My Thoughts on the McEnroe Forehand...

[stotty]

Upright Mac upright Mecir

Yes, another part of McEnroe's uniqueness is his uprightness. It's like someone is pinning back both his shoulders as he plays. Upright players have been seen before but not to the extent of McEnroe. Mecir kept his lower back locked and straight which accounted for his upright style, but McEnroe is pinned back at the shoulders...never seen that in any other player.

[don_budge]

My thoughts from Golfers and grips to the John McEnroe forehand to a Winter's Night

Happy Happy Everything to you my fellow Spin Doctors! What does it matter if we ever agree...you are there and I am here. But I will tell you one thing...this little discussion about the continental grip and the John McEnroe forehand is spinning and spinning around my head like I remember the wind in the Cochise Stronghold in the Dragoon mountains one fall night when it sounded like a train going around and around the canyon. The lights in the eyes of the little critters peering in from the night at my fire were highly entertaining until there was a noise that sounded a little too big for comfort and sent me diving into my tent. So much for courage...we are all afraid of the dark. Especially if we sense there is something bigger than us out there. Where was I? Oh yea...the Spin Doctor. Listening to the wind of my soul. You feeling this blake_b?

But anyways we had this little discussion about grips and golfing and brainwashing yesterday. Well it all adds up to something...to me. Perhaps there is someone out there that can follow my train of thought. I don't know...everyone needs to be understood. I wonder if I am any different.

Back to the golf grips and the McEnroe deal. Try this one on for size and see if it fits. You are going to love this...or hate it. All yesterday I was trying to find my way through this maze of grip discussion. Now I know how it feels to hit with a continental forehand because I have tried it. I have a pretty good feeling for the mechanics as I took a couple of weeks off to study the video evidence in the archives while holding my racquet solely in a continental grip for the duration. The feeling that I have now is that my forehand is much superior since I converted to the continental. My previous forehand could probably be termed a Federfore imitation. I have described some of my experiences with the continental forehand and how much more variety there is to my forehand now. My young protege has seen it a couple of times now and he is completely perplexed. It seemed that the worm had turned and he was all over me with his topspin and speed and youth. Now I was creeping up on the baseline and taking the ball early and driving it back with really good accuracy to all points of the court...ala McEnroe.

But I turned the tables and his comment was he couldn’t find any holes on my side of the court and from my point of view I had him off balance way more than he did me. Sure he beat me with his speed some, but when there was an exchange between us I had all of the answers way more often than not. Tactically speaking with all of my experience I had all kinds of choices as I described in my post regarding the Karsten Popp Classic backhand. Believe me...when I was playing I wasn’t asking myself the question why...I was only concentrating on my mechanics and my tactics. The mechanics were simply boiled down to the McEnroe backswing, set the racquet back in position ala Johnny with the wrist only slightly laid back and getting my feet and body in position. Everything else took care of itself...from that position everything seemed really simple...just to get the racquet going forwards and holding onto the little bit of lag as long as I could and the results surprised both me and my opponents. I repeat...holding onto that little bit of lag as long as I could. It is possible that it doesn’t matter how much lag there is...maybe it is a matter of just holding onto it until the last possible moment and with the continental it seems that it is possible to hold onto it much longer than with a stronger grip.

So here are my thoughts. It feels that now my wrist is behaving as my speed hand should on my golf club. It seems to me that my golf grip with my speed hand most accurately can be described as a continental grip that I am now using for my tennis swing. My forehand is now speeding through the ball as my speed hand on my golf swing should. Let me put it this way...way more acceleration at the moment of impact. With just the little bit of lag that I achieve when using the continental grip, something about the structure of the wrist and the swing of the tennis racquet has what I describe as a multiplier effect when the racquet face is making contact with the ball...in fact let’s say through the hitting zone. The hitting zone being defined as immediately before contact and immediately after contact...as long as I can maintain the integrity of the wrist until as a passive hinge it wants to slam the door. And slam the door it does. tennis_chiro calls it the Bruce Lee one inch punch effect.

