A New Year's Serve

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Logo for Atlanta Falcons as Cue for Djokovic-Itch

(https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...tlanta+Falcons)

Well, not exactly. Maybe if you turned one of the logos upside down. One wing goes horizontally, the other almost vertically but on a slant back toward the body.

If you can understand this well enough to take it as prescription you may find yourself getting these fully topspun shots off with more ease than expected.

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“ALL TOGETHER” by Bill Stowe

Here is an Amazon book review in its entirety, written by a man who suspiciously calls himself R.D. Paauw:

This is such a good book. There is a lot of talk and praise for THE BOYS IN THE BOAT by Daniel James Brown but I think ALL TOGETHER is better because William Stowe writes from first-hand experience: He was the stroke of the famous Vesper eight that won the Olympic title in 1964. He interviewed all the men in the boat forty years later and what an inspirational story he put together!

Stowe's book is better. And I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t lead to the other. But as an oarsman before I was a tennis player I have to say that rowing even more than tennis is a tight community in which everybody knows everybody else. That said, I adore Brown’s best-selling book (now supposedly being made into a movie) which among other things is one of the best accounts anywhere of the American Depression.

I see immediate connection between any tennis stroke and any rowing stroke in that both are a cycle, not a list of details for memorization. Yes, there are a thousand details or none, twenty or two, thirty or three, any one of which can destroy the whole stew. This to me approaches a definition of art in which every detail is essential part of the organic whole, which means that if you remove a single brush stroke or half a word or dancer’s gesture you spoil everything.

I really was exposed to the cycle idea when one of the oarsmen I was coaching at West Virginia University related to me his experience of participating in a workshop with Bill Stowe during the previous summer. From that moment I tried to put the same emphasis on cycle that Stowe as superb coach at Coast Guard Academy, New London, Connecticut did. And I try to apply that same emphasis to full tennis stroke cycle as I work with myself. The cycle idea makes me think that any small tweak is major overhaul, so one might as well “take it from the top.”

In ALL TOGETHER, Bill Stowe cites the great crew coach before him Rusty Callow as saying, “I never met an oarsman I didn’t like.” Stowe then quips, “Yeah, but he never met the Amlong brothers.” The Amlong brothers were so difficult that their gold medal producing coach Allen Rosenberg had to place them far apart in the boat so they wouldn’t fight.

A confession here: I didn’t like Bill Stowe the one time I met him. He was visiting his prep school buddy Charlie Brainard in Fenwick, Old Saybrook, Connecticut. They both attended the Kent school and to me seemed too much of a clique—anyway, I felt excluded. And thought maybe the coldness had something to do with my crew, Brown, going by Cornell in the 1960 Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship.

Stowe was the stroke—the key guy who sets the rate or pace and example for the other seven oarsmen in the boat—at Cornell. He had learned his beautiful stroke at Kent, just as the great stroke of our boat at Brown, Bill Engeman, learned his beautiful stroke at Washington and Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. And if you don't think Kent and Washington and Lee had an amazing rivalry you just don't know rowing history.

But Stowe wasn’t stroking Cornell the day we beat them. He was under academic probation for stealing two figures from a Christmas creche in Ithaca and installing them in his fraternity.

Because of my poor impression from meeting him, I never wanted to read his book despite knowing it existed. And in fact Brown University is not mentioned once in the book, not even in the index. But this month, February, I got to know Dick Bell, the head coach at Detroit Boat Club, who recommended it.

So I read the book and loved it then put the name Bill Stowe in a search engine and learned that he died this month—in February—after a fall from cellar steps of his house in Lake Placid, New York that caused his head to land on concrete.

People in other sports might not want to know, in detail, exactly how one of their own died. But Stowe was such an important strand in the tapestry of all of our lives that this information matters. And the later report was different from the first report. There just seems more dignity in a heart attack before one’s fall over a fall before one’s heart attack.

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Remove any Cardboard Still Clinging to the Djokovic-Itch

I suggested taking a bit of wrist layback as part of initial move toward the ball. That may be a good idea for Roger Federer or anyone with an equivalent amount of flop available in his wrist. Too much flop during the flip can imbue one's forehand-- on a bad day-- with unwanted harshness.

