Most of this volume tells you to send the ball high and deep. That is where the ball goes. It is not a stroke, and it never told you what to do with your arms.
Your feet pick the stroke. You already know which one you have.
STILL REACHING. The ball is wide, they have taken your time, and you are at full stretch when you get there.
This is a one-handed slice, even if you use two hands normally. One arm reaches further than two, and there is no time for a real swing anyway.
Let go with the top hand. Open the racquet face, get under the ball, and lift it. Height is the whole job, because height is what gives you the run home.
YOU GOT THERE. You arrived, and your feet are set, or set enough to swing.
Now it is a full cut at the ball, low to high, brushing up the back of it, aimed crosscourt. Not a push and not a poke — a proper swing.
That second shot only exists if you prepared while you were running. The racquet goes back on the first step, not the last one. Then start the swing the moment you reach the spot, not after you have stopped in it.
And whichever one it is, expect the drift. You are still travelling sideways as you hit. All that momentum pulls the ball with you, towards the middle.
So aim wider than feels right. A ball meant for the crosscourt corner, landing deep in the middle, hands them a free choice of direction.
There are two slices, and they are opposite shots
Slice is one word for two different shots. Learn one, use it in the wrong place, and it will lose you the point every time.
THE DEFENDING SLICE: high, slow, deep. You are short of time, so you want the ball in the air as long as you can keep it there.
Open the face more, hit under the ball, and send it well above the net towards their baseline. Slow is not weak here. Slow is the point.
THE ATTACKING SLICE: low, fast, deep. You are taking time away from them, so you want it skidding and staying under their hitting height.
Less open face, drive through the back of the ball, keep it just over the net. This is the one you hit on your way forward.
Ask what you are short of. Short of time, hit up. Trying to take theirs, hit through.
The common mistake is the attacking slice from a defending position. Low and fast has no room over the net, and from out wide it finds the net nearly every time.
That mistake has a whole card of its own later in this volume. If your defensive slices keep dying in the net, this is almost always why.
One case where a defending slice does stay low. When they are at the net, or the court is fast and the bounce is low anyway, low is the point.
There you are not buying your own time. You are taking away their height, so they have to lift the ball instead of hitting down on it.
So the real question is never high or low. It is what you are short of, and who you are taking it from.
This is one page of the reference section.
The rest of Crosscourt IQ is 538 situations — a court diagram, the score, and one question: what would you do here, and why? Your player answers first, then the reasoning opens.
Ten cards are free, with the full answer key on every one.
Read ten cards free