My deep appreciation for hitting off backboards is well-chronicled on this site. The wall was pivotal in my tennis journey as a junior player, and I still routinely gravitate toward it whenever one is available. As I get older, the joy I get from this solitary yet profoundly effective method of practice only increases.
Consequently, I was absolutely thrilled to discover that Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman donated the backboard at the Longwood Cricket Club. As one of the early pioneers of teaching stroke technique combined with her vital role in developing up-and-coming American tennis players, it makes perfect sense that Wightman would have made such a donation. The fact that Longwood maintains a plaque commemorating her contribution is a great example of how the members embrace their role in the history and tradition of the sport. The backboard is but one of the many hidden relics of a bygone era scattered throughout the grounds.
This is the perfect time to reminisce about a few of the posts I have previously written about backboards on this site. That includes some of my favorite techniques, including the Backboard Alley Drill and Practicing Overheads on a Backboard. I also described the boundless joy of watching a young child repeatedly run up and down a hill to hit on the backboard at the Westwood Country Club in Pure Tennis Joy.
I also wrote about a well-known American player who once hit off a backboard in When Andy was Roddick’s Little Brother. In related news, I think that all tennis facilities should put up plaques on their backboards commemorating the tennis greats who hit off their walls. In a positive development from that same facility, I am happy to report that many of the conditions I wrote about in Tragically Beautiful: Locked Tennis Courts have improved. The public tennis center is under new management and now supports a growing and vibrant tennis community.
For a purely whimsical look at backboards, The Tennis World’s Most Interesting Man: Torben Ulrich, was a well-known aficionado. Inspired by Ulrich, that same weekend, The Wall explored the idea of the backboard as a silent mentor. Unlike a human coach, the wall provides relentless consistency, allowing players to engage in self-directed learning and experimentation. That post shared a complete backboard workout that I frequently use.
It’s no wonder that my discovery of the Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman plaque at the Longwood Cricket Club brought me immense joy. I love a good backboard, and the fact that the practice installation has a deep connection to tennis history is just icing on the cake.
That was my beginning of my tennis career. After a diving accident at 15 in Bolivia, all I was able to do was to play tennis in the “fronton” of our tennis club. My daddy did not even know that I was learning the game by just keeping the ball in play and making my “own” drills. Once he realized that I had the talent, passion and love of the game, he and players of our club started to “mentor” me. Life changing!!