A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Manny Pacquiao Fantasy

The home care nurses and therapists who regularly come to visit say that my knee is three weeks ahead of where it should be ("It isn't even swollen!").

That leads to March 30 fantasy in which there is no snow on the streets and courts of Detroit.

BOTTLE, that would be me, carefully ices his left knee with the cool blue circulating machine provided "for free"-- thanks to good medical insurance-- by his surgeon. BOTTLE plans for repeated icing immediately following his trip/adventure.

He thinks he knows a court with net up but carries a strand of rope in the passenger seat of his '97 Camry just in case.

He lugs his balls out on the hard surface, sets up the spider legs of his basket, drops and hits the first Manny Pacquiao of his life.

The indisputable success of this forehand leads immediately to all kinds of new rumination some of it unwanted.

First, American tennis does not encourage enough fantasy but rather teaches players to dream small.

Second, a forward emphasis forehand with all the natural timing of rearward emphasis is just as good a shot and probably better.

Do people actually think that Manny Pacquiao does not generate enough power for conversion of one of his punches into effective tennis stroke?

Granted, Manny has lost five fights in his life, Floyd Mayweather none. But this impending collision between them will be the highest grossing pay-for-view in the history of boxing, grosser even than Ali-Foreman or Ali-Frazier.

Regardless of outcome, BOTTLE will return to his ice machine with new confidence, that, in the next ten years of his tennis life he will have the option of short-hopping any forehand from farther out front.

[bottle]

Out of the Asylum!

Attack, you Knights of the Rotorded Garter! Sing your anthem culled from theater of the cruel. Sing without words!

Sing with the centered tubercles of your stabilized arm, using a Randy Johnson wind-up. Just send the energy toward the sky rather than the plate.(https://video.search.yahoo.com/video...=yhs-fh_lsonsw).

"Marat, we're poor! And the poor stay poor! Marat, we don't want...to be poor any more! We want the world! And we don't care how! We want a revolution, NOW! NOW! NOW!"

I would fly off the stage into the audience. The old Shakespeare professor who loved my performance of Sir Andrew Aguecheek in TWELFTH NIGHT detested my performance now as inmate of Charenton Reformatory.

Professor Smith didn't like it but we the actors of the University of Rhode Island Theater thought we were hot stuff and I as the only faculty member in that particular cast thought I was hottest of all.

I still was going bald and so had a miserable forelock which I pulled in front of my eyes.

Through the sparse strands I squinted at my victim as I had for the entire performance having identified her before the play began.

"Someone is staring at me," this beautiful woman must have thought. "Yes he is. Look at him. I'm not making it up!"

"REVOLUTION! COPULATION! REVOLUTION! COPULATION!" we all chanted as we invaded the audience.

The play MARAT-SADE of course is a right wing screed, a send-up of all who want radical social change, which supposedly always turns out worse than anything previously in place.

Eschatology, Isis, The French Revolution, John Escher wanting a better serve in tennis-- all of these combined only I didn't behead anybody. And a guard from the football team knocked me sideways just as I got to the girl.

And now I do it with my arm, inventing a more sensible serve during the down time of knee replacement to go with my rotordedness. As you can imagine, reader, my copy of the Thompson, Floyd MANUAL OF STRUCTURAL KINESIOLOGY arrived in the mail.

Chas Stumpfel said it would cost $10 but in fact it cost a total of $6, $2 for the book and $4 for postage.

And the secret of the Randy Johnson windup emerged of course from the ever blacker rocks of the Antarctican mountains that house in their stony bosom a combined health spa and The Institute of Rotorded Serves.

It's fiction of course or one might say "fuction" or the truth of the matter which is "fuck ya."

Some say a rotorded server will never find success. They preach as compromise a higher than optimal elbow to ensure impingement.

Well I say use a Randy Johnson backswing and we'll meet out on the court and try to return this and "fuck ya."

[bottle]

Medical Technology and the Previous Post

MANUAL OF STRUCTURAL KINESIOLOGY offers so many terms for me to learn that I may just as well permit my eyes to glaze but keep on reading all the shoulder material over and over until some of the most difficult parts begin to make sense.

