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The "Advanced Foundation"

Development of the Serve and the Volley within the Advanced Foundation

By David W. Smith (Excerpted from his book, Tennis Mastery, due out June, 2003)

The Advanced Foundation is a concept of teaching tennis utilizing methods that are non-transitional in their approach. That is, unlike many current tennis methodologies, the Advanced Foundation does not teach techniques that must change for a player to develop past a rudimentary point of progression.

For the past twenty to thirty years a great majority of books on tennis as well as many tennis teaching professionals have recommended techniques that favor the acquisition of simple skills in order to get students "playing tennis" as quickly as possible. While this approach seemed to appease the ego-sensitive needs of an ever growing "short-attention span" population of players, it has proven to be detrimental to overall player development. We now have an estimated 9 million players (out of approximately 12 million U.S. players) who are languishing at the 3.0 and 3.5 levels…not just for years or even decades… but for entire lifetimes!


Use of the Eastern forehand grip or "waiter's grip," generally prevents the development of a service motion that will lead to more advanced serves.

As mentioned in my previous article, the contributing factors for this prohibitive progression were based on several human limitations as well as some natural or physical properties associated with these techniques. These include:

  1. Once a player established an ingrained stroke pattern, (even marginally ingrained), the prospect of any necessary change is uncomfortable and often impossible.

Example: Learning the serve or the forehand volley first with an Eastern Forehand grip will make learning the generally recognized advanced grip, the continental grip, necessary for advancement very difficult.

  1. Most "grip changes" are far more complex than they appear to be.

Example: Changing from the Eastern forehand grip to the continental on the serve involves necessary changes in the relationship of the body position at contact, the arm's relationship to the racquet, the contact point, the action of the strings on the ball, and other subtle differences.

The Eastern grip (left) tends to force players to hit flatter, deeper volleys. The continental grip (right) provides the opportunity to hit with greater angles.

 

  1. Certain stroke patterns are limiting due to anatomical and biomechanical patterns detrimental to both successful responses against better shots and more advanced strokes resulting in more effective or offensive shots.

    Example: Learning to volley with Eastern grips severely limits, for most players, the ability to: a) hit successful volleys from an opponent's low shot near the feet,

b) limit the ability to react to hard hit balls or fast-paced rallies close to the net (due to the necessity of changing grips during such quick exchanges), and

c) limits the ability to hit angle volleys and drop shots.

  1. The learning of some stroke patterns can limit or even prohibit development of some shots.

The Eastern forehand grip (top) changes the relationship of the racquet to the forearm, contact point, and racquet's position in space. Compare these aspects to Henin-Hardenne's Continental grip forehand volley.

Example: Learning the serve with an Eastern forehand grip will severely limit the ability of players to develop the proper spin necessary for more aggressive serves. This almost always results in players dinking their second serves and usually develops an inconsistent first serve as well.

  1. The comfort of using fallible or simple strokes usually prevents players in competition from trying to implement more advanced strokes required for skilled play. Instead of learning to become competent and comfortable with proper strokes, the issue of wanting to win in competition overrides the desire to try new, unfamiliar strokes.

Example: Players may know their one or two-handed backhand is a dink stroke due to poor form. However, even as they understand this fact, (they may even be familiar with proper one or two-handed backhand techniques), they choose to play competitive matches only using their limiting—but comfortable—backhand. (And probably still lose…or, at least, lose to players who will always be better than them!)

Advantageous Stroke Patterns

It has been most interesting to compare the great number of players who are stuck at mediocre levels to those who move on to higher and higher levels of skilled play. These observations have led my development of "Advantageous Stroke Patterns" that do five things for the vast majority of players:

  1. Prevent the need for specific change as players develop
  2. Provides for a foundation in which changes that naturally evolve, (as opposed to required changes), contribute to better overall strokes and player success.
  3. Can be taken to the highest levels of competition without any specific changes.
  4. Can help players move into higher levels of play and competition faster than other methods.
  5. Provides each player the means to play well within a wide variety of playing strategies and player personalities.


Whether it is footwork, grip, contact point, or body position, Core Stroke Patterns are essentially the same for all skilled players.

Core Stroke Patterns

Within these Advantageous Stroke Patterns there are Core Stroke Patterns (CSP's), individual stroke components that are identifiable even among top players with significant idiosyncrasies. CSP's are not newly invented stroke patterns that have never been considered. On the contrary, these methods have been around for a long time…but were seemingly abandoned (as initial teaching methods) when tennis teaching philosophies changed from a challenging mentality to an immediate gratification one.

While it is impossible for me to go into all the reasons and rationale for each of these CSP's, I will describe some individual "Key Position Points" that make up the CSP's for the volley and the serve. Players who understand and practice these points will be well on their way to developing the Advanced Foundation for both these strokes.

Volley


Sampras establishes a nearly sideways upper body as he approaches a forehand volley.

The transitional method would be to use the more comfortable Eastern forehand and backhand grips to hit the volley for beginners. These grips are arguably easier to gain some confidence in hitting balls. The Eastern grips, however, create several problems that prevent players from developing better volleys as well as handling more difficult shots from better opponents. (These problems were discussed in my articles on the Forehand Volley and the Backhand Volley found in the Lesson Library.)

The Advanced Foundation teaches the continental grip for both the forehand and backhand volley from the start.

While some high-level players can be seen deviating slightly from the continental grip (usually on their forehand volley), virtually all advanced players use the continental for all their backhand volleys, low forehand volleys, as well as for most slice approach shots.

