A New Year's Serve

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When Expectation and Reality are Exactly the Same

St. Ives, UK. Got to play in Maidenhead against Cate Cowper and Francesca Davis, both of whom are coached by Victor Roubanov, married to Olga Morozova, former number one in Russia and discoverer of Andy Murray. She partnered with Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon.

I've seen a picture of Victor with the two young girls. He has a kind face, requisite to be an effective young person's coach?

And he was not too shabby a player himself, in fact 18 and under champion of the USSR.

Whom else did he coach? Henman and Kournikova among others.

Up to age of 11, Victor is interested only in grooving somebody's forehand then shortening it.

Quite critical of British acceptance of mediocrity, Victor wants all of his players to succeed at the highest levels and doesn't think doubles earns anyone enough money.

Cate Cowper was fresh from winning her first grass court tournament the day before. I worked my way to net and was passed by Francesca Davis short in the alley (what I like to call the short angle or pro shot). The ball came up and down very fast.

My partner was first Kristin Cowper, American, then John Cowper, a transplant from Rhodesia.

For a spell there Kristin and I ran four games, but then the girls figured things out and we did not fare well.

Cate's 10th birthday was today.

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Orthodox ATP3 Makes Its Reappearance But With A Screwball Dogpat

Instead of just hinging the forearm down like a halfback straight-arming a defensive end in his puss, one screws the whole arm counterclockwise at the same time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52Ggata7qY).

If this doesn't work and not screwing doesn't work then return immediately to the screwball forehand discussed in the immediately preceding posts. In any case I see good potential for service returns and other quick shots there because of the linked hip turns. Had particular success against the geezers of the Grosse Pointe carousel with just a soupcon of key-like wind down: ball went extra fast, guy couldn't react and was late, we won point.

These irrepressible thoughts and another to lower wait position will surely screw my chances of victory against Cate in England (we fly tonight), but I am always becoming something and like life that way and understand this and accept it.

Was ist da zu verloren?

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Blocked Slice or a Forehand that Starts Out like a Backhand?

Okay, so no one wants to talk about the crazy forehand. I'll just use it to beat the crap out of people.

And I'll write instead today about backhand double-roll tabletop slice that blocks the ball in the contact area and even will try this out if I can get to a tennis court amidst TV Davis Cup and the packing and preparations for our flight across the pond from Detroit to London.

The idea of blocked slice comes, I guess, from someone decades ago saying, "Ken Rosewall's slice is a blocked shot."

Or maybe from a Julie Heldman slice article in her mother's old magazine TENNIS WORLD.

"Keep the racket going toward the target," Julie wrote.

So I'll wind up farther around or compress the two rolls to get all the accelerative detail out of the way before a big block.

I customarily play with old geezers like myself, don't you know, and have become addicted to hitting the ball with the second roll.

This imparts a soupcon of sidespin guaranteed to drive any geezer nuts. But I'm going to play against Cate, 9, in England. She'll get to that shot and crush it.

So, having whipped the racket head fro and to, I'll make both ends of my stick PROCEED AT THE SAME SPEED.

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Self-Feed II

Rain kept me from trying out the new shot in competitive doubles so I decided on a bit more solitaire.

Some players change grip before their shot even begins-- Philip Kohlschreiber comes to mind.

The extra beat of this when one already has desired grip can be applied to the keylike drop in this design leaving only straightening of the elbow to occur during backward rotation of the hips. In any case the drop-then-extension feels economical, smooth and a blended act.

Loop then in response to change of direction of the hips comes exclusively from wrist, forearm and the humerus twisting in its cave.

There always will be the chance to shorten the key-like drop-- good for flattening out a shot. Roll will still be present just less of it, which gives more zen-like emphasis to the wrist suddenly and responsively laying back.

At opposite end of the spectrum one can, while straightening elbow, twist it up to press the racket tip even lower than level.

This straight-wristed move can generate extra spin needed to hit crosscourt short angle ("the pro shot").

Note: The vectors in this overall method of shot seem to argue for it. Flat, sailing racket (like a frisbee) seems to create momentum to the outside. When arm stops then the racket can keep rolling to the outside which helps it to continue to roll to the inside and with all of this activated from body core.

