A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

As the Sauce Burns, the Wormy Bone Turns

Tennis is full of things and devices and exercise programs all frequently competing with each other.

Even the images by which teaching pros describe the basic stroke patterns are vying for attention, as if saying, "Adopt me. Consider nothing else. I'm the best. You'll achieve your goal the quickest if you go with me, for I am the greatest of all tennis tips."

In the rather poetic image of an inverted boot in the following clip, do you, reader, truly see what's going on?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/index.html?dir=Forehand/RF_FH_Arm_Action&stroke=RFFHInsideInArmActionRear2_250fps.mp4

Does Roger's racket tip, rising because of stationary upper arm twist, trace the sole of a tilted L.L. Bean boot with its toe pointed at the bottom of the net?

Does the racket tip at its highest point brush over the heel of the boot?

Does the racket tip then descend the longest line in any boot, which would be its backside away from the toe?

Maybe, but the poet Robert Frost said there is a point where every metaphor breaks down, i.e., you can't push too far or it ceases to be beautiful, illuminating, useful or whatever.

Maybe we'd do better just to say the strings wind up (you can see Roger's elbow barely turn. Yes, it twists. Just watch the muscles and bone. Not much of a movement but it's there).

And now they (the strings) press down. They start on their long descent toward the court. Again, I submit, one should watch the bone in Roger's elbow-- it twists.

Yes, it twists the racket head down toward the court before his arm extends the racket head farther down toward the court.

Many athletes-- the naturals especially-- would die before they ever would make such a distinction.

But are they ever sufficiently dissatisfied with the strokes they have to try some new stuff?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/index.html?dir=Forehand/RF_FH_Arm_Action&stroke=RFFHCenterArmActionSide_250fps.mp4

[bottle]

Pushing the Palm Down

1) Skunk Tail Slice
2) One Hand Topspin
3) Federfore

I'm not going to fool around much with the skunk tail slice, since, as of yesterday, it was my best weapon against the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's in carousel tennis.

Today however I expect that in self feed my Federfore will exceed the skunk tail in efficiency because of the new idea of pushing the palm down as elbow retracts (nudges) to get itself out of the way while keeping the racket head lined up behind the ball with all this melding into straightening the arm down.

In skunk tail, however, one also pushes palm down (to the inside) but just from the top as part of the unified forward swing. Another way of saying this is that the rotating hips pull the racket butt away from the racket head to level off the racket length.

It would be a shame to mess around with the smoothness of this stroke in any way, and as for topspin backhand, I'd like to skunk tail it as well for good orchestration, and in fact have a nice easy double roll from skunk tail for merely keeping ball in court or setting up a student or hitting partner at waist height.

Today though in self feed I'll roll the racket head inside from skunk tail about half of available range even before the forward swing and call that "pushing the palm down." It sounds awful as I write it but might correspond in timing terms to the old sit-and-hit of Vic Braden. (It didn't. I found myself still rolling and straightening backward in conjunction with beginning of the forward hips action.)

When I'm out on the court, if I don't immediately discover great feel I'll revert to the unification of skunk tail slice only as a topspin drive in this case-- the mildly paced teaching stroke I already described in which one still is rolling as one hits the ball. Reason for the experiment/departure from this is to try and incorporate Arthur Ashe's dictum to "sling the racket at the ball." If, by starting racket tip drop a little early I could get the feel of forward hips turn and forward arm roll easily multiplying each other and melding into non-rolling full arm swing inside out before contact, I probably would keep the shot.

All very self-absorbed of me but so what? Is this tennis or is it a morality play?

On Court Results: Federfore continued to work well. Didn't mess with skunk tail slice. Hit some topspin serves from a couple of feet behind the baseline to heighten trajectory and therefore achieve a higher bounce (this from Don Brosseau's criticism of and suggestion for Azarenka and Jankovic after their recent joint display of pathetic serving and inability to jump back quick enough when pressed by a deep groundie an instant after the serve).

The bulk of the session, however, went to Budgian genre backhand drives which like J. Donald Budge's contained a double roll before transforming into the non-rolling swing of a big league baseball player no matter what Mr. Budge never said.

Just where should the transition from roll to non-roll occur? After contact? At contact? Before contact with racket head by inner thigh? Before that, with racket head even with whatever it is that you have between your legs?

Psychologically, that would be very good.

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

NEW TECHNICAL FEATURES AT TENNIS PLAYER

omigod. Everything goes full screen now. This already was a great website but now is twice as good.

Note: If one leaves the court like J. Donald Budge here, one needn't splay the toe toward the net as in a ground bound shot to achieve the extra split-second of dwell on the ball. In full screen version one can better see that there is forward body momentum into the ball and front foot is slowly turning before it lands.