From watching all of the John McEnroe video that I did...and as I have mentioned I stopped it repeatedly and studied it from every conceivable angle, it seems to me that the continental gripped forehand is behaving much like the speed hand in my golf swing should. The way that Hogan has described it. Now here is the kicker...on the other side of my body when I am hitting the drive backhand with the same grip it seems as if my wrist is behaving as the hand on the end of my golf grip behaves. Exactly. But that is another story...and one that I will be embarking on shortly.

Now keep in mind a couple of observations that have been discussed. Some say that the continental is designed for low balls and thinking about the golf swing and how the ball is so far below this sort of corroborates this theory. The way that the speed hand sets up on the grip of both the club and the racquet it is ideal to somewhat apply some what of a descending blow...but in the tennis stroke if you place the ball just a bit further forward in your stance you are hitting up on the ball and voila...instead of underspin as in a golf ball it is top spin. Top spin with a lot of speed behind the racquet face. Just look at the McEnroe videos and study the path of his follow throughs. They sort of seem to match the way the speed hand wrist behaves...in fact it doesn’t seem, it does.

Even though the stronger grips of modern tennis are termed strong...I wonder. It takes an awful lot of backswing to generate that racquet head speed whereas the continental is practically instantaneous as compared to. Since the arc of the backswing is greatly reduced and the speed is instantaneous now the element of control is greatly enhanced as well. One can access the whole court with only subtle deviations in the swing...which I find very interesting compared to, well you know what.

Ok...the title of this thread is “My Thoughts on the John McEnroe Forehand”. That is precisely what it is. It's only a dream...my hallucinations. Take it for what it is. Either this or "Song for a Winter's Night"...there isn't any more room in my head.

[klacr]

Happy Happy Everything to you my fellow Spin Doctors! What does it matter if we ever agree...you are there and I am here. But I will tell you one thing...this little discussion about the continental grip and the John McEnroe forehand is spinning and spinning around my head like I remember the wind in the Cochise mountains one fall night when it sounded like a train going around and around the canyon. The lights in the eyes of the little critters peering in from the night at my fire were highly entertaining until there was a noise that sounded a little too big for comfort and sent me diving into my tent. So much for courage...we are all afraid of the dark. Especially if we sense there is something bigger than us out there. Where was I? Oh yea...the Spin Doctor. Listening to the wind of my soul. You feeling this blake_b?

But anyways we had this little discussion about grips and golfing and brainwashing yesterday. Well it all adds up to something...to me. Perhaps there is someone out there that can follow my train of thought. I don't know...everyone needs to be understood. I wonder if I am any different.

Back to the golf grips and the McEnroe deal. Try this one on for size and see if it fits. You are going to love this...or hate it. All yesterday I was trying to find my way through this maze of grip discussion. Now I know how it feels to hit with a continental forehand because I have tried it. I have a pretty good feeling for the mechanics as I took a couple of weeks off to study the video evidence in the archives while holding my racquet solely in a continental grip for the duration. The feeling that I have now is that my forehand is much superior since I converted to the continental. My previous forehand could probably be termed a Federfore imitation. I have described some of my experiences with the continental forehand and how much more variety there is to my forehand now. My young protege has seen it a couple of times now and he is completely perplexed. It seemed that the worm had turned and he was all over me with his topspin and speed and youth. Now I was creeping up on the baseline and taking the ball early and driving it back with really good accuracy to all points of the court...ala McEnroe.

But I turned the tables and his comment was he couldn’t find any holes on my side of the court and from my point of view I had him off balance way more than he did me. Sure he beat me with his speed some, but when there was an exchange between us I had all of the answers way more often than not. Tactically speaking with all of my experience I had all kinds of choices as I described in my post regarding the Karsten Popp Classic backhand. Believe me...when I was playing I wasn’t asking myself the question why...I was only concentrating on my mechanics and my tactics. The mechanics were simply boiled down to the McEnroe backswing, set the racquet back in position ala Johnny with the wrist only slightly laid back and getting my feet and body in position. Everything else took care of itself...from that position everything seemed really simple...just to get the racquet going forwards and holding onto the little bit of lag as long as I could and the results surprised both me and my opponents. I repeat...holding onto that little bit of lag as long as I could. It is possible that it doesn’t matter how much lag there is...maybe it is a matter of just holding onto it until the last possible moment and with the continental it seems that it is possible to hold onto it much longer than with a stronger grip.

