A New Year's Serve

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Correctly Assessing the Price of One's Invention

The price will differ from invention to invention. Sometimes the price will be so low that one may as well call that particular invention both smart and "free."

My current example of an invention-- and it is a big one-- is adding a bit of inchworm or finger roll or finger twiddle to almost every stroke I've got.

My decision to roll the racket handle between thumb and middle finger was an arbitrary one.

In crew, one uses the fourth and fifth fingers to help the wrist and forearm with all the feathers in both direction (two for every stroke).

Using thumb and forefinger might work. Me, I decided on thumb and middle after watching a videotaped demonstration of curve pitch in baseball. And have continued to go with this.

The ground stroke possibilities are great, especially if one still is able NOT to use the inchworm sometimes. Everything is about making the new element more unconscious.

A present area of uncertainty is volleys (in which I pretty much always use the continental grip). Volley could be the shot that hates change the most. I'm thinking, "No change for backhand volleys" (stronger of the two sides for me). And no change for forehand volleys crosscourt or down the middle. For forehand volley down the line, though, I'm surmising that a bit of finger roll to mitigate amount of wrist layback I need could work out great but I don't know that yet.

And then there is the question of overhead. Finger roll can greatly improve someone's serve-- especially if he was losing edge, i.e., was hitting the ball too flat, which can sometimes happen even to the best players in the game. Charlie Pasarell once wrote that to remedy this situation he would serve with a forehand grip for a while.

After trying various options of where to introduce the finger roll into my serve I decided (in bed one morning) first to hump the wrist as weight settled on rear foot and then to roll middle finger forward in first half of upward throw.

A great idea. Works fine if one is saving upper arm rotation for second half of upward throw. But, in geezer doubles, I started missing overheads I always made before.

Should one keep to the non finger rolled overheads that were successful? Logic says yes but does one have an actual choice if serve affects overhead more than one realized?

This is what I mean by correct assessment of the price of some change.

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And Then There Is The Problem Of Talking About A Change

Clearly, I do that in these posts and just did. Does this keep the climate fluid enough for improvement? Depends on whether one thinks that words freeze athletic movement (superstition). The right words as exploration take one closer to better athletic movement (the truth).

Ah, the truth! You see that I know the truth. Just kidding.

But at least there's a chance I know something. When I coached, my people won. Why?

Then one has a bad serving day (happened this morning). The serves all went in but failed to paralyze my opponents enough.

Better to bow the wrist and twiddle the fingers (a quick one-two) along with loading the upper arm and scapula in opposition to the smoother body movement, using these two unusual videos as models for said smoothness and philosophy of whipping arm around or over body or both.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/billtilden/billtilden_sa.html?BTServeArmActionKickRear.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/billtilden/billtilden_sa.html?BTServeArmActionSliceRear.mov

The entire head bob (down and up) has occurred before there is ANY upward throw from the arm.

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Words Themselves Don't Destroy One's Best Stroke

Overworking it might though. Mr. Toohey, a Canadian figure skater who mastered a move that no other figure skater in the world could, told me that he lost it by flogging it too much.

I wouldn't say exactly that I lost my double-roll backhand slice, the shot which for eight months garnered all kinds of compliments and invitations for a lesson. For it sizzled well on hard court two days ago.

Yesterday however it went sour on clay. Just didn't carry enough venom. The very shrewd senior who actually has been the most impressed person, told me, after our early morning doubles session, that this best shot of mine for which I sometimes will run around a forehand just wasn't there.

What to do about it? Resort to memory. What was the difference in feel when the shot cooked last summer?

The primary feel was in the backswing that lifted the racket into a skunk tail combined with determination to swing the racket head level to the ball.

Since then I got too conceptual precisely with this backswing.

First I made it too fast, whipping it up as part of a flying grip change.

Then I divided it into two parts, flying grip change first and lift of the arm second.

The answer may be to unify flying grip change and arm lift, and to make sure that everything goes in one direction, but also make sure that none of this is rushed (the feet can be moving like mad).

These are exploratory words.

P.S. Last night was the Christmas party of the Senior Men's Tennis Club of Grosse Pointe, Michigan, average age for which is 75, a coat and tie affair. Coincidentally, those who danced and boogied the latest with their wives and girlfriends were the best tennis players in the group.

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Except for me, of course. I'm the worst in the group, just as everybody thought.

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A Little More Body in Top of the Loop

I refer specifically to any design for backhand slice that draws on the model provided by the 19-year-old Ken Rosewall in this clip.

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

By "body" I don't mean that somebody should lurch more into the shot.

The term "body," as I intend it, alludes to Ken Rosewall's racket work immediately after he has attained skunk tail position.

The racket turns easily to the inside as his arm easily extends a small amount at the elbow.

I should like to compare this small move to drop of club head at top of a really great golf swing-- all finesse in a word.

The great Scotch golf teacher Percy Boomer did not believe a person should apply major energy even then but a bit later.

Given the time constraint in tennis, however, I tend to say "Yeah-- right then."

