I spent 18 years researching every tennis method I could find to discover the best teaching method in tennis’ first 150 years. This 2024 book proves that by 1904, they had laid out the mechanics and ball striking techniques used by Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal. The 1887 world champion from England hit like a righthanded Nadal with a full western grip. An 1894 book by the first woman to graduate Harvard and Yale explained the mechanics used by the top women and men today.

From 1904 to 2007, outside of technology changes, I was shocked to find nothing new taught in tennis technique. The early tennis pioneers charted matches, taught to hit up and across the ball by dragging the racket into contact. They knew the swing began in the hips and to avoid the arm swing by using rotational power.

A famous coach directed me to look at Coach Chuck Tomlin of Atlanta, Georgia. Tomlin had become known on tennis forums, (tennisone.com, tennisplayer.net, tt.Tennis-Warehouse.com, etc) by questioning and challenging expert theories under the pseudonym “5263.” As a tennis instruction historian, I found Chuck’s theories not only unique, but they withstood rigorous peer review and testing. I encouraged him to publish his work and in 2007 Coach Tomlin published Smart Targets, the article that introduced the missing link in tennis: the fade and draw paradigm.