The slice didn't die because it was a bad shot. It's gone extinct because the game has evolved to favor the fast pace facilitated by topspin.
For years, the slice was the Swiss Army knife of pickleball shots. It was reliable, deceptive, and effective. Players built entire games around it. Now, that era is officially over.
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In a recent video, Zane Navratil breaks down why aggressive slices have become essentially obsolete at the professional level, and more importantly, what's replacing them.
The shift isn't subtle. It's a fundamental reimagining of how the game's best players approach shots that used to be considered essential.
Why Raw Carbon Fiber Changed Everything Let's rewind for a second. The slice didn't just disappear overnight. Navratil points out that slices have been "terminally ill since 2021" because of one major development: the popularization of raw carbon fiber paddle faces.
That material fundamentally altered how much spin players could generate, which sounds technical but actually matters a ton for understanding what happened next.
When you can generate massive amounts of spin with a flat or topspin shot, suddenly the slice loses its primary advantage. The slice was always about control and deception through backspin.
But if your opponent can take that backspin and amplify it into an aggressive topspin return? ... FULL ARTICLE FOUND ON: https://www.thedinkpickleball.com/why-professional-pickleball-players-abandoned-the-slice-shot-in-2025/
