10 Minutes of Tennis: The Importance of Slice & Volleys

(upbeat music)

Welcome to the Atlanta Tennis Podcast.

Every episode is titled,

It Starts with Tennis and Goes From There.

We talk with coaches, club managers,

industry business professionals,

technology experts, and anyone else we find interesting.

We wanna have a conversation as long as it starts with tennis.

(upbeat music)

Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the Atlanta Tennis Podcast,

powered by GoTennis.

While you're here, please hit that follow button.

And after you listen,

please share with your friends and teammates.

Also, let us know if you have questions or topics

you would like us to discuss,

and we will add them to our schedule.

With that said, let's get started with 10 Minutes of Tennis.

(upbeat music)

Today is 10 Minutes of Tennis,

and it is about, not really about Justin,

it's just with Justin, our world renowned tennis pro Australian

in Puerto Rico, Justin, today's topic,

the importance of slice and volleys.

Now, I will ask, why do we put them together?

Should we do them separately,

or are they together for a reason?

- Let's hear a good question.

- Guess there's an Aussie, we had to do both.

- You know, I was just thinking the Aussies,

you guys are good at it.

- They needed it to get to net.

- What it is, a critical thing in junior development,

in junior development to learn how to feel the faith

in words helps.

We were talking last week about the one-handed backhand volleys.

Well, great way to learn the one-handed backhand volleys,

the one-handed slice.

So I would say pretty critical element to learn as a junior,

to change the place out, to learn how to get back in court,

to advance, there's a lot of advantages to my name, the slice.

And if we watch the men lately,

we're seeing a lot of slice falling,

that's something we didn't see too often back in the days,

but we're seeing a lot more men learning to feel

at the control of all, play a lot of trick shots,

and that comes from learning how to slice.

Otherwise, you'd be eating flat and topspin all day long.

- Oh, day long, but it seems to be successful

because I think Yannick sinners

got a pretty good success rate.

And just banging from both sides and hitting what,

98% topspin, right?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, he's also extremely fit.

Has a good Aussie coach, but Darren K.

(laughs)

- Oh, you bring the Aussie into it again.

- Yeah, yeah.

Well, I mean, if you really looked at Sino lately,

it's a life almost looking at Curet years ago,

where Darren plays Doc Curet to look the level of fitness

that anyone could just keep up with here with.

And Sino, I'm sorry to say,

he's looking very similar.

He's so solid on the baseline that

you've got to be able to match him, tight and tight.

- Well, I'd say his slice and volleys are improving.

So that's the thing.

We talk a lot about, we use the professional players

as examples, but we talk about the improvement

even once they get on tour.

Look at Novak's slice when he came on tour.

He looked ridiculous.

It was a bad shot.

And now it's actually really, really good.

Not everybody has that magic slice

that Federer had from the beginning

or that Vavranka defensive shot.

But you brought up the forehand slice.

That's pretty much only a defensive thing.

I got made fun of by my friends and peers playing tennis

'cause I'd use the forehand slice more offensively

and more often than most.

But I think I was also the one

who wasn't just gonna hang back and bang balls

from the baseline.

But you're talking about learning this young.

You're talking about instilling this in the juniors.

So as early as they can, what's the advantage

of being able to feel the difference

between the topspin and the backspin?

- Well, one of the hot, most hot shots in tennis right now

is the drop shot.

- So if you got slides, you've got a drop shot.

And every time we see the drop shot on the forehand,

I mean, I don't know how many times I've seen Rapa

wind up and hit a slice forehand and shoulder height.

And hit a drop shot like that

because the guys, you know,

way back into the court getting ready for big defense.

So,

Alfred does the same thing on the forehand.

So it's critical just to learn the face

and the whole purpose of the slide.

It's not someone you're gonna hit majority of the time.

If we're talking amateur players,

if they've got a good slice,

I think they maybe rely on it too much

and they need to learn to step in

and maybe hit more back ends

because maybe they get some new trouble

but you know, just being lazy and just,

I would like to do the safe.

- Yeah, safe, yep.

So, you know, the slice can hurt you sometimes.

I think if you're good at it,

you should be able to use the whole court

to go work on using angle, short, D line,

inside, outside, the ball.

I mean, I think they're just about hit every part

of the ball on the slice back end.

That's really critical too

when you're hitting a good slice that'll move it around.

And then, you know, touch your subject

but if we bring up about three miles on the female tour,

nothing about females do the slice

and you look at Ash body.

- I was gonna say, look at the success of Bardy, yeah.

- Yeah, she's the dominant.

- Or Stozer.

- You just had a really good slice from young age.

I remember working with her, she was only like 10 or 12

her slice, which is just ridiculous.

You know, she could put it anywhere she wants.

And then it is an advantage.

Like I said, it can be disadvantage

but we get lazy on it.

But for females, it can be a really advantage

to make sure they've got a slice even then.

- When I use it more,

and I've got two questions

from two different anecdotes we'll say.

