A New Year's Serve

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Work for Earlier (but not too Early) Deceleration All the Time

The best examinations of all the different racket head speeds within the service motion of Pete Sampras point to sharp deceleration immediately after contact.

To expand on this idea, very late spike in acceleration from 50 to 90 mph immediately falls off just as abruptly on the other side.

So why shouldn’t the same be true in a windshield wiper topspin forehand?

On a car of course the windshield wiper maintains a constant speed—untrue in a well designed tennis stroke. So have we who teach or write tennis technique been sending—inadvertently—the wrong message?

Well designed forehand racket head speed, to my mind, should spike on the ball and immediately decelerate with most of the wipe still to go.

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Why I Didn't Write Anything Yesterday

Because I was knee-deep in computer technology with nary a grandkid in sight. I am continually amazed by how lousy the provided explanations for computer stuff often are, leaving one to pretty much figure out things by oneself. Does this remind us of vast sectors of the tennis education industry?

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Upkeep of Ten Forehands

1) McEnrueful with deep valley in its backswing.

2) McEnrueful with shallow valley but same but different timing. Connection of arm to body as active noun now replaces second rise of 1) in first Wheatley 1-2 sub-timing unit.

3) FETF (forward emphasis topspin forehand) in which arm never deviates from its starting position as exclusive body turn forms the backswing.

4) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther right there to draw a torpedo.

5) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

6) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

7) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

8) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

9) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

10) Full imitation of a Djokovic forehand (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...3%20500fps.mp4).

Note: The first nine of these forehands, depending on effectiveness, may challenge the assumption of "early pulling on a rope."

Now I want to eliminate one of the FETF's to make room for another that I'm ready to put at the head of the list. I'd forgotten it. Don't want to hit it very often but would like to have it available. That is the Steve Johnson hit-behind-Kevin-Anderson-when-pulled-way-wide forehand.

If starting from John McEnroe's low cheated over wait position one still cranks racket downward at outset to severely close it.

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Novak Djokovic's Initial Backswing

Looks a bit like a baseball pitcher's wind-up to me (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...2%20120fps.mp4). I am intrigued by this since like my father I am a baseball fan. He wrote a Red Barber anthologized article called "Baseball Madness in Brooklyn."

The resemblance of Novak's forehand wind-up to that of a baseball pitcher therefore encourages me to try it. And so far the experiment bodes well.

There is a looseness of every muscle in the body, I would argue, that comes from keeping opposite arm bent and relaxed, and from squeezing the hitting arm a bit as it goes back first guided by both hands. Extending from elbow to a right or obtuse angle as balanced arms go out then can't hurt and seems more cool than a robotic keeping of arms always at one length.

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Building a Taller One Hand Backhand from a Short One

What is the norm for mastery of a one hand backhand? Five years? Ivan Lendl did it in three. Perhaps Domenic Thiem was born with one.

Umm, five years could be the retrospective norm for people who have good one handers. How long did that take?

But there is a much larger category who whether the shot ends up good, mediocre, or worse than in the beginning work on it for the rest of their life.

Recent discussion in this forum has touched on whether the hitch in one young boy's version is due to his attempt to find correct slot to make everything work.

This opinion interests me since it suggests an intricacy of racket path through the air that is crucial to success.

In my own case, attempted imitation of John McEnroe's one hander led me eventually to change grip back to something more conventional and keep front shoulder down-- unlike McEnroe.

Watching the repeating video of Cageman on the opening page of all recent issues of TP has been important for me. In Cageman's one hander he always places racket head in a specific place where I can see it through his transparent hips.

This has, in turn, led me to a pretty good junior backhand which always surprises me by my sudden ability to get the racket tip around in time although final placement of strings behind the hips comes very late. I don't do much with racket in the initial turn, maybe lift it a small bit. It goes up more from my shoulder turning down and all of this happens as one. The racket then turns down abruptly to the key position I am talking about then rolls forward to contact. I call the whole thing "a double roll."

But now I want a taller version with more waterfall in it to give myself a more powerful shot. Method: start with racket in key position and trace backward, lifting racket to where I think it ought to be.

Much will depend on another decision: to roll backward during the drop or not at all or just a bit.

I've had many tall one handers-- not as high as Bea Bielik or Richard Gasquet-- but tall enough to realize that tallness can lead to some interesting possibilities.

