TennisOne Lessons

Tom Stow and the "All Court Forcing Game"

 by Jim McLennan, Senior Editor, TennisONE

Tennis is a game, an art form, a discipline, perhaps even a science. In this vein there have been countless books written on mechanics, strategy, mental preparation, equipment and more. Good books, boring books, detailed books, and flimsy ones as well.
 
 TennisONE will undertake an overview of what we will call "Theories of the Game." We will examine both past tennis "thinkers" and the current crop of tennis gurus. Why bother with the past thinkers? We do this to recognize and celebrate those who have made such a valuable contribution to the game. But the chief reason for initiating this series is that we think many of their theories can be incorporated into the training of today's tennis players, whom are often accused, and quite rightly, of being one dimensional. The secrets of great tennis can't be learned just from watching today's pros. The great players and strategists today learned from the greats of 20 years ago, and they learned from the greats of 20 years before that. We stand, as been often said, "on the shoulders of giants." So it's to the giants of the game we must look to master all the dimensions of the game.
 
 Significant contributions to the theory of the game have been made by Bill Tilden, Tom Stow, and Pancho Segura. In the modern era contributors include Stanley Plagenhoef, Vic Braden, Dennis Vander Meer, Jim Loehr, Jack Groppel and Nick Bollitieri. Please understand, this is only the beginning piece in a running feature that will continually explore theories and theorists, and if we have neglected to mention a prominent contributor or two please be patient.
 
 We will begin this series of articles with a consideration of Tom Stow, who died in 1983. Tom coached in Northern California, his protégé was Donald Budge, the first player to win the Grand Slam, but equally important, Tom coached and influenced a legion of outstanding players, many of whom are now prominent coaches themselves. Tom was the National Intercollegiate Doubles Champion at University of California (UC) at Berkeley with Bud Chandler. Later he coached the UC Berkeley team and then worked at the Claremont Country Club, the Berkeley Tennis Club and finally at Silverado Resort in Napa.
 
 It was my personal good fortune to meet Tom in 1972. I had been traveling on the satellite circuits in Florida with Tom's assistant pro, Jim Irwin. Jim convinced me that Tom could "remake" my game and dramatically improve my performance (something that in fact Tom easily did). Interestingly, he focused only on the fundamentals--but in an unusual manner--for Tom worked at the fundamentals with a microscope. Balance had to be perfect, the body weight had to be precisely placed against the ball, and shots were taken early and with forceful intent. No chips, few counterpunches, always moving forward, always pressing the "All Court Forcing Game," a phrase he coined and which sums up the Stow theory.
 
 What intrigued me then, and continues to influence me now as a teaching professional, was his insistence that there was really a special way to hit the ball. This is in sharp contrast to the approach where the teacher says that since all of us are unique, then all of us can develop our own unique approach to tennis. For Tom the opposite was true. He had a picture of a perfectly hit forehand, and all of his students tried to learn the nuances of that swing. This special way of hitting was evident with Connors, with Rosewall, with Laver, with Ashe, and now obviously with Sampras. Power without effort, classically simple style, absolutely nothing superfluous to the stroke itself. Even now in the 1990's, it is clear within Northern California who were the Stow students of previous years, for we all have a similar hitting style.
 
 The distinctive feature of Tom's "All Court Forcing Game" was his belief that the best style of play was to put constant pressure on your opponent. Pressure exerted by taking the ball early, pressure by coming to the net on all short balls, pressure by sharp volleying and crushing overheads, and pressure by the commitment to play this style throughout the match. Remember, he said, your opponent is human and ultimately this pressure will break your opponent down. Even today, I am aware of matches where my opponent exclaims, "I have never played worse!" To which Tom would have smiled and said, "Exactly, you forced him."
 
 As I indicated earlier, we think the theories of the past great thinkers are relevant to today's game. So permit me to speculate on Tom's assessment of some of today's top players. Sampras would get high marks for his aggressive style, his cleanly hit groundstrokes and for his volleying style. I am certain that Tom would suggest that Sampras waits much too long to come in to net, and plays from the backcourt when he could just as easily approach the net. In contrast to Sampras, Connors played a much more forcing game with his punishing return of serve and his eagerness to step inside the baseline and come in against any and all short balls. (An interesting footnote, I believe there is a statistic that indicates Connors had the highest percentage of doubles faults served to him by his opponents, precisely because of his punishing intent on the return of serve). But obviously Connors didn't have Pete's serve.
 
 Concerning Agassi, I think Tom would commend his crisp groundstrokes but little else. Andre shows no real ability to understand or use the approach shot or the volley, and his serve is not constantly used as a weapon. And in spite of Andre's titles, Tom would have relished the opportunity to tinker with Andre's game.
 
 For Graf, Tom would be super critical of her backhand slice, which she produces with an awkward hopping gait to the ball. I can still hear Tom screaming, "No hopping!" when I did this. And when I asked why, he said that he had never seen an outfielder or an infielder hop to a ball so why should I? Whereupon I felt smaller than a bug and resolved to hop no more. And in spite of the fact that Graf's slice skids low and may set her up for forehand opportunities, it is not hit nearly as cleanly as Rosewall's slice, which Tom would have preferred in her situation.
 
 Becker would receive the same critical scrutiny, for his backhand slice is also produced with a very high initial preparation, not at all reminiscent of Rosewall, and truly a limiting stroke within his game. Throughout all of this speculation, the common threads are to create constant pressure on your opponent and to hit the ball with the perfect model in mind. That is the Tom Stow theory--the all court forcing game.