A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Words To Live By (but not in the first paragraph)

Puerto Vallarte. I once had a girlfriend who recorded every episode of THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW.

I don't like the word "had" in the previous sentence if it gives too much away. I wanted to contribute to this woman's life, I really did, but somebody didn't let the other in.

Eventually, I became surfeited with so much Charlie Rose, and when I look back now I prefer the sport shows.

I admire the one where Charlie interviewed Roger Federer in the way that Roger and Charlie put so much emphasis on tennis footwork.

I'm sure that Charlie Rose plays tennis but not at a level where he can stand up at the net and give a private lesson to one or six players and contribute to the world's collective tennis knowledge in this major way.

Basic interview works like this: The interviewee knows a lot. The interviewer knows nothing.

We could and should much more often call the interviewer a willfully ignorant dolt. Me, I call him or her a commentato.

If though Charlie Rose next goes out on a tennis court to concentrate on movement in an entirely new way, he was not a commentato but his favorite expression a tabula rasa.

Because, according to football quarterback Tom Brady and his trainer-friend Alex Guerrero not to be confused with The Brady Bundchen, "Where concentration goes, the energy flows, and that's what grows."

Others can mock the homeliness of this homily or maybe just dismiss or dilute its meaning but not I. Great words to live by whether Brady wins the next Superbowl or not.

When Charlie Rose interviewed Manny Pachaio he did the exact same thing as with Federer. He put huge focus on something simple whether through superb editing or dumb luck.

Looking into the camera or away from it-- I can't remember-- Pachaio, who admires Bruce Lee, shadowboxed from both sides. Hand from in close twisted inward about 90 degrees to put knuckles on the target.

"Unbelievably fast," said Charlie Rose.

This to me looks like the left hand in the most modern two-hand backhand as explained by Dr. Brian Gordon.

For all of his research on this shot, Brian himself can't hit it. Courageously, he admitted that in this forum.

Me, I tried but can't do it either. My left hand has to let go, transforming the stroke into a completely different and less compact shot.

Nevertheless, could one apply the lesson to the ATP3 forehand, i.e., turn a Federfore into a Manny Pachaio-Bruce Lee punch?

The first part of the cycle would remain the same only with pat of a taller dog so as to preserve some arm bend.

Arm then would straighten as it twisted from upper arm or lower arm or both.

Contact would occur with arm still somewhat bent or straight, I don't know.

I'm in Mexico. I don't have to make anything work.

[bottle]

Plenty of Loose Wrist in a Serve-- but When?

Puerto Vallarte. We know from other sports that every little detail affects everything else without our wishing to drown in the details either.

Nature of the toss, degrees of hitting arm raise (90 at the pit?)-- these things along with others must already have been learned and established.

Now however we use the Brady-Guerrero words to go sailing: "Where concentration goes, the energy flows, and that's what grows."

The nautical tack we choose is toward hawk throws. And the videos we studied to this end reveal hawk throwers who raise the hawk straight back on a right-angled arm. Most hawk throwers, some of whom are survivalist hawks who believe they will fill their bellies with squirrels pinned against trees, do this.

A couple of videos though reveal the rhythm of inside out loop and more attunement to actual life that relies on natural rhythm to serve itself up.

So, to return to tennis, the ball is already tossed, the front shoulder already up. The hitting arm, straight like the tossing arm, is way back toward rear fence.

SIM: wrist humps while arm bends (squeezes a lot) as forearm opens out.

In two words we become elaphe vulpinus (http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...0716F96D48C76A).

This loop despite the forearm's turning out preserves the heaven of strings and palm turned down.

In addition, the racket has moved beyond one's projected line up to the ball.

The result is that we can employ three SIM openings to put frame edge on to the ball.

They are: 1) Opening of the wrist, 2) Opening of the arm to where it forms a right angle, 3) Opening of bottom fingers near butt rim of racket handle.