The hope is that the tall one hander will be flowing but disciplined at the same time.

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Baseball or Golf it

In this one (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20500fps.mp4) the swung elbow carries all (upper arm, lower arm) with big wipe only chiming in on contact or a fraction before. Everything goes into egging the ball.

In this one (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...t%20500fps.mp4) the swung elbow golfs or bowls. It goes straight rather than around. This opens the racket face while lowering it. The strings then go up the back of the ball rather than across the top of it. Is contact point farther back? Probably.

High mondo in both cases is early. Mondo or flip and "pulling on a rope" are the same concept. Body does the work. The wrist and forearm react.

The everyman here is individual as a Serb, a great skier and theatrical impressionist and icon of athleticism and flexibility.

But what is the signature in his strokes? If we can figure them out, we may conclude that, although they are very different from that of most players, they still are conventional, lacking say the pogo jump of McEnroe or the dipsey-doodle at the top of the Federerian loop.

They simply are conventional strokes done better than those of anyone else.

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Progress Report: Volleys, Serves and Dealing with Thieves and Poachers

No need to mess with good volleys. And so, if influenced by John McEnroe's uni-wait, the time is nigh for a return to equal opportunity on both sides.

John McEnroe waits the same (cheated low toward backhand) for volleys and ground strokes. This information is much more interesting than some stale litany of his bratty behavior smacking of Puritanism transmuted from religious dogma to "modern psychology." Or as Glenn Greenwald has correctly identified, "the angry etiquette speech."

The thing in tennis is not to be distracted from learning from John McEnroe's tennis and finally to realize that his distraction of you was always in the works as essential part of his game. Did he want you to find his secrets? I don't think so.

Now, where does a tennis idea come from? Chris Lewit has said from players, not coaches. The coaches then adopt/adapt. The real point, I say, is not to fritter away one's life with needless attribution. Streamline the emergence of any new idea in the game. Who other than a person with a boring encyclopedic mind cares where the idea came from? Keep it pure. Present it, pure and simple. A famous teaching pro told me this. "We all steal freely from each other." Well, you do if you're smart. This is entirely positive and sometimes is called "robbing somebody's mind."

If you waited for volleys with racket tip high directly in front of your eyes continue to do so now.

Serves: 1) Toss to the motion, don't motion to the toss, and shut your eyes to do this (but in practice only). 2) Practice keeping hand open a little for greater leverage in whapping a bed with ISR-UAR ("internal shoulder" or "upper arm" rotation). Then incorporate this structured arm-racket angle into one's serve for the same increase in leverage.

Dealing with a Good Poacher in Doubles: Seems as if slice drive or chip may often be more effective than topspin, which no matter how fast it travels is always going to rise a bit before it drops.

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Do in the Dour with Dewars

Not good advice for our friends and acquaintances in AA, but for others could be just the trick.

We need to loosen the verbal centers, we who assert that all of our progress in the game comes from neurolinguistic programming, i.e., from English teachers turned teaching pro.

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All 10 worked, so what was I going to do?

1) McEnrueful with deep valley in its backswing.

2) McEnrueful with shallow valley but same but different timing. Connection of arm to body as active noun now replaces second rise of 1) in first Wheatley 1-2 sub-timing unit.

3) FETF (forward emphasis topspin forehand) in which arm never deviates from its starting position as exclusive body turn forms the backswing.

4) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther right there to draw a torpedo.

5) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

6) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

7) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

8) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

9) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

10) Full imitation of a Djokovic forehand (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...3%20500fps.mp4).

Note: The first nine of these forehands, depending on effectiveness, may challenge the assumption of "early pulling on a rope."

Arbitrarily, I chose # 2, a shot the other old guys were unable to deal with. The scores: 6-0, 6-1 and I don't remember the third set. There's a trade-off of partners each time. But in that third set, # 2 forehand stopped working so well so I went to # 10, which was pretty good except that it could have been based on a better model (I'm kidding).

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In This One...

In this one the elbow swings, taking all. There is no keying around posted elbow (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...r%20120fps.mp4). And there is no wiping until this has happened.

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Anything Here for You and Me?

Is this more topspin than usual in a Djokovic forehand? (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...t%20500fps.mp4). I think so.

