A New Year's Serve

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Is this Pro Shot Sufficiently Ridiculous?

I'm talking about over-conceptualization (OC) as a 100 per cent sure weapon to finish things off. Despite what most people think there may be a place for OC in tennis.

Earlier in the same point, Burgle the famous car designer glided about the court, keeping the ball deep and hard with excellent shape. He moved like a fluid dream. To call his mind "thought free" would be sad understatement.

In fact, his loved ones conspired to take his car away. He simply collided with too many hard objects. There were dents here, the divot in the telephone pole there, the auto paint on the front boulder, the crushed bird feeder.

Not that he didn't fight back. Before they took his car he hung long cords, bright orange bearing red ribbons from the ceiling of his garage and placed with total exactitude to correspond with the bright grid of orange tape on his cracked windshield. The cords and the tape were a single siting mechanism good enough to bring a huge ferry boat or space capsule into its predesignated slip.

No more of that. The cords would come down. But his wife and son did not succeed-- at least not yet-- in taking his tennis away.

And so he chipped deep, came into the net, muffed his overhead so that his opponent was able to reach it.

Didn't matter. His opponent still was on defense, and now the old car designer got the ball he wanted, short and close to the right net post.

His composite grip took his racket down and up to the side. His step out was square with left toes pointed at one p.m. on the giant clock, mental, overhead.

The racket fell. Then rolled in such a way as not to stay in place but glide toward the target.

The roll melded into arm swim and slight shoulders variation off of alignment with the target to extend his followthrough.

A winner.

Even his opponent, nasty as they come, had to applaud.

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To What Extreme will one Go (and Should) to Master the Short-Angle Forehand?

Extreme extreme. And one should never rest. Why?

Because I saw a 70-year-old who had nothing else but beat the 30-year-old town champ.

Well, just say the rest of the old guy's game was adequate enough for him to stay in any point until he got his chance for his left-handed short angle pro shot.

"Pro shot": A put-a-way that a pro never misses, and he didn't.

# 2341 was too OC (Overly Conceptual). One does better to build on previously developed strength. The slap-shot McEnruefuls are working great. So you (I) should use the same formula for the pro shot. Just not bring over a mental plate from baseball, a psychological/physical device suggested by Welby Van Horn to keep one from getting too close to one's contact point.

But for THIS shot, crowd the ball. Early roll closes the strings while injecting energy into the whole equation. You'll have to roll some more during the arm swim to generate a good clink.

But did you remember to take off any dampener for purposes of sensory enhancement?

All this after long self-feed.

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Short Angle Plan 2

Unit turn with opposite hand on racket. No point across to follow. Just the old breast stroke with one arm to straighten sideways toward the net, the other to straighten downward toward the court.

Maybe the image would work better as fish, whale or dolphin: One fin toward net, the other toward court.

No fluke when the shot is hit with perfection.

I'll get up now to try this plan out (for the very first time). Got a racket handy right here.

Stance: Open or semi-open.

Composite grip tells me that I've abandoned usual slap-shot routine, and I do feel sad about that. But with 100 per cent consistency the goal one needs to experiment.

There is no independent arm motion in the unit turn. Slightly high and offset connected hands go level and solid with the bod.

Looks like gentle arm roll spread evenly through the forward (sideward) shot.

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Nobody is Going to Help You

The task is all on yourself. By "nobody" I mean tennis teaching pros, members of this or any tennis forum, your tennis friends, tennis authors, tennis acquaintances known only on the web.

With other shots they may prove quite generous so long as they don't have to think about composite grip.

When it comes to short angle however, regardless of grip used, nobody has anything useful to say. The closest anyone has ever come was some obscure tennis author I read 30 years ago.

He said short angle was a special shot requiring special technique that one would have to work out for oneself.

And yet a tennis teacher who could successfully convey this subject would immediately lift any student one full level.

And the pros hit them all the time with 100 per cent consistency. So how did they learn them? Through osmosis from other pros. The answer then would seem to be play level so good that you make it to the tour, next go to the outlying courts with the other guys to pick their habits.

Short Angle Plan 2 wasn't too bad. The trouble though with learning short angle through self-feed (the only means available to players not on the tour) is that one is apt to bounce the ball too far to the left too much toward the target.

One wants to take this ball like others in the slot, i.e., out to the right-hander's right. So I'm advocating today along with open or semi-open stance a full unit turn with left hand on the racket followed by humongous point across as racket dog-pats back to the inside.

You heard me correctly. Dog pat stolen from the Federfore even though you now are using composite grip.

