A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Two Stupid Little Things Either of which could make a Big Difference

They are: Re-structure backswings in The Federfore and The Rocky Raccoon.

1) Federfore. SIM studies of the Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov forehands show that Grigor's is more studied although Roger's has been more studied by other people. (6-2, 6-2 the very recent time they played.)

The key or stupid moment for both occurs right after they lift the racket up. How far and fast does left hand continue upward-- while pointing across-- to make it speak to the right hand, to put both left hand and right hand on the same TennisPlayer page for easy descent.

And what, Bottle, are you doing on a Sunday morning, considering medieval matters of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin when your partner Hope is at church.

You could be working on a tightly reasoned legal brief to convince Jonathan Karp that Beedlebom's victory in The Kentucky Derby eclipses that of Seabiscuit in The Preakness. If neither won either I apologize, but I haven't yet read SEABISCUIT the book. Seabiscuit of course was pre-figured by Dog Biscuit in the Spike Jones version. And SEABISCUIT by Laura Hillenbrand established the established shitload of American nonfiction ever since. And elevated Karp from editor at Random House to CEO of Simon and Schuster.

Well, the stupid little thing could make a big difference. In previous forum colloquy, Stotty and I established that Juan Del Potro does a breaststroke at the end of his backswing.

Well, Roger and Grigor do the exact same thing. They just do it earlier.

2) The Rocky Raccoon. The Rocky Raccoon (please note the second c for most acceptable ahem spelling) is an imitation of somewhere between a Novak Djokovic and Jimmy Connors backhand. To be in this number when the saints come marching in, the one-hander should re-define backswing to include what he used to think of as part of his foreswing. That would be the section of his one-hander where hips action straightens the residual slack in his elbow and tugs at his shoulder not to mention his heartstrings.

First, there won't be any "residual slack in the elbow," not possibly. Left arm will already be straight, but there still could be a tug at the shoulder. Relegate it to forward pivot of the hips. Stay away from the sex stores and simply say, "Forward swing does not commence until right hand has tugged on the butt rim."

That leaves the two-handed fanning of the racket as the sole substance of the forward stroke. This is the only way that a one-hander will ever master the thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq2kv-QQhIE

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIBniLJUaBMAyqb7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBzZnZtb2xyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDMTM-?p=Spike+Jones+Doing+Beedlebom&vid=c647bc66f1b6c427577950b9991fa36d&l=2%3A55&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DVN.608026782369122061%26pid%3D15.1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdUynQaBRIZM&tit=edarem+-+Spike+Jones+%28You+Always+Hurt+The+One+You+Love%29&c=12&sigr=11ajoni8m&sigt=11nff8i50&age=58854602438&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av%2Cm%3Asa&hsimp=yhs-fh_lsonsw&hspart=avg&tt=b

[bottle]

Good Advice

"Move the hips to the ball and not the racket." -- hockeyscout

[bottle]

Coming Down from a Tennis High

That seems as important a topic as any other.

First, you have to remember that you were lucky enough to have the tennis high in the first place.

Second, the things you wanted to try you can try another time.

Third, this was just a tennis social and who cares?

So what actually happened? Played three times with three different partners and had to play ad court so couldn't hit my forehand crosscourt short angles the way I would like, in service returns. Won the first two times but just couldn't do anything with my third partner. Again and again she muffed easy volleys at the net. Could have told her stand nearer to the net, I guess, but my usual philosophy is to say nothing. The flak isn't worth it.

I do remember winning a mountaintop mixed doubles tournament in Virginia one time with a partner who didn't even know the rules of tennis. I told her to lob and do nothing else. She hit beautiful lobs! It worked although her arm seemed damaged at the party in her boyfriend's house afterward.

That woman however was ready to listen since she knew nothing about the game. With half-knowledge people can be hopeless, me included.

[bottle]

New Grip Change for the Tennis Social Tonight

A tennis social, not The Hopman Cup, is a very good time to try new stuff after which one can eat.

The rare shots I'll try-- one or two during the evening only with no self-feed or introduction to myself whatsoever, are:

1) Type 3 two-hand backhand.

2) Type 3 one-hand forehand with left hand starting higher in the air than ever before off of a scatter backswing. I want the gentle fall of both hands in unison like Federer and Dimitrov.

My best shot by far-- everybody tells me this week after week-- is backhand slice. In this sense I resemble the tennis theoretician Jack Groppel having plenty to say about everything but then walking out on the court-- backhand slice.

So won't the people be surprised when I unleash a pair of two-handers right out of Novak Djokovic.

From one-hander preparation with thumbpad on side of throat; index, middle (ahem!), ring and pinky tip pads on other side of throat, I'll have to jam the racket, held in composite grip, into my left palm.

Frankly, I see nothing wrong with this.

For a one-hander drive I already push right palm over top of the handle with everything going toward side rather than rear fence. So I won't have to do much different, just push racket into left palm instead of going over the top.

Of course that would leave too much palm on throat, so I'll pull left hand down onto the handle at the same time.

After that I'll follow Brian Gordon's direction and do fine-- you'll see.

