A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Working With The Wawrinkan Waterfall

Rotorded supplicant pushes through the creepers. Above the dense green canopy of treetops a cloud of white mist. And the roar, the throaty roar, and there it is, the 600-foot drop of Wawrinka Falls.

The cold mist clings to his face and bare chest as he slips off his backpack and fumbles it open to extract his racket.

He has brought only ten tennis balls, five each in the two front pockets of his navy blue shorts, so he'll have to make these baseball pitch style kick serves very good.

But how will he know how they bounce? He won't. Not if they land in water. Or if they only reach the boulders and rubble at the bottom of the abyss, which he can not make out clearly through the mist anyway.

Strange, unpredictable bounces then. Kind of defeats the entire purpose of the exercise. One won't be able to tell anything.

He perches on the edge of the cliff and squeezes the first ball in his left hand.

He tosses with the liquidity of his slow gravity-assisted down-and-up. As the high racket tip barely topples over he settles down on his rear leg, fires his hips, stops them abruptly to send his chest up with the racket plunging and curling throughout.

But he has slipped. And tumbled over...

Note: Old guys who have played tennis for a long time let you know if you have done something good. If you didn't do good, they rarely say anything and just take the point.

[bottle]

It's raining, so I probably won't be able to try this today, but I'm now thinking, at least as my experiment's starting point, that I want to settle on rear leg as the racket still is coming up.

That would mean a firing and immediate braking of hips as the racket tip topples over to start immediate conflict between plunging racket and rising upper bod.

Will play with different speeds of this racket "plunge" and will change anything in a nanosecond if all doesn't seem exactly right.

Note: I saw another post here before it was deleted. It was accurate and fine, referring to a much earlier post which I at least partially had in mind. I don't forget much when it comes to serving suggestions.

They are always welcome.

[bottle]

Wawrinkan Waterfall (Cont'd)

In a Wawrinkan Waterfall Serve the racket may drop at the natural rate of gravity (32 feet per second per second) and climb up the opposite side of a ravine at smooth man-made speed taking its speedometer setting, what ever it is, from the regularity of the initial drop.

Now the racket topples to vertical or or past vertical or past vertical a lot or through the hint of a pause depending on the player's interpretation of his Wawrinkan imitation.

Does Wawrinka plunge his racket the second time it goes down, i.e., accelerate it faster than the speed of gravity following the topple?

Seems likely. There's nothing easy in this part of Wawrinka's serve. The finesse part is in the down-and-up through topple. The exertion part is from then onward.

Certainly this is not the only way to serve but is well organized.

[bottle]

Wawrinkan Waterfall Rejected

Steffi Graf-- she is another player who gets the racket way up in the air and soon. Along with a towering toss. The big racket waterfall in her motion, not to be confused with the earlier down-and-up of herself or a player like Wawrinka, certainly has worked for them, developmentally speaking, but doesn't mean we have to imitate it.

When I try such a waterfall, still striving for baseball pitch form rather than the basketball leaping layup that is all the rage and all the age, I find I can confuse the opposition for a serve or two. The bigger question though is whether such different to me acceleration is easily occurring exactly where I want it or am I hitting what Pam Shriver calls "decels."

I was on a better tack when I took to heart Vic Braden's statement about finding success in baseball pitch type serves through having a large number of his students accelerate their accustomed arm work.

If I do that while balancing on back leg I can save compression of that leg for very late-- perhaps when racket butt starts up to ball or just before.

I don't want to act too soon in fully compressing the halves of the arm together. Which would lead to straightening the arm too soon. Or reverse the upper arm rotation too soon. Or straighten the wrist with ulnar deviation too soon. Or assist this deviation with finger clench too soon.

In fact, I can implement more "lag" in my serve a lot of different ways in this particular form, e.g., still be stringing archer's bow of the body as hips begin to quick-rotate forward.

Personally, I find helpful the distinction between first and second serves made in the following video-- especially the idea of a quicker, shorter, more violent (and again more delayed) upper arm rotation, which in one second restored my first serve cannonball which had taken a long vacation.

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

Kick serve arm twist is seen in this video as milder and longer despite the violence/vigor of other things going on-- the word "brush" is used. More then of a "he tosses rather than hurls racket" if we are permitted to isolate arm work from certain body work which does happen to be quite violent or vigorous just then.

A congenial verb offered by the old Hollywood teaching pro Al Secunda (who would work with the stars): "to SAND."

"Sanding" is productive in its connotations: Not too much pressure or too little and just the speed to produce friction in the precisely desired amount.

[bottle]

More Finger Action on Backhand Side?

Well, if more fingers is working on the forehand side, why not?

I refer to the twiddling that unit of thumb and middle finger can produce in any backswing.

