A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Thanks. Nice to compare. All of our parties are loony.

Example: The Republicans won't bring to a vote the nomination of Loretta Lynch for attorney general-- a very qualified black person. But they hate her predecessor Eric Holder, who also is a black person. The answer to the quandary is simple, but the president, who also is a black person, is too mild-mannered to act. He simply should have Eric Holder do a quick survey of all police departments to decide who in the view of those departments are their bad cops.

Once Holder has identified the bad cops, he need only send them out to investigate the dysfunction of the Republican party. This will quickly bring about the desired confirmation of Loretta Lynch.

[stotty]

Vote Loony...might as well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32339415

[bottle]

English Opening

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?tid=54394

I rooted for Botwinnik in this one for an obvious reason. But Petrosian unfairly got to play white in every game and fianchettoed both bishops right away (took possession of the two longest diagonals on the chess board).

Given tempi and other realities, Botwinnik, despite all his past championships, was unable to fianchetto more than one bishop at the outset, and the much younger Petrosian prepared himself by whipping himself into shape through a large chunk of time spent in vigorous skiing (in the Caucasus one would think but can't be sure).

Many aficionados would say that Petrosian's English Opening-- the only opening he used in the entire championship-- is the slowest and most boring available in chess.

Later in the game however-- if one can survive a blitzkrieg or two-- this strategy takes on characteristics of a python as other pieces clear away to make the bishopric command of the long diagonals ever more dominant.

I would like to adopt a similar strategy in tennis, not too flashy, but very steady while dependent on opening up the court with crosscourt short angle (the "pro" shot).

I have only seen-- in person-- one player employ it in singles, but he was a 70-year-old so completely dominating 30-year-olds that he made a huge impression on my tender psyche.

In doubles if a right-hander playing deuce court one can employ the Luke Jensen prime tactic of a short angle in the alley followed by a crisp volley to the same spot.

In my attempt to master the short angle shot, both long arm and short arm version, I have decided to dispense with scissoring of the arm until after ball has left the racket.

While scissoring before or during contact often worked, its percentage of success in self-feed just looked too low and therefore was not for me.

[bottle]

How Much Does He Turn His Shoulders?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/13/manny-pacquiao-s-self-directed-music-video.html

[bottle]

Funniest Sociological Dynamic

Camila Giorgi and her dad (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...gi%20instagram)

(https://www.google.com/search?q=cami...2F%3B300%3B300)

[bottle]

In Serving, Is a Live Arm Three Parts Live and One Dead?

Just asking since I don't believe I have a live arm just at this particular second.

If so, first to identify would be the dead part. That would be freewheelingness from the elbow unencumbered by triceptic extension or interference.

The three live parts would be IR (internal rotation at the shoulder), WS (wrist straightening aided by fingers clench), and horizontal adduction, all muscular rather than motion dependent acts.

All three in my view should simultaneously provide emotional and physical catharsis, i.e., a single release of stored energy that answers the ancient question of how far or high one can throw a beat-up tennis racket.

[bottle]

You Got A Knee Replacement: How Now Not To Destroy It?

The subject is worth some internet research, to say the least. I've restricted mine to the kind of replacement I have, a partial in left leg on the tibia and not the fibia side.

A lot of the people who have this same replacement complain and moan and bitch while they heal, which ought to take half the time of a full replacement.

I might have been tempted to do this after Dr. Richard Perry flattened my leg with hard downward pressure on my still natural kneecap. The pain was still acute when he left the cubicle and Hope helped me put on my sock. It still felt like an intense charleyhorse a couple of weeks later.

The operation was on Friday the 13th of February (ha-ha). For the first 13 days I did home therapy with both a nurse and a therapist coming into the house. Christie, the therapist, came for a total of three weeks. For the first 13 days there was no pain at all.

Then Dr. Perry flattened the leg and taught me how to do that myself. This act of violence reminded me of how he pulled me by both hands off of the table in our first meeting pre-op. He didn't hold back. He wanted to see how I was put together in my sinews from bottom to top.

It's quite a bond one forms, much like lasik surgeon and patient, supplicant and priest, shrink and shrunk.

You either love this person or you hate him.

Dr. Perry doesn't want to see me until next 2/13 the anniversary of the op. He agreed with me that everything from now to June will be between my ears and advised ice water therapy as needed all Spring.

The ice water circulating machine that came with the procedure may be worth the price to Medicare and supplemental "ARP!" as Robin Williams used to say.

