A New Year's Serve

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Take heel up on toes of front foot, too. Why? Because I've done that for years. Becker, Sampras and Federer can continue to take their toes up on their heel. Can lead to a nice if miniscule replacing of the toes to the right (in the case of Becker and I don't care about the other two right now).

Building on what one has developed is clearly more important at 73. As is a toss which takes hand down to inside of front thigh rather than to inside of back thigh. (Well, I won't generalize for all 73-year-olds.)

How big a difference will this all make? Better serves because closer to what I've always done. But retaining all significant innovations along with their price of course.

Maybe heel can go up no more than half an inch on the rock back. Then slightly reposition toward net by no more than a quarter-inch on the backward-hips-turn-influenced upward lift of the tossing arm. Then go up more during the double knee bend before extension. It's not as cool as Becker's continuous roll onto the ball of his foot but still should work.

To review: Small lift of heel on toes. Even smaller repositioning of heel toward net. Deep knee bend. Double leg thrust combined with large hips turn forward, i.e., a blended spiral.

I also like saving double knee compression for curved descent of the tossed ball. Body and ball breathe together. That is VERY cool.

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I Still Like This

Coach Noah:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is53xJBJlYA

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Toward More Power

It must be admitted, in this one, that the body breathes down while the ball breathes up. Admitting stuff in tennis, however, should be no big deal.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/borisbecker/borisbecker_serve/bb_2nd_serve/bb_2nd_serve.html?BB2ndSDeuceCourtLevelRear1.mov

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Yup, ball just curls over.

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One-Handed Realm

Everything could have been transformed by the time one has mastered the concept of double-roll.

Had success in play yesterday with consistent backhand drives but a few of them carried unwanted sidespin.

To get outside of ball every time, I think I'll put racket way out to the side at the start today.

Hips will straighten arm its last little bit and simultaneously roll racket tip down. Clenching of shoulderblades will centripetalate the racket already rolling the other way to put the strings on the ball-- and I still won't have used any arm-- not really.

Up (and forward) then with arm then bend it at elbow for comfortable finish out to the side.

You're supposed to shorten your strokes as you get older. Well, this could be one way.

But there definitely could not be any good reason to abandon a very consistent shot starting from the inside-- especially since it, too, is pretty short thanks to its double roll which keeps the elbow in.

If encountering unwanted sidespin, slow down the forward roll and make as if to hit the ball on the INSIDE.

Funny how often opposites can work in tennis if you have faith in them before you discover them.

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ATP Style FH

Sweep backward (from the shoulder). Sweep forward (from the shoulder). Do all the rest of it, too, of course.

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Strange Numbers

# 1700, 2222, 38000

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Boris Becker Spin-off Serve For Front Leg Gimp

If you want to know the truth, everything is geared to a more powerful whirl from the hips, and yeah, the front foot gets off of the court, which is all that prevents somebody's enfeebled front leg from breaking into bits, but I'm not even sure this small bit of elevation didn't come more from BACK leg than front.

Because back leg is already hard at work to make this kind of serve give the hips one hell of a whirl. And a small amount of this back leg energy could be siphoned into the short body lift.

The lift is midget whether you are a midget or not, compared to Sampras, Federer or any other Michael Jordan server springing high off of his front leg.

Question: Is the best initial throwing position a perfect trophy as in Becker's own case, or a more palm down pose with arm more bent (but not completely "needled," not yet) which builds more on a model like this:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/ivanlendl/lendl_serve/lendl_serve.html?LendlServeAdBodyRotationSide.mov

A Lendl-like serve, it seems to me both from this video and Lendl's second book called HITTING HOT, squeezes both halves of the arm, upper and lower, tight together quite early in the serving sequence.

This allows the arm to open out to a right angle on the fly and beyond to full extension as part of a hearty throw.

Like any romantic and mercurial player, I'll typically have a peak moment which then tends to rewrite my entire program.

A service returner suddenly says, "Where did that come from?" and I am off and running, saying to myself, "Did a different thing with the hips. Now, does it matter which throwing pose I reach on the toss?"

Am looking into this right now.

