A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Straighten Wrist Before Changing Grip

All depends on what level strings are as they wait in ready position, I suppose. Mine are up a bit and cheated to backhand side.

I wait there with 3.5 or 2.5 grip. The number denotes where big knuckle is. If 3.5, there most likely is going to be a change to thumb along fingers spread full slant backhand grip, anti-hammer division.

This choice does not mean that there will be no hammering but rather that mild hammering will be accomplished with a slantwise grip the better to bring the strings around to the outside of the ball.

As change begins, left hand at racket throat, which is determined to keep its palm perpendicular to court throughout the cycle, pulls hitting wrist down straight.

Left hand next holds steady to permit hitting hand to adopt the full backhand grip and spread fingers arrangement while pressing down a little, which makes sure that the hitting wrist holds its adjustment.

The two movements-- straightening wrist and changing grip are certainly linked in that they both in succession bring racket down to parallel with the court.

This wrist and grip alteration rebels against my previous entrancement with flying grip change where the whatever actions are done at once.

It rebels against also normal sequence of grip change first and wrist straightening second which produces a more complicated and therefore harder to maintain feel.

It rebels against the Bollettieri Academy where everybody is told to get the racket back lightning fast.

It doesn't get the racket back slow but does get it back in a smoothly downward and economical and controlled parade.

As foot strides-- if there is a stride-- arm straightens to a mild bend. And shoulders continue to rotate backward. And the arms corset simultaneously rotates backward around the rotating shoulders.

How does this happen? Well, the left shoulderblade stretches in toward body median as the right shoulderblade stretches outward away from the body median.

So where does racket point now? At contact spot slightly to front but slightly to the left as well. The strings are 180 degrees away from this spot, no more and no less.

Time to strike, and a strike is fast. The slower the backswing the quicker the strike.

But the strike is not so fast that there can't be some craft in it. The strings will load to the inside close to the body before they spring to the outside; i.e., one employs a double roll.

So, are strings square at contact or more than square (slightly beveled)? Slightly beveled for topspin according to J. Donald Budge in an early instructional video.

Do strings stop rolling at contact or does one go with Justine Henin when she says, "De racket rolls over de ball like dis."

Most serious tennis players work on their backhand for life. This is a much healthier view than thinking you've got your backhand after a year or two.

Note: A short player with stubby arms might get away with crowding the ball more than here. Me, I have long arms, in fact my right arm is a bit longer than my left. So, although racket butt spears close past my body, if I want to get to outside of ball without a horrible flip, I need to take the ball slightly to the side.

[bottle]

Pleasurable Backhands

These two double-roll backhands are to be hit first in self-feed, next against a bangboard, third in doubles which offers twice as much time to think as singles. If you're good however you may see one ball to your partner's four. Time then to think not only about your backhand (a lifetime project) but about more poaches by you or higher levels of competition where you will be the weak sister.

The first backhand since we're speaking doubles is Rosewallian slice. A while back I got to skunk tail (vertical racket position) and advised bisecting a 90-degree backward roll into passive and active parts. This worked fine. To mush the same idea closer to Ken Rosewall's no skunk tail slice when playing Rod Laver, we simply need to do a division problem. If taking racket directly to 50-degree slant, make first 25 degrees of backward roll passive and second 25 degrees active.

The other backhand to be assessed in self-feed today has been a source of recent excitement. If there weren't excitement, i.e., a good backhand here or there in one's life, there wouldn't be the lifetime incentive to work continuously on this stroke.

Big breakthrough in backhand drive has been the decision to straighten wrist before grip change, thus creating the impression that one is a stoker like either William or Ed Faulkner in an old coal-fired industry.

Now comes hand and fingers change to approximate (verb) second grip backhand of Pancho Gonzalez. One should, I feel, repeatedly mime the change in mid-air without a racket.

Go to this wonderful photo-post:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?p=26021#post26021

If all has gone well, your racket butt will now be aimed at a ghost ball slightly in front of you and slightly to the left. This predicts the racket strings set 180 degrees away from the ghost ball or projected contact point. But you don't plan to hit the ball with front of the racket tip, rather with strings perpendicular like a radar bowl to one's target. And yet you'd like to swish the full 180 degrees to the ball.

