A New Year's Serve

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Revised Short Angle

O wrong, so wrong to try and figure things out!

Andy Borowitz: "SOME FEAR EBOLA OUTBREAK COULD MAKE NATION TURN TO SCIENCE."

Reading Richard P. Feynman some decades ago opened me to an expansive definition of science that includes a lot of individual experiment as opposed to a broad-based Framingham study of heart disease.

Feynman did a study where he made his friends count seconds up to 60 then compare their accuracy to that of an actual watch. Anxiety and other environmental variations were introduced for purposes of quantifying specific effect.

My attempt to master the forehand short angle or pro shot closer of tennis has never been 100 per cent effective.

I nevertheless return to this experiment again and again.

Today for this purpose I use the grip called "Australian" by Ellsworth Vines but "composite" by Welby Van Horn and lots of other persons. Whatever this grip is called, it's halfway between continental and classic eastern forehand.

I've recently tried to describe this new plot suggesting down-and-up backswing uncharacteristically out to the side combined with non-propulsive or at least very gentle simultaneous though independent rotations of hips and shoulders.

Finally, late but slow and smooth arm roll melding into slow arm swim creates a vertical or slightly beveled string bed and maintains this constant angle for very long duration.

Replace the above explained shot on the theory that weakened body rotation does not need to exist at all.

Reader, don't point across with opposite hand in the accustomed manner. Let this already special shot become even more special. You can still point with the opposite hand, just point somewhere new. And with little of any involvement of shoulders rotating backward. Keep them more or less parallel to the net. More precisely, line them up with the intended target.

Hitting arm will still bowl down and up more or less toward the right fence with slap-shot mode still in effect.

Reader, don't point directly at the oncoming ball. Tom Okker, a very smart guy, wrote long ago that such a move was "overly mannered." And as tennis players we need to draw on human intelligence wherever we can find it, maybe in Holland.

But to Ziegenfuss (goatfoot) the ball a little, i.e., to use arm and late body sequence on the forward swing might be a good idea.

Where to point then? The answer should be general. Somewhere toward the net.

Reader, arm roll should still be delayed. The arm in other words shall not roll as it comes down in the slap of slap-shot (that being an effective formula for hitting deep ground shots with "no turbulence" in the contact area to use Welby Van Horn's phrase). The proposed late arm roll shall meld into arm swim just as a small bit of forward shoulders turn also chimes in to avoid a decel and give followthrough someplace to go.

That leaves footwork. What should it be? A final step with inside foot? With outside foot? Don't step at all?

All good possibility.

Reader, you may get hit in the chest but I hope not.

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Basic Serve

The serve is changing, so I don't know why any description of it shouldn't.

Quiet front foot even more. Every up-down puts weight on rear foot. "Up" puts weight on front foot. "Down" puts weight on rear foot. Try this pattern several times before starting a serve and vary the number of reps? Find the number you like best-- maybe none?

There is some backward turn. Glom on left arm for a while. Left arm comes across into tossing position thanks to this turn.

Now glom on right arm for a while. How far back do you want it? The two arms start down and then separate. They would stay together for longer if slanting to the outside but I didn't choose that route, preferring to use the constant of gravity all I can. So both hands continue straight down after they separate. Left hand can then get still while palm down hitting hand and racket continue back. How far back? Pretty far back to what feels good.

The up together toss is done with a bow (rhymes with beau) but no body turn. The non-turning hips slide toward net while the knees, parallel to each other, bend toward side fence. The toss is the press is arm going up as shoulder goes up-- two different mechanisms SIM not SEQ and unified.

The ball has been arced so hit it. Do so with hips and shoulders. Left shoulder will rise a little to end up pointing at left fence corner. Another player couldn't push you over (see this phenomenon in Tai Chi).

When grooving this serve let everything be slow, including rate at which the ball departs. This slowness or lousiness will become a virtue as "banking" comes into better focus. Banking is one shoulder being higher than the other then lower and then the two of them evening out-- think wings of a small plane.

The right heel can pivot up (fast). The right heel can then pivot over (slow).

With all that in place, one can add speed to the natural tomahawk throw thus created, but can best do so through various instances of blind faith.

Trust the looseness of one's spaghetti arm. Trust external rotation of upper arm to move edge of racket to where you need it. Trust the upper arm to create fast twist. Recognize that tomahawk throw and "internal rotation of arm" are one and the same thing. Let go to keep racket on edge until very close to the ball before it naturally veers and inverts out to right-- all one release though with assured form.

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Three Choices

Probably the most assured slice serves ever can happen if one keeps one's front foot flat like the lady in furniture number one (first video here).

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/teaching_systems/welby_vanhorn/welby_learning_perfecting_serve/welby_learning_perfecting_serve.html

Not the fastest, but the most accurate, out wide from the right-hander's deuce court.

Now let's re-check Dennis Ralston, to see how much he lifts his front heel up.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/famouscoach/denn_ralston/developing_the_slice_serve/developing_the_slice_serve.html

Oh, whoops, I forgot, his feet are cut off.

