A New Year's Serve

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Secret

The real secret of this serve, which I haven't tried yet, could be to drop racket so arm gets straight IN FRONT OF BODY before the first of these five rolls.

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A Big Infusion of Feeling into the Serve

If it can happen in dancing, it can happen in serving. Some dancer learns a step that doesn't work, not at all. The dancer persists however, and on the what try-- fifth, twentieth, two hundredth, two thousandth-- voila!

What was the difference? Some stupid little thing leading to increase of confidence? (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov) The tide goes out, sure. The tide comes in, too, though, unless you're a stupid landlubber who runs away first.

Didn't I talk about lagging the shoulders? I think I did. Well, if the shoulders are lagged while the weight without releasing ghosts forward, the racket stays positioned for longer toward the net.

This increases in turn the length of the first of the five rolls (post # 3060). Assisted by gravity, the elbow finally gets away from a body that always tried to imprison it through the same artificial and studied movement one sees everywhere even on the tour.

I've heard opposite view expressed by reputable teaching pros, who say stuff like, "If you don't get elbow up first you won't get it up at all."

But I want elbow to get aligned with the two shoulder balls with THAT to be what happens early.

Will I be disappointed if all of this does not transpire exactly as I envision it?

Of course.

Note: Toss up to release of the ball happens with front foot still flat.

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A Tennis Learning Program Just as Good as Any Other

Having accepted the premise that every tennis serve (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov) consists of five rolls, each in opposite direction to the one before, hit one serve apiece in which you, reader, concentrate on:

roll one
roll two
roll three
roll four
roll five

I wouldn't think about more than one roll at a time if I were you.

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Three Speeds

I've seen all the serves in the TennisPlayer archive and this is my favorite (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov).

I detect three distinct speeds here. Reader, would you agree with that?

In actuality there is a fourth, as racket decelerates toward end of the follow-through.

Cue, though, is always better than actuality, so I go with three.

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Purposeful Sloppification of the Backwardissimus Forehand

Achievement of excellence in two forehands in a row followed by mediocrity in a third is one of the worst things in tennis. Better to be mediocre all the time. That way at least one won't become depressed, just happy and stupid.

None of this is argument however against handbodhandbod as the key to a fascinating new forehand.

A normal forehand, mediocre in its own way, goes bodhandbodhand, it seems to me, and I ask myself why, why save movement of the hand for so long?

The idea, I guess, is that hand can make last instant adjustment better than one's bod can, and, of course, when one is performing self-feed a forehand hardly notices differences in sequence, so one can't tell anything there.

We've got to make allowance for the vagaries of the oncoming ball not to mention the subtle differences in one's own movement from day to day.

In this light, the worst cue I've ever come up with exists in posts 3058-9 where I blend first handbod into serpentine seamlessness every time.

No! Keep the seam. Get twisted elbow out there and float it, waiting or hurrying into the taking over by the bod. How else to achieve consistency in the backwardissimus shot? I can't think of any other way.

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Roof Forming One Handers in which the Strings End Somewhat Parallel to Net

These old fashioned follow-throughs are what Pancho Gonzalez seems somewhat but not quite to advocate. In TENNIS BY PANCHO GONZALEZ, Pancho writes, "This is the end of my follow-through. My knees are still bent, my eyes follow the flight of the ball, and I am ready to hop into position for the next shot. The angle between arm and racket has been maintained throughout the stroke."

Of end of a running backhand he writes, "The racket head points to the top of my opponent's fence," of end of a high backhand, "As always on the backhand drive, the racket head points to the top of my opponent's fence."

Reader, you agree with me that this is nothing like Thiem or Wawrinka?

Some films even show one handers in which some player's strings look open to sky and parallel to top of opponent's fence.

What are the implications for roll in any of these attempted shots? Did strings roll both before and after contact (and during, I would argue) as in the basic Stanley Plagenhoef model of Post # 3031 viewed seven times? Or did the strings roll all the way to beveled status by contact and then naturally open out?

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Role of the Rolls: First Two of Five Discussed Together

You choose your model. Here's mine (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov). You imitate, reader, but with the understanding that the imitation is only a first stage.

Next, depending on how cynical you are, you "embroider." A more positive word, though not as pretty, is "extrapolate," which sounds more like strappaddo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strappado).