My family physician, Margaret Eckel, just spoke of contribution to external rotation from Teres minor and to internal rotation from Teres major. I was in her office for routine checkup after last Friday's replacement of the tibia side of my left knee.

Today was the first morning where I used my cane, which, though not ergometrically correct, feels like a good tennis racket. While the cane purists would never approve, Dr. Eckel, my own physician, does. She is just fine with my cane which is a west coast Mexican rattlesnake.

In either case Dr. Richard Perry the surgeon wants me to put full weight on my left leg right away so I don't think I'll be using any kind of a cane for long.

The big thing I noticed in the hospital is that most official persons are desperately afraid that one might think for oneself, and I can understand that.

During my one and only day in the hospital I kept seeing a printed sign: "Call don't fall."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A Randy Johnson wind-up folds racket neither high nor low behind one's back.

Elbow is up however almost where you want it.

The advantage is that the rotorded server for once in his life does not compound his physical limitation by two through cutting it in half.

That's what happens when a rotorded player tries to oppose leg extension with racket fall-- he simply does not create enough roller coaster track.

Better to get arm squeezed together with racket counter-cocked behind one.

Now the upper arm has more external rotation available to it. The arm can passively centrifuge straight as the humerus rotates both externally and then internally.

Is there a pause between these two rotations or not? Once arm starts centrifuging straight can it continue to straighten in a motion dependent way?

The spin in spin serves (all serves) most often fails when racket turns (internally rotates) overly much and thus pushes too much on the ball.

Ideally, the racket frame barely misses the ball.

The new arrangement at least enables a rotorded server to be in the neighborhood to incur some essential to development frame hits.

[bottle]

Two Myths about Rotorded Serving

I've been in pursuit of them for a long time, but here they are:

1) Get the elbow higher than where it ought to be (anatomy books suggest that it should be lined up with the shoulder balls). Reason why higher than this is no good, in a word: Impingement. Vic Braden would pull the plastic arm off of a doll.

2) Shun abbreviated structures to infuse more rhythm, openness, looseness, gravity and point down in your serve.

The first four parts are true. The fifth-- more point down-- is a lie. If you can't point your racket tip efficiently downward when it's close to your body you won't be able to do that when racket is far away from your body either. You may club a bit more pace because of the longer, uncramped lever, but spin won't be good, and most of the time you will be ahead of yourself, failing even in miniature version to put John Isner's upward (and sustained) work on the ball and often in fact producing undesirable because downward spin.

Solution or should I say attempted solution since I am in down time and not on the court: An immediate snakily coiled midsection wind-up like Randy Johnson in baseball only synchronized with down and up toss motion.

For anesthetized triceps model for final mechanics required for very late high five read immediately previous posts and/or study Brian Gordon.

In the better serves envisioned here, the arm will centrifuge straight naturally from both external and internal rotations for a more edge on contact.

Note: Why use the neologism "rotorded" at all? Because a problem once named becomes less intractable.

[bottle]

From Don Budge's Advice to a Wawrinkan Backhand

I've tried many times for either a Don Budge or Stan Wawrinka backhand without much success.

But advice comes from Don Budge in the form of an old video where he advises students of the game to put a bit more thumb behind the handle.

And from Stan Wawrinka in the form of the tattoo of statement from Samuel Beckett on his forearm: "Fail better."

The Budge advice has led to a modified Ed Faulkner version in which frame stays square through every inch of the whole stroke. Backswing in my variation of the Faulkner is primarily toward LEFT fence but combined with the 45-degree step-out promulgated by Arthur Ashe.

The small success of this shot dictates as next step of a progression another try at the Wawrinka (I've given up on the pure Budge).

The Wawrinka-Beckett advice leads now to use of my regular slice grip (composite or "Australian" but non-wrapped-- thumb is diagonal and up just a little bit to correspond with my other strokes).

Backswing is primarily toward REAR fence or more.