If on a forehand you want to close your strings a little more without resorting to such stilted device as raising your elbow or using a larger and more convoluted loop, you can merely slide your thumb beneath your middle finger. Or retract your middle finger like an inchworm over your thumb. Or do a little of both. Post dog mondo (or flip) will restore pitch to where it normally is but perhaps with subtle difference. The goal of more feel is achieved from light turn of the racket without going all mechanistic and dumb on yourself.

It is a deep regret of mine that every tennis player in existence has not previously been a senior sweep oarsman or oarswoman. In the sport of crew, we learn to feather an oar at first through a blended combination of wrist and forearm producing diagonal roll then add finger action in subsequent years as we become more confident.

The opposing fingers most commonly used are thumb on one side and pinkie and ring working together on the other. I have told how our seven-man Marshmallow Basketball, an engineer, one day was sprung out of the boat by his oar when trying to feather with his pinkie alone, an example of full and classic "catching a crab."

In tennis, I've found most luck with using middle finger-thumb combination instead, leaving the last two fingers to help regulate tension of grip probably around time of mondo.

So how is this going to work in a one hand backhand? Well (the writer puts down his pencil and picks up a tennis racket), it isn't. Not if he is going to use a flying change in which the fingers of his hitting hand fan out before they re-grip.

It would only work for a player who waits for every stroke with backhand grip, and I'll not go there except to say that the middle finger would push instead of retract to close pitch an added amount.

Of course one can do this after a flying grip change if one has time. Speaking for myself, I doubt that I do, so will simply set racket how I want it during the change.

[bottle]

Applying The Big Consideration And Being Correct About It Too

The big consideration: 10,000 hours or 10,000 repetitions whichever happens first or something like that to master anything. Comes from Malcolm Gladwell, the son of William Shawn or was it Wallace Shawn and the writer Jamaica Kincaid. I'm sure that there is inaccuracy somewhere in my information, but I wasn't in the bedroom with whatever couple conceived the little lad Malcolm and am too lazy on this Sunday morning to do on-line or other research.

The fact is that William Shawn was editor of The New Yorker Magazine, and that was enough for the sports writers of the world along with their followings whoever that might be.

So, if you were a tennis player naturally reading stuff on tennis, you immediately knew that you should never change a thing in your game, and it would be a good idea, once and for all, to declare that your first lesson and first year in tennis were perfect, in fact were good enough to infuse your entire life with remarkable perfection.

Of course if you grew old somehow, and some cracks appeared in your myelin sheaths you could consider inventing a new stroke or two to put a fresh layer of thick, goopy whitewash around your neuronal pathways.

Not that I don't accept Gladwell's premise. Hyperbolic repetitions are the cat's meaow so long as the person doesn't become a jaded motherfuck.

In my urging that you, respected reader, use more inchworming finger action in your forehands, I need to cite some math, for what if in your previous life you weren't a senior sweep oarswoman or oarsman-- could you learn the added finger action I prescribe anyway? I don't know. I have no idea of your educability much less dexterity. An old dog, supposedly, can't learn new tricks and maybe is better off with the old ones.

But take a strapping young lad six foot five inches tall and 195 pounds heavy and just entering college. He makes the first freshman boat and rows four years.

Here is left side of the essential equation:

120x25x300x4x2

120 is the number of minutes in his daily practice. 25 is average strokes per minute. 300 is the number of days of his collegiate practice. 4 is the number of his undergraduate years. 2 is the number of times per stroke he feathers his oar, using his fingers to a lesser or greater extent.

Right side or answer = 7,200,000 feathers.

If the guy then took up tennis later in his life, would he not be a complete sap if he didn't draw on that huge number of reps?

[bottle]

Exploration

Subject: Baseball pitch kick serves. Save all internal UAR (Upper Arm Rotation) until middle of the arm's total curlecue.

Don't fire upper body at net but at side fence along with AS LONG A SAND AS IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.

So what will provide the forward tilt motion (the 6 to 10 degree racket arc change coming over the ball or hitting down on it that major sport physicists report is one contributor to generation of spin)?

A bit of body cartwheel toward the net made to blend with the upper body catapult toward side fence.

Since catapults are violent and cartwheels are not, starting and continuing cartwheel before and after catapult may prove wise.

To provide desired racket pitch forward we also could include a very slight bit of arm motion also in direction of net (though most of arm motion is directed toward side fence), but perhaps that isn't necessary.

I'm thinking I'll try down-and-up-and-lowering of racket before I apply BUAR (Backward Upper Arm Rotation) to the arm cocking for throw.

Coincident with BUAR: Lowering of weight on back leg.

Hips then rotate horizontally to be braked immediately to catapult shoulders toward side fence.

I would like to think of no sequence at all between total body and arm motions at this part of the serve.