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Re 1700: Disappointment So Far

Which is only a way of speaking. A negative experiment creates freedom: Something one doesn't have to think about any more. Of course I only tried a few of these special backhands in doubles. Haven't done self-feed yet. I suspect the presumption that clenching shoulderblades can accelerate the roll in one's arm is mistaken. It definitely can make a relaxed arm straighten through sudden change of direction-- interestingly-- but that process is more simple. So, live and learn.

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Re 1703: Exhilaration So Far

One needs a lot of ground force to serve well, and if it's not going to come from thrusting front leg, it's got to come from somewhere else.

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Nudge

Reader, you're a tennis teacher, but so am I, even when I'm only doing self-instruction, and I wish to nudge you toward the following understanding of forehand "nudge."

When, in the Federerian model, Roger waits with his right arm farther out from his body than his left (so that from behind one can see some light coming through), he has already performed the nudge.

If he has turned back for a shot and then taken his elbow back a little more, he will, equally, have performed the nudge.

Similarly, if he moves his elbow backward while finishing his shoulders turn as he points across, he's done it-- the nudge.

These instances along with a fourth in which he nudges during his unit turn appear in different videos.

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Gentle Rolls For Breakfast (1HBH Slice And Drive)

Double-rolls need semi-conscious attention whether coming in the form of raspberry jam or re-sizing so that you never need use a flashlight again.

Are my metaphors sufficiently mixed? The better question is whether the two linked rolls are sufficiently unequal.

Backward roll is not linked to forward roll by flashlighting, at least not in today's scheme. The arm is either rolling the racket backward or forward with no transition between these two acts. The arm is slinging the racket head at the ball with all the clever feeling that Arthur Ashe's word "sling" implies.

In self-feed, start with equal rolls. Now shrink the A-roll and broaden the B-roll. Gradually follow a progression until there's no A-roll (backward roll) at all. Now gradually reverse the progression until the two rolls are equal again.

Be patient. Keep going. As you hit each bounced ball gradually broaden the A-roll and shrink the B-roll until you start missing shots. But don't stop, as Molly said on the back of Gibraltar. Make sure that the mistakes are emphatic.

Then reverse again, slightly broadening the B-roll and shrinking the A-roll until the ball goes where you want it to go.

Now apply some of this thought to backhand volley if you have someone on the opposite side of the net to set you up. (Just imagine that you do if you don't.)

Start with blocked volleys with no rolls of any kind (slow forward easing of the strings to use the pace of the oncoming ball).

Add forward roll, Hoad-like, to stick some balls. Add double roll (Rosewallian), to stick some more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7kvBGntW8

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Tweaking The Number One Forehand

Happily, I belong to the tweakers, a different association from the one in which I’m playing this summer. I argue that excellence in a tennis stroke or anything is elusive. It can’t be bottled (who said that?) and may even change from week to week. Where is the electron? Is it here or there? Particle or wave? Both or neither?

The ATP Style Forehand is very exciting for a player like me because of its new tennis concepts such as “nudge,” “tap the dog” and “partition.” In addition it’s Federerian, and I had been hitting Federfores for more than a decade before it came along.

Exactly. So I’m likely to have bad habits. But I’m part of a 20-strong senior men’s group where the youngest player is 55, the oldest 94, and none except for me generates difficult topspin. The excellence of these experienced guys is in hitting through the ball.

This is a perfect situation in which to fool around and I do it for two hours with these friends three times a week. But on Tuesday, Thursday and weekends, I intersperse self-feed.

The most common doubles forehand has to be the wide one. So here are four wide forehands, seen from behind. Terms: SEQ = Sequential; SIM = Simultaneous.