Ideally, the finesse I'm talking about should take place just as the player "props" on rear foot for a final hitting step, to use a favorite verb of Tony Roche.

Reality is usually different from any ideal however. Which is why good speculation always leads to further tests.

Note: At the Christmas dinner of Grosse Pointe Seniors Men Tennis Club members, most of the wives were tennis players, too.

One of them asked me, "With all of your reading and studying videos and email exchanges and brainstorming with other members of Tennisplayer, can you tell me if your tennis has improved?"

"Yes," I said, and everyone at the table seemed to accept that.

But her question was a great one. Does "study" in tennis improve one's game or just make one into "a student of the game?"

Both, I would submit, depending on how big a plunge one is willing to make. As tour technician Ben Ford once asserted after paying good attention to the frequently acrimonious exchanges between Bungalo Bill and me, "Both of you are just knowledgeable enough to be dangerous."

I'm sure he was right.

The challenge then is to plunge into the unknowns of tennis technique even more, so that something that sounds automatic but isn't will nevertheless happen, viz., TENNIS WILL COME TO YOU.

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Essay

Yes, I'll continue to go with this idea, which is, essentially, that, to become proficient in any field of human specialism, one needs to plunge as off the end of a diving board.

One can't be overly critical at least at the outset and probably not for the duration of one's obsession.

Consider the girl who falls in love with horses at the age of nine. She quickly learns what a fescue is and is apt to talk about curry combs for the rest of her life. Her passion extends beyond riders and horses and tack and a certain steeplechase jump to every minor detail in her sport.

This is healthy and good. Enthusiasm is positive. We naturally like to talk about the things we love.

But, "figuring things out," say in tennis, will take a person's game just so far.

One may become more knowledgeable than certain other players-- poor compensation if they are habitually more victorious than oneself.

But what is the choice if one is not so young and so promising that backers or associations will find the Slovenian expert who will tailormake a specialty serve as for Boris Becker and Steffi Graf? (He produced rather opposite looking serves in those two cases.)

This aspect of tennis boggles-- or should boggle-- the mind. "The better the player, the less he or she knows what she is doing," said Billie Jean King.

Well, does that mean that at the most developmental and pliable stage of the player's tennis career, she handed over her brains to another individual?

Probably.

But whom are we talking about here? One in a thousand? To be a member of this select group certainly would be relief from one's daily doubts about technique. One could concentrate solely on training, psychology, sleep habits, diet, strategy and tactics, etc.

Stroke technique would be a given.

That technique came from somewhere though. A grandmother? A drunken coach in a bar?

Sadly (or happily perhaps) most of us need to think for ourselves, especially when local coaches are increasingly committed to "cardio" and other programs which de-emphasize technique.

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Tony Trabert with a Twiddle

One can start this shot with a flying grip change to get the racket parallel to the court and on its way.

Model once again comes from DAVIS CUP 1954, the Krosero video, but near its end.

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

What is the grip? Whatever you would like.

In an eastern backhand grip you can twiddle the racket head open to give yourself some rhythmic possibility for subsequent roll of racket head past your hand.

You can twiddle by pressing thumb down against the middle finger and see the strings roll low. That will do it. What do you want? Simplicity, right? And ease.

The arm straightens, too, but didn't have much to go, right? Well, wouldn't you like to strip your one hander down to its irreducible elements? And wasn't Tony Trabert a clever fellow?

Perhaps the opportunity for roll as racket head sweeps toward the ball just isn't great enough for you.

In that case you can add a little more racket opening to prepare at end of the backswing. You would do this by introducing some backward forearm roll to the mix.

But maybe you would like less total arm roll? Eliminate the twiddle and just use the forearm as arm rhythmically straightens too. Or just keep racket frame square through the whole cycle?

These are options, all of which seem an editing of the Don Budge backhand.

Further progress requires some doing by you. I mean by me. Have I tried this yet? Of course not.

[stotty]

Trabert and Hoad

Funny backhand Trabert's. The way he first lifts the racket up then goes in to a mini loop. I find it a little quirky. So much more interesting these old players, so much more individuality. The game was still slow enough back then to allow for quirkiness. That maneuver of Trabert's would be too costly in today's rocket-propelled game.

I find 1954 clip quite wonderful to watch. I find different things to wonder everytime I view it.

I like Hoad's confident demeanor most of all. He walks around like he owns the court. Head up and shoulders back. Kind of like Becker used to but in a much less big-headed way. Becker imposed himself like a bully; Hoad is just sheer confidence and self-assuredness. I like Hoad's on court demeanor more than any other player I can think of. I think it's perfect.

[bottle]

I'm totally with you on Hoad and Krosero. As for Trabert, my personal interpretation of his backhand is just a straight back or rather straight around levelness of racket head followed by a transitional lowering of the racket tip and a spiraling uppercut through the ball-- can't see how this would be slow, but I'm not scheduled to play doubles for a couple of days, and that with geezers anyhow, and there is too much snow on the ground for self-feeds outside. It was cross-country skiing by the frozen great lake today and very beautiful.

