My Thoughts on the McEnroe Backhand...

[bottle]

A Startling Discovery (as Andy Borowitz would say)

Rather than buy a new computer, I worked on my old, extremely troubled one for three days, and now every video in the stroke archive is ten times as big on the large screen which my photographing sister gave to me some years ago.

Immediately, I can see-- in most of John McEnroe's forehands-- that there is far less arm extension as part of the forward swing than I imagined. Similarly, there is less on-the-fly laying back and closing of the wrist by contact than I imagined.

On the backhand side, I can more clearly see the martinet's posture that both Stotty and I recently reflected upon. If John McEnroe's shoulderblades are already clenched before his racket gets out of the barn, there won't be much of the scapular retraction I've been talking about except at the very end of the stroke.

Less is more, so I am grateful for these shifts in perception, with their implicit suggestion of paring down more.

Another thing I notice better or for the first time is McEnroe's chunkiness-- he could be better put together, physically, than many people think.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterRear1.mov

[bottle]

No, the new chunkiness is just distortion in my screen.

[bottle]

The Labrynth Beneath Disney World

Disney World is two-handed backhands, a theme park where everything is clearly labelled and anybody can find their way around.

Under Disney World however the park detectives study monitors with grieving parents to catch predators on their way toward the locked gates as they carry drugged kids.

Farther down beneath these subterranean rooms are the labyrinths (sp) of one-handed backhands. A person can get there through any one of the sinkholes that characterize the environs of Orlando.

When it comes to John McEnroe backhand drives one might do well to start with his drive returns of serves:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand_return/mac_bhret_1st_serve/mac_bhret_1st_serve.html?MacBHRet1stSDeuceCourtLevelFront1.pct

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand_return/mac_bhret_2nd_serve/mac_bhret_2nd_serve.html?MacBHRet2ndSDeuceRear.mov

Could any returns be more simple than these? Is there roll of the arm? No. Is there movement from the wrist? Probably, but not much.

From there, one could proceed to an ordinary backhand.

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

Rhythm seems the same. Backswing and foreswing is identical path, the one to the other. How much transition is there between them? McEnroe is known for the brevity of his strokes.

But what are the other differences between him and everybody else? And who should study this subject? Persons dwelling on the thin line between confusion and the welcome uncertainty essential to science and art.

[bottle]

Super-Bratty Super-Ease

As Martina Navratilova has said, "You can hit a backhand with any grip you want." But why was she compelled to say that? In reaction to the too many doctrinaire views in tennis.

Okay, it's time and way past time to create rather than imitate. The part I'll continue to imitate is super-bratty super-ease.

First decision comes from learning tango where every long step equals two beats. From cheated over waiting position a two-beat backswing is very slow, in fact my suddenly twinkletoeing feet may have moved six times.

Second decision has to do with a Lance Armstroke now discovered to be a total lie, or if not that, unessential. John McEnroe may have lanced sometimes with the handle of his racket in the videos which I study, but I won't do that, I will not curl/supinate/paveload my wrist as part of the two-beat foreswing I have in mind.

Instead, I'll slowly curl my wrist through the two-beat backswing as I slowly coil my slightly bent arm farther around my back at shake-hand distance to compensate for my loss of lance, i.e. spear or flashlight.

Now comes forward swing. I have done away with interim, with beautiful time-devouring lowerings and de-slackings of arm.

What was the count for an Evonne Goolagong backhand anyway? Two beats for backswing? Two for transition? Three for foreswing? Total of seven? She must have had impeccable footwork to allow time for all that. If so, steal her footwork but not the other.

The foreswing begins with a final step into which you (I) have fallen, I suppose. One doesn't think about it. Step and pivot all the way to the end of the followthrough. Dance is the analogy once again. Pivot or forward hips turn creates perfect balance on the front foot. You cross a bridge as you win the point.

What did I just lose? Certainly not whatever tincture of Ben Hogan is diluted in my (your) veins. When Hogan rotates his hips one cannot tell where turning of them leaves off and thrusting out of them begins. It's all a oneness to which little you-I should aspire.

Again, Was ist da zu verloren? as a nine-foot-tall Austrian lady once wrote with her fountain pen in a long-lost letter that invited me to come and live in a Danubian castle along with twenty other couples. "What's there to lose?" Didn't do it. I wonder why not.