Mondo or flip, it seems to me, occurs in a slantwise direction from high outside to low inside, never straight over the top.

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Report

But it does work, at least in self-feed. The racket, after fall and arm extension, is pointing toward the net just as Rick Macci's does after he makes his small adjustment following his dogpat.

There no longer is any need for adjustment, but different adjustments in elbow setting can be fun. The adjustment or lack thereof will affect how far one spins the racket around one's hand as one begins one's "pull and roll."

The crucial factor will be if one can play tennis while linking the two hips turns. When I've done this occasionally in my tennis life I've felt I was hitting a different quality of shot. Naturally, I wonder now: Can I or should I do this all the time?

Today I found that if I wanted to hit with accuracy the length of the alley I needed to pull my hitting arm (as I straightened it) back a little more. I self-fed from both open and neutral stance.

Will I be ready next week for Cate, fifth in Great Britain in the English national 9-year-olds? No but I might be. We probably will play in Cornwall at St. Ives.

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Lead from the Elbow But in What Direction?

A scientist, as I understand him or her, does not stop with something she likes but rather wishes to be thorough.

A sequence from excellent to good to worse therefore seems quite possible. Re-stated, that would be from likely to less likely to less likely than that.

SIDEWAYS, to answer the question posed in my title here. With a simple drop of the racket head to transform it into a tray to replace its solid and connected whip-around in a normal unit turn.

Now hands separate at the bottom of this drop. Because of one's grip, close to that used by Roger Federer in his forehand, the tray-like or frisbee-like racket sails around rather than whips around as both arm straightening and smooth body rotation take place.

The biggest departure from what appears sensible is elimination of normal turn and arm work sequence.

Both arms rather fly around the body as the body flies around.

Or does the body limp around? Or backswing around in a controlled way irrevocably intertwined with the steps of one's feet?

Backward rotation of hips thus melds into forward rotation of hips exactly as in a Ted Williams' baseball swing.

Perhaps, reader, you are inclined to point out that the Ted Williams' design is for accommodation of a 100 miles-per-hour pitch and will not work at slower speeds.

Perhaps that is the experiment.

Note: One should keep other forms of forehand at the ready in case this one does not work.

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Report

Very promising in self-feed. Found that I preferred wishbone (actively leading with elbow on backswing) for heaviest topspin and Gordon-Yandell-Macci ATP3 for the flat version.

This could create a flawed program in that either of these choices would be telegraphed by the wind-up.

On the other hand I have another version of flat domain (my McEnrueful) which is bizarre enough to confuse most opponents when alternated with ATP3 flat or anything else.

The reason for wishbone preference when one goes about producing heavy topspin is, that, although one can learn to do the same thing from ATP3 dogpat, the racket is earlier in getting closed with tip lagged toward net, which in my view makes the shot easier to produce.

If one will permit oneself to contemplate a bit, this forehand-- the one producing heaviest topspin-- is a triple roll.

If that contention is true, I can't see why to put the first two of the three rolls too close together.

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One Design Leads to Another: The Nature of Reality

If the tennis player with a Federfore type grip and Tracycakes type early separation and Ivan Lendl type lead with the elbow attempts to adapt to the ATP3 these sound basics (some would call them idiosyncratic personal characteristics better not imitated by anybody), one can eliminate the awkward-seeming late counter-roll discussed in the previous post and demonstrated by Rick Macci in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52Ggata7qY).

Leading with the elbow closes racket and points racket tip at net early. The temporizing built into this act makes left hand on the racket more comfortable while delaying racket tip from going back as soon.

The racket next goes backward/outward rather than downward/outward because of the different elbow setting.

The backward moving racket head thus carries a little momentum (from both internal arm movement and late backward body rotation) that gets sharply reversed as one begins one's pull and roll.

Note: These observations, preceding any kind of a trial, are a blueprint.

Note 2: Pointing across with left arm can turn shoulders just as fully as keeping left hand on racket forever. Rick in the video sees the pointing across as a stabilizing force to keep the player "in the shot"-- a different and more passive function than that in my view.

Note 3: Stabilizing left arm rather than activating with body and stabilizing left arm is a tremendously helpful part of hitting the ball the Gordon-Yandell-Macci way.

Note 4: I plan to oppose these separate methods to see which works best for me.

