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.
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.
Comment