So here are my thoughts. It feels that now my wrist is behaving as my speed hand should on my golf club. It seems to me that my golf grip with my speed hand most accurately can be described as a continental grip that I am now using for my tennis swing. My forehand is now speeding through the ball as my speed hand on my golf swing should. Let me put it this way...way more acceleration at the moment of impact. With just the little bit of lag that I achieve when using the continental grip, something about the structure of the wrist and the swing of the tennis racquet has what I describe as a multiplier effect when the racquet face is making contact with the ball...in fact let’s say through the hitting zone. The hitting zone being defined as immediately before contact and immediately after contact...as long as I can maintain the integrity of the wrist until as a passive hinge it wants to slam the door. And slam the door it does. tennis_chiro calls it the Bruce Lee one inch punch effect.

From watching all of the John McEnroe video that I did...and as I have mentioned I stopped it repeatedly and studied it from every conceivable angle, it seems to me that the continental gripped forehand is behaving much like the speed hand in my golf swing should. The way that Hogan has described it. Now here is the kicker...on the other side of my body when I am hitting the drive backhand with the same grip it seems as if my wrist is behaving as the hand on the end of my golf grip behaves. Exactly. But that is another story...and one that I will be embarking on shortly.

Now keep in mind a couple of observations that have been discussed. Some say that the continental is designed for low balls and thinking about the golf swing and how the ball is so far below this sort of corroborates this theory. The way that the speed hand sets up on the grip of both the club and the racquet it is ideal to somewhat apply some what of a descending blow...but in the tennis stroke if you place the ball just a bit further forward in your stance you are hitting up on the ball and voila...instead of underspin as in a golf ball it is top spin. Top spin with a lot of speed behind the racquet face. Just look at the McEnroe videos and study the path of his follow throughs. They sort of seem to match the way the speed hand wrist behaves...in fact it doesn’t seem, it does.

Even though the stronger grips of modern tennis are termed strong...I wonder. It takes an awful lot of backswing to generate that racquet head speed whereas the continental is practically instantaneous as compared to. Since the arc of the backswing is greatly reduced and the speed is instantaneous now the element of control is greatly enhanced as well. One can access the whole court with only subtle deviations in the swing...which I find very interesting compared to, well you know what.

Ok...the title of this thread is “My Thoughts on the John McEnroe Forehand”. That is precisely what it is. It's only a dream...my hallucinations. Take it for what it is. Either this or "Song for a Winter's Night"...there isn't any more room in my head.

This post from don_budge was my Christmas present and I'm so thankful. Thank you db for the insights and time you put into this thread. Awesome stuff. Geeking out to it big time. Thanks for your knowledge, support and kind words throughout the year.

Merry Christmas to all!

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[bottle]

"Right back at you," as someone recently said.

And Steve, if I had your insights and particularly your narrative descriptions back in the whole year when I hit everything with a continental grip, I may never have switched back. But the experiment was overly lonesome with no real reinforcement from anybody.

I remember being similarly excited in my self-feeding sessions. But then when I played matches I came up short. My conclusion right now: I almost knew enough to carry a continental grip conversion off.

Besides that, for five years I played tennis twice a week at 6:30 a.m. with the principle dancers' piano player at the North Carolina School for the Arts. He was two years more elderly than I, had developed exquisite balance by osmosis through being always in the presence of great dancers, had seemingly played tennis every day of his life, had taught tennis, had never considered using anything other than a continental grip.

So I got to see how the continental works, particularly when Fred Astaire does it (sorry). But I don't think Frank Partridge had a golf background to draw on as you, I, 10splayer and others do.

The different golf hands function (speed hand and the other) are a great thing to try for anybody who has played enough golf to perfectly understand what you mean-- this hand function for forehand, that hand function for backhand even though you're using one hand!

Another good question in these threads: whether we all in tennis are brainwashed. The safe assumption is yes. One can always change one's mind later if one has done the honest experiment himself.