Arm roll is performed through every inch of the forward drive, starting even as racket descends behind the back.

[bottle]

Internal vs. External Knowledge in Halep's Game and Wawrinka's Backhand

Simona Halep's mentality is opposite to that of a male warrior who has learned never to give away the slightest doubt of his own prowess.

Halep freely told the entire sports public that when a match gets tight she is apt to get tight, and when she gets tight she suddenly cannot move.

Result: Another championship.

More than revealing a weakness for use by opponents who already knew it, she externalized her fear and so was able to deal with it.

Translation: I can move great during an entire match but tighten up at crunch time as if I am the tin woodman and there has just been a thunderstorm.

Simona is such a complete tennis player that she can defeat opponents with bigger stroke weapons.

All Simona has to do is play as if there is no crunch time at all. The difference is that she told herself this truth. Whether or not someone else said it first, she said it to herself.

When trying to imitate Stan Wawrinka's topspin backhand, we maybe should listen to someone other than ourself. We should combine what we already know with all other sources but especially with anyone willing to be knowledgeable on the subject of Stan's grip. From "about sports" on the internet:

Stanislas Wawrinka uses a Modified Eastern grip to hit one of the most efficient topspin backhands in professional tennis. Stan can deliver a ton of power and topspin on his backhand, and he does it with such a simple stroke, many consider his backhand ideal to emulate. Stan's Modified Eastern grip allows him a slightly later point of contact than a Full Eastern would, but it doesn't support the racquet quite as solidly as a Full Eastern would. For many players, this would be a trade-off, but Stan is strong enough to compensate for the slight weakness of the grip while still benefiting from its timing advantage.

Then you click on "Modified Eastern" and get this: (http://tennis.about.com/od/forehandb...pclosewt_2.htm)

Grip is always the toughest subject in tennis-- hardest to see and hardest to understand and plagued by inconsistent terminology-- reader, YOU figure it out this time.

When I look at film of Wawrinka's backhand today, I think that forward roll of the stroke starts even in his backswing. And that the whole stroke is close to that of John McEnroe though longer at both ends and with more roll through the very finish. Both show early opening of the shoulders here.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_wide/sw_bh_wide.html?SWBHWideClosedStanceCourtLevelRear.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterCourtLevelRear.mov

Note: Nobody is going to bullshit us into thinking that John McEnroe is a muscle man. And he starts his forward roll after his backswing, doesn't he?

Sebastien Foka, one of the great teaching pros around here, went to Europe with his wife Courtney and watched Stan play in the French Open.

Sebastien was struck by the ordinariness of Stan's physique. In fact, if you ask me, Sebastien, who as a French junior came up with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, is bigger and stronger than Stan.

Timing then, not The Hulk's strength, is how Stan or John or for that matter Sebastien, the winningest player ever at Wayne State, does it.

John curls his wrist, doesn't he? John has his racket open at start of the forward swing and cuts off the end, no?

John is more economical, Stan more extreme. They both have great backhands.

[bottle]

Keep Fiddling with Grip to Hit a Backhand like Stan

Just in one day I saw two very opposite views of Stan's grip in this one website. One of the views appeared in a quote from the internet provided by me. The other appeared and still appears in this month's article on Stan's backhand written by JY. The grip to explore most thoroughly may be heel on 8, big knuckle on 1.5 but pursue all the possibilities-- my mantra. After one has made one's choice, I'm now thinking, one can maybe go with the following simplification of step-out if one is so inclined. Kind of depends on whether one is interested in Arthur Ashe's advice to step at 45 degrees to the net or rather to step straight at the net on a perpendicular, which many instructors prefer.

I go with the 45 degrees-- another basic or should I say bedrock choice if one believes in discipline. Of course some of your shots will be departures but at least there will be a norm.

Backswing toward side fence combined with this step-out gets racket pointed at rear fence, which is classic instruction, to which one might add the thought of keeping racket square through every inch of the stroke. Backswing toward rear fence combined with this step-out gets racket pointed around one's back like Stan, ready to rock, in which case you can "Roll over Beethoven and give Tchaikovsky the news."

