Growing up as I did in the distant past, there is a clear distinction between the game of tennis that I grew up with and today’s game.  I will explain some of the reasons for the changes and how they may or may not affect players today.

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The most obvious factor in the changes between the traditional game and strokes and the modern version is racquet technology, specifically the size of the heads, not the materials per se as many people think.  The materials contribute to the changes as they are what allowed larger heads to be produced.  If one were to produce an oversized wooden racquet it would be too heavy to use, too expensive to produce and need to be replaced much more often than composite or metal racquets. 

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What a larger head allows is greater topspin.  ​Greater topspin allows players to hit harder and still control their groundstrokes without mishitting the ball or hitting the ball out.  The larger head allows the racquet to move at a greater angle to the balls flight and still hit the strings.  The added angle of the racquets path creates more spin, which brings the ball down quicker keeping it inside the lines.  This change has sped the game up from the baseline often minimizing point construction and creating more of a hitting contest than a strategic one. 

 

So what does this mean to the average player?  Well in terms of hitting harder not too much.  Why?  Because even with a larger head it takes daily practice for years to manage the harder strokes.  What it does do for the average player is make contact with the ball easier.  For those of us who won’t be working on our games 6 hours daily it makes better sense to have stroke patterns that are more “traditional”,  as those strokes tend to match up with the angle of the shots hit to us much better.  In most cases a traditional type stroke with a hint of the “modern” to it brings the best results for players who are not professionals.