Also apparent is that J. Donald went directly to turned in position at rear of backswing. Who would need the lost time and added deception of skunk tail preparation if one were going to hit the ball this well?

omigod again. This is some day. The one thing I missed in the Tennis Player innovation was the ability to stop a shot anywhere in its cycle. But if you put your cursor anywhere near the moving capsule as it zips across the screen, you immediately stop it and suck it to the cursor. This preserves the old stop-frame feature and offers more! Now all you have to do is keep finger down and pull the capsule in either direction to see what happens. For better or worse, you are (I am) going to notice a lot of new things.

The next new thing I notice in this famous clip is that J. Donald does not use hip rotation to straighten or "bar" his arm. But leg travel does bar it. Note the vectors. The body and the racket are moving in precisely opposite directions.

Hips rotation, saved, occurs now with arm fully barred and ready to roll, which it does but rather late.

[tennis_chiro]

1) Skunk Tail Slice
2) One Hand Topspin
3) Federfore

...

On Court Results: Federfore continued to work well. Didn't mess with skunk tail slice. Hit some topspin serves from a couple of feet behind the baseline to heighten trajectory and therefore achieve a higher bounce (this from Don Brosseau's criticism of and suggestion for Azarenka and Jankovic after their recent joint display of pathetic serving and inability to jump back quick enough when pressed by a deep groundie an instant after the serve).

....

Bottle, so how did that high bouncing serve work/feel?

don

[bottle]

Works and Feels Great

It works and feels great enough, Don, that I don't care whether the number of stars next to this thread is reduced from 4 to 3 or 2 or 1 or 0 .

I remember some 3.5 level tournament matches in Winchester, Virginia where Bill Mathias, the former 65 and older U.S. national champion of grass and clay wanted to play mixed doubles.

Several facts about Bill: He had the best drop-shot I've personally witnessed even at Tour events. He once played an exhibition match with Fred Perry in South America. He called himself a 3.5 because he was old with physical problems, e.g., horrible ankles. His partner in mixed doubles, always, was extremely pretty although she frequently did not know how to serve.

So Bill-- I'm quite sure-- either told her before their first match to hit the highest lob serve imaginable or else they went out on some court and practiced that serve.

As you reminded me, the taller the serve, the higher the bounce. The spin is what brings it down, but the height of the trajectory is what determines the height of the bounce, and a difference of one foot can make a huge difference in somebody's ability or inability to return it.

I only tried a few from farther back in today's practice but saw immediately that this ploy will work. And I will try interspersing these serves with harder, flatter ones tomorrow. If my old guys DON'T have trouble with their high service returns from a foot higher than the highest they are used to I will let you know.

And thanks.

[bottle]

Dbbh

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

Arm presses against body as body and racket work in precisely opposite directions. Now the hips rotate the newly barred arm. Does it simultaneously spear with the racket butt?-- yes-- or does arm remain glued to body (don't think so-- have a full screen look for yourself).

The roll of arm is therefore fast, an abrupt change of direction just before the unrolled, long arm swing as body rises from the court.

The front foot slowly twirls in midair-- at set-down it's ready to run toward the net. The slowness of this foot twirl implies an equally slow (continued) twirl of the hips. So the delayed hips went fast then slower up in the air.

What caused the levitation? Do not answer too soon. Did legs fully straighten before the feet flew, and does this matter? We know from other strokes that bent-legged flight can be good. Did rear foot twirl in unison with front foot?

Within this meditation I must surmise that "spearing" racket is only a function of independently "swinging" arm and that sudden roll then retards that swing. Non-roll then accelerates it again with all of this taken together producing a smooth, even, non-accelerative swing.

My vote for cause of levitation from slightly bent legs: transverse stomach muscles chiming into power system of the whole swing/mysterious thing.

[bottle]

And Now His Slice

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

Similar enough that one can perhaps understand, for the first time, how Budge himself could confuse the one with the other (slice with drive) as he says he once did in a famous story from his autobiography. He was in England.

A few of a thousand things to notice: Weight going into the court as evidenced by the small pogo hop. The ball already hit before the body comes up. Hips turn, smaller, again is delayed. The first of the two arm rolls is accomplished during the backswing.

What about Budge's grip? Same as for his drive? That would be with his thumb on a diagonal across the back of the racket for added support, no?

Think I'll stay with thumb-tucked continental Rosewallian skunk tail as a first choice while maintaining curiosity about any delay of the hips.