[bottle]

Jim Kacian Thump-the-Court Anesthetized Triceps Forward Emphasis Forehand

Jim gave me 50 free lessons. As my regular chess opponent he always played the English Opening like Petrosian against Botwinnik the Russians in one of the world championships before Spassky and Fischer. Petrosian always got to be white which was blatantly unfair.

Jim won the USPTA doubles twice with the Williams College coach. Like George H.W. Bush, he was doubles champion of Maine. He got to partner with John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova. In singles he played on the circuit at about 400. If I wrote haiku poetry, he would be my haiku editor now.

During a try-out with the Boston Red Sox for second base or shortstop he had some big hits. At some point we decided to collaborate on a tennis book, with him to perform the visuals. The project fell through from lack of impetus from me. My affair with a truly beautiful and fabulously interesting Hungarian woman led to my divorce and departure from Virginia.

And no, I never introduced her or even mentioned her to Jim since "the tennis pro always gets the girl." Somebody uttered those words in my presence. Who? Jim! There must have been another incident that proved the premise.

Somewhere along the way Jim picked up a special forehand where he thumped the court two or three times with his racket (a Prince Magnesium mid-size like Pat Cash) and then went into a late tight loop from that low point to hit the ball all in one swoop.

That shot has never worked for me the way it does for Jim. But as don_budge aka Steve Navarro says..."Connect the dots."

One side of the equation is my anesthetize-the-triceps Randy Johnson Big Unit early squeeze of arm rotorded service, which I haven't tried yet due to knee replacement healing period. I don't know if it will even work.

Regardless, it seems a good model for a new forehand if one has read Louis-Ferdinand Celine (https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...=yhs-fh_lsonsw) and therefore knows how to connect any dots ever...

[bottle]

In the Imagination, Where Good Strokes Happen First

Roll takes place in a Wawrinkle (backhand) either...

1) Throughout the entire forward stroke starting with the drop.

2) During the drop. Then there is no roll to contact during which tract the strings open naturally from closed to square. Then there is roll all the way to end of the follow-through.

One or the other.

If 2), initial roll for down the line can be pure like a sculler performing his feather-- however, if sculling or rowing perform smooth roll over the ankles late but before the quicker-than-the-eye drop (the catch). Also if 2), initial roll for crosscourt can include some impure turning forward of the racket tip.

Arthur Ashe: "Sling the racket at the ball."

Note: In one of the many casette videos that Vic Braden made, he demonstrated backhand acceleration-deceleration. This blew my mind since to me it countered everything else he was teaching about his own unique backhand.

Vic was short but unlike his brother who came to Winchester, Virginia the day I saw them both had very broad shoulders.

In the video Vic rotated his shoulders very quickly but stopped them abruptly with everything he had. The arm then accelerated forward in linear fashion.

If 2) again, this same process ought to work as one mimics Stan Wawrinka's atypical among all one-handers early substantial turn of his shoulders.

[don_budge]

Professor bottle…what happened to "z"

http://blog.dictionary.com/z/

(don_budge raising my hand respectfully)

I had this question of you some time ago. Has something happened to "Z" that I am unaware of. Many words that I have spelled with a "Z" in the past now are spell checked and replaced with "S". What gives? Why would this happen? Is it a sign?

[bottle]

Smash

http://blog.dictionary.com/z/

(don_budge raising my hand respectfully)

I had this question of you some time ago. Has something happened to "Z" that I am unaware of. Many words that I have spelled with a "Z" in the past now are spell checked and replaced with "S". What gives? Why would this happen? Is it a sign?

Blame Claudius Caecus. Anyone with a name like that is BAD.

Smash computers.

The End (XYZ ampersand).

[bottle]

Come into My Think Tank, Ye Teaching Pros of the World

No left or right here. Yes, some up and down. And left and right in the apolitical sense. Let's brainstorm a new shot called The Claudius Caecus after the guy who removed the Z from the alphabet. Or maybe we'll just offer that name as improvement over Federfore or ATP3.

