Comments on the McCenroe/Connors forehand takeback

[gsheiner]

Just want to get the sense of what people think of the takeback style on the forehand of McCenroe and Connors. To me they take their hands back low and then, at the back, they raise their hands allowing them to then drop to gain racket head speed.

This is the style used on the backhand takeback of Nalbandian and Safin, 2 of the greatest 2handers of all time.

Do you think that the low takeback is related to the grip ( continental/weak eastern) of McCenroe and Connors and subsequent need to try and have a low contact point?

When I played shortstop in baseball, the teaching was to keep your hands low because you could always raise them easily. At the pro level, the ball is obviously bouncing very high but at the club level, would a McCenroe/Connors takeback work?

Glenn S.

[johnyandell]

Hell yes it'll work. It's been shown that the huge bulk of the acceleration is from the bottom of the backswing forward. It's possible that the loops have more to do with getting the left arm across and timing than anything else.
One point is that the racket needs to stay on the right side. But that can go off with either a loop or straight take back.

[tennis_chiro]

Loops and Timing

Hell yes it'll work. It's been shown that the huge bulk of the acceleration is from the bottom of the backswing forward. It's possible that the loops have more to do with getting the left arm across and timing than anything else.
One point is that the racket needs to stay on the right side. But that can go off with either a loop or straight take back.

Yes, a little thing like "timing". There are arguments about increased speed from the gravity drop, disguise of the slice, drop shot or lob off the same backswing (countered by the video here of McEnroe off the same backswing), but perhaps timing is the overlooked and perhaps most important difference. If you take the racket back straight or loop it up like McEnroe and Connors (what are they #1 and #4 on the record of all time match and tournament victories?), then you subject the racket to three accelerations or more correctly an acceleration back, a deceleration and another acceleration forward. In a loop swing, you have just one. That's the drill in the following excerpt from my May, 2008 article applies. (In the video clip that plays with the text in the article, Angela is actually lifting the ball too much. To do the drill correctly, you have to do it without lifting the ball at all. Then there is very little time. Very tough to pull off without a loop.)

Hitting Off the Racket Face

Another terrific tossing drill is one I learned from the late Jerry Alleyne. Jerry was a great New York teaching pro from whom I learned the principles that form the basis of my teaching today.

Start the drill by balancing a ball on the racket face. Stand inside the service line, pick a target in the middle of the service box on the other side of the net. The goal is to hit the ball to the target, but without pushing the ball up into the air before you contact it. This means you have very little time to accomplish the task.

The only way to do it is with a continuous looping motion. If you stop the racket during the backswing the ball will hit the ground before your racket can get to the contact point. Most students will naturally adopt a small looping motion when performing the drill.

The drill gives a great feel for developing a compact circular backswing motion in the actual stroke. It also gives the player the sense of throwing the weight of the racket towards the target and this is exactly the feeling you want when you stroke the ball. You can vary the drill by hitting to targets in different parts of the court, including targets deep into the court. One note: This drill will work with any forehand grip between from a semi-western to a continental. But it will not work with a full western grip.

Basically, the loop enables the player to make the swing and timing much more of a "right brain" automatic kind of activity as opposed to a "left brain" deliberate motion. You can't play tennis at real speed with deliberate motions; you need your automatic computer.

Although Connors and McEnroe have a low backswing, they swing the racket back and up; from there, they have the remainder of a loop swing as the racket drops down and then goes forward up through the ball. And they were extremely talented individuals. We are not likely to see many of those forehand grips in the top 10 again.

don brosseau

[gsheiner]

Great insights thank you.

Thinking about this , it struck me that the mcenroe swing is like a golf swing where you start from the contact point ( or close to it) and then raise the club on the backswing. Golfers also need consistency and power from club speed like tennis players.

So, I wondered if anyone had ever seen a golfer with a loop swing where the club went up first and then looped down. I know it seems ridiculous but wouldn't some of the same arguments that favor the loop swing in tennis favor the loop swing in golf?

As I said, it seems ridiculous but it made me wonder.

Glenn