All Court Tennis-Brent Abel

[stroke]

Brent,

I really enjoyed you article on playing all court tennis and enjoying it more. I agree with you completely about your thoughts on most of us(I am 50 myself)trying to play like Nadal or any of the pros out there, even though I do love studying their strokes here at tennisplayer.net. I still love watching McEnroe play now on the Champion's Tour, probably more so than when he was in his prime, because I feel he is really the ultimate example to the type of tennis of which you speak. He has got to be the best 49/50 year old tennis player ever, always looking to move forward and move the ball anywhere on the court with his masterful continental grip.

[brentabel]

All-Court Tennis - Let's Be Realistic...

Hi and many thanks for your kind words. Appreciate it.

It's really easy to get caught up in trying to copy our current tour pros.

But the question to me is what do we really want out of our tennis?

And my answer and the answer that I hear all of the time is that I want to be able to play the game for the rest of my life and obviously have fun doing so.

So, realistically speaking, I just do not believe that anyone is going to be able to do what Rafa or Roddick can do with their forehands and predominately baseline play and be able to do so as they get older.

We're talking extreme grips, extreme swing shapes, and an extremely limiting ability to do much else other than be a ball basher.

And when we talk about having true fun on the court, baseline play just doesn't do it for me. It's way too restricting mentally.

I'd much rather be able to play an all-court game.

Come on, if a player wants to simply look like Rafa or look like he/she knows how to hit the ball like Roddick, then let's be realistic, that's a player who I don't think cares much about playing tennis as they get older.

I'll admit that once in awhile I have no problem going to a semi-western forehand to be able to throw a 3/4 lob up to my opponent's backhand, see them back up, and then move in towards the net.

But that shot is a means to an end which is to produce an opportunity to move forward and cut off their time to recover back to the center of the court and then force an opponent to come up with a big time passing shot.

Thanks again for your feedback. I don't really label my style of teaching as old school, classic, retro, whatever, but what I do teach is an all-court style of play that does require the continental and eastern forehand and backhand grips to be able to enjoy visiting all parts of the court.

It's simply more fun...!

Brent - WebTennis.net

[nokomis]

Brent Ables article

I have followed Brents stuff for some time now and think he's one of the "really good guys" in our sport. Don't agree with everything but hard to take issue with most of his work.

However, I think we all learn from watching the pros. Extreme grips are somewhat of a problem as players gets older but they have, in most cases, an ability to modify the grip. I don't see many trying to use grips that just aren't suited for them or not effective.

I want newer players to use the semi-western ("frying pan grip" - sorry, my term) and not start with "others" only to have to change as they progress. Its easy for most to hit with this grip once they get the hang of it, regardless of how old they are.

Although I hit hundreds of balls daily, mostly feeds, I use the semi-western even on deep feeds and have never experienced problems - do I get sore at times, sure but I'm 68.