A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Topspin Backhand

Top of racket to near left ear, all done by left hand combining pull back with grip change.

Racket unfolds from there toward back fence and down and through shot.

It's all one acceleration-- everything.

Where did I get this?

Tennischiro on Faye's backhand.

[bottle]

From Septic Tank to Triceptic Excellence

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.-- Blaise Pascal (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/au...se_pascal.html)

Hello, folks. Bottle here. Leg hurts. Humerus won't twist backward-- not really. Nothing to do but invent a new serve unencumbered by court, net or racket. I do have a racket here but won't pick it up.

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.-- Blaise Pascal

But there's another quote even more appropriate here: People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

We start with a pedestrian Caecus (Seek-us) with the exception that our arm has not squeezed together for full gnarliness but only assumed the right angle of inverted trophy position.

Instead then of immediately centrifuging the arm quite straight through external shoulder rotation (ESR), we maintain an ever so slow rotation of trophy through most of the serve.

Only on approach to the ball do we let the elbow and humped (flexed) wrist release. At the same time we loosen the fingers. Finally, unbeknownst to anybody, we have reserved just a bit of ESR to complete the final cocking on which we have already embarked.

Do it, do it all but don't forget to let the wrist passively transform from humped (flexed) to extended (bent backward from the forearm).

This is not the way I planned to serve. Any more than I ever thought I would accept the word "extended" to mean "bent."

I will only employ this serve when it works.

Muscular extension of the arm-- the last little bit of range left over-- now occurs simultaneous with a muscular yet blended snap of wrist and fingers to close fingers on the handle and straighten wrist for straight wrist contact after which wrist carves to a paveloader finish.

This serve has ESR and ESP ( extra-sensory perception but not the communications network) written all over it. It utilizes no ISR (internal shoulder rotation) whatsoever. Save that for regular serves.

[bottle]

Two Backhands

With the Simple Simon you can just massage the ball out into the opposite court.

With the pulchra backhand (the beautiful backhand) the racket face is going to be more closed.

Which means that the "sling" part unique to this stroke needs to occur on a slightly rising rather than level plane.

[bottle]

"Drawn and Quartered: What does this Expression Mean?

It means among other things that a tennis player wishing to improve his serve can decide to become less superstitious and more scientific in order to figure out where his body medians are and how many there are (two). In this effort, deciding to read some history, he may learn that the Welsh prince David ap Gruffud, in 1283, was drawn for treason, hanged for homicide, disemboweled for sacrilege, and beheaded and quartered for plotting the king's death.

Pretty complicated, I'd say. The unknown Russian Cossack who in 1849 split the 25-year-old Hungarian poet Sandor Petofi in half was straightdownward with his saber and didn't behead anyone-- if you want to think about lengthwise median. If you were six feet four inches tall and the Cossack decided to cut the other way, each half would measure three feet and two inches (crosswise median).

The terms "abduction" and "adduction" will suddenly become more clear. If the player can then bring himself to glossaries and common sense, he may decide that abduction means the unlawful carrying away of a woman for marriage or intercourse. (See The Sabine Women in Roman antiquity or the British novel THE COLLECTOR by John Fowles.)

Second meaning as far as I am concerned is lifting of a limb away from the body. The word "away" is key. Thompson and Floyd in MANUAL OF STRUCTURAL KINESIOLOGY offer these glossarial terms:

abduction: "Lateral movement away from the midline of the trunk, as in raising the arms or legs to the side horizontally"

adduction: "Movement medially toward the midline of the trunk, as in lowering the arm to the side or legs back to the anatomical position"

diagonal abduction: "Movement of a limb through a diagonal plane away from the midline of the body"

diagonal adduction: "Movement by a limb through a diagonal plane toward and across the median of the body"

diagonal plane: "A combination of more than one plane"

horizontal abduction: "Movement of the humerus in the horizontal plane away from the midline of the body"

horizontal adduction: "Movement of the humerus in the horizontal plane toward the midline of the body"

This video provided by Arturo Hernandez is an incredible example of a certain kind or combination of adduction (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5UPnQx9Rw). I don't know about you, reader, but I need to see something like this and even put a name on it before I am likely to try it and adapt it to the upwardness of a tennis serve.

NOTE: The most interesting aspect of Sandor Petofi's death was that the Hungarian people could not forgive his beautiful widow for remarrying within one year.

[bottle]

Tennis Serve Taught from What Not to do

If you know how to do it wrong, do you know how to do it right?

Don't do it like this (http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/...s-invalid&tt=b). Where was full blown external shoulder rotation before the internal shoulder rotation?

Serve like this in tennis and you won't be going up enough, in fact go straight up and hit the bottom of the ball! ISR will have started too soon. Arm won't have straightened enough before the ISR kicks in. You will serve a decel and spin will probably go down.

[bottle]

The Following Illustration

Karate, good, bad? Break net post?