Well, one can hit with front foot flat or have heel come up. If it comes up, it should do so as the arms are falling down. One can do a Rory McIlroy backswing, with shoulders turning at the gut and hips then taking over all as the arms fall down.

Arms then can go up together as one shifts weight from back foot to front foot, knees bend toward side fence, hips glide toward the net (the bow), front shoulder banks upward, rear shoulder banks downward getting ready to bank upward and then downward.

No body turn, please, during this part of our stripped down serve.

Now the heels can tread and trade position, the front one going down as the rear one comes up.

Or one can send rear leg forward turning it inward to form a pigeon toe for a bit more push. (I can read, you see, I can read SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER-- not too bad an idea.)

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Riffing on "Banking"

Repeating furniture number one: The Basic Serve:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/teaching_systems/welby_vanhorn/welby_learning_perfecting_serve/welby_learning_perfecting_serve.html

If right shoulder goes up to the hit as part of a wings waggle it waggles down right after the hit-- no?

Maybe the hitting shoulder hasn't been doing this. Maybe it thought it ought to stop at contact or just before so that arm could spring ahead through the romance of deceleration-acceleration.

Romantic claptrap would be more like it.

Athletic motion is formed by what comes immediately after it.

Shoulder coming down immedately after it goes up makes it go up with more assurance and speed.

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Keep the Leaves: A More Sensible Guide to Gardening

Keep the Palm Down: A More Sensible Guide to Serving in Tennis.

Welby has got me re-convinced.

Of course the palm must open at some point in the service motion; if it doesn't, how is one then to develop all the "internal arm rotation" that everybody agrees is great?

And one must move the leaves into mulch piles; one can't just leave them where they lie.

Similarly, andirons are better in a fireplace than a grate.

I'd say one more thing. Do away with the drones. They are big flying phalluses intended to impress the world with American masculinity.

But they, direct offspring of the buzz-bombs of World War II, didn't work then either and in fact always have opposite effect from that intended.

As Malala told Malia in The White House, drones create new terrorists.

Did Malia listen? How about her father, one thousand times dumber?

A fifth point: We ought to be less trivial and superficial when it comes to the president. We need to choose our criticism of him more carefully. Accuracy is as important in life as in tennis.

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A New Cue for "Cut the Wire" Backhands

Did Roger really assert the importance of "cut the wire" as reported to me third-hand through a teaching pro in Birmingham, Michigan?

Jeez, I can't get anyone to discuss the subject with me.

I just liked the sound and philosophy of those three words, "cut the wire."

So I went ahead and implemented them.

Today's idea: For very sharp short backhands whether sliced or topped, set hoop out front, then pull elbows and hands straight back.

This will build tension throughout the hoop but especially at the bending resisting elbow.

And one will not harm arm at all. Furthermore, its length at contact won't matter-- not if you totally relax it when you cut the wire.

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Forehand Short Angle (Pro Shot) Revisited

O wrong, so wrong to try and figure things out!

Andy Borowitz: "SOME FEAR EBOLA OUTBREAK COULD MAKE NATION TURN TO SCIENCE."

Reading Richard P. Feynman some decades ago opened me to a more expansive definition of science that includes a lot of individual experiment as opposed to a broad-based Framingham study of heart disease.

Feynman did a study where he made his friends count seconds up to 60, then compare their accuracy to that of an actual watch. Anxiety and other environmental variations were introduced for purposes of quantifying specific effect.

My attempt to master the forehand short angle or pro shot closer of tennis has never been 100 per cent effective.

I nevertheless return to this experiment again and again.

Today for this purpose I use the grip called "Australian" by Ellsworth Vines but "composite" by Welby Van Horn and lots of other persons. Whatever this grip is called, it's halfway between continental and classic eastern forehand.

I've recently tried to describe this new plot suggesting down-and-up backswing uncharacteristically out to the side combined with non-propulsive or at least very gentle simultaneous though independent rotations of hips and shoulders.

Finally, late but slow and smooth arm roll melding into slow arm swim creates a vertical or slightly beveled string bed and maintains this constant angle for very long duration.

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Banking Self-Fed Inverted Loop Forehands

Whether these forehands are within Welby Van Horn's "range of correctness" for post wooden racket tennis, they can incorporate his use of the aeronautical term "banking."

To bank, whether in a serve or a forehand, one can simply declare oneself a small plane and then tip one's wings as if performing at a local air show.

While Welby and Ed Weiss do acknowledge the inverted loop as possibility, they limit themselves to straight back and overhead loop forehands for examination, i.e., instruction, and offer warnings that one's experimentation (a good thing!) not scoot one's core game outside of Welby's Range of Correctness.

I accept the warning and proceed.

I started something, after all, before I read SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER.

Right shoulder can drop as racket drops. Which is to say that left shoulder can rise as left arm immediately points across to aid body turn.

Grip is more on top of the racket, but square step is the same, pivot of adjustment foot up on ball of the foot the same, slight replacement of adjustment foot, "the third movement," is exactly the same.

As one's hips and shoulders rotate forward, one's right shoulder rises a bit.