Opening of the wrist by itself would take racket in direction of desired line toward the ball. So would the loosening of the fingers (less intuitive). So would the slight unbending of the arm.

Put them together to form a powerful adjustment tool.

In addition, releasing the fingers before closing them and opening the wrist before straightening it have lengthened a slightly spiraling runway up to the ball.

This is a serve designed to maximize contribution from the twisting upper arm.

[bottle]

Manly Punch from McEnrueful Framework

Puerto Vallarte. Don't mess with either the Federfore or the ATP3-- exact same stroke.

The simplicity of the McEnrueful's backswing or should I say upswing is more conducive to a Manny Pachaio punch than all the dogpat stuff of the ATP3.

The only question remaining is whether the inward turn of the knuckles in the Manny should come A) from forearm only or B) with a bit of humeral twist thrown in per Bruce Lee.

Be conservative. Humeral twist in all known forehands except the ATP3 is the source of destabilization and grief.

So start with A).

Admittedly or rather on second thought, this utterance has not so far addressed the question of best hand level for a stroke that obviously entails a twisting hand wipe up.

More fooling around therefore could include a loop or no loop decision, pencil-thin loop (?), down and up bowled backswing, etc.-- almost but not quite enough chaos to cancel this shot from further thought.

Essential form-- feely or tentative arm swing before wholehearted body shove-- preserves the experiment by remaining the same.

What are we trying to do here anyway? Add a bit more topspin to a lolly or McEnrueful, which in many circumstances is a too fast shot.

[bottle]

Manny-type Topspin

Puerto Vallarta. A boxing program on Mexican TV gave a cue as to the best spelling of Manny Pacquiao and also revealed that most fighters nowadays do lift elbow to outside as ingredient of a knockout punch.

A uniquely non-superstitious tennis player might take this as reasoning for a very small bit of humeral twist as he retools a few strokes for old age.

In the beginning a child was a child. In the middle he was a boring adult. In old age he became a child again.

Similarly, in tennis, he started out with straight back strokes. In the middle he had loops. Growing old, he resorted to a few straight back strokes once again.

If, besides the loop of a Federfore, one can do / and > one can certainly do - .

With - in mind for a Manny Pacquiao forehand, one must understand that this is a very fanciful idea.

On the other hand Manny turns his knuckles in as he delivers his short and lethal punch.

If the tennis player similarly turns his knuckles in he is performing a wipe with his strings, no?

The difference between normal wipe and this wipe however is the difference between natural orange juice and concentrate.

While a sensible person prefers natural orange juice, we want the Manny to be all concentrate.

Next questions then: 1) Mondo? Answer with another question. Does Manny have time mid-punch to screw around with his wrist and forearm? 2) Grip? The one that works. 3) The usual 3-part rhythm of a ground stroke? Nope. Two parts only.

Will this work? How would I know. I'm in Mexico.

[bottle]

Back to Three-Part Harmony

Puerto Vallarte. 1) Achieve an unbelievably short and level (-) backswing. Personally, I start with racket head high and cheated left, so there will have to be some descent. I set racket butt opposite navel.

2) Rhythmically roll (twist) the forearm down but keep wrist laid back only a bit.

3) Hit the ball as if you are boring your knuckles into someone's face.

Right now I'm calling this stroke The Manny Pacquiao after the Filipino boxer of the same name but later may invent another tennis stroke called The Floyd Merriwhether.

Returning to Detroit for a tryout of the Manny should be interesting. I want to see if it's as lousy a shot as the backhand I created here in Puerto Vallarte last year.

Or-- correspondingly-- and this is a very important point...if it is as good a stroke as I hope.

Why does The Manny Pacquiao have to be bad? Are not its origins in solid volley technique?

Note. A boxer likes to keep his shoulders level, no(?), doesn't bend over like Rory McIlroy or Ellsworth Vines hitting a golf ball or a tennis ball. That's one big difference.

