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John McEnroe and the Universal Grip

Tom Allsopp

At the pro level tennis has changed dramatically over the last couple of decades. What was once a largely tactical game of cat and mouse where one sought to maneuver an opponent out of position in order to end the point by attacking the net, has morphed into a game of baseline aggression. Still, we hear commentators stressing the importance of touch or feel even within this power game. To learn more about this thing we call feel, one only has to turn back the clock some years and study the game of John McEnroe. In my opinion, John had the greatest feel of any tennis player past or present, Federer included! No one hit drop shots like Johnny Mac and around the net his feel was second to none. What makes his control of the tennis ball evem more extraordinary is how he managed to do it with such a unique and unorthodox style… and a wooden racquet.

This article is aimed at helping players to improve their touch and feel. As a player I spent many hours playing service box games – maybe too much time rather than working on my overall game! However, I am convinced this helped me to develop ‘great hands’ as they say.

To be good at anything, you have to embrace it. A player like Andy Murray enjoys playing tennis like a game of chess, very strategically, whereas Serena Williams takes pleasure in overpowering and crushing her opponents. So there is no surprise their games look the way they do and that we don't see many drop-shots hit by Serena. Therefore McEnroe's style of play; having limited power and getting to the net as often as possible, went a long way to developing his great hands.

The Universal Grip

John McEnroe used one grip, the continental grip for all his shots (hence the name "Universal Grip"). I often just call it the volley grip. He might slightly adjust his hand around the racquet, as I do do when hitting a backhand half-volley for example, but the adjustment is very small. Basically McEnroe did every shot holding the racquet the same way. Today's players have very different grips for their backhand, forehand, and volleys.

After watching McEnroe I came up with a theory! The continental grip might just be the secret to improving touch and feel. McEnroe used it for all his shots but many juniors can't hit anything other than a serve or volley with the continental grip. In this article I suggest that players practice with the continental grip to help develop greater touch and feel and ultimately become an all-round better tennis player.

A few years ago Roger Federer would seldom hit a forehand drop-shot. He decided he needed to bring it into his game so that as he set up for his big forehand and his opponent dropped way back behind the baseline he could take advantage of that positioning. His opponents would now have to respect the fact that he could drop the ball short and as they made adjustments to stand closer to the baseline, his regular forehand became even more deadly. The problem Federer had was that he had to change to his volley grip (or continental) when hitting a drop-shot, easy enough but changing grips for the drop shot would tip off his opponents to what was coming. The more western your forehand grip, the more obvious this change of grip becomes. Federer had to practice disguising this grip change by waiting to the last possible moment. He also practiced hitting the drop-shot with his regular forehand grip to increase the disguise. As expected, Federer mastered it and the forehand dropshot became an integral part of his game and helped him win the French Open, the one slam that had eluded him.

John McEnroe didn't have to do any of this, his 'one grip fits all approach allowed him to hit any shot without tipping off his opponent as to what was coming. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers argues that mastering anything takes 10,000 hours of practice. I imagine McEnroe reached 10,000 hours of tennis with the volley grip very quickly compared to players of this generation.

As a coach working with high performance players, I want to find a balance. I doubt anyone could find success in the modern game using McEnroe's universal grip. McEnroe couldn't hit high forehands like Nadal or Federer, so it's not like we can role back the years and just use McEnroe's grip. However, I feel like I can help players achieve the best of both worlds. I have my players start most lessons in the service box with their volley (continental) grip. They hit forehands, backhands, and volleys all with the same grip. They then play points across court in the service box where they can do anything they want to win the point from coming to the net to hitting with power. Eventually the players learn how to hit all the spins and shots with the continental grip and their touch and feel improves tenfold.

I also have my players play service box games where they can use whatever grip they want, switching between continental and their regular groundstroke grips. When a player becomes comfortable with the continental grip they will incorporate it into their arsenal and use it quite frequently.

There are numerous reason why I believe practicing the continental grip is important:

• Your feel around the net will improve because like McEnroe, you will become more familiar holding the racquet in that particular way.
• Your ability to hit a half-volley from the net will improve, and you will be able to add different spins to the ball to allow you to hit more pace or keep the ball low etc.
• Occasionally you will have a shot in the service box where you don't have time to change your grip (maybe the ball has hit the net and popped up). Most people only go for the drop shot because they can't put pace on the ball with the volley grip. You need to be able to hit every part of the court in this situation.
• When stretching forward while tracking down a dropshot, it is beneficial to change to this grip. Often its hard to hit your regular topspin forehand and being able to use this grip and control the ball can be crucial. 
• Defensive lobs are often hit with this grip. To put the ball high and deep requires great feel.
• Great players like Sampras and Federer use the continental grip to block returns of serve into play, especially against big servers.
• I don't necessarily recommend this, but if you want to hit a shot through your legs (a tweener like Federer) guess what… volley grip!

When I was playing a lot of grass court tennis in Australia, my coach would always tell me that if a guy feeds the ball in with a topspin forehand you have him beat, “he has no feel.” Not sure this is fool proof, however, you may have noticed that all coaches feed balls using the continental grip, it is a lot easier, our arms might fall off hitting topspin forehand feeds all day. And I don't think it is a coincidence that most coaches have good feel and control.

Many junior players, especially girls from my experience, don't feed the ball in this way and don't have great feel around the net or hitting drop-shots. Try to feed the ball in with a continental grip and build towards your 10,000 hours.

Pete Sampras was a genius with the continental grip. He returned frequently with this grip and could hit a ball for a winner from anywhere around the net. Often he would hit his volleys and half-volleys with topspin, just to get that extra bit of pace. Once again, I suggest he could only achieve this because of his familiarity with the continental grip. The next great serve and volleyer that comes along (and there will be one!) will need to have the feel that Johnny Mac and Pistol Pete possessed. They both had feel in different ways, but both had incredible control of the ball. Practice with your continental grip as often as possible and you can develop great feel too.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Tom Allsopp's article by emailing us here at TennisOne.

Tom Allsopp is the founder of tpatennis.net, a unique website for tennis enthusiasts.

Tom has coached professionally on three continents and has worked with some of the greatest coaches from around the world.

Through articles and videos he hopes to share his expertise with everyone at TennisOne.