I see a flip and then the tip goes under. Is this an end-of-mondo anomaly? One can only conclude that the Djoker's whole arm rolls backward.

Mondo or flip therefore is accomplished first as a combination of wrist layback and forearm rolldown.

In the flatter forehands whatever rollback of whole arm there already is is permitted to suffice.

Forearm then keys around (or is that whole arm swing or swinging of the elbow so that arm above and below it rides along?). The severe bevel in the racket face is more important in creating poptop which is a different kind of topspin.

I'm surmising a lot but think that surmising by anybody ought to be encouraged.

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The Ten Forehands to be Hit in Rapid Succession

If you have 10 forehands, perhaps you should hit all 10 during the 5-minute warmup. Do that instead of analyzing your opponents with whom you are probably over-familiar anyway. Pick the forehand that works the best and then use it exclusively during the competition to save all variety for the backhand side.

1) McEnrueful with deep valley in its backswing.

2) McEnrueful with shallow valley but same but different timing. Connection of arm to body as active noun now replaces second rise of 1) in first Wheatley 1-2 sub-timing unit.

3) FETF (forward emphasis topspin forehand) in which arm never deviates from its starting position as exclusive body turn forms the backswing.

4) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther right there to draw a torpedo.

5) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

6) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

7) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

8) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

9) FETF with arm migrating a bit farther there to draw a torpedo.

10) Full imitation of a Djokovic forehand (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...3%20500fps.mp4).

Note: The first nine of these forehands, depending on effectiveness, may challenge the assumption of "early pulling on a rope."

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Onward Progression, Marching as to War

Ski jump, I said. No, that is too much "down." Down and up but more shallowly so. In the view of Jimmy Arias (a personable guy who knows a lot) the backswings of Connors and McEnroe were much the same and a big part of their withering consistency.

What I want to do now is speed up backswing to make the racket float a bit as it changes directions (but still within Wheatley's 1-2 scheme). The floating is not a separate conceptual and time-eating unit. Timing to remain the same as before when backswing was slower and didn't go back quite as far. All forehand backswings to remain in the slot, never to get behind the body which one might do in the olden days for purposes of concealment (and to be self-destructively slow unless you were Stan Smith).

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But don't be surprised if you are me which you probably aren't that your McEnrueful is your best. The McEnrueful is a great shot but like all great shots will be better on some days than others. How could a forehand so flattish ever be anything else? Throughout tennis history players with topspin forehands have defeated those with flat forehands. And those with flat forehands have defeated those with topspin forehands. My friend Jim, who says he had to play Jimmy Connors in the first round at Wimbledon, started the warm-up with the self-statement: "Hey, I can hit with this guy." Jim was about 435 in the world.
Then they started to play.

Connors put the ball in one corner. He put the next ball in the opposite corner. He put the third ball in the first corner. Suddenly my friend Jim began to gasp and suck wind.

So if you hit the ball flat, the next question may well be how deep it is. And can you keep shots at that depth in the court over time?

Answer: On some days better than others.

But here's the way to go. For some time you've been hitting your McEnrueful with an easy down and up backswing pattern modeled on that of John McEnrueful. Time to make a slight alteration. Why do I know that? Because I just did self-feed at the park, had some hot chocolate with the skaters and came home. Didn't take much time at all.

If you accelerate the exact same pattern for the backswing it turns into a ski jump that unweights the racket as the racket skiis up the lip. Perfect. Now you have more time and perhaps a slightly less bent arm to make it solid with the shoulder just before that shoulder banks down.

Also, I think that as shoulder banks up I now go with Welby Van Horn basic eastern forehand form even though I'm using composite grip for this shot. Welby rather than Dennis Ralston. Welby: heel comes up in tandem with hip rotation then slightly replaces to right although it doesn't have to. Ralston: the feet stay flat for the banking down but then rear heel goes up in tandem with the continuing hips to a perfectly balanced finish with no adjustment step.

The McEnrueful is a solid body and arm shot very good for hitting hard or soft. It carries spin but not a lot.

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If You Have Ten Forehands...

If you have 10 forehands, perhaps you should hit all 10 during the 5-minute warmup. Do that instead of analyzing your opponents with whom you are probably over-familiar anyway. Pick the forehand that works the best and then use it exclusively during the competition to save all variety for the backhand side.