Selected Mechanics: Fashion or Function?

In the continual evolution of my tennis mechanics from (originally) 1960s-era technique to modern mechanics (and there have been many, many cycles of evolution), I have often pondered the question of what is really a fundamental change versus what is merely a current style.

Sampras:
Left (non-dominant) toe
raised during start of serve.
Not necessary; don't imitate.

An obvious example of a stylish change that was very popular a decade ago or so was imitators of
Pete Sampras' habit of lifting his left-foot toes as he began his service motion. There is a whole generation of players who lift the toes of their non-dominant foot as they begin their serve, and yet this technique absolutely adds no benefit to the serve.

In fact, if anything, this toe-raising style increases the risk of a mis-location in the forward part of the serve, which thereby increases the risk of a foot fault. Of course, this isn't an issue at club-level play, but if a player rises to higher levels of competition, this foot-fault risk becomes more problematic.

Laver's old-school footwork.
Non-dominant food on court
behind the baseline, dominant
leg swinging forward at
impact.

Okay, so this imitating-Pete-Sampras'-serve toe raise is a clear example of technique fashion and not function.

There are many other examples that are not so clear cut. Let's look at a few:

1. Jump serve with landing on non-dominant leg, dominant leg kicked backward:
First a bit of history.... In about 1961 the rules of tennis were changed to allow a server to jump while serving. Prior to that, the server was required to keep a foot on the ground until the ball was struck. As a result of this old rule, servers kept their non-dominant foot on the court surface behind the baseline, and swung their dominant leg forward, stepping into the court first with that dominant leg.

This landing-on-dominant-leg serving technique persisted well beyond the rule change. This was due in part to players having learned under the old rule, and if they were aware of the rule change at all, still saw no reason to mess with their existing technique. Also, new post-rule-change players were watching the masters such as Rod Laver et al, and imitated them.

Fed's modern post-serve-footwork landing. A jump serve
landing on the non-dominant foot but with the dominant
leg kicked vigorously backward.

Enter the full adoption of the jump serve. Most players are landing on their non-dominant foot. However, some have a dominant leg that is rather inactive or moving around and forward during the serve; others kick their dominant leg back rather aggressively. It is the latter technique that is currently taught most frequently and by the pros who are in the know. Fashion or function?

On this one, I suggest this technique has some real benefit. Although I've not seen any explanation of the reason for the technique, I suspect that it has to do with conservation of rotational inertia. As the hips and then shoulders rotate up and forward into the ball, the counter motion of the dominant leg probably facilitates greater racquet speed toward impact with the ball.

2. Forehand-groundstroke follow througjh:
Over the shoulder versus windshield-wiper aroung the upper body? Well, I covered this in my previous article, didn't I? So a re-hash isn't necessary here; just take a look at that one if you haven't already read it.

John Bromwich, who
retired as a touring pro
in 1954, and his two-
handed backhand

3. Semi-western versus eastern forehand grip:
The semi-western grip is most frequently taught. Yet Roger Federer is doing pretty well with his eastern grip -- having one of the best forehands in the game. In my opinion, this issue is more fashion than fundamental.

4. One-handed versus two-handed backhand:
When I was learning the game in the late 1960s, everyone advised against the two hander because "it limited one's ability to return balls hit wide to the backhand." Well maybe that's slightly true, but the benefits waaaaaaay outweight the drawbacks in my humble opinion. But anyway, at this time, I believe that the complete player has two backhands: the flat or topspin two hander, and the sliced one hander. It takes exceptional talent and incredible practice time to be as consistent and effective with a one-handed-topspin backhand. The current resurgence of the one-handed-topspin backhand is more style than substance in the sense that many players will be far ahead to use two hands for backhand topspin.

5. The racquet-up, hand-mirror forehand take back:

Hand-mirror take back:
fashion, not fundamental

In addition to today's commonly-taught semi-western forehand grip, the forehand take back is usually taught to have the racquet pointed upward and with the non-ball-striking face pointed toward the player's face as though she's holding a hand mirror and admiring their own visage. Then the racquet loops down and in to initiate the forward stroke.

So.... is it necessary to use the hand-mirror technique when making the forehand backswing? In my opinion this is more fashion than fundamental. The real issue is whether one is maintaining racquet momentum and, more importantly, having the racquet face in the proper orientation as the forward stroke begins. It is certainly not necessary to use the hand-mirror take back to accomplish these two objectives, although the hand-mirror take back may, to some degree, facilitate the desireable forward-stroke technique.

There you have it: some food for thought.

Have fun. Be healthy. Play tennis!