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More Forehands

I can't have enough. And so today I add to the McEnrueful-- the only one of my forehands that never seems to go away-- the Lendl Wishbone along with an ATP3 straight-wristed short angle.

All intelligence if intelligence there be begins with this video of a professorial Rick Macci holding forth (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52Ggata7qY). Do we need to judge his delivery or for that matter consider the ATP3 as PC (politically correct)? Do we ever need to play the PC card card or the race card card? Personally speaking, although I haven't looked into present internet flap, I am delighted that some hapless poster on Twitter has felt the wrath of Dumbledore for criticizing Serena Williams' physique once again. The author J.K. Rowlings lit into that person. That's all I need to know. I've heard far too many comments on Serena's muscularity for one lifetime.

Similarly, I have to ask, is the ATP3 really mainstream and something to rebel against? (Not in the senior men's tennis club of Grosse Pointe, Michigan.) This weekend, in the midst of Wimbledon, I utterly ruined a high school graduation party for a very good tennis player by miming one ATP3. The woman who was my captive audience never wanted to think-- first mantra of all good tennis players-- but think first, I urged, get crazy later. She was having none of it. So good for her. Just as Rick Macci suggests in the video but her forehand may never be as good as it could have been.

In the video, a lot of people are standing around a tennis court. What is their comprehension rate-- 20 or 40 per cent?

I ask that question since I thought I completely understood this video a long time ago but missed the part right after the dogpat where Rick twists his elbow a little to lower the racket tip a little before it zings around through the mondo.

I see that largely unexplained phenomenon now because I had to come up with it myself right in the midst of intensely competitive play to make my Lendl Wishbone work.

The Lendl Wishbone is a bent arm shot very good for medium and high balls. One leads with the elbow and at the last micro-second leads with the elbow a bit more.

For short angle forehand service return for right-hander in deuce court now, I think one ought to step with right foot and keep a straight wrist.

If one can, from Macci's demonstrated preparation, flatten out a forehand by dispensing with forearm roll-down (mustard) but keep late wrist lay-back (relish), one can do the opposite for pro shot short angle-- hold the relish but keep the mustard.

If keeping the mustard however, one should twist the elbow up just a little after straight-arming dogpat for fullest and best timed mondo to generate maximum racket head speed and contact WAY WAY out front.

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What is Best Pattern for Largest Arm Rotation?

The Iglesian shots are proving to be good and fast and deep, but who knows exactly when mondo occurs. Perhaps it's better not to know. Maybe because this is reversion to earlier forehands in my middle age when I was probably trying to imitate Ivan Lendl and even Tom Okker, the pattern brings up earlier desire to carioca with right foot inside of left foot followed by big linear weight transfer into ball with a neutral hitting step the way Okker used to like to do.

Nothing wrong with that, but these shots can be hit open or semi-open as well, with angular rather than linear momentum being the big thing.

To answer the question posed in the title above, it seems that my present forehand choices include one that gets the arm straight soon, and this is better for a big crank finishing with racket head down around the legs.

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Iglesial Throw To First

I don't know how to do this without missing the first baseman either, but it seems, as a forehand, even better if you don't make contact while the bent arm is twisting the racket head forward but rather when the arm is in the first inch or two of extension from the elbow.

Just because some teaching pro in golf noticed that Ben Hogan's right arm is still bent as he makes contact doesn't mean that Ben didn't already start his arm extension leading to a relaxed, balanced and ineffable followthrough.

To hit the shot, take it easy in raising the elbow in order for your hand to be stopped or slow like the head of a snake.

Start your throw to first now with elbow in the lead then racket strings in the lead. Compress this double-whammy to allow time for the early extension I just talked about.

Re-read the Robert Lansdorp article on the three forehand finishes (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/..._finishes.html).

P.S. If you decide to hit the ball this total Iglesial way, and you already own a good mondo, that mondo will occur during transition from the forward part when elbow leads. Add still more heft to the shot by concentrating on and exaggerating the body turns backward and forward.

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Miniaturizing Iglesial Flow

This is what any great shortstop or second or third baseman learns to do in our national pastime.

Just like an old man playing his tennis he doesn't have time to spare and so he barehands the ball and wings it to first base.

