A New Year's Serve

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From my Partner Visiting in England

From Hope after she witnessed private instruction being given to her granddaughter Cate Cowper: Look for Victor Roubanov and Olga Morisova in The Royal Box. Victor, whose accomplishments include the 10-year coaching of the bad boy Marcus Willis (http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporti...don-fairy-tale), will be honored to be there but on the other hand does not relish having to wear a suit.

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The Tragic Flaw of Windshield Wipers

It is a sin within the automotive industry, concealed for too many years, and life-threatening to the tennis game of almost everybody.

When you wipe the ball, your elbow is apt to become unstable and turn over and produce unwanted push.

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The strings in fact are closing in both directions!

So employ great deliberateness in closing the strings in both direction, with one inch of non-roll solid bod-arm connection in between.

The deliberateness of closing strings in forward direction will get the racket tip around in a short space preparatory to release of the elbow.

All I am doing here is searching for the cue (great deliberateness) to simplify and make this stroke easy to perform.

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And More...

Backswing: The elbow turning up plus the hand's determination to stay level creates interesting dynamic in which the racket moving keeps closing at the same time.

Transition: The extra inch of backward rotation of the bod allows hand to keep moving while remaining still relative to the bod. This would be good for scaling a rock on a flat pond.

Foreswing: Although one deliberately closes the racket throughout one's backswing, the same deliberateness isn't necessary on the foreswing. The strings in fact are closing in both directions (!), but do so naturally as racket proceeds forward thanks to your keeping back elbow of your three-quarter length arm. And if one's arm were right-angled (one-half length) the strings could stay square and never change pitch. But they do change pitch. And come around sooner than if the arm were at that right angle.

Is there a cue, a tip, a way of indexing this design to make it simple? Although hand twists a lot, hand is the element that can unify the stroke. One needs to train the hand, concentrating on smoothness both in mime and when holding the racket.

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What is the Best Relation between Horizontal, Vertical and Diagonal Racket Movement?

In a forehand.

In # 3167 I discovered a new theory of levelness. To explore it further, I ask, "Can there ever in tennis be such a thing as a horizontal loop?" The loops I see on television, video, in person all have elements of diagonalness or verticality in them. The racket goes up and down before it gets on a level track if it ever gets on a level track.

A disadvantage of this is that the more golf-like rather than baseball-like the swing, the harder it is to get the racket tip around. Most simply, the economy of one's attempt is bad. A racket that is going down or up isn't coming around as fast as a racket that proceeds with levelness the whole way.

On the other hand the contact I have been working toward is the result of more arm lift or abduction than in many forehands.

So why not employ levelness first before the push of a stuck cellar door that produces arm lift every single time because of the construction of one's bod.

One has to understand that the pushing of the stuck door is idealized. In reality, the legs and body weight would overpower the arm so that elbow would only push out from the bod a slight bit if at all.

We are not so constrained here.

Stroke narrative now: The elbow rises as part of the immediate separation backswing. But the racket rises too-- just enough to go back level. This means that elbow is higher than hand. And racket is in the process of getting closed. And strings temporize. Is that a bad thing on the backswing? I don't think so. The hand going back more slowly than the elbow can use the lesser speed to track the ball, sizing and lining it up.

One could once again (I know I've been here before) call this "straight back preparation." I think I'll call it "temporized straight back preparation" this time.

But I desire transition between the backward and forward stroke. So I let backward bod rotation overlap backward arm rotation by one inch.

Now comes the sidearm throw. Or is it a feel? And one can call it a horizontal loop or not. In all cases the three-quarter length arm represents a shorter radius than that in what is about to happen when the elbow is finally permitted to release.

The ball is struck. The arm then follows through any place it wants if I stay out of it. (Thank you, Nick Wheatley.) What happens on the ball determines the followthrough. So focus on what happens on the ball.

Report : I hit one forehand to die for this way. That is about right in a two-hour session of tennis carousel. Not that my other attempts at it were bad. It's just that one shot was great, a "peak experience." My partner at the time, the senior senior singles champ in this suburb, said "Wow!" I told him the shot was one I just invented today. He seemed dour and unimpressed, probably doesn't believe in sudden invention, but he is a cut shot artist so what can you expect. I took his skepticism to heart, unfortunately, and completely missed my next attempt coming almost immediately to hit the very same forehand. The only thing that matters however is whether this forehand will become something I can love.

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Nice Mutation or Abomination

Will play today in the Grosse Pointe Carousel, after which the Grosse Pointe Senior Men's Club will hold its annual hot dog party-- a very social event second in importance only to its annual Christmas party.

So one will want one's forehand to look good today. This is not the time-- supposedly-- to change a single thing.

