A New Year's Serve

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Tennis for Inchworms

Time to write a new tennis book, this one 1120 pages long. That is the length I have come to think of as ideal ever since I ploughed into A GLASTONBURY ROMANCE by John Cowper Powys. A favored passage just slightly doctored through the use of one extra ellipses mark (...): "But long after that star of the west went down behind Brent Knoll, Mr. Evans' tormented murmur floated out over the Glastonbury roofs-- 'If only I could see it once...just once...with my own eyes...what Merlin hid...what Joseph found...the Cauldron of Yr Echwyd...the undying grail...this madness would pass from me...but...but...I...don't... want...to see it!'"

She and I don't you know (this is autobiographical now; it is I and not Powys) would take her two dogs up Brent Knoll. I have trouble, in retrospect, establishing their breed. Woods & Copeland perhaps at 300-600 horsepower. They would tow us upward as if we were water skiers or swimmers standing on mud-o-planes. This was good for me since due to tennis misadventure I was already bone on bone in my left leg.

I see repeated scenario here: The tennis player gets older and older until knee replacement replaces meniscus repair. What then would be the best footwork for such a person, not in staple tennis emergencies but when the ball is readily available? In Powys' own words, "The strongest of all psychic forces in the world is unsatisfied desire." Left-right-left for semi-open and square stance shots. Right-left-right for semi-open and open shots.

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Dream Shot

Method: Pantomime with racket but no ball.

See see with forearm perfectly parallel to court. Sway forearm back and forth on elbow in close. This is "farm gate." Now drop the racket tip 45 degrees from hand only. This is "ulnar deviation."

The dropped tip position like the nose of a Concorde airliner can be a feature of wait position. Re-raise it later if you must. Maybe you've had content of full mondo wrong all along? Not just wrist layback and forearm roll-down but a third simultaneous element-- ulnar deviation.

Draw a level line through the air to open the farm gate. Now close gate along same line to aim point. Make the full mondo so prolonged and mild that its occurrence is in tandem with closing of the gate.

Brush and followthrough with elbow still pressed into side.

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Post Small Surgery on Mondo

My attempted compromise between mondo and no mondo appeared to receive a good test yesterday. Restoring to one's forehand side a bunch of shots with a moving farm gate embedded in the middle is the significant development here.

Success with one's drop-shot can animate every part of one's tennis game. The see see short angle is far from a drop-shot but can do the same.

As the most minimalist of a special array of farm gate shots the see see is hit from the same wait position of those (and of one's other ground strokes as well).

Then one can gradually open wrist on the backswing. Because of the keyed position, this will send racket tip slightly upward.

On the foreswing one can next send racket tip slightly down. From what source? Roll from forearm that feels like beginning of a sidearm throw.

The essential and remaining part of the shot then occurs-- a blending of forearm brush and taffy turn of whole body. I am in favor of keeping elbow tight to body during this phase. After the ball is gone one can do whatever one wants to feel relaxed.

P.S. A first question is how much talent one has. A second question is how much common sense one has. A shot in which one keeps one's forearm perfectly parallel to the court-- through all the important parts of the overall cycle-- offers navigational advantage but requires repetitions too.

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And Now New Backhands from the New Wait Position

The new wait position with elbow glued to side and with racket tip keyed down is even more cheated toward the backhand than the old wait position.

Can we have a serious conversation whether real or mental, reader? Would the subject be interesting enough? Only if you are still open to radical innovation.

The racket is more cheated over in the sense of tip turned farther around the body. On the other hand the racket is pretty low and therefore good for using slice on a low ball. Good also for getting off a mildly topspun drive from a low ball.

What about medium height and high balls? Almost on purpose I didn't think about this until now and yet a small, private doubles tournament (eight persons) happens tomorrow.

A disaster waiting to happen? Stevie Twig's SCHACHNOVELLE in which a former prisoner of war affected by too much solitary confinement isn't sure of which chess game he is actually playing as he tries to finish off the world champion Centovic (think Djokovic) on the deck of an ocean liner steaming from Bremerhaven to Buenos Aires?

I don't care. I will have fun through self-authorization of everything. The most interesting challenge may be high to low Federian double-rolled chop. To launch this shot one will have to pretend one's racket is an elevator and take it almost straight up.

Not too steep a price to pay for a bunch of good forehands.

But unforced errors are likely to become unfortunate stat.

Doesn't matter. Flying grip change philosophy may make all of these backhands better than one thought. There is room here for surprise.

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But continental requires a lot of talent too. (Me-- strong Eastern for all of my forehands except for my McEnrueful where I use a composite, which is what I volley with on both sides and slice with on the backhand side.)

[stotty]

Continentals watch out...

Seems like everybody has a mondo or "flip" in their forehand nowadays-- very fashionable but how useful is it? Could it be too mechanical or harsh? Would you, reader, play better tennis if you didn't have it? Or if you modified it? Just wonderin'.