Roger knows this and already takes a bit at the start of his famous stroke, does not save it all for his mondo (flip) as he accelerates forward at the ball. But if Roger were suddenly to decide to go Djokovic-itch, he might have to learn this little trick all over again.

As for the rest of us with 50 per cent less flop available to us, we need not worry about harshness and can use all of our flop in the flip at the top.

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Sometimes, While Playing Deuce Court in Doubles

Sometimes I waited to return serve with diagonally set thumb pad on 1.5 rather than 7.5 since the serve usually comes to my forehand. My present opponents avoid my backhands-- a good learning situation for me. "C'mon, make the new forehand work," I said to myself. And it did work just as much as it failed two days before.

"You're getting a lot on the ball for such a short stroke," my partner suddenly announced. I was surprised he noticed anything new about my game. Second, I didn't think of the new shot as short. Maybe he is right or the new shot looks short. One is wrong to assume that other people in tennis notice less than oneself.

In fact they may notice more. I haven't ever studied that particular partner's ground strokes, just know he hits flat, plays almost every day, hangs on the net and volleys well.

The real test of my Djokovic-itch may be when I change grip for it all the way from the 7.5 position.

Right now I'm just waiting at 1.5 and changing the other way for any backhand.

But forehand side I'm pushing out with both hands a bit as part of initial turn. That creates a subsequent lopsided separation or breast stroke or swan flap in which one wing (the racket) goes up as the other (left arm) goes out. I like this so much better than bringing racket close by body then forcing it out which seems more like an extra step.

The medium early separation is pretty far from Djokovic-- he holds on to racket for longer.

But backswing and foreswing are more directly linked, to my mind, having nothing between them.

Mondo too seems a function of body rotations that seamlessly change direction.

The high mondo is the loop in this forehand version. There is no other loop. Mondo and loop are one and the same.

The upside down topple then melds into the rip.

Still to come: Better weight transfer to keep the ball consistently deep.

I found myself hitting see sees (topspin angles) and this played fine so I messed with nothing further.

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Down Then Up

Sorry for the platitudinous nature of this remark, but, one has to play badly sometimes, maybe even hit bottom, before getting better again. New strokes worked today, old ones did too. Both had been out of order thanks to jangled nerves from too much experimentation without proper interval to let it settle in. Whole game lifted across all of the movement and strokes, I'm happy to say, now we'll see how long the even keel lasts (but I'll spare you, reader, my report back).

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Low Bridge, Everybody Down

Federer has a furbelow at the top of his backswing and so does Djokovic (a different one), and I don't like either and would prefer to take my fur below as part of an early grip change away from my McEnrovian composite.

I read the wisdom somewhere that changing the grip from backhand to forehand is easier than vice-versa but don't care since I do both and often neither.

To obviate the need for high furbelow, my new grip change will 1) turn the handle inside the hand, 2) turn the shoulders at the same time, 3) slightly but not completely lay the wrist back, 4) slightly push connected hands and racket away from the body.

Listen, if I can win (not yesterday but tomorrow) with the early hands separation of my McEnrueful, I can separate those two hands any time I want like in NEW YORK, NEW YORK making it anywhere and like the man in the car rental ad not talking to human beings .

So it's grip change then separate-- that's the backswing. But shoulders continue to load during the separation.

Will this take 10,000 miles, 10,000 hours, 10,000 repetitions to achieve (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8CcCQyj4fc)?
Reader, don't believe that sorry excuse not to have willpower. It's just the clink of the Gladwell runt making money.

What can you expect of the son of Jamaica Kincaid? The children of novelists always want to make money.

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The Price of Tennis Stroke Invention

The day will come when none of your strokes work-- not the new ones and not the old ones either. This is a nervous condition, a case of forgetting how to win. You will make good shots perfectly to set up a kill and then muff the final shot since your nerves, recently become the collective spokesman for all neuroscience, will be crying, "What exactly is it Bottle you want me to do?"

That day is the time not to look over your shoulder but to persevere, comfortable at least in the realization that the other guys keep inviting you back.

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Djoker

has an amazingly high mondo compared to most male high school players in the U.S. He takes the racket back with both hands, spreads, mondoes and then pulls the racket butt even more with elbow still in line with the shoulders, I would submit (today).