[bottle]

Leaving the Hitting Hand where it Started

Puerto Vallarte. We heard a good band, Luna Rumba, consisting of two Canadians, three Mexicans, and a lovely Mexican dancer wearing five different costumes to do various kinds of go-go.

In a couple of days we return to hear the young Argentine couple who were sitting next to us, he with a guitar, she with pure voice from way down in the diaphragm-- or at least so I heard-- and I chatted with the lady and liked her.

The lead singer for Luna Rumba was Mexican, the two Canadians retired businessmen one on guitar the other on percussion. Among many distinctions the group had won a John Lennon songwriting award. One of the two women I was with thought the dancer, who owns her own dance school here, smiled too much, but that could have been due to the fact that the smile was very sexy and sweet.

The music, a kind of "fusion," brought many cultures and musics together and was highly improvisational.

Improvisation in jazz, fusion and Latin-- whatever-- has got to have much in common with our game.

With the Manny Pacquiao, I'm ready now to leave the hitting hand pretty much where it started. That would be upper left, in the Philippines. If I've recently been using backswings that look somewhat like -, /, u and >, I ought to be able to use one that doesn't look like anything at all.

Pointing across with opposite arm to start good body angle while turning the shoulders should be the key. That arm however doesn't just go across-- it rises too for subsequent fall as the racket tip goes down on the other arm.

In the Federfore, the whole arm is involved in taking the racket down (dog pat).

In the Manny, forearm rolling is all that performs the task, along with tail end of body tilt to bring high left arm slightly down.

In tennis there obviously is improvisation out on the court, but there should be improvisation off of the court as well. Which is your tennis, reader, sheet music or jazz?

If shoulders turn properly, the hitting arm should naturally ease into punching or cellar door shoving position without your (my) adding anything extra to the mix.

What else would help our understanding? Well, fortunately, kinetic chain theory is better for explaining a Manny or Muhammad Ali jab than for sweeping tennis strokes which-- face it-- are too attenuated to produce such an electric jolt.

The jolt happens now, a unified punch from down deep as if one is boring one's knuckles into somebody's face.

Forward emphasis tennis combined with making as if to catch the ball with palm of the hand as racket tip rolls down-- yes.

[bottle]

High Racket Tip for a Rotorded Server

"Anything halfway true would just kill them. Don't you know people like that?"-- Greg, a train-riding entertainer of children speaking of his family in the Alice Munro short story "To Reach Japan."

Puerto Vallarte. Such a powerful thought deserves life application better than in the specialized vicissitudes of rotorded serving.

I don't care.

I want better serves for myself, and I am fed to the head with all the superstition about that or any other subject in tennis.

Keeping palm down and then bending arm can bring racket toward head, but is head the best level for the racket just then? Seems low to me.

One way to bump the strings higher-- I have to demonstrate this for myself with a pencil-- is to rotate forearm externally while humping wrist just at the beginning of the arm bend.

One could conceivably coordinate this double action with the arm bend, i.e., do everything in tandem.

Better however to get the snakiest stuff out of the way.

So now the racket is a bit higher, floating. Simple completion of the arm bend waves the high racket to the left. Opening of arm bend to right angle then can be accompanied by straightening of the wrist.

Combination of the two can be likened to stirring an upside down sky pot.

Wrist and fingers can open next to lengthen fall down the humeral runway.

[bottle]

Head Still Version of The Manny Pacquiao

Puerto Vallarte. Head still? Who, live or dead, speaks about keeping the head still? Golfers. Smart tennis teaching pros. Chris Evert's father. My father, John G. Escher Sr.

Keeping head still is such excellent tennis instruction that nobody nowadays should think about it. We wouldn't want nobody to get self-conscious, right?

Let's discuss it anyway, understanding that true discussion of any topic usually involves immersion into its opposite.

That would be Roger Federer slightly lowering his head just before he hits his forehand. He does that sometimes.