I tried it but it doesn't lend itself well to those who use a true continental grip like me. Actually, if we follow the BG blueprint (using Federer as the model) you cannot commence the prescribed take back (racket tip pointing up to the sky) using a continental grip. It just doesn't work without having to contort the forearm to make the position. With a mild eastern it can be done, with true continental it cannot. We continentals come to a similar problem when trying to achieve the dog pat later in the stroke. It's really uncomfortable and unnatural to lay the face down like that.

Plenty of players flip, though not always much comes out. I say flip if you have talent and don't if you don't. And don't if you are a true continental.

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Small Surgery on One's Mondo

Seems like everybody has a mondo or "flip" in their forehand nowadays-- very fashionable but how useful is it? Could it be too mechanical or harsh? Would you, reader, play better tennis if you didn't have it? Or if you modified it? Just wonderin'.

Three of the five iterations in # 2698 put forearm roll with initial backswing, thus cutting mondo in half. This change creates a small loop that ends with hand laying back from wrist in a downward direction.

But one can reverse the two halves of the mondo while bisecting it too, i.e., open wrist gradually as part of the backswing, which leaves forearm roll to complete a small loop.

I'm trying these new shots both ways while remaining open to the temptation of a huge overhand loop like Novak Djokovic's once in a long while for comic, I mean serious relief as in Pope Francis replacing Donald Trump at center of the public eye.

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A Hidden Quandary in One's Most Basic Forehand

The most basic forehand is a neutral one where you use inside foot to step toward the net. People may start their tennis career by learning it but maybe they should end with it too.

A return to more basic forehands as one gets older seems not a bad idea. Semi-open forehand could become the second choice.

There could be a significant difference however between neophyte and troglodyte.

A very experienced instructor might teach the neophyte to draw his inside (anchor) foot in front of his outside (adjustment) foot in order then to step squarely at the net.

When one studies the photos and not just the words in SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER, one sees that Welby Van Horn taught his students to do this.

A very good instructor-- but not Welby Van Horn-- taught me to do this too but perhaps with not enough conviction.

In time, left to myself, I thought, "Why take that arrhythmic, awkward and extra in between step? Or am I supposed to move both feet at once-- splay the right while bringing the left in front of it?"

Somebody may be talented enough to do that while keeping head, balance and travel together but not I. The result of my excision meant decades of diagonal stepouts-- less effective for a number of reasons.

So, in looking at the SECRETS photos very carefully, I notice that the outside foot is not as splayed as the foot taught by all prominent instructors other than Welby.

Is Welby wrong? Doubtful. My 75-year-old's solution is use the preferred three-step neutral shot rhythm of Stan Smith and Tom Okker as judged from instruction, photos and video of both.

Smith and Okker probably are a little different from one another-- can't recall. But to do like Smith you don't whirl outside foot to start. Instead, you immediately move inside foot as part of a three bit rhythm-- left right left, splaying middle step no more or less than Welby's spec.

For balls that are farther away use semi-open, or if you have to, open stance, and figure out all over again how much and when to splay the outside foot.

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Three-Inch Step to Right

The "third movement of the adjustment foot" is a subtle idea in that most subtle of instruction books SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER, which contains teachings of Welby Van Horn.

A right-hander may only come to realize after well spaced out re-readings of the book that while this tiny extra step of a few inches figures in catching momentum and achieving balance partway through a square step-out forehand, the first purpose is to add to amount of fast hips turn in a forward direction.

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Today: Rolled Over Racket in Waiting Position

Key down to get keying down out of the way. Deal with the backhand consequences later. Use this different waiting position to generate new forehands arrayed from delicacy to uninhibited power. They might include:

1) A see see with elbow kept close into the body for much of the stroke. Followthrough now (the part of stroke after contact) to embrace sim (simultaneous if not simian) elbow straightening and elbow moving out from body.

2) Elbow again kept close into the body (initially) with addition of full body turn and speed. (I prefer push-the-medicine-ball shots here in which farm gate closing takes strings right up to the ball before core turn and optional upward brush from forearm roll chime in.)

3) Elbow permitted finally to go out behind one as arm somewhat unbends as slow roll from forearm continues. This is a big separation/big extension shot as in a true Djokofore. (The extension, established behind one, continues to the side of one and in the front of one. But backswing started out as in the first two shots.)

4) Extend arm from elbow more. Don't roll racket tip up as in 1), 2) & 3). Use full mondo rolling last instant from upper rather than lower arm. This is the remnant of my Federfore, which received considerable psychic investment and physical myelination. (Uninhibited wipe from the shoulder with elbow turning at contact is its hallmark.)

A more conceptual and less experiential version however could substitute full arm roll for forearm roll throughout the backswing. Then the mondo which also could be defined as one's loop in its entirety would consist only of motion driven layback from wrist.

Let's be clear though. Although I've experimented with workable if somewhat mediocre power shots that put no significant arm work between the opposite rotations of the shoulders, today's design which could be different tomorrow restores some arm after backward body turn.

Hand may passively lay back/down to form a natural loop but same hand may still be going back. The natural loop then is an alloy of hand travel and hand bend.

