A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

A-Train and B-Train

The next time I have a hit with a good player, I am going to shift into Federfore mode to do strict alternation between the two shots I have described here enough.

To do this after recovery from knee replacement seems very important. The A-train shows the B-train where to place the hand.

Hand on rear inner edge of slot is the same. So is rhythm and duration of the backswing and continuing shot. To know this intellectually is one thing, to practice it another.

A-train, B-train, A-train, B-train. Should be fun.

[bottle]

Reflection

The slashes were just what the post needed. The closing of the racket was seen to be accomplished by 1) arm straightening toward side fence, 2) elbow veering toward opposite side fence but not by 3) upper arm twist which could have done the job too.

[bottle]

More on \"Retreating Tilt\"

Vic Braden wrote that an eastern gripped player could close his racket by lifting his elbow on his forehand backswing.

Ivan Lendl had more of a semiwestern than eastern grip but surely did close his racket extra amount through leading his backswing with his high protruding elbow.

When we speak of lifting elbow, don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t we often mean \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"twisting elbow up\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" or \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"employing internal arm rotation.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" (Ono-- here, now?). Twisting either the upper or lower arm closes the strings but upper arm is the biggie.

Roger Federer closes his racket to a remarkable degree considering the mildness of his grip. How does he close it? Through blinding genius best not contemplated by ordinary eyes? Through \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"manipulation,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" a word that might suggest he\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s doing something with his forearm?

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Retreating tilt\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" disguises what he\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s doing-- it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s hard to see but worth trying to understand.

The hand veers sideway toward his body to maximize \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"horizontal adduction,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" a term right out of anatomy textbooks (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20500fps.mp4).

Before Allen Fox became a business consultant, he wrote of a basic forehand choice faced by anyone-- bring racket around with body only or with body and arm providing independent but simultaneous movement. The arm movement, he felt, is significant if shaky additive, a joker factor. He proposed as reasonable compromise a solid body-arm connection (i.e., \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"fixed\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" arm) combined with some less defined use of the wrist.

Me I go with horizontal adduction as contributing factor to many if not all forehands and serves.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Retreating tilt\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" meanwhile is a useful way to get the hand to ideal starting point for the subsequent \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"horizontal adduction.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"

Now straightening the arm will close the racket somewhat. Pushing the palm down, an old cue from Braden, might apply to straightening arm here toward right fence (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20500fps.mp4). In this clip Roger Federer does not appear to be twisting his upper arm, but if he wanted to close the racket more he could do that too.

[bottle]

To Review (Who Ever Heard of Such a Thing)

Tennis is learned by feel, not logic. But once you've discovered maximum feel in some stroke you can use logic to spread the feel out to other shots as well.

The lesson here is to get to inside of the slot to implement double coin pattern. The overhead backswing puts racket pointing down behind hand, which is on the inner edge of the slot, and low.

This feels good and simple. Over the top and set the racket (but with no hesitation of course that would upset the rhythm and continuity of immediate mondo or flip).

Is there topspin in this flat, speedy shot? Sure. But to get more topspin add "a retreating tilt."

Eeek, a new and difficult term. Do not be intimidated. Straightening of the arm started a little sooner tilts racket tip toward right fence (if you are Roger Federer).

You are not Roger Federer but again do not be intimidated. By him or anybody.

As elbow straightens pull it back to get hand on inner edge of the slot very low and exactly where it was before.

What has happened or would you rather not know? The mondo got more cocked. The fuller bodied mondo builds more racket head speed for more topspin.

[bottle]

Double Coins with a Retreating Tilt

I just won't give up on this, will I? I'm like a dog with a bone.

Who are the biggest imitators of Roger on the tour? Baby Fed of course. And Rafa, Fernando, and that great journeyman and doubles player before he became a coach, Jonas Bjorkman.

We've already discovered the flaw in Baby Fed's imitation of Federer's forehand. Grigor has been doing extremely well in recent tournaments; he nevertheless extends his arm too soon and gets his hand too far out right also too soon.