Next the elbow goes ahead of the whirling body (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20500fps.mp4).

To review, spread then high mondo then a rope pull separate from mondo, then the elbow starts its elbow trip out and around body and neck.

Coming into the ball, the arm twists in a direction that opens the racket. And racket goes a racket's width straight up from the ball.

The racket bowled under the ball then opened while on the ball then returned to a closed setting once the ball was gone. And keeps closed so that if it were hitting the ball just then the ball would bee-line sharply down into the court far short of the net.

The wrist curls next, the racket head goes past the left shoulder. Goes ever farther toward side fence. Finally, starts to circle.

And completes a wrap around Novak's neck...

The racket trajectory cue, to my mind, is not mondo then circle-the-neck, but rather mondo, then pull on racket butt in such a way that racket tip "topples" under hand and rises almost in place one racket width above where the ball just was.

Before it circles wide past the left shoulder before it wraps around the neck.

There was, in other words, a concrete step in the middle of this overall trajectory.

How could this trajectory be smooth and effective if it has a stone hard step in its middle? Well, it would be rough if the arm twisted forward to take the strings up.

In fact it does something different-- topples or bowls the strings under. The strings open, don't close, due to the elbow moving away from the body before it continues toward the side fence. Mentally perhaps, that is as far as we want to follow it-- toward side fence. Physically, it continues to wrap around the neck.

Practically speaking, I must ask whether my bowl up backswing still will work. Surely only if I take it as high as Djokovic has put it at end of his breaststroke and bend arm at the top more than I would for a McEnrueful.

This is just one person's journey, I suppose. But there must be commonalities with other searches by other people.

I am most interested that the racket rises a width above the ball without rolling over-- although it finally does roll over after the ball.

To me the temporary opening of the strings indicates that hand is sharply pulling ahead of body creating great racket frame speed.

Next question: Does racket tip go straight or circle a bit-- already-- as it catches up to hand? Suspected answer: a little of both.

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Throw the Elbow

Yah.

One little phrase. Where did it come from? And is an effective throw of the elbow easy to do? No, not unless it is in perfect place first.

Throw it wrong and you don't hit through the ball enough with right or wrong determined by choice of grip and where and how the elbow is placed first.

The 1-2 rhythm outlined by Nick Wheatley is a very convenient design principle for a lot of strokes.

Some transition between 1 and 2 may occur, but simply put it with 1 or 2 in your mind and not in between.

Because tennis is fast. Yah.

Forward swing of the McEnrueful consists of banking down and banking up combined with horizontal turn. That's two parts here but one part when you hit it.

Forward swing of the Djokovic-itch consists of banking down and elbow throw of racket around your neck which is all one (I mean 2) again.

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Self-Feed Leading to Something to Try

The McEnrueful, an easily produced and solid body flattish shot, banks shoulder down then up. The Djokovic-itch, flattish but with poptop, banks shoulder down only to leave it down for contact.

One pulls on a rope, in the Djokovic-itch, but how? With SIM body turn and small independent movement straight forward of the elbow, I'd say today.

With strong grip designed for the natural poptop. With followthrough around the neck. With no thought of deceleration which might inhibit. Better to believe in acceleration alone to make sure it happens.

Body and arm toil separately together to exert force. If one were in a tug o' war, body would overpower the arm so that it wouldn't assert its independence. But one is not in a tug o' war, one is pulling on a rope that has nothing on the end of it.

Arm movement will sum then with the body movement while proactively providing some of the extension that coaches so much admire.

Give us early mondo, then, comprised of both body and arm pull along with banking down of the shoulder.

Followed immediately by acceleration of the elbow around the body and neck.

The Something to Try: Since McEnrueful is an early separation shot (27.54, 44.43 and everywhere else here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vAZkTLOkKs) try to make the Djokovic-itch early separation as well.

Left hand pointing across can take the place of left hand remaining on racket to better turn the shoulders.

To make early separation work, the distance between the two hands should never exceed shoulders width.

To easily increase shoulders turn over pointing on a perpendicular to side fence one can point slightly more in a backward direction than that.