But I started to change the single thing last Wednesday, introducing a pencil thin supernumerary loop where before there had been none, only the small loop that is natural byproduct of any mondo.

And one's tennis philosophy must dictate. Mine is always to go with the current change and let myelination, muscle memory, the talent code, Malcolm Gladwell etc. etc. be thoroughly damned.

The diminishment of sperm cells and oleodendricytes that comes with advancing age cannot be a good thing, but the best remedy is invention. If you invent, the amount available to you of sperm cells and goopy myelin which in fact closely resemble one another will increase. I see no better solution, having gardened yesterday at 76 for a 73-year-old who afterward invited me into her house. She was so desperately lonely and ravaged by dementia that she talked too much and couldn't even water her own garden.

So I'll introduce a pencil thin loop but one that emphasizes level sidearmedness.

To start with compromise between turning the elbow up and a slight but only very slight raise of the racket tip. That achieves levelness on the backswing.

The plot is perfect levelness on the foreswing. I want to get hand around while elbow stays back but with less strain than before.

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Hit a Slice Serve with no Body Rotation

Completely pronate or isissipate or whatever you want to call it. Then let right leg catch your weight.

So, reader, did I mean for you to do this all the time? Nope. Do it once.

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Use the New Forehand Knowledge in a Different Way?

Why not? At 76 I am very stiff both before and after I play tennis-- unlike my friend Ken who is 87 .

So while I could as all tennis players must, go with what I've got, I think I'll re-introduce a small overhand loop into the mix. Again, why not? New designs are frequently more fun than old ones.

The small overhand loop should enable some see sees as never before. First though I'll need to work on a pair of consciously chosen followthroughs to tell myself what I just did. Both types of shot will be hit off of the same small loop.

1) Followthrough over the shoulder yoke. I just used elbow throw rather than ISR (windshield wipe from internal shoulder rotation). Most of these shots are deep, with shape. But one can flatten them out by introducing roll before the elbow throw.

2) Followthrough around the shoulder where a vaccination mark used to be. This indicates a mild amount of windshield wipe which I now wish to combine with delayed elbow throw.

See Sees

The small loop involves leading back with the elbow while raising the racket head a slight amount. This doesn't close the strings as much as simply rolling elbow up. It can't. One rolls the elbow in opposite direction to take the the strings up. So strings now are more open. The challenge is to find another way to close them.

The three-quarters length arm will prove crucial. If one brings the forearm around level toward the net the strings will close. This would not be true if forearm were parallel to the court.

Now one can throw elbow and twist it SIM for followthrough around opposite shoulder.

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Leftward Lean in a Don Budge Serve

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...B1stSFront.mov)
(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...DB1stSRear.mov)

Tossing and winding process is one aspect of this serve with elbow straightening melding into full arm ply melding into backward rotation of the shoulders.

A second aspect is leftward lean occurring late. It starts at the end of backward rotation of the shoulders. One's eyes and shoulders lower away from the ball as if is poison.

The whole body is involved. My personal preference is that the front foot stay flat as in the drawings in TALBERT AND OLDS. Whole body involvement means that shoulders go toward left fence while knees, especially the right knee, go toward right fence.

We still are discussing "leftward lean"-- nothing more and nothing less.

To focus on right hip's contribution to the process we ask, Does right hip go with shoulders toward the left fence or with knees toward the right fence? Experiment. Answer: Toward right fence. Here is some added leftward lean. But it will continue as forward rotation of hips takes right heel up on its toes. And will continue again as left leg extends to stiffen bod and bump right foot up in the air.

The arm meanwhile has taken off. These classical serves feature arm whipping around rather than being pushed by the bod.

The arm also exhibits ISR (internal shoulder rotation). In both ways the arm flies strings ahead of right foot which only comes through late to catch bod weight.

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Ratio Within the Handbodhandbod Imperative

Of course, reader, nobody has to do anything. Tennis is willpower, not determinism, a chosen course rather than global warming although a good argument could be made there that GW too is gloomy and self-hating chosen course.

So I use the word "imperative" as it applies to someone who is partial to forward emphasis abduction forehands.

I use the term "handbodhandbod" too as verbal attempt to describe a complex stroke. I've described the motion that corresponds to each unit of this syllable salad before. My question now is about the time interval associated with each syllable, and I come to this conclusion: 1,1,2,1 .

To explain further, the first, second and fourth syllables take the same time.

The third syllable however takes twice as long as any other.

In terms of coded motion then-- and most language unfortunately is code-- the third syllable or second "hand" is a roll of whole arm set at three-quarters length. Or to say the whole construction in a way that might provide further guidance, "handbodh-a-a-ndbod."

This roll, which includes the complexity of mondo, i.e., the forearm down-roll and wrist layback as elbow rolls in opposite direction, should take twice as long as either syllable immediately preceding or succeeding it.

