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TennisONE’s John Yandell
Helps Mac at Stanford

When John McEnroe won the Stanford seniors event at Stanford, defeating Pat Cash in a 3-set final, he had a little help from TennisONE’s own John Yandell. Mac credited his tourney win, and especially the tough final with Cash, to the improvement he made in his serving working with John Yandell over the course of the week. 

“Even though John handled Matts Wilander in his first match, I noticed he was really struggling with his serve,” Yandell said. 

Yandell should know. In 1991 he was widely credited with helping John regain his serving form, using a combination of video analysis and mental imagery, including footage from the Winning Edge, the classic instructional video they made together in 1984. (Visual Tennis: the John McEnroe Case Study). 

“I saw that a little bit of the same tendency that had plagued him in the late 1980’s was coming back,” Yandell said. “Instead of staying in the plane of his shoulders, John was opening the racquet face too soon and his backswing was starting to swing out behind his body and get bogged down.”

The solution? Yandell showed Mac video clips from the Wilander match, and compared it to the Winning Edge video when John’s serve was the dominant shot in tennis. Then he gave him some video prints of the key positions. 

“It’s one thing to diagnose a problem with a top player—it’s another thing to get him to take it seriously, much less make a change,” Yandell said. 

“That’s the incredible thing about John. He may seem unapproachable, but if he really believes you have input that can help him he just absorbs it.”  

“The change was amazing. He worked on it in a couple of brief practice sessions, and then I saw him actually consolidate the change over the course of the Connors match.”

“When he started the Cash match with 4 big, unreturnable serves, I knew everything was going to be just fine. His motion and his rhythm both looked perfect,” Yandell said.

“It’s just always a thrill to get to work with a world class player, especially John,” Yandell added.

What did Mac have to say? " After the match I went over to congratulate him," Yandell said, "

And he told me: ' You were the only reason I won the tournament. My serve was the only thing keeping me in that match.'

"To tell you the truth, I was almost taken aback—it was almost more praise than I could handle,” Yandell said. “I said what about those 3 great backhands you hit at 8-8 in the third set tiebreaker?" 

“I can hit that shot all day,” Mac replied.  

“That made me laugh,” Yandell said, “So I told him he was the best student I’d ever had.”  

“That got a laugh out of him too,” Yandell said, “He just shook his head and said something like  " Well I’d certainly hope so."  

"It was definitely a great moment," Yandell added.

"It's incredible that so many players, even at high levels are so resistant  to change, even if they know it's right. Here's one of the greatest players in the history of the game, and he can admit when he needs help, take some  positive input, and then completely incorporate that change in a very brief  period." 

"It's was another validation of everything I believe about teaching, that  you have to have clear models of technical positions, that you have to  convey that info through images and keep the verbal analysis and input secondary."

Last Updated 10/30/01. To contact us, please email to: webmaster@tennisone.com

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