Put another way, read the directions when all else has failed.

But who is the real expert in tennis anyway? The person who has done the experiment.

Also, I know, as John M. Barnaby wrote, there are players everywhere with too many strokes in a state of "slight disrepair," but really, if you've practiced another kind of stroke forever, why not use both?

Tilden apparently was not beyond that when, as a relatively old man, some young topspinner was taking him apart, had him down a set and more.

So the smelly Tilden, in the Frank Deford biography, got mad, changed gears, chopped the dude to death-- my favorite part of the book.

[bottle]

Stripped Down but Rhythmic

There’s rhythm in every John McEnroe backswing, which partially comes, I think, from a slight down and up travel path for the racket:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHSliceCenterFront.mov

And one can see it even in backhand slice. What’s the logic in that? Slice is high to low, and this one is even higher to lower than usual.

If you want your racket high, why not go there on a bee-line?

Well, John McEnroe’s backswings are already stripped down to the essentials. So if you choose to go in his direction, perhaps you should restore the tiniest bit of decoration to the equation.

Not for vanity. (Fifth grade: “Oooooh, he’s stuck on himself. I just hate conceited people.”)

But rather for the elegance and effectiveness that great rhythm brings.

[stotty]

Sliced backhand of Mac

There’s rhythm in every John McEnroe backswing, which partially comes, I think, from a slight down and up travel path for the racket:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHSliceCenterFront.mov

And one can see it even in backhand slice. What’s the logic in that? Slice is high to low, and this one is even higher to lower than usual.

If you want your racket high, why not go there on a bee-line?

Well, John McEnroe’s backswings are already stripped down to the essentials. So if you choose to go in his direction, perhaps you should restore the tiniest bit of decoration to the equation.

Not for vanity. (Fifth grade: “Oooooh, he’s stuck on himself. I just hate conceited people.”)

But rather for the elegance and effectiveness that great rhythm brings.

Do you mean the slight dipping of the racket prior to commencing the backswing?

Actually the beauty of Mac's slice backhand for me is that he takes the racket back a varying heights depending on the height of the incoming ball. This is in stark contrast with many sliced backhands you see in the modern game where backswings always seem high regardless of whether the ball is around the ankles or the ears. This is where sliced backhands these days seem to work poorly in certain scenarios - Nadal's and Djokovic's being good examples.

The great thing about Mac's slice backhand (witnessed by myself at Wimbledon many times) is that he can really knife low incoming balls. His approach shots off the backhand were terrific. His handwork and feel on the stroke is incredibly subtle. He can get a lot of pace of a short swing or even just a stab...just beautiful to watch.

[don_budge]

The McEnroe Forehand Backswing...

What is the purpose of the backswing? Remember one thing...you don't hit anything with the backswing. The purpose of the backswing is get the racquet in position to follow the leads of the body parts until finally the arm swings into position for the wrist to deliver the payload.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_forehand/mac_forehand.html?MacFHShortFront.mov

beauty...johnny will give you beauty and effectiveness. look here...the stereotype ready position with an initial turn of the shoulders and hand and racquet have done nothing. they have merely turned with the body. now here is a true swinging motion for you...the racquet head swings as a pendulum swings. weight of the racquet head with the turning motion of the shoulders swing the racquet back into position until the last little bit of energy loads the wrist (although you disbelievers cannot see it because now it is behind his body, now you see it now you don't) and therefore the little lagging wrist. the hips turn which drops the racquet head down into position then the shoulders clear until the arm comes swinging through to deliver the payload of the wrist. come to think of it...he has a bit of pendulum motion in the forward swing. now that is rhythm. note that mcenroe has maintained this lag in his wrist until just before the door slams...and slam it does. right square into the ball. the racquet goes shooting through and over the path of the ball sending a low hard skidding drive into the forehand court of his opponent.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_forehand/mac_forehand.html?MacFHShortFront1.mov

i will take effective over aesthetics any day of the week. and here is virtually the exact same motion except guess what? the shot is a spinning and hooking ball diving low and hard to the opponents backhand from the exact same backswing as in the above. same backswing and two drastically different results. the pin point control is exasperated by the deceptiveness and freezing ability of the mcenroe backswing. impossible to read and he can virtually make up his mind up at the last nanosecond or change it if he wants to. there is the beauty of this backswing.