From there-- racket from inside to ball-- all significant roll of the hips and roll of the arm need to have occurred by contact which will be on the outside of the ball.

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The Reason I've Never Been Able to Beat My Youngest Brother in Tennis

I did beat him once, but it was in doubles, and my partner was Katharine Hepburn.

Playing singles with him is a horrible experience beginning in the warmup. The only shot he'll practice is his short angle forehand. If there are ten adjacent courts, some of the balls will roll all the way to the last fence.

This experience is significantly unfun preparing one for the unfun to follow.

Since my brother was national champion in over 30's wind-surfing one year, one can say he's good at angles.

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So How Can One Brother Figure Out Short Angle So Easily And Not The Other?

Dunno. But I'm figuring it out with difficulty. Decision always to make contact out to right side looks like a major breakthrough. (And then, as an option, there always is the really sharp crosscourt drop-shot.)

I return to my 100-year-old friend Aunt Frieda Johnston: "You're always looking for some stupid little thing that will make a big difference."

This subtle point on short angle certainly is not a whole revolutionary track program for tennistas including a thousand consultants such as hockeyscout seems to propose although I no doubt could use that for myself along with more physical therapy.

But one of the things I'm enjoying so much about the Ed Weiss book SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER is that it is full of "stupid little things" that upon further reflection are not stupid at all.

For example, Welby Van Horn demonstrates "backhand volley finish" on page 261 .

Here is the accompanying text, complete in itself with no need for further elaboration ever.

"Photo 10-6A shows the beginner finish with the racket finishing parallel to the net. Photo 10-6B shows the more advanced finish on the backhand volley with the butt of racket pointing out past right hip with the tip of the racket pointing towards the left net post."

That paragraph and those photos need no embroidery. But lead to immediate implication for full backhand slice as far as I am concerned.

I had spent recent court time on developing surefire methodology for short angle slice, however this program involved another aspect of "beginner finish" which is racket parallel to the COURT. And who wants to be a beginner?

Blocked slice with elbow pointed more down can more easily find the short angle I want.

Note for 10splayer if he is reading this. This is the subject matter I prefer. Yes, it is "my speed." Also, I'd rather discuss elbow setting for backhand volley and slice than elaborate on "where the passive loop of Roger Federer's forehand stops and the active part of his forward swing begins."

I was surprised however at your request for elaboration and guess that I am grateful.

Tyler Weeks, owner of Braden Tennis College in Utah, once replied to one of my posts at Tennis Warehouse shortly before I heartily embraced the TW lifetime ban. TW didn't want me discussing stuff there and I didn't want to discuss stuff there either.

That thread was where Tyler opined that no expert only a phony would know the answer as to where Roger turns on the juice.

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Negative vs. Positive Energy

Command style, tough love, gentle love: Which quality is most effective? The only generality one can safely make is that the command style coach is the biggest jerk.

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More Use of Head in Tennis Movement

The human head is heavy. So point it in direction you want to go along with the other stuff you learned to get center of gravity outside of feet on first step.

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Bhv

I mean BHV

Thoroughly explaining oneself won’t go over well in this forum. Better just to let one’s shots rip. No, this thread isn’t diary nor do I wish for that deadness which only worked once in history when death itself was the subject: JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEARS by Samuel Pepys.

In backhand volleys today, I’ll try to replace the word “sticked” with “release” once and for all.

There are very few directions or vectors or turns that one cannot achieve predictively in the shrinking hoop stage of a release volley.

If one understands that, one can perhaps achieve extra closing of the racket face without twisting the arm in a solo way.

Blocked volley: I want to take speed off of the ball so why wouldn’t I want to turn under it?

Sticked or release volley: I want to add speed to the oncoming ball. To be rolling closed when I make contact therefore makes sense.

What would happen if one raised front shoulder in the shrinking hoop preparation? The clenching of shoulderblades together then will cause the racket to roll a fraction of a second later in the uninhibited release.

Note: THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK worked too and for similar reason as the Pepys.

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No Slap in McEnrueful Slap Shot

Someone recently accused me of playing God (it's what every writer should try and get away with).

No. But the McEnrueful is my non-patented invention. The slap part of it comes before contact. There is no slap of the ball.

This shot is a stroke.

And a half, complete with roll, coming first.

[gzhpcu]

The human head is heavy. So point it in direction you want to go along with the other stuff you learned to get center of gravity outside of feet on first step.