You'll find me strange enough. I was just staring at my toes. Some are straight, some curved, the result of atavism in my long Swiss bloodline extending thousands of years before Alfred Escher dug the world's first really big tunnel through the bottom of Jungfrau Mountain. Up higher was there a Choctaw Ridge?

Nice picture of Bobbie Gentry in this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_Billie_Joe) At least my ancestor Alfred didn't throw anything including himself from Tallahatchie Bridge and there is a statue of him on a horse in front of the main train station in Zurich.

We'll have some laughs. The Manny doesn't work-- haw-haw. The Pincer doesn't work either. Nor any of the short angles, boo-hoo.

I'll hit a lot of Federfores and McEnruefuls as I've said before along with square backhands, Rosewallian slice and Federerian chop. I'll do fine.

How long to learn The Manny though? An hour. The Pincer? An hour unless one has learned The Manny first-- two hours then.

What if one or the other works? Choose it. What if they both work? Use them both in competition. Is this physiologically possible? Will such neologistic strokes stand up to pressure play?

Why not if orchestration is good with opposite hand and racket tip pushing toward each other in the one and descending in tandem in the other (remember to flutter fingers to set up the sucker punch).

None of it matters, you say, it's how one moves, and Floyd and Manny fight on May 2nd, 2015 .

Okay, I'll be ready to return to the circuit soon. Don't have to do any outpatient therapy it turns out. I opted for one more week of home care and after that will do the exercises on my own.

This is typical of patients with successful partials. The technology moves ahead.

But one's knee ought to swell up once in a while-- don't you think? If not, you aren't working hard enough? If the swelling hasn't subsided by next appointment, the surgeon will remove the fluid and no big deal, he said.

That should inspire me to do the right thing-- alternate ice water therapy and hot wash cloths, perform extra elevation and toe pumps, etc.

XYZ& (The End.)

[bottle]

An Either Cruel or Cool Idea for Rotorded Servers

Cruel if it doesn't work. But the hopes of rotorded servers get dashed every time they step up to the line so...Was ist da zu verloren? A woman from Graz, Austria once wrote those words to me. The paper wasn't perfumed but it was stationery. "What's there to lose?" She wanted me to share the renting of a suite-- very sweet of her-- in a castle high above the Danube River. I'm sure I've experienced enough unrequited love in my own life to even things out. But she was thirty feet tall. Would have been interesting.

Most good servers, it seems to me, get the straight arm way behind them and then bend it to trophy position while the hips go out.

Don't do it, rotorded server. Since your physical limitation will never permit you to get your racket tip as low as Gonzalez, Roddick, Sampras, Anderson, Karlovic, Raonic and Isner, you just won't have enough play left in your arm for what follows.

What then to do? Bend the stick the other way? Surely you've tried that a hundred times? Could the fault lie in language? Don't "bend" the stick the other way. "Twist" the stick the other way.

We all know that better external rotation leads to better internal rotation, right? The same logic says then that better internal rotation leads to better external rotation. So employ a triple whammy sequence-- internal, external, internal.

Leave the merely double whammy of external to internal to more ordinary servers while not forgetting to scoff at them.

The action begins. Down together up together to toss but we've kept palm down and through bending the arm have hooked the racket forward a little. Now push palm down farther as the hips go out. Now as legs thrust or hips rotate or however it is that you eternally have provided gross force, you press palm down even more, which is another way of saying that you twist your humerus in opposite direction from the way you always did.

Twisting humerus gets the racket tip lower than it was no matter who you are or in which direction you press, right? Well, maybe you can get it lower this way than the other way unless you are rotorded in both directions.

If your core propulsion unit can get racket tip low one way it can do the same the other way.

Now you are internally rotated to the max. So get externally rotated to the max. And internally rotated to the max.

The goal: ace or at least troublesome spin for one's opponent.