Easy Budgian slice:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DBBHSliceFront1.mov

Again. You can see where his thumb is on the racket handle in this one. And note the slight repositioning of front foot as a result of the delayed hips turn no matter how small:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DBBHSliceFront2.mov

Again. Front foot stays put, but notice all the stuff the back foot is doing and relate it to a slightly bigger hips turn. Also, the Budgian body is rising before contact this time, it seems to me. Note: I have a huge screen to go with my old computer. Hence at least part of my enthusiasm at being blown away by the new Tennis Player screen formats.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DBBHSliceFront3.mov

To abandon one's wonkish or nerdy or engineer-like or almost autistic preoccupation with stroke technique for a moment in favor of being human: The late J. Donald Budge is obviously someone important to a lot of us tennis players. To see him in the new size (and even color!) is to feel that one almost knows/knew him. And yes, Don_Budge the big sensibility forum contributor with whom we all have interacted did work for him and know him pretty well, and that helps, too.

[bottle]

A Message to the Owner

How about removing the elementary school stars evaluation system from the forum altogether since you're only using yellow stars for yourself and for me, at least if today's message board is any indication?

[bottle]

The Hunting of the Snark

THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK (AN AGONY IN 8 FITS) is an 1874 poem by Lewis Carroll which has been described as "the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an incomparable creature."

If your Snark is a Boojum, Carroll tells us,

"You will softly and suddenly vanish away
And never be met with again!"

Everyone does have their Snarks, I hope. One of mine is a J. Donald Budge backhand:

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

I'm thinking of a big step-out where heel sets down on the court conspicuously before the front of one's foot and then one's patella slides out on the same linear path.

I'm thinking too of Budge's own specific advice not to flail but to swing, and his comparison of this jewel of all his strokes to Ted Williams' easy swooosh in baseball.

And of building on what one already has-- in my case a skunk tail slice and a skunk tail drive, with the slice being the better of the two, and both working on sling-shot principle in which nothing is more important than proper loading of the front of the shoulder.

For better or worse, these shots do not include a very long step-out, and it seems to me I just set my foot down flat.

So that will be the first major difference as we enter some dark forest at the end of a long sea voyage once again. And if I want to I can keep my arm bent and loading until the heel sets down.

The foot rolling flat will then straighten the arm and load the front of the shoulder even more and tuck the straight arm close to the body. We could call this "Feature One," but on the other hand we don't want a laundry list but rather a simple sentence to describe the entire shot, a sentence which may not ever appear on a page but might in fact appear on a tennis court.

Well, we have to work toward this very slowly, and I won't start from skunk tail but from a lower more round the body position.

Next we combine two motions: A bonking with bottom edge of hand (and a vigorous if short forward rotation of the hips-- RED FLAG). But halfway through this combination three more acts occur:

Shoulders swing from the gut and arm suddenly rolls the racket from open to vertical and the body slowly rows from left to right.

Total result is that you fly with feet slowly rotating 90 degrees for a perfect two-wheeled airplane landing.

Capeesh? Neither wheel touches down first. They both touch the tarmac at the exact same moment.

Note: Grabbing the zipping capsule with your full screen cursor will immediately correct whatever mental formulation you just came up with.

I now think there is only one smoothly forward hips turn without the quick and preliminary version I originally came up with and now for purpose of dismissal have accompanied with a red flag and enclosed in parentheses. That would indicate that bonk with lower edge of hand starts while the patella still is sliding on its straight and leg-compressing slant.

Vic Braden told us that his sit-and-hit backand-- in TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE-- was based on Budge which never made sense to me until right now. Braden wanted us to curl both hands down to middle of left thigh just above the knee-cap. In later pages he wrote that low point could happen with racket butt near the inner part of RIGHT LEG. By working capsule back and forth to slow down the Budgian version-- the model after all for the other!-- one can see a low point with racket somewhere over the right leg or even on net side.

One can't be overly literal about this. Sit-and-hit and Budgian original are, after decades of consideration, much the same. The racket gets ready to turn its corner just as the front leg reaches full compression.

[bottle]

Are the Best Tennis Players "Students of the Game?"

I think not when I listen to the great doubles player Renee Stubbs expound on the forehand of Caroline Wozniacki on the Tennis Channel.

Stubbs is correct in saying that Wozniacki could generate more racket head speed with different technique but Stubbs' explanation of what this alternate technique could be is flawed by a confusion of old saws with new ones.

Racket head speed is somehow equated with "forward weight transfer" and "hitting through the ball" and "staying more closed for contact."

Federer unfortunately opens his shoulders quite early just as that other topspinner Tom Okker did before him. Not that there is a line in the U.S. Constitution saying that we must use Roger Federer as the model for everything, but most tennis afficionados would agree that Roger is a very good model indeed.

Where Stubbs is correct is in saying that Sloane Stephens generates more of a slingshot than Caroline Wozniacki.

And slingshot, at least as I have come to understand it, has to do with conflict between shoulder turning from body core forward and arm remaining stationary or even fighting backward.