Well I hope you'll come and see me in the movies
Then I'll know that you will plainly see
The biggest fool that ever hit the big time
And all I gotta do is act naturally

And there it will be for two out of a hundred backhands this evening taken directly from the Beatles' white album, The Rocky Raccoon.

[bottle]

A Tennis Opposition of Thought

Summing in tennis is equal in importance to kinetic chain.

Poptop as explained by the Gullickson twins seems a subset of the summing idea. As does Martina Navratilova's urging of players to employ more simultaneity and less sequence in their strokes.

Beveling or hooding the racket face and then letting it open naturally can mean that there still can be top edge of the racket frame coming first into the ball.

Which means in turn that the advanced player with confidence enough to do this is applying topspin higher on the ball than the wise intermediate who always seeks to hit the ball square or even in the seat of the pants.

The player who wants to figure things out-- anathema to the tennis establishment which would prefer to tell him what to do-- always must make tough choices.

Sequence or simultaneity in today's match-- which?

And what is this neophyte-- an anti-intellectual trained assassin no more-- to make of Ivan Lendl in his joint book with Eugene Scott saying that his hips follow his shoulders in his great forehand!!?

Well, the neophyte can choose between Ivan Lendl and Ted Williams.

For my McEnrueful there doesn't seem much of a choice. Brain first, arm second, shoulders third, hips fourth, knees and ankles fifth.

Then there is Jack Broudy, who views the rotating tire of the hips as the source of all radiance outward and downward and upward all at once.

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Our culture tells us that lightning rains down while in physics we learn that electrons first congregate in the earth and then burn up through the air.

Similarly, we can throw all energy into generating racket head speed along a single rising vector.

John M. Barnaby, on the other hand, men's tennis coach for 50 years at Harvard (a pretty good university for those who don't know or believe that) saw two different systems at work always: 1) production of spin upward, crossward or downward and 2) body weight pressed ahead or withheld or administering some mix to determine depth and weight of the ball.

This Harvard information didn't seem to slow down W. Timothy Gallwey or James Blake.

Consider also the J.P. Donleavy novel WRONG INFORMATION IS BEING GIVEN OUT AT PRINCETON.

[bottle]

Looking Out from Self-Feed

I've done enough self-feed in my life to think that I know ahead of time what any witness will say.

Actually, the people passing by have never said the exact same thing twice. Most often they say nothing at all.

The ones who speak however betray certain constant attitudes.

The woman yesterday whom I described as "outraged" saw me as a disturbance of the predictability of Grosse Pointe.

Tennis is a warm weather sport. Just how crazy was I anyway? My being out there on the congealed syrup ice skirt just wasn't right.

I was one of many things in the world she did not understand. Why didn't I just go home?

"It's too cold," she said. "The balls are dead."

"I'm not interested," I said, "in how high they'll bounce."

Despite the congeniality of all the people in the warming hut, she had nothing more to say to me after that.

[bottle]

Loop or (&gt

Hard to work this out on an ice sheet except for one small patch of bare court. But I went (wind chill at 6 below 0 Farenheit) and ignored the outraged old lady who pointed out that it was cold and the balls were rocks.

It was Grosse Pointe, Michigan by quick-freezing Lake St. Clair (you could see this happening before your eyes). There was free hot chocolate afterwards in front of a phony gas-powered fireplace in the stone warming hut shared with the skaters from the separate ice rink.

I don't want to counter my recent premise applied to other shots that straight short backswing, stopped next or not, provides more subtle distinction than mechanical ergo sense-deadening loop.

The first plan I came up with to use (>) for the X-shot short angle preserves pause and slap-shot ideal.

But this doesn't answer Hamlet's question of whether to flip or not to flip.

If flipping (mondoeing), let arm alone take care of the whole process, i.e., don't involve the body in the "feel for the ball" scene.

The pause at the elbow of (>), whether tiny or big, gives purpose and focus to the shot.

Smoothing the corner could make one more fluid and stylized but nevertheless a dull child.

The truth is that I haven't seen the need yet to choose between (>) and loop-- not for the X-shot.

But if doing loop I don't want any old mistakes associated with loop.

I suspect that other persons also have old mistakes associated with loop.

Of first importance is pure arm motion before body chimes in-- at least in the specific kind of staple shot I now want to hit.

Not far behind in importance is this question of mondo or not.

I think not. I enjoyed more accuracy today with wrist and arm just slightly bent throughout.

[bottle]

Three Forehand Backswings (Side View)

I'll try to put up three forehand backswings in an attachment at the end of this post. Wish me luck.

The first is what John McEnroe does. The racket head, easy, swings down and up.

The second is slap-shot type racket rise for a McEnrueful (less sad lately that it is not a John McEnroe forehand).

The third, X-shot where the wrists cross for a short angle, is way out front. In initial move the racket zags down instead of up. This is like the beginning of a John McEnroe forehand, but stops just as soon as a backswing does for a McEnrueful.

The hand plunges down then just as in the McEnrueful, but from a lower and more forward point. Am talking about the lower leg of this symbol (>).