All is smooth throw toward the side fence combined with the three factors taking racket 6 to 10 degrees toward the net, which are 1) sideways motion of arm slanting just a bit toward net, 2) rear shoulder cartwheeling over front shoulder, 3) UAR (Upper Arm Rotation).

If one contemplates 3) too much, one may surmise that if the racket had been slanted forward from the beginning, the UAR would take the racket tip down before it suddenly goes up in motion somebody might call "shoe-horn."

Such is not the case. The tilt is smoothly applied throughout the body throw at side fence.

The questions and answers recently discussed in the Tennis Player forum still apply despite the old-fashioned baseball pitcher's form being pitched in these serves.

The question posed by Ralph: Are serves more effective hitting up or down on the ball? Answers. bottle: "Both. (The obvious doesn't bother me.)" Stotty: "Sorry to put the spanner in the works. In the case of the Federer clip...you're all wrong. It's neither upward nor downward. It's dead level." don_budge: "Up and over for spin...up and around for slice. You may make an argument for down for a cannonball or absolutely flat serve. Up and out for a kick." dimitrios: "Indeed some people I see serving tend to give the impression that they're "coming over the top" of the ball a bit more; others I've seen especially those with a toss that's not much into the court but closer to the baseline-- show what seems to be a more upward swing motion, which incidentally produces a serve with greater spin." bowt: "all players hit the ball down. Go look at the video in high speed." Stotty: "I think the argument may be a pointless one." dimitrios: "If we're talking about 'feel' here, what is it we'd like to get the student to feel re the serve and its swing path?" ralph: "Right now I believe that one should be exploding up into the ball and letting the down on the ball happen naturally." bman: "I use the phrase reach up to snap down." tennisplayer: "The racquet face may be facing down a little, but it should be moving up (even if just a little bit) during contact." klacr: "This rabbit hole can go deep...With adults, I take them to the side of the court where we have a canopy that rises over a table, chairs, a water fountain and shelving units. I have the adults play catch with me over the canopy...If they throw it (the ball) forward it will go under the canopy, not over. They tend to get it quickly." don_budge: "typical tennis stuff...arguments are always inconclusive."

Accepting don_budge's last answer, I next ask, "In a baseball style kick serve, can internal UAR be slow and long enough to begin while arm still is compressing itself?"

[bottle]

Fine Adjustment

The fingers are much better suited for fine adjustment than the elbow. The wrist is anatomically and philosophically in between.

In a baseball pitcher's type of tennis serve, I do best with a modified curve ball grip.

That would be with thumb and middle finger holding the ball.

Then if one twiddles the racket handle in either direction, good for a 45-degree change in pitch or "angle" depending on racket tip highness, a nice thing happens: As pinkie, ring and middle pry out, the handle settles into cleft instead of getting hung up on pad at the base of index.

This creates more racket tip lowness for a rotorded server.

One can now direct serves in different directions from the same elbow setting. One can strike the ball at different angles from the best strength in one's most natural serve or throw.

Note: The 45-degree change I'm talking about is from the relaxed median position one has developed over months, years or decades. And one can twiddle in either direction. The range of possibilities therefore-- once one has authorized one's middle finger to become a complete inch-worm-- is 90 degrees.

[bottle]

Just Call Me Rollie Fingers

Not much wedge between expectation and reality, as the script-writing guru Robert McKee would say (Johnny Tango gets the dog but not the girl), but that is the way I want it.

The forehand didn't care if I put an inch-worm in the middle of it. Neither did the one hand slice, flat and topspun backhands. Nor the flat serve. Nor the slice serve, the topspin serve and the kick serve.

On forehand, my eastern grip was amazed to find itself impersonating a semi-western or even a Ginger Rogers continental.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Ginger+Rogers+sings+The+Continental&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=828D08E104327879124A828D08E104327879124A

http://www.reelclassics.com/Teams/Fred&Ginger/lyrics/continental-lyrics.htm

http://www.mp3ye.eu/ginger-rogers-the-continental-live-mp3-download_1315555.html

On flat serves, for the rest of my life, I'll be inching a bit, probably on the uptake, but it could happen somewhere else too.

If I retract the middle finger, the handle falls nicely into the crotch (ahem!) of thumb and forefinger.

If I push the middle finger, the same.

If I do neither, the racket gets hung up on pad at base of index finger as it has done for my entire life, so I shan't do that anymore.

[bottle]

Expect Silence if the Subject is Not Trivial but Very Big

No one speaks-- in contrast with my own conviction that this finger thing is the biggest discovery in tennis that I've made or ever will make.

I only wish I'd made it when I was eight years old and not 73 (and I'll be 73 only for one more month).