It would be elaphe vulpina striking at his or her camera. She has done this so many times that the video-maker transferred the camera's ownership woman to woman (http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=...0716F96D48C76A).

It would be the sit and hit forehands and backhands taught by Vic Braden so many decades ago in his book with Bill Bruns TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE.

If you sit and hit, you move your head down and then lift it as you hit the ball. I gave this method a pretty good shake with deleterious result-- same reason that I and golfers all over the world top and dribble a ball 18 feet and then scream at themselves, "Don't look up!"

Down and up of course is just one possible violation of the keep-the-head-still precept.

One should never move in any direction just be a statue as best way to maintain the head-still imperative.

Guess the imperative isn't absolute-- huh?

First question: If one kept head relatively still before the strike like elaphe vulpina, and then used a strike as fast as elaphe vulpina, could one as productively move head as elaphe vulpina?

Well, most likely elaphe vulpina and Roger Federer are wired differently from the rest of us.

To give myself best chance of hitting a clean Manny Pacquiao, I propose now to lower pointing hand from the shoulder rather than from core movement.

Taking of upper body tilt from the hips also should happen early and be quick enough to keep head still for longer.

If the stroke now is too stiff, one could reintroduce a small amount of body into the equation.

Nobody ever said that lowering of opposite arm can't come from a combination of movements.

All of this cerebration, of course, could be big problema.

Upon returning to the states The Manny Pacquiao may not work at all, in which case I plan to hit a lot of Federfores and McEnruefuls.

[bottle]

New Video to Enlighten Upward Arm Action in a Powerful Serve

Puerto Vallarte. It's furniture one (the only furniture on this month's title page), the repeating video just to the right (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...2015/february/).

The arm has been fully bent. Ivan Lendl would say (and did say in HITTING HOT) that the two halves of the arm squeezed together.

The arm then opens to a transient right angle.

Precisely at that fleeting moment the humerus becomes the driver of a thrown tomahawk.

But there is no release-- good since releases in throwing are tricky.

One's body absorbs the inside out motion.

Logic wants to say that the triceps muscle creates the right angle and this action may or may not be vigorous.

The arm then is only a "spaghetti arm" from the right angle upward.

Preload must have occurred earlier. Which means that upper arm holds the conflict through arm extension to the ephemeral 90 degrees.

This is not the only thing I ever will try but it sure is interesting.

[bottle]

Flutter your Fingers

Puerto Vallarte. My visionary forehand in development, The Manny Pacquiao, most likely is intellectual poof or Walter Mitty projection.

First, I like it that the name "Pacquiao" sounds like "KO." Like other tennis players I wouldn't mind scoring a knockout with one short stroke.

Never mind that. Reader, you could secure the right to some derision if derision is your bag. Derision is definitely my bag except when it isn't.

The way you could earn yours is to try The Manny Pacquiao as I have described it to discover that it does not work. Me, I'll withhold judgment during recovery from replacement of my left knee.

The Manny Pacquiao is a forward emphasis shot. The right hand (my hitting hand) nestles beneath the crossing rising left arm.

Left arm now falls a short distance from left shoulder hinge. Racket winds down from still hand at the same time.

The flourish or finishing touch is to flutter fingers of the left hand in an effort to distract or hypnotize certain opponents.

The human eye like the horse's eye is drawn to small and suspicious movement. Which will the opponent not used to your mannerisms watch-- the twiddling opposite fingers or descending racket tip?

Distract some new opponent that way and then deliver the sucker punch, and if you meet Manny Pacquiao in a bar be very nice to him and buy him a beer.

[bottle]

A Smaller Roller Coaster

Ray Bender, my first USTA opponent and best guide for lifetime tennis decisions, believed in shortening one's strokes as one gets older.

If a serve is a tennis stroke then, why not keep all the benefits of one's best past form while compressing it?