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Next Idea

How important is forehand loop in generating racket head speed? It is an old and persistent question, and rather than pretend to have the answer, I shall simply say, "One should consider downsizing one's strokes as one grows older."

Suppose that one has a nice loop on one's forehand. Should one eliminate it? That certainly is a way of making some stroke smaller. I think I've done it with my composite grip "McEnrueful," my go-to forehand in situations of greatest doubles pressure. Body work is pretty much the same as with any other forehand-- largeness and speed of forward turn is everything. The linear arm work though is way stripped down, goes up and down in both directions a very short amount on an incline of about 20 to 30 degrees that melds into beefy uppercut around a slightly tilted straight spine.

It's a good stroke especially when moving forward but secondary nevertheless.

The minimal loop of # 2695-6 has got to be of interest at least for me. If downward key of elbow followed by upward key of forearm-- for sure "a ripple effect"-- works in a variety of shots, why not as a substitute for the big loop with its brief moment of skunk tail or racket standing on end of Novak Djokovic?

The big difference from the shots recently learned would be the absence of "farm gate," that very useful device for establishing precise aim.

Arm on backswing would employ the two rolls but extend somewhat from the elbow to create greater extension just as in a Djokovic forehand.

Body once again and not the closing farm gate of a right-angled arm would provide the impetus that activates one's mondo.

Best, by making backward forearm roll and wrist layback sequential, one has made the mondo half as complicated and twice as mild.

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Report

Yes that was true. I had spent quite a few days in honing a Djokofore but might as well have thrown it out the window since the new shot described in # 2695 but never hit not even in self-feed appeared more dependable from the first shot in warm-ups.

And every time I tried the Djokofore during the match I overhit until an hour and a half passed. Then that Djokofore began to plunge in as the new shot finally began to reveal its overly conceptual underpinning.

Future path for this new shot: Turn elbow up quickly and racket up from forearm slowly. A ratio of one to three should work fine. It all happens during unit turn and trip to the ball.

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A Significant Invention, Tough to Take by Disbelievers in Significant Invention

My only purpose was to improve my see see by coming up with a small and stupid thing to spark up my taffy turn.

Once I had the stupid thing in hand, however, I could see at once its universal application.

(Please note the spelling of "its," which contains no apostrophe. Possessive its never splits.)

As part of a unit turn the racket head can turn down to key the elbow up. As part of the same unit turn the racket strings can then open from forearm roll just the way they do in a normal mondo albeit earlier. Now, since forearm has rolled, a motion driven layback of wrist will take the racket tip naturally down on a roughly right-angled arm.

This brings "farm hinge" back into the equation of a full forehand where the equal sign points to the word "good." One may or may not want a new forehand (I know I don't), but like it or not here it is.

One need only apply the vigorous body turn from all the full forehands one already knows.

I haven't tried this shot yet. Refraining from doing so may prove difficult.

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Higher Forehand, Lower Backhand

Once one thinks one is Djokovic thanks to an imitation Djokovic forehand, one may find oneself hitting the ball too flat and low.

I see this as a function of the vertical racket in middle of this Djokofore. For a microsecond the racket stands on end. Then the strings come down right behind the ball. A good time to do wrist layback part of mondo without forearm roll down part of mondo.

One can swing really hard because of the good separation and solid connection of arm and body for a long time. "I'm solid, I'm really driving the ball."

The mistake would be to think that you can't swing just as hard on a moonball. The racket is more open but the ball trajectory is longer. You use more sky. This factor and the other-- topspin-- keep the ball in.

How to make the change? 1) be aware of pitch after same loop. 2) make loop more of a C-shape if you like pencil-thin loops and aren't worried about disguise.

Similarly on a one-hand backhand one could take racket back higher for flatter version, keeping same size of loop.

If one wished more disguise one could learn to make the change from the same higher backswing at all times.

Disguise however is overrated. Better to learn the technical change first with a same size forehand loop and a same size backhand loop.

I am not saying that my forehand and backhand loops are identical-- they're not.

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The Smallest, Smoothest, Mildest Loop Possible

The Coyote and The Roadrunner is certainly not my favorite version of the Sisyphus myth but nevertheless is the one I am currently stuck with.

The see see is a beep beep that I would like to squish once and for all, and the shot is screwed for tomorrow doubles. Maybe it will be ready for next week doubles.

Too many recent changes have crossed my neuronal wires, so I will request the backhand side in two out of the three sets we play with a different partner. Reality not arrogance is behind that. We (my partner and I) will have a better chance to win.

On the other hand, "You play with the shot you practiced," Stan Smith said-- for me personally the most profound tennis maxim ever coined.

And today in self-feed I'm going to try: 1)a) twisting elbow internally, 1)b) twisting forearm externally. 1) is combined with unit turn limited by the car governor of outside foot step-out.

Then 2) farm gate combined with layback of wrist. As I try it in this office the racket automatically eases down somewhat.

Then 3) forearm will roll for the brush followed by slight straightening of elbow along the path of departing ball followed by a wrap with these actions to be embedded in a taffy turn.

Notes: There is no body rotation happening during 2). And the grip is the grip that works.