The answer again is simple. As you strike out at the ball you roll racket to the inside almost into your body (one half of a double roll). Forward roll then catches outside of the ball in a remarkable occurrence involving a ball which suddenly became real.

Happily, you will have preserved the 180-degree turn and lashed the ball without flipping it.

Note on ball machines. Ball machines are good except that people spend too much time and energy fixing and adjusting them. And paying for them and reading the directions.

[bottle]

Backhands: Hammer Grip for Slice, Wrap a Straight Pipe for Drive

And keep left palm perpendicular to the court as further simplification.

Ought I say that these two one hand backhands involve a linked double roll as part of their late forward hitting dynamic?

Probably, since so many persons hit a one hand backhand some other way.

I'm thinking that Helen Wills and Bill Tilden hit their drives with left hand totally off of the racket. That virtuoso extremism is far from necessary, but in studying the following silent movie, one sees Lew Hoad as teacher hit one such tour-de-force.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au6dg52_jZ8

The inference I draw is that just where one takes opposite hand off of the racket may not be so important as previously thought-- not at least if I have just wrapped a straight pipe, something completely new for me.

My ready position has racket head held fairly high to the backhand side, but the same initial wrist straightening scheme might apply to a more turtle-backed loop-- I can't worry about it.

The combination of gravity and wrist straightening from the high position works nicely in establishing continuity of stroke.

Wrist straightens to start the racket head in a slow swing. Then left hand continues to draw the racket back and down as right hand squashes the handle a little to keep this downward idea going while putting a wrap around three sides of the handle.

All that gets racket length approximately parallel to court but the downward motion does not stop there. What's different is that the one-piece motion is taking racket forward by now with strings rolling toward the body before they roll away to hit the ball.

Best, wrist both in static position and as hand straightens does a good job of assessing the oncoming ball.

[bottle]

I Am a Snake (More Fun than I Am a Kinetic Chain)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz6ficAqi9Q

Note cottonmouth's defensive prowess at 15:29 .

[bottle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz6ficAqi9Q

Note cottonmouth's defensive prowess at 15:29 .

Twenty-five minutes of keeping one's head faced toward the sky with mouth wide open could disconcert one's opponent.

[bottle]

Down with Decels

To where should one accelerate and when should one begin to decelerate? It's not an academic question but rather an effort toward best spin-pace ratio in a given stroke.

[stotty]

Good challenge

The inference I draw is that just where one takes opposite hand off of the racket may not be so important as previously thought--

A good challenge. I have seen it done where the opposite hand is never connected to the racket at all.

A similar challenge would be where players are expected to connect up the opposite hand to the racket at the start of the serve. Roger Taylor never did; Borg neither.

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

Makes you wonder whether perhaps it's better not to...

[bottle]

Design Change Resisted

I hate it when I've worked a new shot past self-feed and bangboard stages, and then I get a brainstorm that threatens the whole scheme.

"The shot you practiced is the shot you play with," Stan Smith said, and fact he said it shows that my problem is not unique in the history of the game.

I'm thinking that, in my 1htsbh, I should maybe delay fall of the racket until racket butt points at ghost ball. Because of my strong belief in design refinement however I tend to go with the new idea even if later I have to retract, retreat and repeat.

My quest for the stupid little thing that might make a big difference means that I don't have the good sense to follow Stan Smith's unquestionable wisdom.

Oh well. Rules are made to be broken by those who know them, and tomorrow I may play, once again, with a shot I haven't even tried out.

[bottle]

A good challenge. I have seen it done where the opposite hand is never connected to the racket at all.

A similar challenge would be where players are expected to connect up the opposite hand to the racket at the start of the serve. Roger Taylor never did; Borg neither.

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

Makes you wonder whether perhaps it's better not to...

Oh God, now I'll have to try this (sparingly) tomorrow too. My whoever partner and I will be lucky to take our set.

Roger Taylor, by the way, was a doubles quarterfinalist at Wimbledon with Tony Pearman. Tony, who knew who my girlfriend Malin was and appreciated her beauty and thought I ought to stay in England, cleaned my clock one and one.