You can velcro that thin strip of water capillaries to any part of your body.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Okay, so how now not to destroy the good work while doing Springtime self-feed? Serves are where you've got to watch out. I got a twinge yesterday-- had to put in extra time on the ice machine.

So splay the front foot a bit more than usual. Keep it fixed and turn the rear hip into it. No big push on a recently repaired leg. The 45-degree or more foot splay may allow transition to back foot coming up early to help the essential hips turn.

As Don Brosseau has said, his students get the hips going while doing his figure eight exercises but then forget to do it when they actually serve. I'm starting to lift my left heel a little and then replace it to remind myself.

Don also has said that eventually he likes to see a left foot hop slightly into the court with kick back. I used to serve that way and know that one doesn't sprain one's front knee if it is turning in mid-air.

Me, though, I come from the era when old men never, on any shot, jumped up into the stratosphere.

[bottle]

Surprise in Rotorded Serve

A rotorded serve is one in which the server's humerus, because of physical limitation somewhere in the complicated shoulder mechanisms, can not twist axle-like in its socket very far au Sampras or P. Gonzalez.

As such a rotorded server, I have come to reject a still trophy position as something I should aspire to.

Instead I want to keep palm severely down while elbow rises up to shoulder level. The already significant bend in the arm can then increase until the two halves squeeze together. It is almost a death wish, a desire for self-decapitation. Precisely then however the fingers relax which makes the racket just miss.

Now hip turn begins as horizontal adduction also begins. This swings the falling racket to the right into hitting slot. Throughout this double turn to the right the two halves of the arm stay squeezed as humerus which was twisting backward continues to pre-load.

The surprise is that IR (Internal Rotation) of the humerus can snap noodle arm straight all the way from its full squeeze.

The heresy is that at the same time wrist can muscularly push straight, and if it is going to do that why not add the zippy feel of a fingers clench.

Will this zippy combination of fingers and wrist detract from the IR? No, it will add both zip and better direction to what wasn't going to be very good spin.

Source of wrist thought: The late Greg Papas reacting to measurement by Brian Gordon of wrist straightening to total racket head speed at contact-- a surprising large proportion.

[bottle]

Surprise in One Hand Backhand

A good flying grip change that flows immediately into a small tug-o-war between the two hands can be quite level and low, certainly a lot lower as backswing than that of Beatrix Bielik or Richard Gasquet.

The loop down and around with butt pointing at ball for a micro-instant can more easily carry out the idea of arm unfolding into the ball-- more easily than a deeper backswing. The smaller loop results in increased control.

This advice may or may not be good for a tour player but sure is good for me.

[bottle]

The Crocodile Kiss

Besides his tenacity, Rene LaCoste, the crocodile, was known for his powers of invention.

He must have suspected from personal experience that even a very good kiss repeated 8,094 times with no variation is not a good idea.

So his descendants, who include a modicum of advertising persons, should change the following ad (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu2ht9c-FFU) in the following way.

I am sure that my friend the author and playwright Eve Ensler would agree. We met in the middle and after a forum on Nathaniel Hawthorne in a huge theater at the North Carolina School for the Arts.

Next time the ad plays, the young man should leave the glasses intact, preferring not to spill them. He should shoot under the table and kiss the young lady between her legs.

[bottle]

Cleverness Can Be Bad In Art But Good In Tennis

My natural interest in different "games" in tennis was certainly helped along by a mother-daughter combination I witnessed for more than a decade in Virginia.

As a doubles team, they won the club championship. As singles players they separately won the club championship too although at very different times and I think they successfully avoided playing against each other at least in public.

Both were good athletes, but as the record showed, the mother was a better player because of a more complete game.

Mama Venable won the annual singles championship five times. Daughter Venable, who severely twisted her bent elbow on every forehand, won the singles crown with her powerful but unstable game a total of once.

I don't think the mother or any of the various club pros ever tried to correct the daughter's destablilizing elbow, although if somebody had done that, maybe even the girl herself, she would have developed into a far better player. I'll bet she still struggles with erraticism if she plays tennis at all.

Me, I started out with a wrenching elbow too. I'll bet a lot of self-taught players have in their quest for cheap power.

If one masters this flawed technique one becomes better at crosscourts than the other forehand strokes, because the strings go SIDEWAYS too soon rather than out to a target in the court.

No matter where one aims though except on a weird day once every couple of years one commits a plethora of ue's.