None of this is relevant to staying half closed with the shoulders at contact-- advice from an older era and a good way to hit a low, hard, flat shot without much spin in doubles.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/index.html?dir=Forehand/RF_FH_Arm_Action&stroke=RFFHCenterArmActionSide_250fps.mp4

Note: To compress racket tip lift like Federer, make it shorter as he by not starting it until some of the unit turn is already accomplished. Racket tip now will have a shorter total distance to go before left hand in this video almost catches up to right. The shorter distance should enable more control. One doesn't want racket tip speed at top of the backswing since racket tip from there reverses direction.

[bottle]

Future Moving Back to TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE

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

Whoa babe, if one grabs the fleeting cursor (full screen) halfway down its track, one sees the late Mr. Budge with his front leg bent and his two hands to either side of his left thigh.

This is close to the portrayal of a great backhand, "sit-and-hit," in the old book (1977) VIC BRADEN'S TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE.

The differences: 1) The Budgian racket is spring-loaded at that point. 2) Although the racket shaft between the hands is centered on left thigh, it is above and not touching that thigh which would contort body into a pretzel. (Braden actually wanted his students to brush left thigh just above knee with back of left hand.) 3) The racket is open, not edge on to court or slightly beveled. 4) Late roll of racket in combination with body action will keep the elbow in and simulate the feel of a "no arm swing" even though technically this is untrue. If you read the book you may recall the section where Vic has an Argentine leather-worker fashion a special holster so that Vic can hit backhands from the hips only. Another difference is that last instant spearing of racket butt melding into arm roll accompanies all the gross body action when J. Donald Budge does it.

I am astounded that no one in the forum other than myself, to my best knowledge, has commented so far on the new technology here that allows one, from an entirely new slant, to revisit decades-old concerns such as the ones I raise here.

I personally witnessed Vic Braden's backhand in Winchester, Virginia and can, like Vic Seixas, attest that it was a great one, booming high. He self-fed, i.e., dropped a ball and hit a backhand and then another and another for five hours straight while he held forth on other topics.

[stotty]

I am astounded that no one in the forum other than myself, to my best knowledge, has commented so far on the new technology here that allows one, from an entirely new slant, to revisit decades-old concerns such as the ones I raise here.

I revisit the decades-old concerns all the time. Suffice to say, you're not alone.

[bottle]

Questing through the Decades

You are right of course to stress decades-long concerns over some new wrinkle in technology, i.e., a brand new tool but nevertheless a tool.

But what a tool "capture the capsule" may turn out to be for close examination of some phase of a stroke cycle forward and backward over and over at different speeds to shake loose an idea or two.

Today or tomorrow, now that I think I've identified a seminal such phase in best video of the J. Donald Budge backhand, I'll try to sync arm work (a little closer to player's left fence than I thought) with compression of front leg.

Then, I'm thinking, I'll try a perverse reversal of usual thought infected by the poisonous theory of a kinetic chain. (We're only talking about one weekend's self feed experiment and can, if necessary, change our mind about dining on kinetic chain later.)

Arm always tries to jump ahead of body, but maybe since we're giving arm extra work everything will come out right.

From the seminal sit-and-hit position I'll send racket spear along the footwork with forward arm roll just as stomach muscles get in the act.

Shoulders will rotate to pull hips and legs. I'm tempted to place an exclamation point, as in chess notation, after the word "legs" but will restrain myself.

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

[stotty]

Topspin?

Sorry if I'm interrupting but...

The question for me is, does Don Budge topspin his backhand? His racket face lays open during the backswing and throughout the forward swing right up until the brink of contact. It looks more of a lifted shot. A friend at my club has the same open face on his backhand yet manages to achieve a modicum of topspin.

The only clear indication Budge might have topspun his famed backhand is in this clip:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DBBHFront1.mov

[bottle]

Whatever it is, I want it!

[don_budge]

Message in a Bottle...

How about removing the elementary school stars evaluation system from the forum altogether since you're only using yellow stars for yourself and for me, at least if today's message board is any indication?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXWrmQW-OE

"Message In A Bottle"

Just a castaway
An island lost at sea
Another lonely day
With no one here but me
More loneliness
Than any man could bear
Rescue me before I fall into despair

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle
Message in a bottle

A year has passed since I wrote my note
But I should have known this right from the start
Only hope can keep me together
Love can mend your life
But love can break your heart

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle
Message in a bottle

Walked out this morning
Don't believe what I saw
A hundred billion bottles
Washed up on the shore
Seems I'm not alone at being alone
A hundred billion castaways
Looking for a home

I'll send an SOS to the world
I'll send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
Message in a bottle
Message in a bottle

Sending out an SOS

But John...I have three threads that have the gold stars attached. The two McEnroe threads (Continental forehand and backhand) plus the Traditional Thoughts thread.