1) Hip flip then spring. What do Roger’s hips actually do during the following sequence? They turn to perform the flip and enliven the arm, no? And then they don’t turn much. And then they turn some more. It is important to note, I feel, that the leg springing a bit late is not what performs the passive flip. Forward turning hips do that.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_wide/rf_fh_wide.html?RFFHWideOpenStanceCourtLevelRear1.mov

2) Hip flip then spring from bent leg but very high. Leg springing and arm shipping or flashlighting or spearing are SIM.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_wide/rf_fh_wide.html?RFFHWideOpenStanceCourtLevelRear2.mov

3) The dog gets tapped as outside foot puts down. The hip performs the arm flip. The leg drive and arm ship are SIM. The UBR (upper body rotation) starts marginally after the hips turn (SEQ), which is what the baseball slugger and batting coach Ted Williams always said.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_wide/rf_fh_wide.html?RFFHWideOpenStanceRear1.mov

4) The outside foot gets put down SIM with an arm nudge (!). The arm gets straight as knee plies along the baseline bending then engaging with the court. The hip performs the flip. The leg drive, more vertical, is very brief, lending itself to early flight or take-off SIM with shipping of the racket butt.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_wide/rf_fh_wide.html?RFFHWideOpenStanceRear2.mov

How useful is this information to you, to me, to anybody? Reader, I hope that it is helpful to you, but, sorry, my main concern is with myself—the tennis student I concentrate upon the most.

And for more than a decade, I’ve probably been using leg drive to implement the arm flip. Just as I’ve been “nudging” during the point across with opposite arm to facilitate the second part of my backward upper body turn (UBT).

One CAN nudge there or during unit turn or even to assume a strong waiting position. Most comfortable for me however is to start UBT with the both-hands-on-the racket of the unit turn and continue it with my point across.

This point across assisted second half of my backward turn will now be more compact since uncluttered by a flying nudge. And as shoulders stop I will nudge and then tap the dog and then flip with hip and then ship with leavening leg drive to help bring the ball down in the court.

Will I pay for these changes, i.e., hit long? Already have. But long term they’ll be good.

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Tweaking The Number Two Forehand

Here is a link to the lyrics of The Continental, well sung by Fred Astaire but even better by Ginger Rogers:

http://www.songlyrics.com/fred-astaire/the-continental-lyrics/

And here is a condensed version:

Beautiful music, dangerous rhythm
it's something daring, the continental
A way of dancing, that's really ultra-new
it's very subtle, the continental
Because it does what you want it to do...

And you'll find while you're dancing
that there's a rhythm in your heart and soul
A certain rhythm that you can't control
And you will do the continental all the time

Oh no I won't, not all the time, but when I do I'll use John McEnroe's bowling backswing. And the higher up this backswing goes, the more closed will be the racket face, which I will then plunge straight down as I fire the first three links of the kinetic chain, in this case using just enough leg thrust to put both heels up on their toes (1), and a powerful and quick hips turn-- think of a spinning tire (2), and upper body rotation (3).

All of this downswing will enliven the arm, which keeping the racket somewhat closed will lessen the amount of roll needed for solid contact out front.

What happens afterward is interesting if you like the Charleston, just one of many sub-dances possible under the name The Continental.

Yep, both feet can Charleston in the same direction for a very solid, penetrating shot.

Today's tweak is to spring the arm while it is still behind the body but make contact in front of the body. Such detail is another factor lessening the amount of forward arm roll that one will need for a sudden, different and very penetrating shot.

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One Brain Impulse Instead Of Three

On my first forehand, which is all in ATP Style, I wish to introduce continuous hand movement to the backswing so as to be more like a serpent coiling to strike.

Previously, I kept elbow down but used opposite hand to help lift the racket head (brain impulse 1). And got the racket around from extended body turn while keeping hitting hand in a single position (brain impulse 2). And once shoulders had stopped, nudged backward with elbow to instigate tapping the dog (brain impulse 3).

What if one lifts racket tip more slowly for a total of around three inches throughout the unit turn and pointing across?

That combines (1) and (2). We then add on the nudge (3) since all three brain impulses move the hand.

Hitting hand, independent of gross body, twists to lift from elbow and then moves back. This is all a continuous hand movement once one has figured the differentiation or complexity out.

One hand movement, which is one brain movement, goes into effect.

Note: Opposite hand just starts the hitting hand up. But the hitting hand continues to achieve the three-inch rise all by itself. The stroke therefore is a bit more free-form. A snake, however, is nothing if not smooth.