Now let's break down
his (Federer's) slice backhand which is in my
opinion the greatest slice of all time
now Federer's slice can produce 5,300
rpm on the ball
this is more than Nadal's forehand so
he's producing more spin
on his slice backhand than Nadal's
producing on his
forehand groundstroke.
Now Federer's technique is very simple
but it's very different
to a lot of pros. Many pros will prepare
in a very similar position
but then they'll hit the shot and extend
out towards their target
so you'll see a lot of the pro players
and club players as well
they'll prepare above that left shoulder
and as they make contact
they'll go towards their target almost
guiding the ball.
Now this works at some level you can
produce a good amount of power,
a good amount of spin at the same time
but with Federer's slice what he does
slightly different is he tends to lift
the racket head
slightly higher than a lot of the pros
so instead of having his racket touching
that left shoulder
or right above the left shoulder he
creates a bit of space
and you can see that sometimes his slice
will start at head level
and from this position he's able to now
cut down the ball
much more aggressively because of that
higher preparation phase.
So as soon as he sees the ball coming to
the backhand, he's decided to hit that
slice,
he now turns the body so he gets that
unit term once again
and he makes sure that the non-hitting
hand is helping him
prepare that racket head
so he's preparing with the left hand
holding the throat of the racquet,
so the racquet is now above my left
shoulder but it isn't touching the left
shoulder
and i'm pulling the racquet back now
using that left hand
so my left hand is actually creating a
little bit of tension
in the racket head and in my hand by me
pulling back
so instead of just being in this
position I'm now pulling the racket back
creating this tension effect which will
then
be released during that contact point.
Now what this does, if you imagine when
you're going to flick somebody if I flick
somebody just using my middle finger i'm not
going to have that much power
but because i'm using my thumb now the
middle finger is trying to go forward
but the thumb is holding it back as soon
as i release
i have a lot of power on that flick
that's the same
principle that we can use on that
backhand slice we get into that position
using the left hand the right hand can
almost want to pull down
but my left hand is forcing it to stay
back my elbow is bent
my right elbow is around a 90 degree
angle in this position
and from here instead of now making
contact and going forward
with the racket head what federer does
is makes contact
and cuts across the body so his elbow
is almost like a pendulum across the
body like so
so traditionally the slices this shape
feather is is this shape now what this
allows him to do is produce that massive
underspin on the ball produce side spin
when he wants to
so if he's going down the line from the
outside he can now produce that
side spin which will make the ball go
away from the opponent
so he's able to hit the ball as hard as
he wants
he's able to deal with pace without
slowing down the racket
once you start traveling towards that
target it becomes more for guide
more for push which once again it can
work
but when we compare federer's slice to
most players
federer is miles ahead
it's because of the way he swings the
racket he's using that pendulum effect
he's creating that power that energy in
the racket with the preparation
and then he releases it across the body
and he can really
accelerate through the point of contact
without having to now guide that ball
he can really rip the ball produce that
on the spin
produce that side spin because of the
way he hits that shot
so we can all copy the starting base of
the feather slice
get the left hand to help you make sure
that you get the racket
above your non-hitting shoulder so your
left shoulder
for the right hand is out there the
racquet is above the left shoulder
and the higher the ball bounces so the
higher your contact point will be
the higher you prepare which will allow
you to cut down
the back of the bowl you can also work
on that finish
instead of finishing all your slices
pushing outwards
you can start to work hitting across the
body so have this right arm create that
pendulum effect this way as you make
contact