The beauty is in the hand of the beholder of the racquet. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line...and in this case it is a bee-line. Look at the hand and not the racquet head. From point A to point B...no muss, no fuss. Superb preparation without regards to flourishes which do not show in the scoring column. One more thing...look at how slow and deliberate his backswing seems. This forehand from backswing to impact is one of economy of motion...which pays high dividends in a game that is played as quickly as tennis.

The last bit of energy from his backswing lands the racquet back into position every single time...in the exact same position with the wrist only slightly laid back which accounts for the great accuracy in the shots plus an extraordinary control of depth placement. There is much to be said for hitting the ball in the center of the strings. McEnroe uses the whole court and is a master at using the forecourt as well. Today's forehands are judged on RPS or RPM and MPH...but he is having none of that. He is playing a different game of subtle deception and subtle tactics. Daring to be different. McEnroe could never be accused of following the herd. Listening to his own drummer who very well may of been a wee bit wild.

[bottle]

Questions, Answers

In answer to Stotty's question, I just see some down and up in all of the martinet's ground stroke backswings regardless of the different heights at which they occur. It's a bit less true of the slices which tend to consist of levelness through unit turn then bee-line up, but generalities, metaphors and similes all begin to decay at some point.

While I hadn't checked out every video when I came up with my hasty generalization (and still haven't), I've clicked on enough of a fair sampling to still believe it's generally true, this down and up, which generates "feel" and converts the arbitrariness of loop or even level or slanted bee-line upward takeback into something more organic, an easy backward swing before the forward swing or forward stroke or forward strike-- all separate ideas.

The forward part can then be organic if you're lucky or robotic if you're not.

So one can, at least, permit oneself to feel great during the first part of these strokes nearly every single time. That has to be worth something all by itself. Rhythmic straightening of the arm as it goes back might contribute to this good feel.

I'm truly interested in the ideas Steve has had which I didn't have during my whole year of this experiment, e.g., the direction of one inch wrist punch being in direct relation to the direction of followthrough.

One can join the sheepled, worldwide condemnation of continental grip all one wants, but I'm wondering at this point if maybe the potential is still pretty good in these seasoned shots which may not be relic but rather the victims of poor info of which there is so much.

The one inch delayed wrist punch certainly does create a nice swoosh in our living room.

Here's the question I want an answer for. I know Ivan Lendl loves golf, and John McEnroe, the martinet, loves to drain three-pointers from the guard position in basketball, but does he also have a connection to golf?

If what Steve is saying is true, McEnroe certainly should (if he doesn't). But maybe his broadcasting and seniors and world team tennis and instruction and music and art gallery stuff and family and kids already takes up enough time.

[don_budge]

Ben Hogan and John McEnroe...The Most Important Part of the Swing

I like to say that Tennis is Golf on the run. Here is one of the reasons why...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ywZ4b6vjFc

This clip was made after Ben Hogan and Sam Snead played a round of golf at the Houston Country Club that Gene Sarazan proclaimed to be the best round of golf from tee to green that he had ever witnessed.

I have quoted from this clip several times in the last couple of years and found this on youtube so I would like to share it with all of you. I like the comments that Gary Player makes in the beginning...he too realizes that much of the modern day teaching is seeking to reinvent the wheel.

But take a look...and then compare the fundamentals that Ben Hogan is emphasizing to those of the actual McEnroe forehand. Much is made of McEnroe's handsy talent but as Mr. Hogan says...it all starts with the lower body. Nothing about the McEnroe hands would be thought of as special without his extraordinary ability to put himself into position to make his swing. I have never seen anybody with so much meticulous work in creating the three lines of feet, shoulders and racquet in their position to go forwards with the swing. Repetitive motions become more repetitive if they begin from the same position every time.

