Spacing: Part 3

Dave Hagler

In the first parts of the series we addressed spacing on shots where a player is moving laterally and hitting with topspin. (Click Here for Part 1.) Click Here for Part 2.) Now let's look at some drills for spacing on slice.

Sliced groundstrokes are a great illustrator of how different spacing facilitates different spin variations. Slices may be hit with almost pure underspin, but usually they have a sidespin component as well.

Typically the sidespin is inside spin. A right handed player's slice backhand will move to the left to varying degrees. But it can also be purer underspin where the trajectory is the same in flight as after the bounce.

I remember watching a pro point where Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori were hitting backhand slice to backhand slice. Nishikori's backhands had almost pure underspin – the flight of the ball after the bounce stayed on the same path it was on prior to hitting the ground.