When I play mixed, I use the slice a lot more

because most of my female opponents,

the only time I ever play against the females,

my female opponents don't like it.

And the males don't seem to mind.

We see it more often.

And that's just more of a product of how we play against

each other, males versus males and females versus females.

But I'm not gonna bother hitting top spin

'cause a lot of the girls I play,

you put it in the strike zone,

they're gonna rip it and you're in trouble.

But if I can get it out of the strike zone,

if I can hit that backspin that they see less often,

they're not as used to it.

Same with the kick serve.

I can get that ball jumping up.

They don't see that shot as often at the amateur level.

But I watched as a young coach,

I watched the young players,

the teenage kids, the 10 to 15 year old kids,

what they did in their free time.

And we talk about this a lot.

If your kid loves tennis,

what are they doing in their free time?

If they're playing chess,

they don't love tennis as much as you hope they would maybe.

But in this case,

I would see the boys, the young boys,

trying to see if they could spin the ball backwards

and they'd spend hours all summer

trying to spin the ball and have fun

while the girls were at the pool.

And so the next year,

the boys would come out and be able to spin the ball

and they'd be able to beat the girls,

maybe not because they were better players,

but they had this one extra skill

that the girls weren't practicing.

Is that what you mean by practicing it enough

as a junior where Barney just decided

she was gonna learn it?

Do you think that's a coach influence?

I think it's a bit of both.

The girls commonly maybe just don't realize

the benefit of it.

And if you look at the strength of, again,

a female anatomy now you're bringing it into the case of why,

but female anatomy usually is two-third legs

and they don't have the trunk as a male does.

So that slice can really affect them.

It's harder for them to bend down

and get underneath the whole male.

But, you know, short and short of females

definitely should try and miss the slice.

But what all I'm pointing out is that they,

they work out if they can use the face,

if they can learn how to get themselves out of trouble,

they don't have to rely on it.

It's just there as a change up as well.

If they want to learn how to change the game up,

they swise.

And, but if you look at,

if you're joining females with two hands backhand down the line

or at least just the two handers,

they're bigger strokes because it,

where they get the most of the juice behind the ball.

We're seeing a lot more taller females though.

We're pretty strong foreheads.

But, at the same, like, if you think about the anatomy,

they don't have the trunk size as a male.

So, this slice isn't favourable.

There's a stroke that they choose.

But, I would practice it.

If you don't practice it, it'll be down and learning.

It's something you'll never use.

- Yeah, I think, I think that could be a great,

little piece of advice, little hint that says, okay,

go work on that slice, go work on that backspin.

See if you can throw it in there.

I'm really sure that's gonna help your game.

Now, Justin, how does this relate to the volley

coming into the end of our 10 minutes here?

How does this relate to the volley?

I think it's a very similar shot.

I think the volley is a slice forehand or backhand

with no swing.

What's, why do we put these things together?

Is it because they're used in combination

or because they're technically similar?

Or both?

- Technically, a little bit similar,

but I think where you find most people on amateur level,

people are struggling with volleys,

they don't have the bite on the ball.

They tend to block the volley, they don't tend to,

I call it that hammer.

They don't learn how to feel the hammer,

which slice can introduce them to that.

And so when you get to the net,

I guess it's a little bit shorter,

but you're still getting that little bit of bite

on the ball, which slice introduced the volley

and the slice can prevent the workhand and hand that way.

Ready stands as well.

Obviously with the left hand on the throw,

big part of the slice as well.

But the slice will definitely help on the volley,

learning how to, they're a little bit of bite on the ball

and learning how to use the hands and the wrist versus,

just blocking the ball with time.

So yes, they've really helped each other.

- All right, so last question,

the importance of slice and volleys.

Is it unbelievably important?

Is it just kind of important?

Is it a nice little addition?

So if the question is, what is the importance

of slice and volleys, how would you answer that question?

- I'll answer that question.

The number one tennis player from United States America,

who extended his career,

because Jimmy Connist wrote and had a sloth back in

and gets to the net, and that was Andy Rudd.

Andy Rudd, a huge forehand,

sold it back in and a massive serve.

But he's career popped and it's only swayed down

until Jimmy told him how to slice and get to the net,

and that extent he's career.

So that's the best answer I can give you.

- Pretty darn good answer, Justin Yell.

This has been 10 minutes of tennis.

Thanks so much, we'll see you next week.

- See you tonight.

- Well, there you have it.

We wanna thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio.

And be sure to hit that follow button.

For more tennis related content,

you can go to AtlantaTennisPodcast.com.

And while you're there,

check out our calendar of tennis events,

the best deals on TechnoFiber products,

tennis apparel, and more.

If you're a coach, director of any racket sports,

or just someone who wants to utilize our online shop,

contact us about setting up your own shop collection

to offer your branded merchandise

to the Atlanta Tennis World.

And with that, we're out.

See you next time.

(upbeat music)

. (upbeat music)