The connected hands fall together. Their togetherness limits. The left arm is still bent as it begins its tossing motion up to release. The right arm, straightening, wags the racket open no more than 45 degrees at the exact same time.

John M. Barnaby said to open the racket as it passes your right foot. But if you do so as part of the pre-release toss, you've got this challenging subtlety out of the way.

Right arm is now free to swing the racket tip to straight at the rear fence with simplicity. Make yourself into a ham actor. Animate this.

In other service schemes, the hitting arm may bend in tandem with the whole body doing the major part of its coil. In present straight and swinging/bowling arm design, however, the shoulders winding back lift both heels in one swell foop.

Here one wants to imitate Don Budge, not just be inspired by him. Stop the video. Have a look. He's wound up like a pretzel, weight on front foot with both heels up.

So we got there in a slightly new way. But we got there.

Roll number two consists of scissoring of arm from elbow blending into a big whirl of the elbow that fans the racket close past head and down until the seamless beginning of roll number three.

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Resumption of Invention

We sold two pianos (Steinways), so the estate sale Hope ran was a success even before it started. Got some nice clothes and shoes, too, and from down in the basement a bin full of old new Penn tennis balls. Will see if they have any bounce. Sold the pool table from down there too. Am glad it won't be me today who has to moosh it, in pieces, through a door and up a concrete staircase.

Time now to return to stroke innovation with a vengeance.

I feel that all tennis strokes are in constant flux, and one should always look for new ways to view them at least with the thought of sparking them up.

Changing or re-tooling strokes is another matter, but as you already know, reader, I like that too and quite a lot.

Note: Extremely senior tennis can be extremely hazardous. Ernie, an esteemed and very quick member of our group got surprised at the net last week. He was playing on lousy clay. As he tried to go back for the overhead his feet slipped out from under him. Instead of rolling like a paratrooper he stuck out both hands behind him and shattered both arms, had all kinds of surgery, didn't even want to come to the breakfast we had to celebrate the end of our indoor season.

"In one second my life completely changed," he said.

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The Other Video

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSFront.mov

You can certainly see the three gears. And how the shoulders wind back the hips. And how the hips then go ahead of the shoulders. And a lot else if you work on it.

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Where Do You Live?

(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...B1stSFront.mov).

What's your address? Address here is a tiny bit to the right. Waggle is a tiny bit to the left. Address a tiny bit to the right means that when waggle returns racket to address there will be a slightly different angle as racket goes down and turns out to point at rear fence. One will not have to turn strings out quite as much as one would with racket placed directly in front of one or worse to the left of one.

Is this a "stupid little thing" we love so much? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Depends where it leads.

Note: As I look again, I see less turning out of the strings than in the rear view video I have invoked so often. A discrepancy to explore? We need to be surprised, don't you know. At the beginning of the rear view video (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov) where exactly does the racket tip of Don Budge point? At the net post? I would say to the right of that.

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Corkscrew from Above; Corkscrew from Below

Both of these one-hand backhands-- if employing Budgian diagonal thumb across back of handle-- consists of big roll in first fourth of the swing to get racket head moving faster and farther than hand, then, in latter three fourths thumb goes toward the target or slightly above it as an aiming device that also fosters consistency.

The arm straightens, in first fourth, as it rolls. The thumb trick in latter three-fourths recalls the early Vic Braden cue in which someone draws an X on the ball of one's thumb and then keeps the X going toward the target in continuance of the shot.

That is a cue one is not likely to come across in teaching paraphernalia other than the magic markers of Vic Braden. People like to think of Vic as goofy and dismissible when in fact he was goofy and most likely a genius.

Agree or not, reader, concede that keeping the X toward the target results in small roll to follow big roll.

My term "corkscrew" derives from the phenomenon of the elbow rotating (forward) as it straightens (forward). One needs to be relaxed while doing this. We wouldn't want the elbow joint to do something for which it wasn't built.

The corkscrew from above somewhat resembles that of Petr Korda. The backswing feels golfy. The followthrough feels roofy.

The corkscrew from below starts with elbow twisted up rather than down. In first example the elbow twists up as part of leveling process in the one-piece swing. In second example-- from below-- the elbow does the opposite thing, i.e., rolls down (most likely but not necessarily while staying in place).