The "Mystery" of Creating Optimal Topspin

The Wilson Jack Kramer
Autograph -- one of the
most popular wood racquets

If one looks back to the dawn of the open era in tennis (when pros were first allowed to compete against amateurs in major events) c. 1968, the following, among other things, were generally true:

Laver hitting a high backhand

• Racquets had small faces and were made of wood (with a few exceptions such as the Wilson T2000); they were ALL 27" long and 9" wide across the racquet face
• Serve-and-volley tactics were still effective
• Groundstrokes with underspin were still largely used and effective -- especially on the backhand (but in the ladies' game, underspin was common from both wings)
• Backhands were mostly one handed (Cliff Drysdale was a notable exception that springs immediately to mind. Before him, Pancho Segura was known for his two-handed forehand, and John Bromwich was an early (1930s-1950s) player with a two-handed backhand. Of course, Jimmy Connors, Chris Evert, et al came later.)
• Groundstrokes were still generally taught as open-the-gate, close-the-gate technique
• Rod Laver was about to win his second grand slam (in 1969 -- a grand slam meaning not a single major tournament, but rather all four major tournaments in a single year) using his phenomenal talent and an arsenal of shot techniques, which included topspin from both forehand and backhand (although he sliced his backhand more than rolling it)
• To create topspin on groundstokes, players were usually taught to brush the racquet face up the back side of the ball, using a follow through on the stroke that is high and over the shoulder. It is still often taught this way today. This is a key point in today's article, on which I will elaborate below.

Borg hitting a topspin backhand

A major shift in the game can be marked with the arrival of Bjorn Borg, who was the first top professional to rely heavily on topspin shots on both forehand and (two-handed) backhand. 

Fast forward to today. Although many teaching pros are instructing their beginner students to create topspin by still brushing  the racquet face up the back side of the ball, more advanced players are being told something slightly different by their coaches.

Today teaching pros are telling their proteges that racquet speed is key. It's like a mantra on which we meditate: racquet speed,  racquet speed, racquet speed, racquet speed, racquet speed, ... oooommmmmm...

Yet like meditation, racquet speed and the mechanics that must accompany it are not well understood by many -- including many teaching pros.

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I wrote a book on golf about ten years ago: The Ultimate Slice and Hook Solution. (This will be available from the bookstore at my web site, http://myfoodhelp.com, as a download-able ebook in the near future.) This is relevant to our current topic of tennis and topspin. In my golf book, I explained how a golf club generates ball direction and spin. Keep in mind that ALL golf shots have some degree of underspin, yet some golf swings (drives, in particular) are properly struck with the club moving UPWARD to the ball. Hmmmm.... How does this jive with the common tennis advice to create topspin by brushing up on the back side of the ball?

Federer hitting topspin, directing the ball upward,
yet his racquet face is facing slightly downward.

The common brush-up-the-back-side-of-the-ball advice contains an often-unrecognized enigma:

For any given amount of energy in a stroke, the more one brushes up on the back of the ball, thus putting energy into rotation, the less energy is available for shot pace.

In other words, for most players it's a trade off: it's very difficult to generate a high speed shot with high rotation, when brushing up the back of the ball (Rafael Nadal's forehand is certainly an exception).

The solution to the enigma lies in golf's driver club. Struck with upward club-head direction, it has tremendous club-head speed, but the angle of the club face is not perpendicular to the club-head direction at impact. The club face is slightly open (toward the sky) in relation to club-head direction at impact. Thus the drive has underspin despite the slightly upward swing path. 

Federer captured mid-windshield-wiper follow through.
His racquet stroke is too fast to end over his shoulder,
and instead will finish lower.

What is going on is that with great swing speed, the golf ball mashes against the club face at impact. This causes the swing direction to be the primary determinant of ball flight. It is the angle of the club face in relation to club-head direction that is the determinant of ball spin.

In this era of high-power tennis, the same principles apply to groundstrokes. Accompanied by a high

degree of shoulder rotation, instead of finishing strokes (forehands, in particular) with high follow throughs, the best players have a slight windshield-wiper finish, with the racquet head ending not over the shoulder, but at about mid-chest level. Also, they do not have the racquet face perpendicular to the court at impact. Instead the racquet face is often slightly closed (that is, facing a bit downward toward the court) despite the fact that the shot is generally directed upward.

So at the top levels of tennis play, the racquet speed is sufficient to make stroke direction the main determinant of ball-flight direction, with racquet-face angle being of secondary importance. This makes modern topspin shots flatter than those of preceding generations. [Note: By flatter in the preceding sentence, I mean the path of the racquet face is not quite so vertical.] Spin, as it always has been, is generated when the angle of the racquet face diverges from perpendicular to racquet-face motion.

The modern topspin groundstroke is an upward swing, yes. But this is because the ball flight must almost always be upward to clear the net and land sufficiently deep in the court. Generally speaking, though, the high-level modern topspin groundstroke does not have an extreme upward path, but is flatter to generate the desired pace. It is the racquet speed in combination with the appropriate face angle at impact that generates topspin. All this combines to make powerful shots with sufficient spin to draw them down into the court.

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The remaining question is how is maximal racquet speed achieved?

The short answer is contained in the following two bullets:

• Complete kinetic chain: legs drive hips which drive shoulders which pull arm(s)
• Wrist action: the racquet lags behind the arm(s) in the swing prior to impact with the ball. Just before impact, the wrist (or wrists) accelerate the racquet toward the ball (both forword and upward), with the racquet rotating faster than the arms during this phase of the stroke.

That's it for today.

Have fun, be healthy, play tennis!