Modern Tennis?

 Mark Papas

mark@revolutionarytennis.com

JUST WHAT IS MODERN TENNIS?

It's been said that modern tennis relates to hitting with topspin, hitting with an open stance, and wrapping the follow through around.  But as the song goes, “everything old is new again.”

From 1926 comes clear evidence that topspin, hitting from an open stance, and wrapping the follow through around the opposite shoulder were very much in the game at that time.  One of author J. Parmly Paret's series of instructional books entitled Mechanics of The Game of Lawn Tennis shows that.

J. Parmly Paret analyzed the mechanics of the top pros of his day using high speed photos provided by the United States Lawn Tennis Association, which he includes in his book.  Of the 9 forehand sequences, 5 roll the racket over, and 4 hit from an open stance.  Paret is the first tennis biomechanist, and as his colleagues today, he eagerly declares that these photos reveal hidden truths and shatter myths.  My favorite is his conclusion that pros take their eyes off the ball before it is hit since many pros do not have their eyes on the ball at contact.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW AGAIN FROM 1926?

“In any case, a certain amount of rotation is necessary, and the more it is used the better.

“Your whole body should be kept as far away from the ball as possible as the stroke is made, and...for the longer the lever used in making that whipping slash against the ball, the greater will be its driving power.”

“The weight must be traveling in the direction you want the ball to go when the stroke is made or power is lost.”

“common traits... third, there is the almost unanimous habit of taking the eyes off the ball before it is hit.... To omit any of these habits means to limit the skill of the expert to a marked degree.  [the expert] sees it until he feels sure he has a proper estimate of the flight and can center it on his racket, and then he looks up to get his bearing, and select his final direction.”

And so it seems what the modern teachers of today advocate sounds eerily familiar.  Has modernity not reached tennis?  Or is it a case where the answers lay before Paret's eyes as well yet he did not see them?

At least the ready position has changed from 1926.  Back then it was “a diagonal stance, with the right foot somewhat farther from the net than the left.”  Phew.