A single one-hander is difficult enough for anybody, but I have just added two for myself. In addition, I have a drive backhand imitating my slice only with strong grip along with slightly lower backswing as the difference. Finally, I have the Stanley Plagenhoef backhand available as an exquisitely delayed passing shot.

Too much to think about? No doubt. Better tennis probably comes about from concentration on a single backhand the way Viktor Roubanov in the UK focuses almost exclusively on forehand when he teaches anybody tennis. That keeps tennis interesting but I am out to keep life interesting.

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One Question Only

Is Petr Korda's racket open at the top of his backhand backswing? Answer: Yes it is.

Note: I am currently having trouble with this computer. To test my answer then, put these words on the url line of a search engine: "Petr Korda hitting with his son."

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Petr Korda Backhand Continued

Somebody in the world comes up with a brilliant shot. Only a nitwit would not like to imitate it if he or she could.

So why can't anybody hit a backhand like Petr Korda? Because he's all personal style. Because he is a genius, unlike you or me. Because he's a great athlete which again makes him different from you and me.

Note how this line of thought relentlessly strives to put you and me down, the prime characteristic of that demented sector of the world populace that has throughout history indulged itself in superiority complex.

There may be something however in the specifics of the above expressed dark view. Maybe we just don't have it when it comes to Petr Korda. You'll note, reader, that even in this video, Petr Korda's son has a two-handed backhand. Imitate him if you want (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA). Me, I'll take the other guy.

It was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who had the most uncommon take on genius, who believed that genius was simpler than you or me. Goethe was a tennis instructor from the date he was born (https://www.google.com/search?q=Joha...utf-8&oe=utf-8) in that he could admire and discover and seize simplicity as a baby and then a kid.

Let's choose kid over baby in our worthy effort to replicate Korda's backhand. We've tried and failed so many times. But might, just possibly might have failed through trying too hard.

We take bent arm up and back with strings slightly open. That means we get to roll arm a little more than the fellow who insists on keeping strings square to the ball through every inch of his forward stroke.

We'll do that-- keep strings square or even egged a bit-- in constant pitch through latter three-fourths of the stroke.

In the beginning however we'll keep elbow back while straightening and rolling it, which depending on our best discovered grip will bring the racket head around to desired setting in a big hurry.

Note: Most one-handers roll backward before they swing forward-- not Korda. He simply sets the racket, waits until he is ready, rolls to start his swing, and rolls at a slower rate to keep his racket head at single pitch.

Why criticize Thiem, Lendl, Wawrinka and even Roger Federer? They and quite a few others have great one-handed backhands although more complex and not as elegant as Korda's.

Now don't tell me, reader, that Korda took drugs and had a funnily shaped head. You and I, reader, don't need any distraction, thank you.

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How Long is the Cord in a Korda Chord?

This one-hand backhand is more stripped down to its essence than any other I know.

And judging from the huge sweep built into his forehand Petr Korda probably values sweep on his backhand side too.

How should one make one's sweep longer then and at which end or both?

One could extend sweep toward the net by continuing roll until racket tip points on a perpendicular to the net as in a Stanley Plagenhoef backhand (post # 3031-- simplebackhand.pdf, 7 views. That certainly leads to a great feeling followthrough off to the right that returns weight to one's back foot. In my blinkered, Trump-like view, anyone is a nut who doesn't examine that. Which means that only 7 persons weren't nuts.)

But the brevity of Korda's finish at net end is one of his famous backhand's prime virtues. So let's examine extension of sweep at the beginning of the stroke instead.

Right now if we roll elbow down while simultaneously straightening arm at the elbow we give up some tract.

The racket may come around more than we want.

So let's not do that but rather hold hand back as it rolls down. If nothing else this is an interesting idea at least to me. Elbow rolls down as hand rolls down in such a way that it stays back. The racket head swings while the racket butt spears-- a contradiction only if we don't know how to freeze time.

Now we test the notion against Korda by watching video of him hitting his backhand and see that yes that's what he's doing too.

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Korda Chorda Long Cord

Korda keeps elbow in even if he rolls it in further. It either changes position or it doesn't but can roll in either case.

He keeps his elbow in. Try keeping it in a single place until you (I) let it go.

I did. sensational.