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Andre Agassi
Backhand Return of Serve

by Jim McLennan

The receiver has a problem - to read the ball as it comes off the server’s racquet and move quickly towards it. The server varies placement, speed, and spin in order to deceive. The less well the receiver sees the ball, the more effective the servers guile. The slower the receiver moves, the more difficult the return. 

On the Pro level, a whole school of sports specialists known as “vision trainers” has evolved. The vision trainer works to improve depth perception, refine posture and poise (which in turn improves vision), and sharpen convergence and divergence skills (retraining focus on incoming or outgoing objects). 

In the old days Connors was known to “see the ball” extremely well, and (not) coincidentally his return of serve was legendary. And now, Andre Agassi has this uncanny vision, and as Connors before, is far and away the preeminent returner in the modern game. 

There is a story that Agassi was at the baseball batting cages with friends, he tired of the drill so he charged the pitching machine and continued to make contact, to the wide-eyed amazement of his friends.

The object of the following analysis is to define visual, postural, and footwork techniques that you may copy. And, though Agassi receives serves in excess of 100mph, his style will assist you as you return serves of lesser speed and difficulty.

First to notice (as in the forehand return article) is the readiness, and the cat-like quickness to the ball. Play the above video through at normal speed a few times, listen for the servers hit and be amazed at Agassi’s quickness. Listen again for the servers hit, at that instant Agassi’s posture is excellent, his knees and ankles are flexed, his back is straight, waiting to pounce.

In the 1970’s William Harrison of La Jolla created a training system called “Vision Dynamics”. Principles included enhancement of depth perception and improved ability to read fast moving balls, so his material was aimed primarily toward baseball batters. Interestingly, George Brett, perennial batting average leader, was one of Harrison’s protégés.

I became aware of this system from the overlap of the material to Tom Stow’s insistence on posture, balance, and the absolute control of the head during the stroke. Harrison had many exercises that were meant to improve the convergence and divergence of the eyes as objects moved toward and away from the subject, as well as vision exercises performed simultaneously with various balancing exercises, to reinforce the relationship between visual acuity and balance (Interestingly Tom Stow served on Harrison’s advisory board).

So, as Agassi reads the ball and moves to the backhand, study his eyes. He glides, and this gliding is critical. There is no extraneous movement up and down, no movement side to side, and no movements that disturb his vision. Head absolutely still, total focus, total concentration. Moving as though a panther to its prey.

Can you prepare and not lose sight of the ball? Said another way, can you prepare and not move the ball from the center of your vision? Having studied examples of Agassi’s backhand return, my overriding impression is of incredible concentration, and perfect vision.

Unit Turn

As Agassi moves to the backhand, his back is straight, his shoulders and hips turn as one, and his eyes track the ball. The right leg unweights, he shifts to the left leg, and moves neatly to the ball. With a simple and balanced turn, all resulting moves are graceful and efficient. And though he is moving quickly, somehow powerfully, there is still the impression of grace. This quickness comes from how soon he reads the ball and equally from how soon he reacts. On both counts Agassi rules. 

And now to the nuts and bolts of the stroke. Simple preparation, it can be said again, simple racquet preparation. Agassi employs the briefest of backswings, his wrists move neither up nor down. His racquet moves quickly, effortlessly. Not a big backswing. Not a high backswing for the chip return. Not a low backswing for heavy topspin. Just moving the racquet back and forth.

Recovery

Agassi moves wide to the backhand return. After impact he lands on his right foot then quickly steps out with his left. At this instant his recovery posture is excellent. He is leaning back to the center of the court, his legs have arrested any further movement toward the ball.

Stopping on his left foot, Agassi moves his right foot back toward the center, but still steps under (instead of out) and gets a running start. He follows with another running stride, then transitions to a shuffling move as he nears the center of the court. Again, first he runs, then he shuffles. Most of us mortals do the opposite, using a shuffling movement to get back to the center, when a running move is quicker and more efficient.

Finally note his shoulders and hips. With each recovery step his shoulders are square to the net, neutral as it were so he could arrest this recovery footwork at any moment to turn and move to the next shot. But somehow his hips are turned more in his running recovery, and more square to the net during his shuffling steps. Pretty slick. With each step, Andre is ready for the next hit.

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