One can put the whole shot into a count: 123-45 . One two threefour five. One two stir-the-pot five. While you're learning it.

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The BAM (BF), The Abduction (AF), The Fox Snake (FS), The Elephant (AKSM)-- Same)

Most of these names for the same forehand are self-explanatory. The AKSM refers however to the way a docile elephant always keeps something moving.

Similarly, on the backhand side, the PetraKordian and Fox Snake (FSBH) are essentially the same shot. The only difference between them is that Petr sometimes is more upright as in the first of his 16 backhands here (https://video.search.yahoo.com/video...&hsimp=yhs-002). In that case there still is accordion effect but coming mostly from the front leg rather than from front leg and back. Leg and back always figure but in varying degree. Another way of putting this is that the blend may remain the same but with different body angle for different situations so that one's eyes and head never have to displace very much. One constant or major power source in all cases however is forward rotation of the hips. This can be hard to understand in that shoulders could be still turning backward during the hitting step (or not). But just before the foot settles on the court the forward hips turn commences resulting in last instant splay of the toes somewhat toward the net.

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# 1 PetraKordian in this Video

The foot splays late-- reflecting head start on hips turn (https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?...&hsimp=yhs-002).

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Handbodhandbod Redux

Some time back I told about finding a really good hitting partner, Ken Hunt. Recently, I got to play next to him a few times in doubles. I thought he was 60, maybe 65. Nope, he is 87 .

"It's not always about age," he says, but then he points to the increased difficulty of a quick first step.

The guy is black inspiration.

So, to keep learning I'll choose better initiation. And to complete the imperative to use the extra time generated in shot production hence the decision to return to my strict handbodhandbod formula.

For added inspiration I draw on the peak moment in a single tennis day, one great shot hit last week. I was returning serve in the ad court. I hit a reverse crosscourt deep in the alley, a howitzer with pace, spin and shape. So, good, something great happened. Next question: how repeatable is it? Probably more than one is apt to think.

I'll bet on my personalized formula along with non-manipulated backswing. The essence of the BAM! forehand is having the strings in perfect position when you finally throw the elbow. How the strings got there is relatively unimportant. So mime the correct position. Then, in actual play, get there in the most natural but momentum-generating way you know.

For me, that will be the same arm roll that made me a bad player when I was 18 . What made me bad then will make me good now-- the same roll will happen a bit sooner just before I throw the elbow to hit the ball.

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"I want to hit my PetraKordian harder"

Then stand farther away from the ball. Keep your back straight but bend over from the hips. And be very confident in your interpretation of this shot.

Reader, I can only hope that your interpretation of a PetraKordian and mine have come to be the same regardless of how we arrived at such personal viewpoint.

Me, I read an old tennis book printed on cheap paper. It had a flimsy cover along with a feeble glued spine that caused it to disintegrate some decades ago.

It was put out by the Czech tennis establishment back in the heady hayday of Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova, back when Czech was part of Czechoslovakia and those two players were fleeing to the United States.

Much was about the Czech training methods of that time but there was a list too of design ideas for tennis strokes, a sort of list I have never seen anywhere else.

One of THE CZECH BOOK's design thoughts was that somebody can swing a lever at one length but right in the middle of the swing increase the lever length for added speed out at the end.

To soak this idea for all it is worth in a PetraKordian, why not lean over more from the hips? Since keeping elbow in is essential ingredient in the recipe, one will have created a cave above one's arm.

Now think of all arm travel-- the racket roll/arm extension and delayed release of the elbow as proceeding toward side fence rather than net, and with this arm action to be deliberate and slow enough to practically hold strings in place for bod to deliver the blow.

Arm and bod always were corollaries, right? The less arm in a one hander the more bod and vice-versa. We use little arm now to hit the ball, relegating that task to bod-blend of bod rotation and bod extension a.k.a. "the Alexander technique."

The arm however keeps the strings for extra dwell on the ball by slowly pushing it to the outside. After ball is gone the arm and racket easily follow through to opposite side of the bod.

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Forehand Tweak

Replace one inch of sideways solid body-arm travel with two inches of backward hand float.

The idea of these exotic little finesses is like the elephant to always keep something moving.

If nothing is moving, watch out. The elephant is charging at 25 mph with a head squashing in mind.

That might be hard to incorporate into one's game unless one is an elephant. Better to float the hand under the elbow which coincidentally will close one's strings a bit more and make the subsequent mondo less harsh and will help continuity through a very small loop.

Elbow will as always stay back while you push hand forward. And you should by now know what comes next, the BAM!

Before, twisting elbow stilled itself to let the body move it. Now the hand floats at end of the elbow twist, taking less time.