Visiting Pros Get Most Out Of Backhand Strokes

Chronicle (Levin), 9 December 1948, Page 9

Visiting Pros Get Most Out Of Backhand Strokes

"Volley")

(By

• If the photographs that ac'companied last week's notes are examined, a good deal can be learned. Each pictul'e shows a shot being taken on" the backhand. In the one of Riggs, the backhand grip can be seen with the thumb down the handle to give additional "strength to his shot. * A good deal of controversy has raged around the backhand gtip. Most English players, I believe, do not change the grip, but rely on. a low wrist to givc strength to the shot. Fred Perry, in his day a world champion, used the same grip forehand and backhand, and the picture of Segura and Pails both seem to show an unchanged grip with a low wrist. If you have an elementary knowledge of ju jitsu,. you will know that one of the first things learnt is that a wrist bent back is immensely strong. Try to bend the wrist of a man when. it is bent . backward and you will have difficulty, but if ihe wrist is bent forward it can easily be dealt with. The ability to play a backhand shot Without changing . grip depends mainly on the footwork. Study the photographs again and note the position of the feet and the relationship of the body to the net. This emphasises what has been said in previous notes — that footwork is the foundalion on which the game must be built. Reverting to the grip, there are many advantages in not changing. when Anthony Wilding, after getting to the top of tennis in New Zealand, went abroad he found that the usual grip used in this country — a rapld change with the thumb down the handle — was too slow for fast tennis and. if I remember rightly, he changed to the constant grip although it took him many months of hard praclice to perfect it and he found. that his footwork had to be improved. For a backhand, the body must be at least at right angles to the net. If in a double you are chasingi your service to join your partner at the net, the return will in many cases be down the line to your backhand and the best reply is to volley "from the service line. If you can't do this, you can countj yourseif beaten, but you can volley any ball, however fast, if you use the "one grip" — wrist low, hand almost touching the ground and point of racquet up almost to a right-angle. In close volleying you have no time to change your grip, bu^ you'll be surprised at the ease with which you can return the most Severe shots. The essence of the -one grip is the low grip — that is the angle at which the hand normally aligns itself with the head of the racquet above thej hand. To find the angle, clench the fist then, without moving tne hand. take the racquet into your grip. I am not suggesting that your wrist fiiust be rigid in play — far from it — but at the -moment of ! impact of the racquet with the ball the grip must be firm. It is not easy to change a grip that seems to come naturally to a new one, but if you want to be first class it is worth trying.