Pan one of a three-pan series
M h Busters: Racket Back Remember the tennis teacher tease: "Racket back. Bend your knees. That'll be twenty dollars, please.?" One tennis myth started with the first instruction in this joke-"Racket back," which has probably been shouted countless times across more tennis nets than strawberries sold throughout Wimbledon's history. While this instruction can be helpful in some situations, in others it has caused numerous stroke limitations in literally millions of tennis players. In the past two decades, tennis has evolved well past the straight take-back backswing that became the signature styles of tennis champions Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors. With the advent of modern racket technology, the entire game has become modernized as well-even "powerized." However, power alone doesn't build a winning game. It must be used in tandem with control. And, at least on groundstrokes, topspin is the glue that allows power and control to adhere and be part of the same tennis arsenal. We all know that gravity is the main force that brings tennis balls back to the ground. Topspin creates an
effect that actually assists gravity. When a tennis ball rotates through the air with forward spin or topspin, high air pressure is created above the ball and low air pressure beneath it. The result is that the ball is pushed downward by the higher pressure above it. This is why topspin lobs and loopers hit with heavy topspin can appear as though they will fly beyond the baseline, but then end up mysteriously dipping at the last moment to land inside the court. Why so much about power and topspin alongside the myth buster that "Racket back" may not be ideal instruction? Simple. To generate effective power and topspin on groundstrokes, and contrary to the popular instruction to take your racket back, you do not want to take your racket back and have it pause in the back position waiting to start the forward swing (see photo 1). Here are the facts behind this mythbusting argument: Racket momentum-It's commonly understood that the longer the swing, the more racket-head speed can be generated to create more ball speed, Le., more power. Therefore, you do not want to take your racket back early and have it pause in the back position. The better choice is a loop backswing. Think of the shape of the letter C and you will start to get the picture. Low-to-high swing-To create topspin, a "brushing up" low-to-high swing is needed. The loop backswing previously described makes topspin possible. Running is hard-Running with your racket back, as in photo I, is much hard-