic Braden measured on the classic slice backhand of Ken Rosewall.

To do this has required huge changes in the shape of the stroke. First, the backswing has elongated significantly. It wraps much further back and around the player's neck. At the furthest point the shaft of the racket is actually parallel to the court and the racket tip actually crosses back behind the right edge of the player's body.

The other major change is that the forward swing has become much more radically downward. This downward motion is so extreme that, after contact, the tip of the racket can point directly down at the court.

On the followthrough the racket head often finishes below the level of the wrist. The followthrough also travels more to the player's right, coming across the body sooner and further, usually with a truncated extension point.

Although we need to eventually measure this to make sure, it seems apparent that nullifying all the incoming force of the speed and spin in the pro game has had the side effect of reducing pace in the modern slice relative to the topspin drives. It appears that in pro tennis it is now very difficult to hit a slice backhand at anything approaching the pace of the laser drives. This is probably why there is so little use of the slice as a basic rally ball, and why it is so hard to create real pressure with a slice approach.

As I said, at the very top of the game, this is a fundamental disconnect with the rest of the tennis world. But for players willing to experiment with a different swing, there is a huge opportunity to develop an effective slice drive.

Trey

At the club and NTRP levels, the slice doesn't doesn't have to overcome the phenomenal difficulties in responding to high level incoming groundstroke missiles. You can hit still hit it hard and relatively flat, with far less disparity in velocity compared to the topspin drives.

There are some great examples of how to do this on Tennisplayer, including an article from former tour player Trey Waltke that provides a tremendous model for the relevant technical elements. (Click Here.) And we'll use some video of Trey drawn from that article to help us here.

The problem is that too many club players never develop these elements because they try to copy the pro game where the players are dealing with a far more extreme set of ball dynamics.

Which brings us back to Larry. My feeling though is that Larry could really learn to stick the slice, hitting a lower, driving ball with a lot more pace, a ball that would skid and stay low, especially on those nice HarTru courts he plays on in Florida. Not that there might not also be occasions to slow the ball down or float it for strategic reasons as well.

But I am talking about a ball hit flatter, but still with underspin - the classic slice drive. This ball is great in crosscourt rallies, and on approaches. You can even pass effectively with it - just ask Ken Rosewall.

If we look at Larry's motion, we can see that he is hitting an incoming ball with medium level club pace. But his swing pattern is almost as radically downward and across as Roger Federer. In my opinion that's not optimum since Larry isn't forced to deal with 90mph heavy topspin.

What I am recommending then is he move more toward the model provided by Trey. I think doing this should pretty simple to achieve by focusing on a different swing plane and, especially, a new finish point for the forward swing.

Watch in the animation how Trey's arm is straight and the racket head is only slightly above the level of the ball as he approaches contact. Now watch this straight arm position stay in tact as he moves outward and upward to the finish.

The wrist finishes at around eye level. The Arm is still straight and pointing almost directly ahead. The racket head is naturally above the wrist.

The body has remained mainly sideways to the net opening possibly 30 degrees. And the left arm has moved backwards in the opposite direction to the forward swing pointing at the back fence. Compared to Larry or Roger the swing has extended out much further toward the net.

I say that modeling these elements might be a relatively simple adjustment for Larry because there are several others things that he does really well in the stroke. First he has a very complete shoulder turn, actually turning a little more than 90 degrees to the net.

Second, he stays sideways extremely well through the stroke - at least as well as Trey and Roger. That's pretty good company. And third, he does a great job of opposing that left arm backwards, something so many club players don't achieve on the slice or the one-handed drive.

Backswing?

Some of our subscribers are probably surprised though that I haven't mentioned one distinguishing characteristic in Larry's motion. This is the timing of the preparation. It's definitely "early," but so early in fact that there is a brief pause in the motion before the forward swing.

Relatively speaking I am not sure how bad that really is. The Williams sisters do something similar on their groundstrokes, even hitting at times with something like a double pump, and they have done alright to say the least. Remember the real acceleration comes in just the last few frames before contact.

Given the choice between being really early and slightly late, I'll take really early. But the one thing to look at in his preparation is the height of his racket is and how it is wrapped somewhat back around his neck.

It's not as far or as high as Federer, but is probably similar to Trey. All things being equal it's probably completely appropriate - except it may get in the way of the change I am suggesting.

I think that starting from this position is going to make it tough to get the feel of really flattening out the swing and developing more of a drive, so I want to introduce another incredible model, Don Budge, speaking to us from across tennis time. (Click Here to see more of his game in the Stroke Archive.)

J.Donald

Budge is rallying at medium pace here on a fairly low ball and I think that provides a great model position. Look how straight his arm is as he starts to come into the ball, and how low his racket is. As he comes forward and through with the racket, this swing will produce a true slice drive.

What I am suggesting to Larry is that he actually start from that lower, straight arm position to get the feeling of the slice drive. Set the ball machine to throw lower. Then turn and set up the hitting arm like J. Donald.

Now swing through to the finish point, which is very similar to the one we identified with Trey. Wrist at about eye level, arm and racket pointing mostly straight ahead, minimal body rotation. The racket head well above the hand, and the hand extended forward toward the net.

Larry, don't worry too much about where the ball goes at first. If it goes long and high that is good sign you're using the new swing. Keep at it until you get the feeling the strings really biting and going through.

It's very possible the timing of the backswing may naturally adjust itself through this exercise - I've seen that many times.

Now hit that skidding slice deep crosscourt. Hit it short and low, especially to two-handers. Then carve some down the line approaches. And send in some new video when you start to make progress.