But there's something to be said about a girlfriend who arranges for you a match with the third-ranked senior in some country. Shouldn't have talked so big, I guess.

My three huge national championships in eight-oared rowing (Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia) grow ever more distant.

[bottle]

Report

Tried mental but not physical connection between hands on my very first serve. We used the first time first serve in rule and it was. Can't remember whether my partner and I won the point. Reverted after that to exclusively ingrained habit.

Played at every opportunity with the backhand I practiced against the bangboard rather than the one more recently theorized. This shot worked well but will get better. Since shoulders are simultaneously at work, turning wrist and arm "around" rather than "down" will get the racket siting nicely with the butt cap. While this happens, wrist can straighten followed by the "wrap" grip change.

To start, wrist will be the site, next butt cap will be the site. I'm using "site" not as in website but as in gunsite. The wrinkle on this is that aim point will be in front of ghost ball or actual contact point on net side in other words and way way out as would be determined by a 180-degree swing without double arm roll. But the double arm roll cuts that contact point in half. To rephrase, you hit the ball in front but not as far in front as if you had no double roll.

Maybe I should keep to myself such a complicated notion rather than put it out on the internet. On the other hand, a destroyer or corvette is permitted to find its range with a depth charge in front of its suspected target so why shouldn't I be?

I'm big on streamlining configuration since there can be a modicum of racket fall before the strings turn in before they turn out before they rise straight in the direction of the next target which is on the other side of the net.

Note: Press down a little on grip change to maintain continuity (this is a one-piece swing).

To help evolve this shot, I'll play at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow and skip the tennis social in the evening and save ten bucks with which to go out with HOPE.

[bottle]

Taking the Sweet with the Bitter

Imagine, if you will, a doubles partner and opponent who always starts talking two or three shots before any point is over.

If you are like me, reader, you detest this. But what are the options? Lecture him with all the repercussions that brings? Murder him on the spot and get life?

The best solution I can think of is to find a practice partner who will talk and shout and fart every time you're in the process of making a shot.

If it's golf, get him to screech or light a butane lighter halfway through your backswing.

If it's crew or sculling, get him to make S's in front of you, i.e., behind you with a 30-mph motorboat or jet ski.

One needs to develop total immunity to all distractions.

That postulated, however, I'm glad for another reason I didn't say anything today. If I had, the same fellow would never have made the following statement.

"YOU HAVE A GREAT BACKHAND, JOHN."

[bottle]

Flat Wrist on Backhand Side

How straight is the wrist in the attached illustration? “Comfortably cocked” as author of the text John M. Barnaby says? Sure. So what is the difference in string pitch between a wrist that is comfortably cocked and one that is uncomfortably cocked? By my reckoning, 45 degrees. Which applies to thumb along, thumb wrap, drives, slices and volleys.

Attention to this detail could change one’s game quite a bit.

First, I’d say, reader, lie on your back in your bed humming the old country western song “I’ve got tears in my ears from lying on my back in my bed crying over you.”

Then hold your right arm directly above your eyes and look up. The back of your hand and forearm make a straight line. Curl hand down five degrees and you’ve got something like Ashe or McEnroe. Cock hand up five degrees and you’ve got something like J. Donald Budge shown here hitting a slice which is all but indistinguishable from his drive.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DBBHSliceFront1.mov

While we are considering this subject of wrist flatness, let’s ask some questions. How aware of “amount of cock” (sorry!) are most teaching pros in assessing some student’s grip? How likely is a reclusive tennis player to develop bad habit here from being on his own? Why do famous tennis players change the amount of wrist cock right in the middle of a backhand stroke?

Would it not make sense to find the amount one wanted in ready position so as to avoid later adjustment for the sake of simplicity? Grip change and wrist straightening could not then possibly interfere with one another to hurt one’s overall stroke.

But would the flatter-wristed resting positon (with forehand grip) affect one’s production of an ATP3 forehand? Of course, but it wouldn’t screw up forehands as badly as extremely cocked wrist screws up backhands.

Now, get a tape measure or tape cloth and lay it out flat on the smooth bed cover.