This way, instead of choosing pickleball or some other activity, one can conceivably still remain competitive within the game.

Smallness is probably the one thing I haven't introduced before into my serve. Men are notable for their stubbornness and I'm no exception.

But by "keeping best form" I mean exactly that, e.g., get racket tip down as far as possible, make sure arm is straight before contact, did you maximize internal and external rotation of the arm, did body get out of the way of the external rotation, did the people in the roller coaster scream at the right time.

I'd like to do this and other good stuff on flat front foot (at least at first), preserving design features which are almost infinite in number but with all of it in reduced form.

I wish to do more by doing less.

[don_budge]

The Game…let the game come to you. Hang in there.

Absolutely…as we get older shorten things a bit. Depending upon just how "retorded" your shoulder is you can still make that loop…but it is just a bit smaller. You still generate speed…maybe just not as much. Just how much is enough…anyways? Enough…is enough.

So concentrate on aiming…spinning…and placement. Play it smart. Use your intelligence if you cannot overwhelm the enemy with blinding speed. But you should be doing that anyways…even if you can overwhelm him.

So good luck tomorrow…or Friday rather. God speed old boy. I actually had my hand operated on this summer and it was fun. I got a couple of hits of morphine…which I never took until I felt the urge. You'll be alright…you'll be better than you are now. Pain free. It's gonna be alright.

Did you like the roller coaster simile? I'm surprised that there weren't any other comments about it. I thought it was genius. What do I know? hahaha. That is my teaching paradigm now and I am really happy with it. The students think its fun too. It's perfect! Whatever it takes…that's my motto. My teaching mantra. By hook or by crook if necessary. Just keep the bloody car on the track…that's the ticket. You can do it!

If you graduate to pickle ball…I'll give you my Dad's number. He's out near Brighton. It would be worth the ride. A couple of ex professors…he's not nearly like me. It's difficult to compare really. In some ways the fruit fell a long ways from the tree but in some ways I cling to his strengths. You know how it goes. Father and son and all of that.

[bottle]

A Partial

Home one day after the operation, can drive, put full weight on left leg (first time in three years), should have done it sooner, don't like the walkers, prefer my snake cane. But I know I'm very lucky to have qualified for a partial. As a betting man I'm hoping for ten more years of tennis, which would make me 85. When Dr. Perry got in there he saw that we had been right about the big space on the outside being full of good meniscus. And now there is a "pad" on the inner side as he said. No pain right now but maybe tomorrow with home care to start tomorrow followed by regular therapy though I haven't decided in which of three hospitals yet. Dr. Perry's wife is an excellent player and his daughter number one on strong South High School here, I recently learned, so he knew what a tennis player might most want (a maximum of sensors within reason left in the knee). Nothing, I suspect, like what Phil Picuri went through or the two-man on the Brown Cinderella crew with replacements of both hips and doing very well, my best friend Phil Makanna, west coast aviation photographer of GHOST calendars and books. But don't mention Eugene Scott or for that matter my late friend Frank Ruff, designer of muscle cars and the Chrysler pentastar. The incision for my partial is only five inches long. I can see it under a plastic seal. The technology is always changing of course, and anybody who has had any kind of replacement immediately has a strong opinion on the subject, e.g., every other woman in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, "Whatever you do, don't get a partial!" Another good reason to get one.

[bottle]

How Should Arm Straighten in a Serve?

George Bowman, high school science teacher and director of the summer tennis tournaments in Berryville and Winchester, Virginia, told me to lead my volleys with my wrist. Serving with a loose arm, he said another time, produces greater racket head speed than muscular effort does.

A tennis student such as myself should learn to recognize good advice when he hears it, shouldn't fiddle with or embroider such advice overly much?

From other things George communicated, perhaps by example rather than words, or maybe I got my ideas from somewhere else-- I don't know-- I think I understood that the bad muscular effort to which George referred was triceptic extension.

