A New Year's Serve

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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How Many Cinnamon Rolls?

Suppose, reader, you are in a part of Europe where there are no chickens running around and nobody ever heard of eggs.

You order one cinnamon roll to go with your coffee-- breakfast-- but now it's time to play tennis, and you have a serve like this (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov).

How many cinnamon rolls should you order, starting with the part of the serve where your tossing arm points straight up and your racket points straight down?

Five should be enough: 1) racket opens out with arm first straight then bent to point at rear fence, 2) racket closes to miss your head and keep going down as if you have just won an arm wrestle, 3) racket opens out through pro drop position and keeps going that way through half of arm extension, 4) racket closes through ISR (internal shoulder rotation), 5) wrist bends to start opening action that continues racket to end of its follow-through.

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Snaky Elbow

The elbow twists away from opposite hand, guides the shoulders around, glides toward right fence, strikes forward and upward as body chimes in.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XryKA3z_uWk)

Just another way of saying "handbodhandbod."

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Slithery Bod Forehand

handbodhandbod, the formula, doesn't make a good enough name. What should the name of this new shot be then, The Ichabod Crane? We seek immer besser cues, cues that are always better. To move hand first we move elbow first, right? So let's cue on elbow not hand to make hand slither better. The elbow twists out but then retreats from right fence as the shoulders coil. This turns hand into the head of an aiming snake, healthy as a cue.

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A Clever Assignment of Arm Roll

John Boros, director of tennis at the Indian Village Tennis Club, Detroit, just laughs if you tell him you have been working on your backhand.

Most players, he points out, work on their backhand throughout their lifetime.

The truth in this statement indicates two things: 1) satisfaction in hitting a backhand, 2) dissatisfaction in doing the same.

One could go from two-hand to one-hand to two-hand-one-hand, I suppose, then repeat all three categories every five years.

Or one could simply choose two-hand at five years old and live one's life there-- a wee bit boring. Not what John Boros would do.

Reader if you want to improve your one hander you should listen up right now.

That is how arrogant I am about what I am going to say.

Reader, you have two choices if you agree with me that the Stanley Plagenhoef backhand will offer significant improvement over the backhand you currently have.

Reader, I know whereof I speak. Because I have spent an inordinate amount of time fiddling with my backhand. And Plagenhoef's version is better than anything I could come up with.

So you should do exactly what I did: Order through Amazon a used copy of FUNDAMENTALS OF TENNIS by Stanley Plagenhoef for one penny.

Or, you can go back in this thread to the attachment on post # 3031 and join the seven persons who have already clicked there.

You'll see, I think, that Plagenhoef, whether he realizes it or not, can give you an easy swing as natural as that of Don Budge only with a strategized arm roll for magnificent abbreviation.

Stan Wawrinka and Domenic Thiem need not apply for this offer. I don't believe they read me as it is.

Everybody else though should do exactly as I say.

And after this band of brothers, these happy few have mastered the basic Plagenhoef with racket opening out to replace weight on rear foot they can go to page 30 to see how to hit the same shot very hard.

The example Plagenhoef uses is Manuel Santana, Fig. 2-17 or "backhand ace." Out of respect I will not reproduce Plagenhoef's last three drawings of the Santana follow-through but simply identify them as 1) racket tip almost pointing at net, 2) racket arm yard-armed with strings at 45 degrees open, 3) arm and racket almost straight up pointing at sky.

Of 3) Plagenhoef says, "This high position is an indication of the smoothness of the stopping motion of a vigorous swing."

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Arm Work in a Don Budge Imitation Serve

(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov)

I've examined this material before. Cycles of experimentation may be what the most difficult evolutions in tennis are all about. You come back to the same subject albeit with some small difference you're maybe not even aware of and fail better.

Tossing forearm (though from whole arm movement) is vertical for high release of the ball. Racket points straight down by right toes for release. There is symmetry in this. Something points straight up. Something points straight down.

The hitting arm then bowls in long form on a perpendicular to rear fence. It then right angles to point racket horizontally on a perpendicular to rear fence.

How different this is from trophy position in a modern serve. The arm is similarly right-angled but pointing at rear fence rather than at the sky. Rotorded servers take note. You're going to get a long runway to the ball after all, no matter what anyone says, but a curved one.

Hand then performs its big quick circle, I would say pointing racket tip on a perpendicular at net as left side of body stiffens all the way up to yes, form the semblance of an archer's bow. But the hips now pop backward as the shoulders pop forward. The shoulders are turning the hips by now rather than vice-versa if that ever happened.

Through whatever my decades of tennis have been, I've always admired the Australian tennis writer Paul Metzler, who advocates turning palm down for clever, spinny serves and opening it out for flatter serves. Opening out doesn't work for me in this particular configuration, but two out of the three possibilities Metzler suggests seems pretty good.

His three choices applied here would be turn down palm as hand escapes away from body, turn palm slightly outward in the same section of tract, or leave palm exactly where it was. I go with option one for spinnier and option three for speed.

The setting of the elbow in these two chosen possibilities greatly determines effect. If turning the palm down you won't point on a perpendicular to rear fence but more toward the right fence which is the direction where the racket head is about to fly.

Didn't Chris Lewit advocate 45 degrees off the baseline for a topspin serve, 60 degrees for kick, 30 for slice? Stanley Plagenhoef advocates 15 degrees for a first serve.

I see a big difference in body work but not arm work between "modern" serves and pre-rule-change serves which in some but not all ways seem the very best.

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Simplification Test

Turn left knee into right foot. Turn right knee into left foot.

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Complexification Test

You can never have two simplification tests in a row, reader, right? Simpler, more complex, simpler, more complex-- almost sounds like a healthy recipe but won't be that if all your efforts just add to the snarl of some fish line.

I was on the simplification road with my evolving serve, had just figured out a sensible address.

That gave me confidence and hope and one clean ace out wide on Friday night.

But I wasn't finished, was still snarled up in questions of sequence. Shoulders turn back first, then hips catch up, then hips turn the other way while shoulders stay back-- really? That scheme belongs in another reality that isn't mine.

No, I'm thinking I want to do more with hips-- make them prime. And to hell with winding everything back at once so that you look like a pretzel or Tony Roche about to release forward. So I lag the shoulders.

The front foot goes on its toes. That's from backward hips turn. The shoulders, as I already said, lag behind. Now the hips turn forward, flattening the front foot while raising the rear foot on its toes-- a syncopated reversal of heel positions while the shoulders turn backward to stretch the transverse muscles in one's gut and put 90 per cent of weight on front foot.

This is a good place to freeze and go to sleep.

Perhaps one can dream one's way toward intelligence.

When one raised the front heel one was standing tall, right? Well, when one flattens that foot one gets short, no? And can add to that effect by bending one's knee.

Of course on the right side of one's bod just the opposite is taking place. The right heel is going up. That takes the right hip up too. And the right shoulder.

Not bad, i.e., should be good. I won't say "stay tuned" since I think you should do your own experiment. But there ought to be some commonality in all of this, a connection between the old, the infirm, the recreational player, the person who will do better not to jump.

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Simplicity Test

(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov)

Turn hips into left leg. That cocks the shoulders, right? The shoulders then add on to what the arm is doing. And the force of the serve throws you off balance. So you bring outside leg forward to catch yourself.