My own experience so far with the swinging of a McEnroe forehand has been verbatim out of Hogan's mouth. When I get my ass into position to make use of the body parts in the order that he spells out everything falls into place beautifully. But if I start to rely too much on just the shoulder and arm motion I lose that lag in the wrist and begin to steer the ball...which still is a pretty effective shot but it loses some of the sting that makes this swing so distinctively penetrating and deceptive.

[bottle]

Exciting. My way right now of dealing with these questions is to take my body-damaged self to the cocktail parties that Hope seems to find and then talk to the best golfers there. One guy demonstrated hips then shoulders then arm then wrist, all on the downswing. I guess he was taking a divot.

I was thinking about length of the martinet's backswing (not much). Looks like short game to me. Not from the apron but farther out. Maybe a seven-iron or pitching wedge, but then, mid-way through, the shot turns from a chip into something more fierce.

And you can see his head trying to move left every time. It doesn't go very far but surely must create nice tug-o-war with the inside out swing. With contact point farther back than eastern, semiwestern or western just as the one book on continental grip (no, don't remember the title and it's lost) always said.

Why didn't this work for me the first time around? Lack of the precision you're mentioning, almost for sure.

[bottle]

I didn't want to be blown away before I wrote my post, but now I've seen the Hogan video-- and I am blown away.

[don_budge]

Goodbye 2012...hello 2013. The year of the Continental grip.

This post from don_budge was my Christmas present and I'm so thankful. Thank you db for the insights and time you put into this thread. Awesome stuff. Geeking out to it big time. Thanks for your knowledge, support and kind words throughout the year.

Merry Christmas to all!

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

klacr...aka Kyle LaCroix...aka Chef DeLacroix. That was the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me. Thank you. Coming from you...The Kid who loves tennis...it's special. Best to you. And those that love you! To all of you!


If bottle can do it...so can I. Thanks a lot bottle. I'll give it a year...God willing. 365 days. One more trip around the sun. I am happy that you appreciated that bit of Ben Hogan. Truly one in a million. Only an artist can truly appreciate stunning reflections into the infinite. The white light searing into ones canyon of the mind with the wind whistling around and around like a freight train. Reality. Truly inspiring.

But back to the business at hand. It's the continental grip...stupid. Why didn't I try this when I was a tennis player and relevant? Well...they say everything happens for a reason. I am not so certain at this point. A lot of this business in life seems to be random...or is it? The three dots...if only I have these three little dots I can connect it. To be connected...to your Toyota Land Cruiser...your prize mare...your student...your lover...your inner warrior...your forehand. Ferdinand Celine. The Journey...to the End.

Case in point. This John McEnroe forehand stuff was born out of my longing to drive my backhand. So what do I do...I embark on the unlikely journey into the realm of the continental forehand. Sort of the completion backwards principle as espoused by "The Talking Heads". You have to get in to get out. Alice through the Looking Glass. The power of mirrors converting the right into the left. Oh my God...look where this dream has taken me. Hallucinating like a mad man! It was something stroke said. It made me hallucinate. What do I mean...studini? Oh...I forgot. You don't read me. Well...then you don't know what you are missing...do you?

I am in direct polar opposite juxtaposition of every...what did 10splayer call them...oh yes, every developmental coach for the past 25 years. Just where I want to be. The story of my life. The herd is going that way...I head off in the opposite direction. There must be a reason he mused...yes there must be. There has to be. "It's not that I don't like people...it's just that I feel a whole lot better when they aren't around."-Mickey Rourke in "Barfly". So just where have all of these geniuses led us. Have they led us to believe that there is only one way to play "Modern Tennis"? First the tennis establishment allows the coup d'etat with the equipment and anything goes...and then they engineer the hijacking of the coaching. Brain washed? If you are...you certainly wouldn't know it would you? No matter...it's not my problem.

Well while we are getting on in such a cozy personal manner...I want to share my hallucination about this bit of tennis technique that I have drawn out of the wishing well. My wish to drive my backhand led me to a weapon on the forehand side as well. Maybe it's for left handers only. Those looking at the world from the other side of the mirror. That doesn't make me crazy...it just gives me perspective. The forehand is a big gun now. At 58 years of age I reschooled, rethought, retooled myself to hit this stroke. Not a bad job of self teaching if I do say so. Oops! I think I just strained my shoulder patting myself on the back.

