Evening star., 1940-08-18
Champion Explains Grips and Strokes as
First STEPS Toward Victories on Court
Mastery of Game
Depends on How
Racket Is Held
BY BOBBY RIGGS,
Worlds Amateur Tennis Champion.
TIL IL lZ:II

play on one Of Washington's many
public courts, at one OF the nearby
country clubs or on your own lawn
Il am sure you are interested in
improving your game. know I
am-always. And I'll bet the same
is true of Betty Jacob, IT, and
Moony Adler, is, the Districts
senior champions, and Mildred Lit
tie, Is, and Britt Schweitzer, IA, its
Junior titleholders.
I am often asked: Bobby, what
should do to pep up my tennis?
Can you give me any short cuts to
backhand betterment, service i'm
provement and forehand advance
ment? What chance is there for a
young player like myself to move
up into the tournament winner
class?"
Got your racket handy? Good.
First, we'll come to grips with the
number one fundamental, your hold
on the racket. I am . firm be-
lever in the Eastern grip for fore
hand and backhand driving, and
continental grip for serving, smash
ing and volleying. Here's how:
For the forehand, you shake
hands with the handle, with the
racket head standing on edge. On
the backhand you make a quarter
turn counterclockwise which
brings the palm on top of the han
die and at right angles to the racket
face. The ball is struck with the
racket face opposite that used on
the forehand. Both Don Bulge
and I run our thumb up the handle
with hitting q backhand drive. You
get so much more solid support by
this method.
Three Choices.
Your continental grip is to be
found exactly midway between the
Eastern forehand and backhand
grips This hold finds your wrist
squarely above the handle
Many boys and girls with whom
I have talked about tennis, have
hazy notions about what sort OF
spin to use when driving the ball
Briefly. you have three choices
each time you stroke the ball in
your driving rallies.
First. you can chop or slice the
ball. This simply means that you
undercut the ball by allowing the
face of your racket to swing into
the bottom half OF the ball as you
would if you were taking hatchet
and chopping q limb OIL a tree.
This method is purely defensive,
however, because the ball tends to
sail out over the base line when
hit hard. Furthermore, 1t makes
your game too slow TO allow you
to open up your opponents court
by hard, accurate driving.
Next you hit the ball fat. In ordi-
nary language this means that you
strike the ball with an open or fiat
racket face. Such,a shot, carrying
little or no spin. makes for great
speed. A fat drive is terribly hard
to control, however, because the
absence of overspin (which we'll
take up shortly gives you so little
margin of error that unless you
possess unusually fine eyesight and
muscular coordination, it will pile
up more errors than placements for
you.
Sound Method.
But don't get discouraged. The
third and last stroking method is
the sound one for about 80 per cent
of the tournament experts. They
only employ the fiat shot on rare
occasions when a short high-bound-
ing ball offers the opportunity to
finish off the play at the net.
Our final and best method is the
top-spin drive. Topspin means just
what it implies. Your racket passes
through and over the top half of the
ball, thus giving it pronounced
overspin. The brushing movement
your racket imparts to the ball sends
it spinning rapidly across the net,
causing it to drop sharply once the
barrier has been crossed. This drop
ping motion makes your opponent
handle difficult low balls when he S
in volleying position, instead of pre-
senting him with a slow-moving
waist or shoulder high ball, which
even poor players put away.
The correct way to make topspin
forehand drive is easy. The feet
should be placed on line at right
angles to the net, with the right foot
back. As the ball approaches, you
should start your backswing and
move your feet into position. If time
allows, I think the racket should
be drawn back as far as a fully ex-
| tended arm will allow, and as the
racket and ball meet-just OF the
forward shoulder. about waist high
the arm should be as nearly
straight as possible. Your hitting
stance should be forward, feet about
three feet apart.
Imparting Topspin.
Long practice has convinced me
that the most important feature is
that the racket should be moving
slightly upward as well as forward
when the ball is hit. BY so doing,
you impart topspin to the ball.
The reason believe that your
arm should be nearly as straight
as possible when the ball Is hit is
not only because more power will
result, but because the distance be-
tween the center of the racket and
the eyes will be constant. This
means you will hit the ball more
often with the center Of your racket
than If the elbow Is bent.
Your backhand drive should be the
exact opposite of the forehand ex-
cept in two important particulars.
First, it is best to bring the racket
back in an arc higher than the
shoulder, and, second, the ball should
be met at a point from 10 to Is
inches in advance of the right hip
Just of your forward (righD foot Is
okay. And keep all your drives
deep; anything less than 6 feet from
the base line is too short.
Next Sunday Bobby Rigs Will