I invite both you and myself, reader, to note one thing in my favorite clip: how Roger's hand going down veers toward his body (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20500fps.mp4).

I don't know about any flaws of imitation in the forehands of Verdasco and Nadal-- a subject for study some other time or not at all.

One can't really fault Federer for his ownership by Nadal because of the decade before Nadal's arrival on the scene. Roger, young, pretty much mowed everybody down.

Well, why include Jonas Bjorkman in the bag of prominent imitators of Roger? Because he did it briefly by his own report, supposedly putting every single detail of Roger's forehand together only to discover that the result didn't work.

An instructive story, but I wonder if Jonas got every detail right in those days before Brian Gordon's study, and I simply don't know about that. Not the way I know with certainty that Grigor's hand is too far to his right.

A breakthrough comes with insistence on double coin imagery to effect a flattish version of a Federfore.

This version then instructs the player-- myself-- as to where his hand should be as he goes into his mondo.

But extension of the arm simultaneous with tilt of racket tip toward outside fence naturally keeps hand out in same direction. Resist this tendency. Veer the hand in toward body instead.

You won't bring the arm around the body as far as you might in a Stan Smith imitation forehand. Rather, you will still be in the slot. But your hand will be farther around than Grigor's.

Your hand will be where Roger's is, and where mine is when hitting my flattish Federfore, and now I'll get more topspin than in that version.

[bottle]

Progress Report

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

[bottle]

Next Question and Modification

If racket tilts while still high, does racket tip go down or hand go up or both? Answer: None of the above. Because the racket does not tilt while still high. It tilts while going down. If you can do this, reader, you lose no time or feel whatsoever.

A magic elixir? I doubt it but haven't tried this yet. The magic elixir, as far as I am concerned, is item 1) in the previous post, and that remains a good, alternate shot even if item 2) works.

[bottle]

Two Steps for Possibly Developing a Better Federfore

1) Be very simple-minded about employing double coin imagery. The backswing close by the ear and all the way down is a coin on edge. The swing through the ball is a coin on its side.

2) Add tilt of racket to the outside while hand and racket are still high. Concentrate on path of the hand, though, not path of the racket head. The hand path, same as before, preserves the imagery of the two coins.

[bottle]

Baby Fed

This forehand (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3vfjOZuKJI) is supposed to be the same as this one (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20500fps.mp4).

Well, it isn't.

[bottle]

Properly Cueing the Bottle Backhand

Here's where one should shut up, according to the person in the Brown Crew who sat directly behind me. You've figured something out, so use it while staying quiet about it. But the coaches and experts never were particularly fond of either of our experiments. And I never listened to Ed or to anybody too much.

My one hander now starts with a flying grip change to 50 per cent of thumb directly behind the handle. 100 per cent would be thumb extended up the handle. So thumb is on a diagonal and slightly bent, and as a matter of fact that's where I keep it for most of my other strokes no matter the grip. If that makes me unbelievably weird, ignore me, I won't care.

I just pulled with left hand to effect the grip change so now is the time to pull in opposite direction with right hand while both hands loop around and down to point racket butt toward the net. The efficiency in the shot is largely from immediate replication of that loop in the opposite direction bringing racket tip around while arm continues to unfold.

[bottle]

Good essay. I just did short angle solitaire but have yet to vacuum.

[lobndropshot]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWyV_GaH7K0

[bottle]

I don't know why I didn't include vacuum the floor.

[bottle]

Time Management

Everybody has a different theory about how you ought to spend your time. Work to make money? Exercises for sciatica? More rehabilitative exercises for replaced knee? Self-feed the Barry Buss type forehand? Practice overheads?

[bottle]

Eliminate and Keep

No Manny Pacquiao. Go with The Federfore and The McEnrueful. And The Short Angle. And The Scoopy Slice Approach Shot Down The Line, the drop-shot and the lob. That is a bag of good forehands.