Your Strokes: Sumner Chase Two-Handed Backhand

Functional, not that pretty, but could it be more effective? This month we take a look at the two-handed backhand of nationally rank senior player Sumner Chase. Sumner loves clay courts. In fact he loves them so much he only plays clay court tournaments. To practice, he built a clay court at his house in Dallas. That may sound extreme but his thinking is that in the senior divisions, injury problems can put you out of action for a period of months or even years. Playing on har tru, or green clay, is much, much easier on your body. It also forces you to have a more complete and versatile game because you can't just hit a serve and a forehand and expect to win points against a good player. Sumner came to San Francisco to work on his whole game, but I thought his two-hander was especially interesting. For a male player playing in the 50 and over division a two-hander is pretty unusual. Watching the ball he produced I have to say that he hit it quite effectively. That effectiveness was a little surprising though when we stopped to take a look at the stroke on video and...