We're so sophisticated that we know that the thigh bone is connected to the hip bone and wherever we are in the great chain of command going upward or downward each body part will naturally slow as soon as it has done most of its thing.

Most reasonable tennis playing contemplators of one-handers would agree on hips first arm second.

For the sake of perversity however-- or maybe of learning through opposites-- after trying a series of such sensible backenroes try one with arm first then hips.

[bottle]

Continued

I will be excited to try the foregoing as described. The idea of keeping elbow at shake-hand distance at most different parts of the stroke is far from something I came up with by myself but could prove helpful in eliminating unneeded complications. It also should reduce the amount of roll required in a given shot since the beginning swing is more level though still with some down and up contained within it.

Always, I've wished that, besides attainment of an ideal one-hand backhand, I could throw a frisbee as well as my two much younger brothers. Maybe this new variation of a backenroe can kill two birds with one frisbee.

The nefarious scheme could lead a person to say, "I am the planet Saturn. And my slightly bent arm and curled wrist form a perfect ring."

Sadly, my right leg puffed up again and I've started a new round of physical therapy and don't dare hit the backboard again quite yet.

The compensation is that I can work on fanciful schemes while delaying the shock of ice-cold reality.

It seems to me however that delaying and loading arm swing while launching racket head into orbit and therefore getting around better is what this proposed stroke is about.

In my ordinary locked wrist eastern backhand I also delay and load the arm swing but while racket head loops in a couple of different directions.

Forgive me for saying "To hell with that" if I can load arm just as well while moving the racket tip in the direction in which I want it to go.

Certainly, I will forgive myself the first time I'm playing doubles and the new stroke doesn't work and I revert to my eastern non-backenroe in a flash.

The Bottle-bird variation of a backenroe right now performs racket tip launch from three simultaneous and summing power sources: 1) forward rotation of hips, 2) easy but muscular straightening or unfurling of arm, 3) easy but muscular straightening or unfurling of wrist.

When or if I reject this plot, I may return to a faster and more crucially timed abrupt change of wrist similar to that in a golf stroke.

[bottle]

Wrist on Service Returns? The Sky's Falling!

My new and possibly true education in backenroes starts not only with don_budge's narrative descriptions relating the purpose of a specific shot to its technique, but with my own examination of the Tennis Player videos of John McEnroe's service returns.

There are many of these backhand return videos in the TP website, in fact more than videos of ordinary backhands, and that's fine since there's nothing like oncoming speed to refine technique, i.e., to pare it down to its essence.

Some of the backenroed service returns seem not much more than a bit of arm straightening followed by a bit of wrist straightening with both of these blended with straightening from the legs, with not much or no forward rotation of the hips.

The small internal arm actions with elbow held back are followed by that arm going straight forward from body as evidenced by strings opening out before they close again.

The wrist straightens before, not during contact, in my view.

But John McEnroe is Quilty, to a reader of Vladimir Nabokov, or Q to a watcher of Star-Trek.

His wrist is a quist, not a wrist.

What nonsense.

But one would expect a great volleyer to have good service returns or to be good at anything related to brevity.

M, I mean Q, certainly employs a lot of advanced volley technique, e.g., the way he starts forward on outside foot and hits the ball sometimes before the inside foot has completed its coming over and settled down.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand_return/mac_bhret_2nd_serve/mac_bhret_2nd_serve.html?MacBHRet2ndSAdFront.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand_return/mac_bhret_2nd_serve/mac_bhret_2nd_serve.html?MacBHRet2ndSDeuceFront.pct

[bottle]

Now I think I know the arm-wrist sequence at the heart of all these backhands. An ordinary JM backhand is different from the JM service returns in that the rear shoulder starts high, and forward hips rotation becomes an essential part of the mix to bring the rear shoulder down.

The hips turn might be easier and stronger without the early leg extension on both sides (bh but fh, too). Hips rotate less when legs extend at the same time, but less can be more, which always seems true with John McEnroe.

[bottle]

Pogo-Sticks

Now at last the pogo-sticks of John McEnroe begin to make sense whether one can master them or not. These "pogo-sticks" are the unique motion with which JM ends most of his ground strokes. They happen because of his early melding of leg extension with his forward hips rotation or from early leg extension all by itself in the case of some of his service returns.

These shots might be inadvisable for some explorers of technique. Or could prove easier than anyone thought. But as Don Brosseau has said, "I don't want to experiment. I know what I would develop if I could."

Advancing sprains are seen as the roof.