To me the rolling open and closed is similar to Don Budge (and Ken Rosewall for that matter), only starts out with racket tip lower and more level.

I admit that in one of the Krosero sequences Trabert's racket does seem to swing down before it swings up but I didn't see that in the others (the other sequences of Trabert).

In any case, this is more about the economical thing I want to try, at least in my upcoming book TENNIS WILL COME TO YOU. Steve gave me permission to use that title. But maybe I shouldn't reveal anything. Before me, someone may come out with a book called TENNIS WILL COME TO YOU X just as there is a TennisOne X (and boy does it suck whether a book or X website) and soon no doubt there will be a TennisPlayer X and I'm sure that will suck. All imitations except for imitations of tennis strokes suck.

[stotty]

I'm totally with you on Hoad and Krosero. As for Trabert, my personal interpretation of his backhand is just a straight back or rather straight around levelness of racket head followed by a transitional lowering of the racket tip and a spiraling uppercut through the ball-- can't see how this would be slow, but I'm not scheduled to play doubles for a couple of days, and that with geezers anyhow, and there is too much snow on the ground for self-feeds outside. It was cross-country skiing by the frozen great lake today and very beautiful.

To me the rolling open and closed is similar to Don Budge (and Ken Rosewall for that matter), only starts out with racket tip lower and more level.

I admit that in one of the Krosero sequences Trabert's racket does seem to swing down before it swings up but I didn't see that in the others (the other sequences of Trabert).

In any case, this is more about the economical thing I want to try, at least in my upcoming book TENNIS WILL COME TO YOU. Steve gave me permission to use that title. But maybe I shouldn't reveal anything. Before me, someone may come out with a book called TENNIS WILL COME TO YOU X just as there is a TennisOne X and soon no doubt will be a TennisPlayer X.

I'll try the Trabert backhand on Wednesday and report back. I compared it to Federer's and there is definitely something more time consuming going on. I can't be sure of this until I try it for myself.

Shame I am not your side of the pond. I'd a shovel the snow so we could crack on a try out the stroke together...compare notes. As it stands we'll just have to compare notes via the forum. Shame...I'm a good feeder. No doubt you are too.

[bottle]

Tweak

Thanks.

Forehand: If you fully lay back the wrist with a 3.5 grip while keeping the hand pretty low somewhere around waist height the racket head goes UP.

Which makes for a deeper "pat the dog."

I'm adding a little backward finger twiddle to this gradual wrist layback at the same time.

That way I get an early racket face closing the way a semiwestern grip does but retain the eastern grip virtues.

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Racket Opening Up in front of The Body

I don't think people talk enough about how racket tries to change its pitch out in front unless you stop this with a compensating roll.

In addition a racket face opens more severely if your arm swings close to the body, and then racket tip doesn't (naturally) come around as much.

The greater the separation of hand from body to the side the less of this opening of pitch there is in a ground stroke.

Implications for a Tony Trabert patterned one hand backhand with double twiddle probability off of an initial eastern grip:

TWIDDLE ONE with thumb rolling racket down over middle finger makes an eastern backhand grip think it's a continental. Good opportunity here for a wide swing combined with forward arm roll.

TWIDDLE TWO with middle finger rolling handle down over thumb makes the eastern grip think it's semiwestern and could indicate the classic dictum to "pull straight on a rope," which is good prescription only if you realize that this swing is going to fly closer past the body.

And roll is apt to come late, more suddenly, with goal implicit of scraping strings up the outside of the ball.

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For the Senior Sweep Oarsman Who Plays Tennis With His Feathering Hand

Let us call him Runningwake, a name out of Homer. He should try some John McEnroe forehands with a straight wrist, only add a bit of backward finger twiddle.

An oarsman's finger twiddle is more powerful than most. If he feathered 6 million times in college, he may have used backward finger twiddle 3 million times.

His forearm and wrist were also involved in this turning of blade parallel to the water, but that will only suggest unified athleticism as he eggrolls the ball.

The 3 million repetitions with their clear suggestion of mastery will more than exceed the rigorous standard of the great jock Malcolm Gladwell.

Usually, for any tennis player to whom I am recommending "terrible twiddle," I say employ this phenomenon somewhere else in the ground stroke cycle and don't do it while actually sandwiching contact, but in this case, go ahead.

Why listen to me? Because I am the only person giving this advice.

[don_budge]

A Christmas Carol...

He Crachits the ball.

You should see my 11-year-old hitting partner Maxine playing Tiny Tim's sister in 35 paid performances of CHRISTMAS CAROL.

Her job is to show that poor kids can be happy. Her smile is so sustained that it is eery. This may be the realism of poverty but the surrealism, too.

One of the most important questions of the day has always been...what relationship is there between happiness and being either rich or poor.

After performing this part 35 times that question may be indelibly imprinted on young Maxine's being and social consciousness for the rest of her life. Giving her a good perspective for life in the future.

Big congratulations to her! And "Merry Christmas...especially to all of those that are poor. Being poor doesn't necessarily mean that you are not rich...or happy for that matter."

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Yes. (And forwarded to Maxine-- a voice from Sweden.)