Johnny Mac's Forehand

[lukman41985]

There's this notion that today's tennis, modern tennis, is completely different from the way that tennis was played in the old days. Well, I was checking out this clip of McEnroe and couldn't help notice how modern this forehand looked despite the fact that John holds a continental grip!!! Another interesting thing about this clip is the amount of shoulder rotation John uses. His shoulders have rotated past the expected 45 degree contact angle. It seems to me that John makes this whole sequence work by:
1.) Contacting the ball close to his body
2.) "Closing the racquet off" by using a lot of hand and arm rotation. Sorry that I'm using words here to describe such an intricate idea. I'll be more specific: Observe the angle of the racquet face from contact until 10 frames after. I'm not sure if the racquet seems to close because of hand and arm rotation or because of John's path into the ball. I guess a flat path could produce this sort of racquet face angle, but the shot was hit with a good deal of topspin.
3.) The ball is low.
4.) Hitting against someone who doesn't produce massive power and spin. I don't know if this stroke would work on the tour. Although, I've heard David Sanguinetti uses a continental on his forehand. And also, John nearly won a super-set match against Mario Ancic in Royal Albert Hall last year. I'm buying the tape. I can't wait to check it out.

What do you guys think of this modern looking forehand? How do you think he makes it work? Could this stroking technique work on the pro tour? Because John uses such a conservative grip and simple preparation, is this an ideal model for recreation players?

[johnyandell]

For some reason your video post didn't come thru. Want to try again??

[lukman41985]

There it is. Sorry!

[johnyandell]

I'd have to say that the continental grip is probably the worst possible grip for the average player! Much harder to have a good hitting arm position and high balls are a nightmare.

Everyone knows I love John and the straight backswing I've always liked--and his turn in the preparation. Beyond that forget it. Although arm rotation is a key in all strokes the severe amount needed to make the continental work on different balls is another negative. Eastern to mild semi western please.

[lukman41985]

Yeah, his compact preparation and backswing are so simple and in that sense, beautiful. I could see why the continental would be a bad grip to learn. One, because a lot of arm rotation is needed to make it work, there would be a lot of mis-hits from timing errors. Two, all this arm rotation could put a lot of stress on the arm AND the player! Three, because the ball needs to be relatively low when hitting forehands with this grip, you would almost always have to hit on the rise--a huge demand on footwork. Four, it's difficult to lay the wrist back when you hold the grip. Mentally, one would have the tendency, or atleast I did when I fooled around with a continental on the forehand, that laying the wrist back OPENS the face. By the way, Mr. Kerry Mitchell, if you are out there, those articles helped a ton. If you guys haven't checked it out, definitely do!

[crvw]

Continental Not So Bad

I play with both the continental (on both sides) and western grips (on both sides). My bread and butter game is western, but I switch to continental for a change of pace on clay or whenever playing with my family, with kids, or a much weaker player.

The switch in grips definitely requires a switch in mindsets- here are the differences as I perceive them:
1. Western=bang the ball, continental=place the ball
2. Western=high margin of error, continental=narrow margin
3. Western great for waist level and above, continental great for low balls
4. Western requires grip change at net, continental requires no change
5. Continental= I feel I can hit any kind of shot with any spin from anywhere on the court, Western= feels more mechanical, more constrained and requires MORE preparation.
6. Once you get the hang of continental topspin, taking deep balls on the rise is a lot like a full swing half-volley -- if that makes any sense!
7. A continental topspin backhand is very difficult to reliably execute under pressure, at least for me.
8. Aesthetically, the continental definitely feels and looks old-timey

I think that McEnroe would do well if he came up through the ranks today. His game would be so unorthodox compared to the "modern game" that he would give all but the best players a tough time. He might not win grand slams, but he'd surely be in the top ten.

Chas.

[CraigC]

Mac has been playing at my club over the past few days. He beat Philipousis last week, and destroyed two top 200 players in past two days. I would say he would have a pretty good shot at playing at a high level in the modern game if he were coming up through the ranks today, considering he is now old enough to have a kid on tour.
Also saw the old man hit a few nasty drop volleys that spun back on his own side after bouncing on the other. He simply caught them and laughed at his opponent. He still has tons of game.