Me, I like the current round of continental grip or modified continental grip experiments. And I'm glad the example of Miloslav Mecir was able to re-enter the cosmological discussion here at Tennis Player, Mecir the haptic big smooth cat who liked to stay down.

The iterations continue forever and ever. Time to introduce to the backboard two variations on the forehand side: 1) a stay-down flattish number similar to a chop by Bill Tilden but with the difference that all internal arm shenanigans are thoroughly completed by the time the racket is coming up and through the ball.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/billtilden/billtilden_sa.html?BTFHSliceCourtLevelSide1.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/billtilden/billtilden_sa.html?BTFHSliceCourtLevelSide2.mov

And 2) the melded leg extension and forward hips number of John McEnroe with pogo struck landing.

On the backhand side, the same two variations can be tried. The time now is ripe.

[bottle]

How to Hit a Slice Lob

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

[tennis_chiro]

Not against experimentation

... But as Don Brosseau has said, "I don't want to experiment. I know what I would develop if I could."

...

It's not that I don't like to experiment. But I have experimented and seen the differences in Eastern, Continental, semi-Western and even Western grip strokes and I think the Eastern to mild semi-Western is the best grip for developing a full court game that enables the player to develop a legitimate transition and net game as well. And one of the tools I would give my ideal player would be a continental gripped slice backhand. It's a great weapon, but not enough for today's game on it's own. However, for the recreational player who doesn't have time to develop the entire package, it may well be a superior solution. It's a simpler, more level stroke (at least in the Rosewallian version) that takes less time to set up and can be used very effectively as a defensive tool when needed.

don

[bottle]

Yes. And I'm ready to revert to my eastern to mild semi-western game in a flash if I don't do well with the specific changes I've been working on. What a gas it would be however if I suddenly started beating people who used to beat me. It's possible!

Note: It seems to me, Don, your emphasis is on not inflicting unproven ideas on innocent persons. When I was a rowing coach I made sure not to do that even though I was loaded with fanciful notions. And the victories we achieved that way led directly to new boathouses for West Virginia University and Skidmore College.

Some wouldn't agree-- I had enemies for sure-- and a lot of people were involved in every equation-- the nature of teams-- and the programs existed both before and after I was present. I'm glad though that as a coach I was conservative even though in politics I'm liberal.

Weeper of the house
Speaker and a half...

What do the three dots stand for?

[bottle]

A Changing Idea, Probably

I see this forehand as shoulders turn embracing a bit of hips turn limited from underneath by extending legs.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_forehand/mac_forehand.html?MacFHCenterSide1.mov

And limited also by trailing leg coming over late.

The upper body, in other words, starts rotating before the hips rotate.

For a moment the two-- shoulders and hips-- rotate together.

Then shoulders rotate more.

A sandwich then: shoulders, shoulders and hips, shoulders.

But this thread is supposed to be about backhands! Well, I'm trying to get at a difference between forehand and backhand sides, don't you know.

[stotty]

Flipless

I see this forehand as shoulders turn embracing a bit of hips turn limited from underneath by extending legs.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_forehand/mac_forehand.html?MacFHCenterSide1.mov

And limited also by trailing leg coming over late.

The upper body, in other words, starts rotating before the hips rotate.

For a moment the two-- shoulders and hips-- rotate together.

Then shoulders rotate more.

A sandwich then: shoulders, shoulders and hips, shoulders.

But this thread is supposed to be about backhands! Well, I'm trying to get at a difference between forehand and backhand sides, don't you know.

And utterly flipless...none whatsoever...remarkable...especially as he's really cueing up for a big one.

[10splayer]

And utterly flipless...none whatsoever...remarkable...especially as he's really cueing up for a big one.

Yup....Not only is there no flip, but hardly any wrist extension in the forward swing. The shaft of the racquet stays "inline" with the arm virtually the entire swing. The extent to which is very, very unusual even by continental standards.

[bottle]

It seems as if this shot, though very unique as 10splayer says, should be easy to hit since there's less for a person to do.

Most of these M forehands in the video trove (where there are more of them than M backhands) are hit with pretty level unchanging shoulders.

I recently was therefore trying to figure out how M's racket gets so low. Right now I think it's because M's hips are slightly behind his head, and because the straight arm to racket tip line creates length.

Don't know yet if there is independence of arm near the low point but expect to develop opinion when the doctor, therapist and I think I can play again.