This is a tale of three beautiful women Neli the Hungarian who if she had young interest in tennis would have fared better against Serena than her poor countryman Timea Babos Nome the Hepburn niece who knew how to skip rocks and Michelle the power shovel owner's wife who several times a week crosses the Canadian border into Detroit to transform tennis instruction into tennis wisdom.

To simplify since I may be trying to say too much here let's posit that I am constantly inspired by beautiful women of all ages and if you turn your bent elbow one way you can then turn it the other way to sling the racket head for peak acceleration just where you want it.

I see this working from the shoulder only for hard deep strokes and from added brush from the forearm for short angles.

But why does the elbow have to rise so high? The slingshot one creates depends on mounting tension within the shoulder.

If elbow is low then racket tip can be lower even than that at least until medical problems begin to appear at which time one raises elbow more again always looking for the healthiest yet most effective shot.

Personally speaking whatever the level I raise elbow a little during unit or modified unit turn and then a little more for timing of a transition.

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Antic Forehands Can Work For You

Wow, Iglesias can throw 3/4, sidearm, underarm, hit, steal-- he can do anything. We sat behind home plate. Detroit was down four runs in the eighth. Then the great Chicago pitcher, working on a two-hitter, finally began to wilt and loaded the bases. He surpassed the 100-pitch danger level and hit a batter. Could it be that all baseball managers are morons? Then Victor Martinez hit a three-run double. Closer Soria was perfect. In the bottom of the ninth McMann the catcher (McMann can) came up to bat. "Hit a double," I said to our host. McMann pulled one into the left stands for the walk-off home run.

To get my Iglesias back on track today I'm thinking I'll take my time getting the elbow up. When you raise the elbow you slow down the hand and I want to slow it down even more. I want to be like this guy (https://video.search.yahoo.com/video...=yhs-fh_lsonsw).

The Iglesias for high and medium balls. The Drop Down celebrating drop down menus in computers for low and medium balls. The McEnrueful for emergencies.

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Real World Intrudes on the Progressions

There was wind.

And wind can teach you which of your strokes are more programmed and which not yet ready for primetime.

In my case The Dropdown demonstrated more myelin than the high potential Jose Iglesias (which is also good for high shots because of the high elbow) and so I used The Dropdown and saved The Jose Iglesias for a windless day.

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The Jose Isglesias, The Drop-Down, and the McEnrueful Forehands

Too bad I'm only using them in doubles. I'll have to play some singles points just so I can hit more of them.

The Jose Iglesias (I've got to start getting the spelling right at some time) could be a forehand patterned on the way that any shortstop throws to first base. But Jose happens to be the flashiest. Some Detroit baseball fans go to Comerica Park during spells when the Tigers are showing themselves expert at snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory just to watch Jose field.

The Drop-Down spirals down to rear of the slot and is a straight arm shot from then through contact. Fortunately for me, having been impressed by video of a 5-year-old girl hitting from straight down preparations, I myself hit from them for a long time thus hopefully building up myelin sheathing for rapid synaptic transfer.

The difference between then and now is that I'll wait or move with wrist straight and only mondo during the horizontal coin-like stroke itself.

The similarity between The Jose and The Drop-Down is that both employ internal rotation of the humerus before, during and after contact.

The great difference between both of them and The McEnrueful (a brief stroke that is sad it is not a John McEnroe forehand) is that The McEnrueful employs passive hand in the contact area, a part of the stroke that is driven by core body alone.

I just now begin to explore orchestration of these three better aimed forehands. I say they are different. They are quiet because they are loopless.

At first blush, however, the Drop-Down looks best candidate for conscious use of Lansdorp's three forehand finishes.

The McEnrueful looks best for unconscious followthrough possibly with a wee bit of extra spillage toward side or rear fences but not much.

The Jose Iglesias offers the frightening prospect of wipe from all parts of the whole arm even internal elbow thus destroying it forever in one stroke.

Relaxed followthrough with huge extension that looks like Ben Hogan's is what I therefore prescribe.

Note: I have never heard enough tennis discussion over extension from the elbow vs. contraction of the elbow vs. fixed setting of elbow vs. roll of elbow vs. non-roll of elbow, etc., so I try to offer a little of it myself.