The lower racket arrangement allows space for both body lift (shoulder going down to send strings up) and forearm roll (which also sends strings up), with both of these acts SIM.

A bit of mondo may now be advisable during lower leg of the symbol (>).

I won't know until I've hit my first or hundredth X-shot.

I may as well admit right now that (>) is a small loop.

[bottle]

Using "What You've Got"

"Using what you've got" is a Vic Bradenism that specifically regards how far somebody can lower racket tip in their serve.

It may pertain however to one's lucubrations as well as one's physique.

A YouTube video that members of this forum recently discussed opined that loosening one's fingers at just the right moment could keep racket from smashing into one's skull.

In other words the edge of the racket was first headed for the skull and the video's author thought this a good thing although he never said so or needed to.

The loosening of the fingers, he pointed out, caused the racket to veer.

I ask, "Just how much and how often does one want one's racket to veer? Once per serve seems quite enough."

Using what you've got then would predict a simultaneous cocking of upper and lower arms, viz., humerus and forearm.

Of course the forearm is more humorous than the humerus.

Cocking (axle-like twisting) of the humerus could provide the greatest power source in the world, according to the most brilliant analysts of the game except when they're lauding legs or some other body part.

Cocking of the forearm-- simultaneous, I said!-- could put the frame on edge toward the ball.

This way at least a right-handed server would get racket tip out to the right but not too far out to the right.

This methodology is the one I forgot to implement at last night's tennis social but I held serve through four sets of doubles nevertheless.

[bottle]

Great Night

Great night at the Friday doubles tennis social. Played four times and won four times. One of my partners, a teaching pro in Durham, N.C. area, but now in Michigan, thought I had "good hands."

A couple of times I got lobbed and he took off like a jackrabbit and hit a perfect towering lob in reply.

I knew I was the one who was supposed to go back and hit an overhead since this occurred in my longitudinal half of the court.

So I said, "I'll cover that one AFTER my knee replacement."

He laughed.

There has to be a lesson any time one has a good performance although the lessons of poor performance seem more pressing and obvious.

The lesson I take is that shortening one's strokes, while still hitting and not blocking as staple, would be a good idea at any age.

[bottle]

Grip-Change-O-Mania

The new multi-grip system I currently am implementing is all about ease of change. Bent thumb on handle makes a handy pointer.

I don't know your racket holding history, reader, but mine consists of decades of flying grip change (relax fingers and pull racket back). Then while admiring Tennis Player videos of Philip Kohlschreiber, I noticed the minor hand adjustments he makes often while still in waiting position.

Next I read Edward Weiss/Welby Van Horn on the subject: Makes sense often to stay with the grip you just changed to.

Finally, in a Tom Avery video, Tom advises twisting both hands against each other.

My new system offers a slight modification to this precept.

When changing toward backhand hold racket still with opposite hand and twist with the hitting hand.

When changing toward forehand do the opposite: Hold hitting hand still but with fingers loose and turn the frame into it (clockwise OR counterclockwise).

I have to think about this now but not later. For backhand side, shifting the whole hand enables a stroke in which strings can remain square from beginning to end (except for the very end) if you believe in a basic non-rolling form as the late Ed Faulkner did and now I do.

For forehand side one can easily make whatever adjustment one needs with fingertips of opposite hand only.

The idea is not to mess with one's easiest backswing on either side in any way.

One may then start connecting the dots...to Vic Braden's old observation about facing opposite hand's palm downward during a serve. Yes, that recommendation was for serve, not forehands, and my ice cream cone toss doesn't completely implement it, but so what? Could apply to forehands as well, or, could not really matter, thus giving somebody one less thing to think about.

[stotty]

How about The Peace Memorial?

http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/index_e2.html

[bottle]

A New Year's Puke

Why does everybody want to be a ditto-head? Don't people know by now that ditto machines are outdated?

We went to The War Memorial. How about The Peace Memorial?

[bottle]

Thirty Years in the Dismal Swamp of Loupe

What more is there to say? Instructor tells you to take racket back straight. Or set it low. Either one is better than the O so fancy loop you soon will develop. But not better than a scatter backswing set slightly to the outside above the ball.

What does the scatter look like? Like the feelers on the front of a grasshopper.

You ever heard of Ellsworth Vines? He was close. Backswing much too long though. And he could have used the more topspin option too.

About the attachment below: my old youdrawit trick doesn't work anymore. And smartdraw is dumbdraw since everything is sterile and ready made. So I'll briefly see if I can easily convert my drawing to a gif file. Otherwise, reader, you'll just have to imagine long feelers on an insect. They come out of the insect pretty high, slightly outside of the ball and above it.

Hmm. Now the attachment seems to be working. Must have been the screenshot. Whaddayaknow.

[bottle]

Fear of Alien Grips for Oneself

1) Adopt a scatter backswing (on the forehand) like Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Chris Evert or Tracy Austin.

2) Adopt a beachball push swing in which core provides both heft and spin rather than the arm. This alternative way of hitting a tennis ball frees one to use any grip at any time without retraining the arm.