To bonk or not to bonk?

From the writings of John M. Barnaby.

Right-click and Rotate.

[bottle]

Three Factors Besides Grip Change Designation that Adjust Racket Face for a Backhand

1) Amount of lean into the shot.

2) Fit of right-hander's thumb on the racket. It it is extended straight up the handle you won't get around on the ball and will hit it weakly too far to the left. You would have to hit the ball too far in front to have success. There are players and probably coaches in the world who think you cannot hit the ball too far out front but that simply is untrue. Budge and Kramer wanted some non-extended thumb (some kind of a diagonal or compromise) behind the ball.

3) Where is opposite elbow at top of the backswing-- up, down or somewhere in between? If Guga and Justine start with an 8/8 grip but then roll elbow up to the extreme they obtain even more bevel than afforded by the 8/8 designation.

Axiom: Every little change in grip affects exponentially what happens next.

So-- try some 8/8's but lead the backswing with racket tip rather than elbow, then do more like Guga and Justine. Try some Simple Simons with a 1/1 and for them also make the change by turning the racket into the hitting hand. Try some Waltke-Popp variation of Rosewallian tabletop slice with a flying grip change because of planned forward roll and wrist release right on the ball.

Be entranced by the following illustration for some shots but not for others.

Sorry for using private names and terms but I have explained them before and too much explanation always always is a drag.

[bottle]

Ultimate Balance Test: Here's How To Do It

Follow the example of Anna Pavlova, first of great dancers to tour the world. She is best known for her interpretation of a dying swan. In Wellington, New Zealand the people liked her so much that they named a famous meringue dessert after her (Pavlovas). In China, she twirled 37 times on the back of a lumbering elephant.

https://www.google.com/search?q=photos+of+Anna+Pavlova&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&oq=photos+of+Anna+Pavlova&aqs=chrome..69i57.13775j0j9&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

https://www.pinterest.com/daeaton/anna-pavlova/

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=anna+pavlova+dessert&revid=1831788106

Still can't find any pirouette on an elephant. Some photographer must have been asleep at the switch. Here is the closest I got:

https://emblah13.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/20_dovima-theredlist.png

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=photos%20of%20manny%20pacquiao

http://www.tmz.com/2015/03/14/manny-pacquiao-home-buys-diddy-mansion-beverly-hills-house-photos/

[bottle]

A Rotorded Server Reflects on his Caecus ("Seek-us&quot

If time from low point to contact takes .2 of a second in the case of a good server, time in the case of a baddie baddie rotorded server (We'll call him Egbert) is .1 since he follows a shorter path.

When Egbert inaugurates his Caecus, the same time takes .4 since his humerus isn't used to throwing backward (external shoulder rotation) yet.

When Egbert returns to his normal serve, however, internal shoulder rotation kicks in closer to contact. Through repetitions of the Caecus, he has learned a closer transition point.

Thus The Blind Seek-us, in a few short minutes, will justify its name so long as Egbert doesn't change his to Julius, Nero or Augustus Caesar.

Alea iacta est.

Alea iacta est ("The die is cast") is a Latin phrase attributed by Suetonius (as iacta alea est [ˈjakta ˈaːlea est]) to Julius Caesar on January 10, 49 BC as he led his army across the River Rubicon in Northern Italy.

[bottle]

True.

[don_budge]

The Conduit...

Grip discussions are very important if for no other reason that they establish priority in the chaos of tennis instruction.

That priority however may not be an educational priority. Too much concern with something as dry as grips could easily turn somebody off at the beginning of a tennis career or distract from other stuff that ought to come first.

Conceivably although this is a long shot one might use grip to bring in and net a wonk or dweeb or computer geek or technocrat.

Whatever the nature of the beginner, a more seasoned player who has pretty much established some strokes may some day want to experiment farther with his grips.

To repeat a hypothesis voiced on the airwaves by Martina Navratilova, one of a handful of commentators who in my view is not a commentato, you've just hit a ball into the net. Next time what if you swing the exact same way but with a different grip?

Other arguments for expansion of grip gradation can be given, e.g., more topspin and more backspin and more authority in dealing with high and low balls.

Much too lacking in all the grip discussion is HOW to make the changes. If a player has an easy yet accurate way to change grips he will be much more inclined to play with the added variety of doing so.

In my present array of recently invented strokes I can see myself using a flying grip change for what I call The Simple Simon, which involves great simultaneity of backswing including immediate straightening from elbow and relaxing of hitting hand and pulling of racket toward side fence to reach a 1--1 without altering or twisting of the hitting arm.

In many other changes to either side the forehand-to-backhand method of Justine Henin and Stanislas Wawrinka seems smart but maybe in the sideways emphasis abbreviated backhand (The Simple Simon), too.

The racket turns into the hand rather than the hand turn over the racket.