Analyzing 31 video shots of John McEnroe's forehand compliments of John Yandell's brilliant creation tennisplayer.net...three weeks of holding my racquet in nothing but a continental grip and its game on! Come on...make my day. I'm sold...I sold it to myself. I bought into it hook line and sinker from day one. Try it...you'll like it. I dare you. I don't really care if you do or not...but I'm sharing. But do it for your tennis_student(s) enlightenment. Share!

Yesterday I took it right at my ex-partner who is 35 years old and plays the number one spot at the club. He's fast, he hits hard with lots of glorified topspin and hates to lose. In short he's a tennis player. A lot younger than me. He looked a bit confused as I explained the process that I went through after seeing McEnroe take Wilander apart three weeks ago. He said that I made him feel awful...just like Wilander said about McEnroe. There is a God! I have always known in my heart that I am the better tennis player but his youth or his lack of years played to his advantage. But yesterday was a different story...I controlled the tempo of our duel which we played without the serve. The new forehand made all of the difference. I attack...I defend...I hit hard...I hit deep...I hit angles...I hit with topspin...I hit with underspin...I hit hard down the line with sidespin...I hit without spin. When I miss it is by inches more often than not. It is everything that I have written about here. I have not exaggerated. Not a bit. Just the facts. Read 'em and weep. Thanks for your patience. Brothers and sisters. For hearing me out. For listening to the voice in the wilderness. It's different. It flies in the face of conventional wisdom. Just the way I like it. Just like the Bad Boy in Johnny McEnroe.

Does he flip? Damn right he does. That little flip has a multiplier effect in the wrist when using the continental grip. Flips off the establishment every chance he gets. Good for you Johnny Boy. Good for me. Good for all of us. Good night to all of you. Much love and peace on earth. Wake up everyone! Gee...come to think of it, I hope that I don't wake up.

Today I embarked on the continental backhand journey with my boy Gustaf as my sparring partner. Wore him out. Supinate the wrist like the "other hand" in golf. That sounds pretty complicated and what do I mean by that...gee I don't know if I can do it. Ha ha ha...the hell I can't. Just tell me that I cannot do it. I'll show you! I think that I will start a new thread! Guess what I am going to call it? Ahh...who cares? Until next year! 2013! Party hardy everyone! I am going to bed early and getting up to work on some projects. Getting a leg up on the competition! God bless us...each and every one of us!

[stroke]

McEnroe's backhand, with his continental grip, makes for very interesting form when he hits his topspin bh. It appears he bends his wrist inward a he prepares, closing the racquet face,and then extends his wrist through the shot. Just as a world class ping pong player produces his topspin bh, using what would be in tennis terms a continental grip. In world class ping pong, there is no such thing as a strong, eastern type bh grip for the topspin bh.

[don_budge]

stroke...again!

McEnroe's backhand, with his continental grip, makes for very interesting form when he hits his topspin bh. It appears he bends his wrist inward a he prepares, closing the racquet face,and then extends his wrist through the shot. Just as a world class ping pong player produces his topspin bh, using what would be in tennis terms a continental grip. In world class ping pong, there is no such thing as a strong, eastern type bh grip for the topspin bh.

You posted just before I did...the new thread. A great omen my friend! This is going to be fruitful. You were one of the catalysts. Thanks for the thought...it is central to my analysis coming up.

[stroke]

Feel free to use the ping pong analogy. As you probably realize, a world class ping pong player using a traditional grip is really using a continental grip to hit off both sides, just like McEnroe does with his tennis. More impressive to me with this grip is how McEnroe hits his topspin fh. It is very difficult to hit topspin with the continental in tennis. One more thing I find interesting. You may have noticed how Federer takes his bh much earlier than players like Gasquet and Wawrinka, who use strong eastern bh grips. I think Federer uses a very slightly stronger grip on his topspin bh than McEnroe, but still basicly a continental. I think this enables him, like Mac, to take the ball early, on the rise.