Standing bedside, use a racket to mime closed stride backhands, i.e., don’t be a splay foot or a big foot. If you (or I) hit a slice like the J. Donald Budge one on video up above and didn’t perform a double roll like him—well, exactly where would you have to make contact to hit a cross-court to exactly where you would like it to land?

In my case, with front foot lined up with end of the tape measure, contact point would have to be two feet out for me to hit the famous long diagonal that the majority of tennis players do not own...

To hit an angle sharper than that I could probably chop or flip or hack with result not as good as if I could double roll.

With double roll, I can find the long diagonal contact point at one foot out. Sharper angles exist at 13, 14, 15 and 16 inches.

I see double roll as part of forward dynamic, never as transition. Old tennis books would sometimes suggest that you remove all the slack out of your arm by leaning forward with your shoulder. I fought that for many years and tried to do it but now think the idea of it is ridiculous. The shoulder still presses but the double roll begins late in the hit.

Note: Right-click on the picture. Left-click on rotate clockwise.

[bottle]

Self-Feed Stage

The shots under construction work well with thumb along and thumb around, enabling a long sweep characterized by late double roll.

The thumb alongs enable hard slice and solid drives whose mechanics and appearance are almost the same.

The thumb arounds enable solid slice along with extra versatility in the form of drop shots, dinks, chips, lobs, etc. One must for the basic shot, however, remember to roll forward more.

The hardest part for someone like me is to remember to start with wrist quite flat in all cases.

[bottle]

Monday Bangboard: 1htsbh's and 1hsbh's and s&v's

Fill pockets with tennis balls. Leave basket at home.

Let your intuition flow.

Hit most backhands right on the back of the ball.

Use opposite hand to sweep backhand backswings straight back. Sweep straight back rather than tight and way around.

Use hitting hand to sweep backhands straight forward.

Use double roll to halve one's contact point.

While still at the bangboard, do some serve and volley but don't hit oneself.

Note 1: "Sweep." Senator Paul Laxalt's tailor-made advice for me. He was Nevada Boy's Champion getting personal instruction from Helen Wills as she dropped Moody.

Note 2: Take one ball to bangboard, not six unless working again on serve and volley.

Note 3: Everybody says to hit farther out front, but only the rare person tells you to hit less far out front.

Note 4: In McEnrollish forehand use roll not so often for power or angle but rather to reduce contact point just as can be done on backhands, i.e., bring contact point in closer to body while still keeping it out front.

Note 5: Waiting position combining flat wrist for backhands with forehand grip restores full mondo in ATP3 forehand and may aid in assessing ball since strings face the ball for a longer time. This mondo won't be as harsh as Federer's if one has less natural range in wrist than he.

[bottle]

How Long to Roll?

The forehand easiest to hit could be a pendulum like that of John McEnroe.

That he can hit it better than anyone else goes without saying.

Still, in imitation, I find that this unique genre of shot saves energy for a big ATP3 some other time and hits the ball pretty hard and affords surprising control.

So far, it’s had one drawback. Because of so much roll to square the racket face just at contact there are apt to be misshits (seldom if ever for McEnroe—we are talking about one if his few imitators here, viz., me).

I’ll get more misshits with this forehand than with my other main choice, my ATP3, but I’ll also get more “brilliance,” e.g., a passing shot that lands short in the crosscourt alley.

For a shot like that, does one keep rolling after contact? It’s all out, so perhaps one does, making this a high risk but big reward and virtuoso shot.

Here seems the route to go for more consistency with this rare breed of shot: Just roll to contact. Stop roll at contact in other words. The down the line possibility may amaze. One can hit the ball way out front despite using Australian grip with big knuckle on 2.5 pointy ridge.

The roll puts much hand behind the racket head, hence generating solididity and power. Hand can be at the whirling gut. Control of the ball, as in any shot, is determined by how strings come off of the ball.

Note: Just as in an ATP3fh, there is roll to followthrough, not to be confused with windshield wipe or “turning the door knob”—a verbal cue that Rick Macci uses during rallies on court (noticed in the increasing number of videos of him at work). One cranks the flat-wristed McEnrollathon as part of forward pendulum. The cranking however, not to be confused with natural roll continuing in followthrough, is a separate device that can start late and happen right up to the ball. Well, where does it come from? Most likely from upper and lower arm both.