I fully expect that while I'm making the almost across the board adjustment necessary for adherence to my vision, my playing level will go down one whole number from whatever it was-- and there are wildly varying opinions within the known tennis world on that-- and then will go up one whole number also from what this level actually was.

[bottle]

Applications

Okay, in the context of the almost universal finger feather I've been discussing so much, I'll start by applying it to the single shot which in the view of this year's opponents and partners of mine is my very best stroke (backhand slice).

I'll run around my forehand sometimes to hit it if I think I'll get a winner that way in seniors doubles.

But I must confess, in the past week the stream of compliments and lesson requests has dried up and I haven't been hitting this shot as well although it's still staying low.

What happened? I tried to streamline the backswing by attaining skunk tail position with a flying grip change straight off-- which has meant that in most cases there is a pause or waiting period-- at skunk tail-- which I have decided to reject.

When hit with more timed and continuous loop, the ball skidded with venomous hiss. That happened the more I followed Rosewallian sequence in every detail. In the case of most videos, I believe that imitating EVERY DETAIL would be a grave mistake but this is the exception:

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

The elements of my personal imitation are first a flying grip change but one that only places the racket parallel to the baseline.

The arm then takes racket to skunk tail as a separate timing unit.

Hey, it's a good shot.

But in spite of my efforts, there is a difference between Muscles Rosewall and me and not only in coordination, mobility and height-- a basic technical difference which I shall describe first as I see it and after I've applied my corrective.

Before: Opposite hand starts skunk-tailed racket down to inside. At its lowest point canapes would slide off toward rear fence.

After: Opposite hand starts skunk-tailed racket down to inside. Simultaneously, three fingers go to work. They are the thumbs of left and right hand and middle finger of the hitting hand. At low point behind one's back canapes will slide off toward front fence.

[bottle]

Lengthening Both Halves of a Double Roll

Okay, so why is racket tilt so important in the best available example of Rosewallian slice? Remember that the flowing strings reach a non-freeze position close behind rear shoulder and are tilted so that something perched on them would fall off toward the net.

"Non-freeze" means that the racket doesn't stop but we nevertheless would benefit from a mental image easier to understand if freezing did occur. So make freezing happen. Freeze a racket in desired position with strings tilted in such a way that a smurf ball would roll forward and off.

Thus one generates a power roll. Long length of roll matters (time in which gradual acceleration can occur). The elbow stays in. The racket tip goes smoothly farther and faster than anything else. The racket closes to a contact pitch that still is quite open. Pitch from contact can stay the same although it doesn't have to.

The earlier finger-feather occurred during backward not forward part of the double roll that characterizes this stroke.

If creating mild topspin in a quick shot by swinging level at the ball but with a beveled racket-- probably on the forehand-- is called "pop-top," I don't know why this backhand shouldn't be called "pop-bottom."

[stotty]

Open to closed...

As I watch Rosewall's backhand over and over in the clip, I wonder about the implications of his racket face being so open as the forward swing commences. At its most open point you could probably balance a cup of tea on the strings and it wouldn't slide off. I wonder if this is the reason why the stroke stands alone in the world of sliced backhands? In closing the face so significantly in the run up to contact, doesn't this ensure the shot can be flattened out on request? I really don't know. I'm just thinking out loud.

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

[bottle]

That's a good idea. As the unnamed narrator proffers as his final comment on the 1954 Australians, "It's well worth studying." That is, Ken Rosewall's backhand slice is well worth any and all study we can give to it, and I'll now include a rolling the whole way to perpendicular as one personal experiment-- I hadn't thought of that!

So far I've noticed an increase in racket head speed when I have opened the strings the extra amount and balls that hardly come up from the court.

Which increase in openness could be achieved in several ways, e.g., one could simply start by raising one's elbow higher. Not the most comfortable option in my view but it ought to be effective.

Even in the steep chops of Federer and Nadal I see a use of double roll.

Postscript: Not a good idea. A great idea, bringing a whole lot of disparate if not desperate thought together.

[bottle]

Finger-Feather in Rosewallian Slice

Who is following my proposal with enough interest to actually try it? Not that I need to know. But I am excited by a small self-discovery made on behalf of my own comfort.

As one twiddles the racket to create more openness of racket face than one would ordinarily achieve, one can use both thumbs and middle finger of the hitting hand.

The hitting hand mechanics for this are straightforward-- you twiddle backward between middle finger and thumb. Left thumb mechanics however present a choice.

The left thumb can at the same time turn with the racket (uncomfortable) or turn against it (comfortable and more interesting). The two thumbs turning inward toward each other is a single brain impulse. The bottom fingers of the left hand can at the same time fall away or even invert enough to become a launching platform.

I am well aware of the paradox of becoming creative to imitate.

Note: A right-hander doing this should stop playing tennis with a watch sunnyside up on his left wrist.