Some Thoughts on Pete's Groundstrokes

[sejsel]

John,

I am looking forward to studying in detail the footage of Pete's Forehand, in my opinion - biomechanically the forehand, period.

Seeing the footage of his 3 matches in Asia vs. Federer says a whole lot about his forehand vs. everything else today...

What happened to his backhand? Well he switched possibly 3 years too late, making the process more difficult - and traces of his old double hander stayed during the course of his career in his hitting arm.

If you see the footage of Pete at the age of 9, you see that his right arm then performed sort of "carrying" action or movement, which was not good if he was ever to make a switch to one hander.

What happened there with his right forearm (and upper arm action) was a consequence of elbow not "stopping" at the right moment (well, this could be put more correctly as upper arm action with elbow travelling too far or straight forward after the ball - looking at what happens on good one-handers you can easily see the difference), thus not allowing the forearm to continue acceleration - ending with wrist and racquet finishing the regular biomechanic chain on one-hander that comes "naturally" to people with exemplary one-handers. Of course, this was manifested in backhands that looked at times pushed, rather than hit.

Noticeable exception was US Open 1990, many times pointed out by Robert Lansdorp (also to Pete) as the occasion or tournament where he was hitting good drives on returns of serve and good backhands in general (drive backhands).

There are also other elements to this issue, but this one was, perhaps the most obvious one.
Although, through years, especially at Wimbledon, one could see how gifted a shotmaker Pete is when he was forced to pass on backhand side - he performed far better than in baseline rally.

There was a rumour of the hip flexor injury he sustained I think in 1997, some people cite it as a possible reason of his somewhat deteriorating form in that period and some problems with backhand due to that.
Truly looking forward to your analysis of this and all details in it.
I could write more on this to You, but I am sure you get many messages with similar content, so for now.

Best Regards from Sweden
Sejo

P.S - Couldn't agree more with you on the issue of the forearm and especially the myth of the wrist.
When is the study of what happened on that Federer's forehand with the closed angle of the racquet face on the ball coming? (the one some Australian physicist is working on)
Looking forward to that as well!

[airforce1]

Sejo,
Some very interesting perspectives on Pete's one hander. I look forward to searching more into what you cite.

[sejsel]

Sejo,
Some very interesting perspectives on Pete's one hander. I look forward to searching more into what you cite.

Thanks; wrote in a hurry and at such a late hour that night, hence "this" instead of "thus" - or something more suitable - in one place in the text.
That was a part of correspondence with John Yandell, he suggested that this part could be put on forum and I concurred.
It might seem a bit harsh on Pete - that analysis, and of course somewhat incomplete; I wrote on one detail that deserved attention in the subject.
I would also love to find time to transfer all of my VHS tapes with his matches (and all others as well) on HDD or some other digital media, but there is a good amount of material on the web, even on Pete's backhand.

Pete's forehand, though - unbelievable, well "clean" is the word, I guess.
And really effective.
I did not mentioned his 3 matches vs. Federer in Asia by accident, some really good examples of his ability and advantages of his technique on forehand can be seen there.
Looking forward to your follow-up on the subject!

[sejsel]

Sejo,
Some very interesting perspectives on Pete's one hander. I look forward to searching more into what you cite.

Although, looking at the slowmo-footage from Tennisplayer.net, this issue seems to be more complex, and Pete's backhand less of liability, than I suggested previously.
I just can't help remembering Frew McMillan's "critique" of Pete's backhand at times from Eurosport's coverage of some of his matches...
I do think he was spot on in what he was saying back then, as well as Robert Lansdorp (they were both saying pretty much the same thing).
Look at the position of the Pete's elbow at the furthest point back in the backswing and compare it to Leconte's, McEnroe's, Becker's and Edberg's, and even Lendl's or Haas one hander. Another interesting keypoint in the analysis.

[oliensis]

I watched Sampras practice earlier in his career at the US Open and I remember thinking that his backhand was pretty darn good. Later in his career, it seems to me, his preparation/backswing shortened up and he never really fully got turned in preparation to hit the drive...and consequently the left shoulder didn't stay back, and the torso came through and he sort of "umphed" (pushed) the ball over rather than really taking a full cut at it. And the slower the court the more it was a problem because he could get away w/ just his good hands on faster courts, but needed a fuller drive on slower courts...and outdoors it was more of a problem than indoors (I remember watching a late-career indoor match w/ Agassi when Sampras was taking the backhand early and driving it down the line with impunity...but that was probably a fast court, so the point's already been made).

So, my thoughts on the subject were these: 1) late in his career his movement/preparation lost a half step, and that set off a negative feedback cycle on the BH, 2) the game got a little faster and the balls started coming up a little higher, which exacerbated the same negative feedback cycle, 3)as with many players, the last thing they develop when they're young is the first thing to go when they're older as earlier habits return.

[sejsel]

I watched Sampras practice earlier in his career at the US Open and I remember thinking that his backhand was pretty darn good. Later in his career, it seems to me, his preparation/backswing shortened up and he never really fully got turned in preparation to hit the drive...and consequently the left shoulder didn't stay back, and the torso came through and he sort of "umphed" (pushed) the ball over rather than really taking a full cut at it. And the slower the court the more it was a problem because he could get away w/ just his good hands on faster courts, but needed a fuller drive on slower courts...and outdoors it was more of a problem than indoors (I remember watching a late-career indoor match w/ Agassi when Sampras was taking the backhand early and driving it down the line with impunity...but that was probably a fast court, so the point's already been made).

So, my thoughts on the subject were these: 1) late in his career his movement/preparation lost a half step, and that set off a negative feedback cycle on the BH, 2) the game got a little faster and the balls started coming up a little higher, which exacerbated the same negative feedback cycle, 3)as with many players, the last thing they develop when they're young is the first thing to go when they're older as earlier habits return.

I agree completely.
Just a side note - asked almost 19 years ago one experienced coach on Petes backhand - racquet face being open in the backswing. He responded - "it is a consequence of backhand being hit of the back foot". Gives a food for thought if you think about stroke mechanics. I think Pete deep down never really considered his backhand to be that much of a weakness, and I do remember him hitting some incredible backhand drives even later in his career.
But you are spot on, I think, in everything you write; the part about shoulders and the turn in preparation on his backhand is certainly the key moment in analysis.

[tennisplayer]

In think that in the later part of his career, Pete only tried to get into one of two situations during a rally: either set himself up to go to the net, or get a forehand. The way he bludgeoned his forehand, it was usually a one-stroke point winner. He just used his backhand to stay in the point and set himself up.