[bottle]

Blog vs. Forum

#1640
02-24-2015, 07:00 AM

gzhpcu
Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lugano, Switzerland
Posts: 1,845



Just wondering John: bottle and now hockeyscout have set up blogs. Others might want to do so too. Nothing against blogs, but I find them a bit out of place in a forum. How about a separate section in addition to forum for blogs?
__________________
Regards, Phil


johnyandell
Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 3,829



I think it's ok. It's readers' choice.


#1642
02-24-2015, 02:26 PM

gzhpcu
Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lugano, Switzerland
Posts: 1,845



So be it....
__________________
Regards, Phil


I agree that what I do is “a bit out of place.” But so what? Are forums in which nobody tries to introduce much substance that fabulous? Is chat with nothing much behind it that wonderful? Gab, gab...someone may accuse me of that but I probably accuse them of the exact same thing.

But the dichotomy raised here reminds me of what goes on in colleges and universities: lecture or discussion or some combination of both. The borderlines interest me. The best thing that ever happened to me as teacher was to decide to go with interruption or surprise rather than lesson plan (although I had that too).

Frankly, I could have started an independent tennis blog outside of this website long ago. Might have received some advertising revenue as the business types in Detroit constantly advise. But would I have learned as much tennis? When considering either me or don_budge or hockeyscout, one shouldn’t underestimate the response we get—all three.
Quantity yes but quality much more.

Alles muss nicht in Ordnung sein. Translation: Everything doesn't have to be in perfect order and probably is better when it isn't.

[stotty]

#1640
02-24-2015, 07:00 AM

gzhpcu
Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lugano, Switzerland
Posts: 1,845



Just wondering John: bottle and now hockeyscout have set up blogs. Others might want to do so too. Nothing against blogs, but I find them a bit out of place in a forum. How about a separate section in addition to forum for blogs?
__________________
Regards, Phil


johnyandell
Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 3,829



I think it's ok. It's readers' choice.


#1642
02-24-2015, 02:26 PM

gzhpcu
Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lugano, Switzerland
Posts: 1,845



So be it....
__________________
Regards, Phil


I agree that what I do is “a bit out of place.” But so what? Are forums in which nobody tries to introduce much substance that fabulous? Is chat with nothing much behind it that wonderful? Gab, gab...someone may accuse me of that but I probably accuse them of the exact same thing.

But the dichotomy raised here reminds me of what goes on in colleges and universities: lecture or discussion or some combination of both. The borderlines interest me. The best thing that ever happened to me as teacher was to decide to go with interruption or surprise rather than lesson plan (although I had that too).

Frankly, I could have started an independent tennis blog outside of this website long ago. Might have received some advertising revenue as the business types in Detroit constantly advise. But would I have learned as much tennis? When considering either me or don_budge or hockeyscout, one shouldn’t underestimate the response we get—all three.
Quantity yes but quality much more.

Alles muss nicht in Ordnung sein. Translation: Everything doesn't have to be in perfect order and probably is better when it isn't.

I think your blog (I prefer thread) fits in nicely. It took me a while to get used to it but now I am a big fan. I also get writing lessons from you as well. Yes, you're still teaching whether you like it or not. I left school at 15 with no qualifications whatsoever. It's a long story so let's not go there.

When I wrote my first letter to the club committee asking for work, they club captain of the day (horrible bloke) returned my letter with red circles around the word "to" which should have been "too" and "wellcome" which should have been "welcome". The captain really enjoyed showing me up because he had in mind someone else for the job. This is the most humiliating thing that has ever happening to me. I was deeply ashamed. It wasn't my fault, of course, fifteen is no age to quit education, but it hurt all the same. Needless to say I have been trying to compensate ever since...

Much to the captain's dismay, I got the job.

Some ten years ago I took online lessons from Jim over at writeasy.com. He was a retired editor from the Los Angeles Times. I learned an incredible amount from him. It's great to be taught by someone who has done nothing but write for living for many, many years. I just went to his website but see it's shut down. Jim was in his early 80's when he was teaching me so he may longer be around.

I have never mastered longer sentences like you. I simply don't have that skill, although I keep trying and hope some day I will.

Keep posting...

Your biggest fan,

Stotty