lol you guys just need to improve on the volley...
watch the pros play.. unless it's an absolute emergency, who passes with slices? nobody, even chronical slicers like Graf, Lopez etc, when they have to hit a pass they hit over the ball... because slices are bad passing shots!
Apparently you haven't seen the legend Ken Rosewall play tennis. The guy only hit slice off the backhand. It's not always the tools that define the player, but rather how well they use the tool. If you have total control over your slice, you can give hell to a player at net.
In high school, people legit stopped serving and volleying against my backhand because they couldn't deal with a heavy slice at their feet.
From a relative standpoint, no: what I need more improvement on is my serve and patience for choosing the right time to approach so this particular opponent, who is a level above me, can't so easily hit low slices when I approach.
At the pro level, slices are bad passing shots. There are many things that would be bad at the pro level.
However, we're at the rec level so the standards aren't quite as high. As I outlined in my example, I rarely got actually passed with the slice but it made volleying difficult and left me exposed and off-balance if I didn't nail the volley.
Sliced passing shots aren't necessarily bad at the pro level. Rosewall and Federer have proven that to be true. The issue is that the amount of control needed to make it work is higher, meaning your margin of error is lower. It's always nice when you can just rip the ball as hard as you can and still get the ball to dip down to either give them a low ball or pass with a sharp angle while hitting with pace. That's basically not an option with the slice, so you're left with beating them with control, and need to either keep it out of reach (which isn't so bad if you have a high level of control and pick the spot where they can't cover as easily) or you keep it low and either dead or heavy. Going heavy, they might miss, but if they don't and they hit strings, it'll usually come back as a solid volley. Going dead, they'll have to work harder to hit a decent volley because they have to hit up, generate their own pace, and keep it inside the lines. But they'll miss fewer (unless they're an inexperienced volleyer) and have easier access to the drop shot as an option from that position (since they don't have to take pace off the ball, and simply need to direct it). However, knowing that neither option is coming with pace and is likely to be hit up and float a bit, you can run in and prepare to hit your own volley off of theirs (this should actually be your instantaneous reaction the instant you know executed your shot correctly, and you should be moving before they even hit the ball).
And the example of pros isn't really the greatest. Given the heavy skew of player skillsets towards baseline grinding, volleying skills in general aren't nearly as clean as players of the 20th century. In the old days, the first volley was the attacking shot that set up the easy second putaway volley. Now, it's the big approach shot or big groundstroke that is the first shot while the first volley is the easy putaway volley. In the old days, you can charge in off of anything that gave you time to get to the net and be fine because your volleying skills could probably handle whatever comes your way if you can get a racket on it. Nowadays, if you charge in, it's easier for players with the newer rackets to control the ball and give you something tough to volley. Nadal in his early years was a great example of perfect execution of the ATP transition. He only came in when he knew the first volley would be the easiest of putaways. It didn't matter if it was in the middle of a rally or after a big forehand approach shot, he knew exactly when he hurt his opponent enough to get a freebie for the next ball. Most baseliners currently do the same concept but with varying levels of success based on how well they picked their timing to come in. If they chose a poor timing to come in, their approach shot has to be really good to make up for it. If they chose a perfect moment, the approach shot just has to be decent. You can argue that in such cases, it'd be no different if these pros simply sat back and hit a big forehand off the next ball that will likely be a sitter, and you'd be wrong. Taking the volley out of the air quickly has a higher success rate in its execution and has a tempo advantage, which means that if your opponent is out of position, they have no time to get back into position. With the big forehand, you're hitting from farther back, meaning success rate drops (even if only slightly) and you lose some tempo, which means the other player has some time to recover towards the center as well as the option to take a coin flip to guess which side you'll hit to and put all their efforts in defending a ball that lands on that side.