The situation is reversed however when one decides to utilize bent arm twist very early in a forehand to achieve the very sharpest of short angles.

I discovered this while making entries in my short angle thread in this forum. A liability in many strokes becomes a strength in this one through sublimating the easy power of twisting elbow through and up in easy control from the mildly rolling forearm.

Does the resultant topspin come from the forearm or the rising arm or both?

Twisting elbow happens before the contact, not during it. Racket then stays vertical at all times. This constant setting means that even some imperfect contact points will work.

So, were this extraordinary shot to surpass all expectations, would one apply it in different directions, perhaps with a more complete shoulders turn?

Of course.

[bottle]

The LaCoste Kiss

Anybody who has watched The LaCoste Kiss 180 times has the right to react to it.

The first thing to notice is that this ad has been edited. It used to be that the dishes of food and the drinks between the couple went flying but somebody edited that out.

This means that the ad has life beyond conception. And that being so, the girl can get up from her place at the table and walk to the nearest television set to watch the ad.

If she does that, she will notice that the young man has a big ass as he takes his plunge off the high building.

Returning to the table, she then will not kiss him but rather dodge him so that he flies over the table and lands on his face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu2ht9c-FFU

[bottle]

Federfore: Three Stupid Little Things That Might Make A Big Difference

If one imitates Roger to bring racket back in a straight line rather close to the body, one wants to make sure NOT to retrace this path in the forward swing.

Brief spearing at mondo may create the illusion of straightness of forward motion, but one will lose leverage and direction from the twisting body that way.

Backswing can be straight and over the top while low compared to some others on the tour.

Foreswing (I just seem to have to use that red-lined term) should rather be circular, i.e., out to the side.

Teaching pros when pointing to Roger's great separation are more apt to stress that he takes the ball far out front. Yes, far out front but also far out to the side (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...r%20500fps.mp4).

Second "stupid little thing..." is a characteristic 4-foot slow drop behind one (dog pat). This easy fall should conclude with racket tip pointed down at court.

Then and only then does mondo occur.

Third point: Characteristically, Roger closes his racket face an extra amount after he lifts it. Easier for the intermediate, I would submit, is to develop a full grip system that adjusts pitch once-- when one first grips or re-grips.

[bottle]

Knee Replacement

All the ice in the beginning was primarily to deaden pain. The weeks of heat then were to increase range of motion. The ice throughout Spring is to reduce swelling after exercise, walks, self-feed, bike rides, etc.

[bottle]

Mother-in-Law Serve

Beginning with the gnarled arm work of Caecus (Seek-us), we now add the horizontal adduction of this baseball pitcher albeit in an upward direction (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5UPnQx9Rw).

Once more upward ("I am not a good little boy, I am a bad little boy!") we shall be better served (sorry!) if we take to heart the bedrock intellectual separation between service actions that go from left to right with those that go from right to left.

It was Pancho Gonzalez who made that distinction in his TENNIS, a book that costs $6.42 on the internet.

Could one carve to a paveloader's finish like Jack Kramer (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ServeFront.mov) and still have employed ESP and ESR and ISR?-- most certainly.

Toss the ball farther to the right and use the new belly behind you to hit the right edge of the ball as you start to break at the hips.

Do everything you are supposed not to do. Will you be sorry as you kick out your butt so that both shoulders kick forward? Of course. That is the nature of Faustian bargain.

As you feel sorry for yourself however do not forget that you (I) may have been following the strict "spaghetti arm" imperative for some time.

ESR (external shoulder rotation) can start to centrifuge the arm straight. ISR (internal shoulder rotation) can complete this straightening of noodle arm but think about it!-- Because of the elbow adduction the ISR will now go toward LEFT rather than FAR fence. One carves from contact to the finish.

Toss, though to the right, should be farther forward to make extra space in which this all-- particularly the elbow adduction-- can happen. "For slice, half a foot farther to the right and half a foot farther forward," said Mr. Sterling Lord, who was Mario Puzo's literary agent. Lord was a generous left-hander able to transfer his ideas from one side of the body to the other.

Note: Try to hit this serve easy-peazey enough that you don't break off your arm. Hit normal serves with toss farther left over your head and from paused trophy position.

Note II: In Mother-in-Law Serve, put adduction on the ISR. If no control, put adduction on the ESR. If still no control hold the adduction (serve without it altogether). If still no control, add ESP (extra-sensory perception).