This slow and deliberate change actually lends itself to rhythm of the backswing in big one-handers that generate from somewhat around the back.

More than that, one refuses to mess with the hitting arm. The elbow points in the same direction-- down-- before and after the change.

The grip is the conduit between the player and his racquet. It is through the grip that the energy and intellectual intentions of the player are transferred to his shot.

Pondering grips has been known to cause sleepless nights.

[bottle]

On Discussions of Grip

Grip discussions are very important if for no other reason that they establish priority in the chaos of tennis instruction.

That priority however may not be an educational priority. Too much concern with something as dry as grips could easily turn somebody off at the beginning of a tennis career or distract from other stuff that ought to come first.

Conceivably although this is a long shot one might use grip to bring into net a wonk or dweeb or computer geek or technocrat.

Whatever the nature of the beginner, a more seasoned player who has pretty much established some strokes may some day want to experiment farther with his grips.

To repeat a hypothesis voiced on the airwaves by Martina Navratilova, one of a handful of commentators who in my view is not a commentato, you've just hit a ball into the net. Next time what if you swing the exact same way but with a different grip?

Other arguments for expansion of grip gradation can be given, e.g., more topspin and more backspin and more authority in dealing with high and low balls.

Much too lacking in all the grip discussion is HOW to make the changes. If a player has an easy yet accurate way to change grips he will be much more inclined to play with the added variety of doing so.

In my present array of recently invented strokes I can see myself using a flying grip change for what I call The Simple Simon, which involves great simultaneity of backswing including immediate straightening from elbow and relaxing of hitting hand and pulling of racket toward side fence to reach a 1--1 without altering or twisting of the hitting arm.

In many other changes to either side the forehand-to-backhand method of Justine Henin and Stanislas Wawrinka seems smart but maybe in the sideways emphasis abbreviated backhand (The Simple Simon), too.

The racket turns into the hand rather than the hand turn over the racket.

This slow and deliberate change actually lends itself to rhythm of the backswing in big one-handers that generate from somewhat around the back.

More than that, one refuses to mess with the hitting arm. The elbow points in the same direction-- down-- before and after the change.

[bottle]

Eight Backhands

Below, I've listed thumb designations for eight shots. This course of action takes to heart J. Donald Budge's advice to put more thumb behind the handle and then exceeds it.

In the radical system I propose, the thumb is always on a diagonal halfway between wrapped or extended for backhands, forehands and volleys. The thumb has added to its own functionality through becoming the pointer on a dial.

TABLETOP SLICE: Full Designation (2.5--2), Thumb Designation (7.5)

CHOP SLICE: Full Designation (2.5--2) , Thumb Designation (7.5)

CROSS SLICE: Full Designation (2.5--2), Thumb Designation (7.5)

LOB SLICE : Full Designation (2.5--2), Thumb Designation (7.5)

DROPSHOT: Full Designation (2.5--2), Thumb Designation (7.5)

SIMPLE SIMON: Full Designation (1--1), Thumb Designation (7)

UGLY SLINGSHOT: Full Designation (8--8), Thumb Designation (6)

BEAUTIFUL BACKHAND: Full Designation (8--8), Thumb Designation (6)

[bottle]

Figure Eights and The Bull in the Woods, Inc.

The feral bull pawed the ground, about to charge. I picked up the nearest stick and threw it. My throwing motion however caused the rotten stick to crumble into powder. The bull, confronted with a cloud of black powder, retreated ten feet then returned to the exact same spot and pawed the ground again. I threw a newer stick this time. The bull didn't move but was distracted just enough so that I was able to zip past on my bike.

So much about island living on Ossabaw ten miles across the inland waterway from Savannah, Georgia. The image wanted here is the bull pawing the ground.

You (I) as player, paw the ground with your racket. The racket in other words corresponds to the bull's right front forepaw.

From this position you do figure eights just as many top pros do as they wait for the coin toss at the net. They may not have the Appius Claudius Caecus serve in mind but they perform their continuous figure eights.

I may not have the Caecus (a blind serve) in mind either, but I do continuous and connected figure eights right now as I recover from surgery for knee replacement.

This one is a Caecus (seek-us), that one what I did before. Figure eights are what hold the different forms together to minimize cost of any experiment that might not work.

The Caecus seems promising however. It puts more fire in the belly and more belly behind the back.

[bottle]

Manny Pacquiao Affected by Arm Only Short Angle

The first Manny Pacquiaos, an imaginary shot until I get out on the court, entailed high opposite arm with fingers aflutter to distract opponent for a sucker punch.

As flutter occurred, the same fluttering fingers slowly descended. In tandem, the racket head rotated downward on the forearm.

Arm only short angle now teaches however that hitting thumb can rotate upward through two clock numbers during the initial body turn. Thumb rotating up is racket tip rotating down-- there is no difference.

Manny, like all boxers, prefers a still fist before he throws it, and there is nothing wrong with that.