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How to use a tennis ball machine effectively to develop a tennis backhand slice!

As a matter of principle I do not recommend a tennis ball machine as partner, because I believe nothing can replace the variety and challenges a human being can give you. Having said that, in certain circumstances a ball machine can be a useful training tool.

Today’s tennis ball machine can be programmed easily to do simple repetitive routines as well, but the capabilities do not end there and ball machines are sophisticated enough to do almost anything except thinking.

Consider that you are in a remote area or you have difficulty finding reliable practice partners, or yet you want to practice a certain shot at a given speed and rhythm to learn or groove it. Sure those are situations a good ball machine is a nice partner to have.

For example, you saw a tennis video of Roger Federer and you would like to develop a similar backhand slice to his.

Here is one way you can proceed:

First make a light warm-up around the tennis court activating all parts of you body and some stretching exercises once you broke a sweat.

1. Program the machine to play a light and slow topspin ball bouncing at about the service line towards you backhand.

Why slow? Because no matter how good you are, for learning and development proposes everything should be slow at the beginning.

2. Get inside the court and hit a few forehands and backhands and if you like, just for fun, hit a few volleys as well by getting inside the service box. (Stop the ball machine)

Once you have warmed-up your playing arm nicely, start your backhand slice exercise.

3. Make a pause to visualise in your mind the sequence of the backhand slice you saw in the video.
4. Repeat the movement in your mind this time visualizing yourself doing it. You can do this 3 or four times preferably with your eyes closed.
5. Than repeat the motion with your eyes open and actually using your racket and your body. Do this 3 or four times copying exactly what your mind saw.

Now turn on the ball machine.

1. Start hitting the backhand slice like you just exercised, slow and relaxed.
2. Some balls might fly high, some may go into the net do not worry. Make slight adjustments with the racket head or with the grip in between balls until you find the ideal position.
3. Make sure to stay with the ball in your racket strings for as long as possible and even exaggerate the carrying motion of the ball. (Remember you are hitting the ball very softly almost in slow motion)
4. If needed let a couple of balls go by in between shots, regroup and do it again.

Hit 20 shots or so and stop the tennis ball machine.

1. Analyse what you just did, try to visualize which ones among those 20 shots felt really good, how nicely you were able to center the ball in your racket strings, what kind of sound the ball produced at contact and when it left the strings.

Restart the tennis ball machine

1. Repeat all the steps and starting at step “3. Make a pause to visualize in your mind….” and stop after 20 or 30 shots. (Do not get your arm over tired that can lead to injuries)

Do this tennis exercise for 20 minutes total.

At the end make a mental recap of all the best shots you did in that session and play a little in your mind by overlapping the image of your movement with the image you have of Roger Federer and see how similar your shots are getting to be. At home if you have a chance look once more at Roger Federer slow motion backhand slice.

Repeat this on intercalated days (one day on, one day off, for two weeks) and as you get better increase the depth and speed of the ball machine feed until you are hitting the tennis slice backhand from the baseline. After a couple of weeks practice, you may wish to try your new skills with a friend, make sure to tell him/her that you are working on this stroke and for him to hit the ball nicely with you.

On the other hand you can do also without the ball machine, just by using the wall, any wall, in a tennis club, at home where it does not bother everyone else or your garage door (Bjorn Borg did that).

Besides looking into Roger Federer visual aspect of developing a new shot, you should keep the following mind to help you with some basic technical aspects of the tennis slice backhand.

The backhand slice Grip:

The proper grip, to hit slice backhands is a continental grip or the chopper grip. This is indeed among the most important things you need from this article.

slice-backhand-grip

Swing High to Low:

Another important element of the slice backhand is the swing motion. The racquet head must start above the ball, and be slightly under the ball at contact. In tennis it is called a high to low swing as seen on the picture from Roger Federer.

Flatten the racquet face at contact:

Although you are swinging from high to low, the contact point must be flat. This means that the racquet cannot be at an angle when you hit the ball.

Tips and Suggestions:

If the ball is going up into the air when you hit the backhand slice, your racquet is not flat at contact. Adjust the angle to a flatter contact point.

It will still take some time for you to master the backhand slice, but with patience and perseverance in a little while you will be able to start thinking about, “how can I use this new weapon of mine to win matches?!”

Another point:

- Do not get tempted in over using the ball machine or over-extending the practice periods. That will only lead to fatigue, boredom and eventual burn out. Keep your practices short and fun, if you notice you are just getting bored and tired, stop or change activity. Tennis is a creative game, keep it that way and you will always have fun playing it.

Here is a sample video of Roger Federer hitting a backand slice.

Sergio Cruz
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