This is the Alexander Technique for tennis...
http://www.tenniswithouttension.com/article4.html

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After Andrew Young's Episode of "Arthur Ashe Recollected" on Tennis Channel

I was reading a book that Arthur wrote for complete beginners in which Arthur recommended that the beginner step on a 45 degree angle toward the net in order to hit a one hand backhand.

I quickly learned this habit but without the result I wanted. Later I read Arthur's friend Ed Faulkner, whose writing along with that of J. Donald Budge convinced me to put my thumb on a diagonal up panel seven.

I then recollected writing of John M. Barnaby explaining how one could minimize backswing by pointing racket at the near side fence before stepping out (half across in my case).

After that I had a better backhand than when I used to step straight toward the net.

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Waggle Waggle Waggle-Plus-More

The above title is a real tennis player beginning his gravity dominant serve.

Other versions are available.

But let us examine how this individual service beginning works. How?

Through slow uttering of the word "waggle," which I personally find difficult. I would rather say the first syllable slowly and the second quickly, and I plan to abandon this emotional crutch very soon but for the time being will accelerate wag and decelerate gull to make them sound even.

On first wag one lifts one's linked hands as weight gathers on front foot.

On first gull one drops one's linked hands as weight gathers on rear foot.

Second wag and gull are identical as is the third wag with weight balancing again on front foot.

The third gull, while preserving the same rhythm, is different in that the hands separate and the hitting hand continues to fall straight down and go back to where one wants it which is still relatively low.

I don't want to repeat myself on what happens next but do assert that body turn has moved left arm sideways into tossing position.

I'm simply trying here to say something expressed before a different way.

Pointing out that hitting hand comes up as hitting shoulder tilts down might be a good idea.

These simultaneous motions can cancel each other to make all subsequent action more accurate.

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Falling Upward

This is the Alexander Technique for tennis...
http://www.tenniswithouttension.com/article4.html

This is the most comprehensible of all treatises on movement. Note furniture 3, the tottering broom, and furniture 6, the trundling dog.

I thought I already knew this stuff but the dynamite is in the detail. You, Phil, must love the connection to your big cats.

"Falling upward" is the key and the article's true title. Alexander was just the great guy with a ragtime band called The Alexandran Quartet.

Let's worry more about gist and central, i.e., most relatable idea in all our tennis improvements rather than attribution and footnotes.

I know that the name Alexander has a tremendous ring to it, but Alexander has already received enough credit, so instead of to him, let's give a MacArthur Genius grant to extending cats and dogs whose income may not have been too great in the past year.

Personally speaking as to what falling upward now shall mean, I'll never move quite the same, and I thank you so very much for posting this link.

This is all about first step, isn't it? Like Roland Garros crashed in the Andes snow, once we take the first step we can worry about the rest of life.

The downed postal aviator could never have suspected that a stadium and major tournament would be named after him. Did he play tennis or know tennis or even think about tennis?

First step = falling upward.

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Improving Waggles

The above title-- "Waggle Waggle Waggle-Plus-More"-- is a real tennis player beginning his gravity dominant serve.

Other versions are available.

But let us examine how this individual service beginning works. How?

Through slow uttering of the word "waggle," which I personally find difficult. I would rather say the first syllable slowly and the second quickly, and I plan to abandon this emotional crutch very soon but for the time being will accelerate wag and decelerate gull to make them sound even.

On first wag one lifts one's linked hands as weight gathers on front foot.

On first gull one drops one's linked hands as weight gathers on rear foot.

Second wag and gull are identical as is the third wag with weight balancing again on front foot.

The third gull, while preserving the same rhythm, is different in that the hands separate and the hitting hand continues to fall straight down and go back to where one wants it which is still relatively low.

I don't want to repeat myself on what happens next but do assert that body turn has moved left arm sideways into tossing position.

I'm simply trying here to say something expressed before a different way.

Pointing out that hitting hand comes up as hitting shoulder tilts down might be a good idea.

These simultaneous motions cancel each other out to create feel of more accuracy in all subsequent action.

Building on above conception, adjust every "gull" to simultaneously bring left arm to crosswise toss position and right arm to roundabout and rearward lift position to prepare "up together" formula.

One can say that body turns in a horizontal way going back and in a vertical way as it goes forward on the toss, i.e., as it forms a cocking "long bow."

And turns in BOTH dimensions to deliver strings to ball though not in equal amount.

I see good opportunity here to incorporate the aeronautical "banking" that Welby Van Horn used in his instruction. One shoulder gets higher than the other, to begin, and that happens during the toss not after the toss as in many other serve designs.