Was Tim Mayotte on to something?
John Williams was the popular head tennis pro at Boulder Country Club in the good old days.
He invited me to come up and attend a clinic and exhibition by Tim Mayotte who was ranked as high as #7 in the world while winning an Olympic silver medal and 12 ATP titles.
There were around 200 people in attendance so we were able to sit very close to the court.
When Tim was warming up at the net, I noticed that he held the racquet with his significant other hand in a never before and unique way.
He tucked his little finger behind the grip tape that is at the top of the racquet. In addition, he placed his left thumb against the
shaft so he couldn’t see his thumbnail.
I thought…’how peculiar” and then continued to watch him volley. Both volleys were played a bit flatter than what one normally sees with a continental grip.
It didn’t take long to see that his waiting grip was a composite (continental light) and not so favorable for “sticking” backhand volleys.
I grabbed a racquet at intermission and it didn’t take long to understand his little grip hack. (Trick)
He didn’t stay with the composite grip on backhand volleys…he pushed a bit with the thumb and little finger and ‘voila’ the no brainer grip change to continental or strong continental for high balls was an instant reaction.
Pretty slick indeed.
In the exhibition, I watched closely again and sure enough, he used the same idea to return serve. It was apparent that his very quick and efficient grip change hack allowed him to consistently play low and flat backhand returns to the feet of the incoming server.
Those were the days when serve and volley happened much of the time.
Mayotte was the only player I ever saw do this but I taught it to Ben Hick two years ago and he’s gotten very adept at it too.
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