Even though there might be a small percentage of teaching pros that express a desire for all players to use the Eastern grips, it is clear the majority of top players utilize the continental grip as their foundation grip.

The vast majority of books that correctly recognize this concept, (players who wish to continue to remain competitive on their volley should at some point learn the continental grip), further support this concept.

Federer and Sampras exhibit the same Key Position Points on backhand volleys: Straight dominant arm, sideways position, contact parallel to front shoulder, and off-arm well back.

Key Position Points for the Volley

  • Racquet plane is parallel with the forearm on both the backhand and forehand volley.
  • Dominant arm is held straight from prior to contact through finish of the backhand volley. Also, the dominant arm's elbow is held close to the body on forehand volleys.
  • The upper body is held sideways during the volley (perpendicular to the net. The positioning is more sideways on the backhand than the forehand due to the position of the hitting shoulder.)
  • On backhand volleys, the off-arm shoots back, helping maintain a sideways body position at contact.
  • Contact on the backhand and forehand volley is parallel with the front hip. The arm does not reach out for the ball; the legs drive the player to the ball.

Serve

Like the volley, most books recommend transitional learning for the serve. However, players are often unable to "transition" from the beginner Eastern forehand grip to the Continental grip once they start playing competitive tennis. The comfort and familiarity of the beginner grip usually results in players resorting back to this grip and serve.


Compared to the beginner model, Henin demonstrates all the Key Position Points associated with an advanced serve.

Players who want to be competitive on their first and, more importantly, their second serve, should learn the spin serve using the continental grip the moment they start to learn the game.

The most important part of most players' development as it relates to the serve is the ability to integrate proper spin on the ball. The foundation of all spin serves, in my opinion, is the slice serve. Learning to slice the ball naturally leads to the development of other spin serves such as topspin or kick serves.

When players learn flat serves first, a) they are inclined to use the Eastern grip more, and b) they don't develop an understanding of spin serves as easily. I don't recommend teaching a specific backswing pattern until the student has learned what the racquet is doing at contact. Often, players who concentrate on a specific backswing will not associate the action of the racquet at contact. If the player learns what the racquet does at contact first, the swing pattern almost takes care of itself.

In fact, if you look at the pros, the one thing that generally separates each server is the backswing. They almost all hit the ball with the racquet doing nearly the same thing and all use essentially the same grip. But, individuality clearly exists on the backswing. (One could argue that there is a difference between the "Pin point" stance and the "Platform" stance that John Yandell describes in his "Myth of the Pin Point Stance" article.) While I agree this is a difference, I don't believe it has as much effect on the overall serve progression among most students.

Several Key Position Points can be observed by Justine Henin-Hardenne: Sideways position, continental grip, wrist turned slightly in, and left shoulder pointing towards target.

Key Position Points

  • Continental grip: This is a must, as all players should become comfortable with this grip as soon as possible.
  • Brush Pattern: Right-handed players must learn to hit on the right side of the ball with the racquet moving from left to right.
  • Stance: The player must stand more sideways, (left shoulder pointing towards the net, or even further to the right, for right-handed players.)
  • "Pronation:" While pronation, (the action of the forearm turning outwards as contact is made), is exactly what happens on the serve, you seldom need to teach it. If a player learns to hit the right side of the ball first, they will almost always pronate as they begin to hit with more force. Players who are specifically taught to pronate notoriously pronate too early and end up hitting the ball too flat, or worse, hitting the left side of the ball first.
  • Wrist turned in slightly from the start.
  • Back leg kicks back at contact
  • Toss at least a foot higher than contact allowing for proper coil and angular motion release.
  • Racquet head moves ahead of hitting hand after contact. Too many players pull the arm down in an attempt to gain power. (In most cases, the elbow will remain fairly high long after contact.)
  • Off arm moves in towards the stomach

Exceptions to the Rule

It must be understood that the Advanced Foundation is a program for players to learn the game from a standpoint of progressive improvement. While other "foundation" patterns may work for a few individuals, the Advance Foundation works literally for all. I realize this is quite a bold statement. However, the Advanced Foundation allows players to evolve idiosyncrasies and personalized habits that follow those patterns which are recognized among skilled players.

I don't think too many pros would teach stroke patterns that Francoise Durr utilized in becoming a French Open Champion back in 1967. However, there are a great number of skilled players who use stroke foundations within their own human-characteristics that clearly resemble other skilled players. And, perhaps most importantly, the progression-preventing transitional learning methods—or simply learning to appease the immediate ego, have clearly stifled many tennis competitors who may have had the potential to participate at far higher and more celebrated levels of play.

Be assured there are many great teaching pros who recognize these tendencies and teach their own brand of quality tennis within these same, or very similar, foundations. My friend Holger Nickel, president of the Intermountain USPTA, reminded me recently that while the concept of this Advanced Foundation is quickly becoming highly recognized among both players and pros, many students "self-stagnate" themselves because they are not willing to learn. And this is so very true. The student is ultimately responsible to incorporate, practice, and compete with those strokes that give them the greatest chance at playing tennis at skilled levels.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about this article by emailing us here at TennisONE.

David W. Smith is the Director of Tennis for the St. George Tennis Academy in St. George Utah. He has been a featured writer in USPTA's magazine ADDvantage in addition to having over 50 published articles in various publications.

David has taught over 3000 players including many top national and world ranked players. He can be reached at acrpres1@email.msn.com.