But I couldn't leave the subject alone, always had a few doubts. Should some of the arm straightening come from triceptic effort, the other from centrifugal force? And is there such a verb in the English language as "centrifugate?" How about "centrifuge" as in "I'm gonna centrifuge my arm straight."

In a TennisPlayer article here Brian Gordon told of a physician using a hypodermic needle to administer a nerve block to some player's triceps in order to immobilize it as serve contributor. In fact, the good server's racket head speed was unaffected compared to before.

Both with Brian and Vic Braden in separate internet exchanges, I had Q&A on arm extension-- can't remember exactly what I asked or what they replied, but nerve block is a big subject with me since mine given for my partial knee replacement is wearing off right now.

Recent statements by Chas Stumpfel and Steve Navarro (don_budge) make me want to centrifuge my arm straight in the two different directions of upper arm twist both external and internal.

Half for one, half for the other?

Two thirds for one, one third for the other?

Three fourths for one, one fourth for the other?

[bottle]

Nerve-Block-of-Triceps-Serve

This proposed serve will irritate some. In fact if it doesn’t work it will irritate me. Why though should I worry about that now? Design phase of anything should have its own sanctity.

A rotorded server such as myself may come to imagine that he should manufacture extra fast tract for himself.

I’ll do that by sacrificing the lovely second gravity fall of a perfectly designed conventional serve, i.e., “the timing topple at the top.”

That is for high toss servers who are naturally flexible or who have already taken and mastered Esther Ekhart’s three week course (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppToA1N0CgE).

I am not ready for that. Better for the time being therefore to make oneself into a mottled snake completely coiled for the strike.

Up together, down together, up together with palm pointed down and arm completely folded into an elbow led needle.

But why do I have the feeling that I have been here before...and with no success? Again, Bottle, don’t be a neurotic wretch. Anesthetize your triceps muscle, yes, but anesthetize your stupid fears that something won’t work too—or is the real fear that it WILL work?

We combine these recent words of Chas Stumpfel, "This is followed by trained timing that shortens these pre-stretched muscles explosively over approximately the last 30 milliseconds before impact," with the long ago posted animation in the following TennisPlayer article, furniture # 11 where green curved arrow turns red in each repetition (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...pper_body.html) .

Brian Gordon’s arrows change color as they change direction.

The difference this time shall be that the final change of direction occur very late and close to contact.

The arm meanwhile will have centrifuged first from external humeral twist and second from internal humeral twist.

The final internal twist accelerating/liberating from overlapped and conflicting muscular forces will occur with arm almost straight.

Think about this!

Late ISR or “internal shoulder rotation” as Stumpfel calls it starts with arm almost straight and completes the straightening right then, the famous high five from basketball that everybody talks about and performs in end zones, etc.. The ISR can be faster because the racket is not pointing straight at the sky but is closer to doing so say than in the tomahawk throws I wrote about a while back. Nobody talks about this but maybe they should. The same ISR has less racket to turn since the racket tip is higher toward the sky.

Racket accelerates off of the ball to the right if you are right-handed and I am.

Note 1. If you hit your head with your racket your elbow was not high enough at arm squeeze. Note 2. How many times do I have to warn that some of my proposed shots may not work? On the other hand, some unquestionably do. Which is all I want—since I am always trying for a strong tennis game rather than a strong tennis stroke invention scorecard. Note 3. If nerve-block-of-triceps-serve works, it will work because of the way that arm and body complement one another.

Note 4 is a question—can braking of the hips primarily with front leg work to accelerate arm/arms the way it does in a baseball swing or hockey slap-shot? I don’t really understand—at least right now—how the dynamic can be the same. Not in a Chas Stumpfel type serve where external and internal rotations of the upper arm are paramount. Acceleration-deceleration does work through transition from angular to linear movement, a kind of serve I have enjoyed but maybe do not want to use just now. Perhaps someone can convince me otherwise.