Top Slice Syndrome
This is a peculiar little conundrum that vexed me for quite a long time. This syndrome manifests at odd times but typically when one first develops a serviceable, one-handed, topspin backhand (1HTSBH aka "The Great White Whale" aka "Zanadu"). If you have accomplished this feat and are also "differently talented", then you must have overcome your tendency to bend the wrist back (dorsiflexion) in the Lock phase of preparation as that is about as close as one gets to the Ultimate Secret of hitting the 1HTSBH. If you have been blessed with a reliable 1HTSBH, you may have noticed a singularly mysterious and annoying phenomenon - suddenly and without any apparent reason you start missing your old reliable backhand slice. In particular, you start hitting the net strap with it; over and over and over and over again. If you are like me and use the slice as your entree to the net, the sudden departure of your most reliable stroke must have seemed, well, annoying - like throwing your racket over the fence annoying.
Luckily the solution to this is pretty simple. Just keep your wrist dorsiflexed (bent back) early in the Load phase of the slice, and you will be good to go. The pathophysiology of this syndrome involves the fact that the Pose for the topspin and slice one-handed backhands are identical; both feature a high racket head, cocked and dorsiflexed wrist and low elbow. The entry into the Load phase is strikingly different, however. Importantly, in the topspin backhand, the wrist goes from dorsiflexed to palmar-flexed whereas when hitting a slice backhand the wrist remains dorsiflexed. Wrist position in the backswing may seem like a pretty picky point, but it is, I assure you, not. If one tries to hit a slice backhand with a palmer-flexed wrist the result is a rather flat shot without stored spin or control forces, i.e., it is a 'slap' not a 'snap.' If you manage to keep your wrist dorsiflexed through the lock and load, you will get stretch shortening and stored control and spin forces.