Leading to Something Other to Try: Here is my next forehand (furniture 1 in this article: http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...lly_Speed.html). It builds on the down and up internal encouragement of my McEnrueful, and on thumb oriented grip system that always places bent thumb tip on a sharp ridge.

Of the forehands I've recently described, thumb tip for two is on 7.5, for seven on 8.5, for one (this one) on 1.5 : a total of ten.

Followthrough, based more on Djokovic than Kerry Mitchell, is a bit lower around the neck (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20500fps.mp4).

The backswing however is exactly like Mitchell's, a mild down and up same as for a McEnrueful only with a different grip.

I am greatly looking forward for purposes of learning and subtle differentiation to strict alternation of these McEnruefuls and Djokovich-itches so far accomplished only in our living room, and will be terribly disappointed if the difference fails to drive my opponents nuts.

In that case, though, I will return to the grab-bag of the other eight forehands, some of them very good for hitting slow, some for weightless spin, all at least a variance of one's overly monochromatic program through attempting something else.

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Poptop Recipe

This is cooking. The ingredients have to be perfect. There might be a little roll of the beveled racket but not much. Too much would be if the racket finished around upper arm or lower. This shot finishes over shoulder yoke and around neck. We must understand the reason for that if we aspire to this shot.

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Self-Hypnotism

To get full effect, reader, you must click on all three:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Novak_Djokovic_2015_HD_HS/index.html?dir=Forehand/ND_FH_Wide&stroke=ND%20FH%20Wide%20OpenStance%20Front1%20500fps.mp4

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

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Novak_Djokovic_2015_HD_HS/index.html?dir=Forehand/ND_FH_Wide&stroke=ND%20FH%20Wide%20OpenStance%20Front1%20500fps.mp4

Change grip. Try anything.

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Fiction Before Fact

Expectation: Tremendous day by only hitting the two forehands described in # 2934 .

Fictive reality: They worked, but if I wanted to win I needed some McEnrueful (my best shot) as well.

Fact: Fill this part in after we play (I bring the balls). Wouldn't this be nice (?): "I never hit a single McEnrueful because I didn't have to."

Reality reality: Lots of McEnruefuls. The imitation Djokovices need work-- lots of bitching work. Of the two, the poptop did not work better. But again, give it a chance.

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Spoil Not The Poptop

In terms of progression I wish to dwell today on the poptop variation of a Novak Djokovic imitation forehand then circle back to the shot where he, or in this case I, administer the topspin to the back of the ball.

1) Up till now, I've thought, in poptop version, there should be some ISR/UAR just before or during the ball, with deceleration occurring just after the ball and passive wipe and wrist straightening after that. This didn't work immediately the way I thought it should. Would it-- in time-- if I stuck with it? Possibly, but I may never know.

For I'm off on another tack (healthy to do in my mind) in which there is no ISR/UAR as known in a serve. The thinking here is that a circular swing of the elbow keeps racket pitch constant enough for the poptop purpose. One needn't add anything else.

2) Now we go for a rip up the back of the ball. Instead of swinging elbow around the body we push it a few inches straight forward. This takes the racket face severely down. In no time the strings, passing toward the hand, have opened for an upward incision through the air. And one does use ISR/UAR as in a serve. And the strings have space in which to get going a bit before they scrape the ball.

Both of these strokes derive from high mondo behind the body. Like a pitcher one takes the racket close past the body then separates the arms to balance. Forward body rotation then activates the wrist to lay back as the forearm rolls down. At that point the elbow moves relative to the body, i.e., ahead of bod activity in either of the forms given here, 1) or 2) .

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Serving: Don't Use Ulnar Deviation Except on Soft Slice Out Wide

Slap an old bed from the pronator cuff, understanding that "pronator cuff" is a despicable verbal trick intended to fool you into a good serve.

Pronation happens from the forearm, not from the pronator or rotator cuff. Both ISR\UAR and true pronation are apt to happen at once or in some mild sequence devised by you.

Make sure there is a 90 degree angle between your arm and racket so as to maximize the available leverage.

When slapping the old bed with an old racket, really kill the old mattress. Try keeping fingers loose but straighten the wrist in the old-fashioned way that so often is reviled. Just keep wrist straight once it is straight and if you are going to curl it, do so after contact.