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If this clip isn't an education then I don't know what is. A remarkable walk through of Ken's backhand volley.
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Stotty -
Fascinating clip. Narrated by Vic Braden. Interesting racquet Ken is using. I don't remember seeing him using any Wilson products. It looks to be a Wilson Ultra or Pro Staff. Love the comment by Richard Gonzalez:
"When Pancho Gonzalez was asked about Ken Rosewall's slice backhand, he said, "What slice, he drives his backhand as flat as a pancake.""
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Am I the only one who finds Vic's voice irritating? (May he rest in peace...)Comment
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Funny that you mention that. When I first started to play tennis and I'm pretty certain this is about the time that you became interested in tennis also it was around or about 1968 or so. I remember watching the tennis broadcasts back in those years and it was none other than Vic Braden who was given spots on CBS or whatever network it was covering tennis. He would jump in there during a commercial break and just launch into some aspect of the game of tennis. After he was done you were left scratching your head wondering...can he be serious? The tone of voice was as you say "irritating" and the message wasn't all that clear either. I was a bit surprised on this forum that he had a serious following. My father also thought that Vic was sort of full of beans...funny beans. His TV personna was a chubby and jolly salesman. His schtick for the mediocre or less than championship caliber. He was an odd choice thinking back. The voice could very well have been a man like Richard Gonzalez who also had a very distinctive voice as well...albeit in a more professional manner.Originally posted by johnyandell View PostComment
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Rosewall’s slice( flat) backhand groundstroke and volleys skid and stay very low on the ground like Federer’s “knife”. I still am looking for ultra slow images that capture the “flat slice skid” bounce and how it differs from the regular slice bounce. This low bounce can really throw your opponent’s timing off or make them bend deep to dig it up.Has anyone experienced this difference from an opponent? I get eye rolls when I ask tennis pros this question and I can’t get a player with a good “ knife” slice and a crew to help me capture on film something I guess that doesn’t exist. Kind of like experiencing the “ heavy” groundstroke.Comment
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Rosewall’s flat slice literally looked like it rolled instead of bounced when hit on a grass or wooden surface( yes.....wood which is most likely unknown to post 80 ‘s players).Comment
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No player conjures up thoughts in one's mind of classical tennis quite like Ken. He is classical tennis personified. Not just because of his perfect and wonderful classical repertoire but also in his demeanour, appearance and clothing...right down to his socks. Put bluntly, he was one amazing little tennis player.
I saw Ken in his 50's practicing with Fred Stolle at Wimbledon. All his backhands were flat, although tennis_chiro assures me he had a wicked sliced backhand when he approached the net. His backhand drive was terrific but his backhand volley was even better. It was right up there with Edberg's in my view, pretty damn perfect.StottyComment
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More on his backhand in my upcoming series on the slice bh...Comment
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As for Vic... Right place at the right time with the right (or in many cases) wrong line...In the last 10 years of his life we became friendly because we saw each other everyday in the media lounge at Indian Wells. He came to my place in SF once and we had a good talk though I can't remember about what! I remember the last thing he said to me was to keep up the good work--that was at Indian Wells the year before he died.
But he was extremely dogmatic. He published an article in Tennis claiming Andy Murray hit the ball at the top of the toss (ha!). Roscoe Tanner was his serve model. You couldn't argue with him because he would always trot out some "scientific" explanation based on his "research" even if video clearly showed it to be not true.
Early in my teaching career I had a regular student with a compact classical forehand. He went down to SD to Vic's clinics against my advice... When he came back he had a gigantic circular loop and couldn't get the racket head down below the ball and was hitting slice forehands off the back fence.
The lesson for me out of that was that "science" wasn't always true and that probably there would never be agreement among experts on many things. Not sure that's bad but it explains a lot about the state of tennis below the pro level.Comment
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You're trying to torture me right?Comment
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Ha, I thought I was being funny, but ol Bottle just texted me and told me I am so NOT funny. He also told me he was way smarter than I am.Last edited by stroke; 08-19-2020, 03:52 AM.Comment
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I don't think Bottle knew how to text.
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