A New Year's Serve

[don_budge]

Sexy Tennis…Escher's Dreaming

I think your blog (I prefer thread) fits in nicely.
Keep posting...

Your biggest fan,

Stotty

It a thread. A very long thread. What would this forum be without bottle and his "A New Year's Serve"? Henry Miller wrote as lovingly about sex as John does about tennis. Both rhythmic motions dependent upon variations of technique. Is that reading too much into it?

Coincidentally…I joined this website on New Year's Eve. A culmination of a search for a video of the Don Budge backhand. I walked right into this…eyes wide shut. Par for the course…in my case.

Speaking of me…on a side note…

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.

You might have added don_budge…aka you know who. Ferdinand Navarro.

[bottle]

Red Thread

It a thread. A very long thread. What would this forum be without bottle and his "A New Year's Serve"? Henry Miller wrote as lovingly about sex as John does about tennis. Both rhythmic motions dependent upon variations of technique. Is that reading too much into it?

Coincidentally…I joined this website on New Year's Eve. A culmination of a search for a video of the Don Budge backhand. I walked right into this…eyes wide shut. Par for the course…in my case.

Speaking of me…on a side note…

(In response to a list by me of flexible servers)

You might have added don_budge…aka you know who. Ferdinand Navarro.

Right, I have a long thread as opposed to an unread blog or unread tennis book.

And I admire flexibility of every kind. In my first big story as a young reporter I got to drink with Jules Feiffer, Art Buchwald and Bill Mauldin.

The headline under a huge photo on the front page of The Middletown Press in Connecticut: "We begin to laugh at ourselves." Feiffer, Buchwald and Mauldin held their glasses discreetly down by their sides. Mine was way up in the air.

This was part of a symposium on humorous writing at Wesleyan, the university now in the news trying to deal with bad hallucinogens, i.e., a number of bad trips, the dealers expelled, a couple of students who almost died, supposedly, but didn't.

Mauldin, leading editorial cartoonist of World War II, spoke of "six-foot-six block-headed Hessians coming over the hill" in Grade B Hollywood war movies. But there he (Mauldin) was in Cassino, Italy, watching American soldiers by the hundreds leap like lemmings across a water ditch.

No one was capable of reacting to what was happening. Seems even more timely today than in 1963 . The soldiers just kept coming, all of them leaping to their death by machine gun fire.

The subject of this little talk: FLEXIBILITY.

[stotty]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31558467

[bottle]

On Writing

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

You are a very good writer, so don't let anybody tell you different, especially yourself: A very interesting and revealing tale.

The late Detroit writers considered the best by the rest are Elmore Leonard and Philip Levine.

Personally, I've been better able to connect to Levine (poet) than Leonard, but loved it whenever Leonard spoke ABOUT writing.

A main rule of his was one exclamation point every 2000 pages, another, writing should never seem like writing.

Do I fall down there? Sometimes. But I find your sensitivity to sentence length very interesting.

It means, I think, that you are aware of sentence rhythm. Rhythm in tennis, music, prose-- what's the difference?

All about confidence and letting go and finding one's "natural voice." The last thing I want to do right here and now is make anybody but especially myself self-conscious-- no need to do that.

But here is the best sentence in Americano English: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

It is Ralph Waldo Emerson and thoroughly Germanic. Note the little monosyllable at the end with its perfect balance as follow-through. And in my sentence immediately preceding this one if you think I ought to be an example the lack of apostrophe in the word "its".

[bottle]

Great Article

What a man. And with a sister. What a vision.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31558467

[stotty]

You are a very good writer, so don't let anybody tell you different, especially yourself: A very interesting and revealing tale.

The late Detroit writers considered the best by the rest are Elmore Leonard and Philip Levine.

Personally, I've been better able to connect to Levine (poet) than Leonard, but loved it whenever Leonard spoke ABOUT writing.

A main rule of his was one exclamation point every 2000 pages, another, writing should never seem like writing.

Do I fall down there? Sometimes. But I find your sensitivity to sentence length very interesting.

It means, I think, that you are aware of sentence rhythm. Rhythm in tennis, music, prose-- what's the difference?

All about confidence and letting go and finding one's "natural voice." The last thing I want to do right here and now is make anybody but especially myself self-conscious-- no need to do that.

But here is the best sentence in Americano English: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

It is Ralph Waldo Emerson and thoroughly Germanic. Note the little monosyllable at the end with its perfect balance as follow-through. And in my sentence immediately preceding this one if you think I ought to be an example the lack of apostrophe in the word "its".

Thanks for this. I feel inspired. That's a wonderful feeling.

I am not sure I have ever found my own voice. Whenever I read a good writers I find myself subconsciously trying to write like them. I feel like a copycat, and a long way from finding my own voice, my own style. Maybe one day...

Thanks again for the inspiration....

[tennis_chiro]

Good place for people crying in the wilderness

I've always thought, Bottle, that you had a special spot in your heart for people crying out for justice.

The following is very upsetting. You can watch it for free until March 6.

And you should.

https://boughtmovie.net/free-viewing/thank-you.php?AFFID=NONE&email=donbrosseau@earthlink.net

don

[bottle]

Admission of Rotordedness Serve Awarded the Claudius Caecus Name

Claudius Caecus, a name awaiting a stroke, was assigned to a special needs serve yesterday during a brief ceremony at the annual Tennis Show in Detroit.

"Claudius Caecus," the man who removed the Z from the alphabet, now becomes a palm down serve that goes down and down some more before it rises through both external and internal rotation and goes down again to complete a 360-degree circle.

Will this serve work? Nobody knows. In the meantime it has a name.

Thanks to Alexander Dolgopolov and William T. Tilden II for their explicit help in development of the look of this shot.

[bottle]

Either Or With More Ors

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.

Here is Justine (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...neBackhand.mov), (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nterFront2.mov), (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nterFront4.mov), (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...LevelRear1.mov) and here is Stan (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...tanceSide6.mov), (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...LevelFront.mov), (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...anceSide13.mov).

Was my either or enough? Did it cover the basic possibilities? I think not.

I need to build from what already works. That only makes sense.

I've never in a thousand tries come up with the consistent big backhands I want although I did achieve the small backhands and table top slice I set out for myself as worthy goals.

As I examine these seven (7) clips I see a smoothness of stroke that precludes the abruptness of acceleration-deceleration. Both players obviously employ roll while on the ball and in the case of Stan to a large degree afterward. When there is roll in a one-hander or for that matter a serve there can be no acceleration-deceleration. At least that seems like common sense to me.

What's all the early opening of shoulders in a Stanislas backhand then? What is its purpose?

Well, it combines with arm roll to put the strings inside out on the outside of the ball. One handers who stay closed perform the same function more with arm only-- that's all I can figure out.

In Justine and Stan both, it seems to me at least for today, there is a lot of spearing with the racket butt before the roll begins.

As far as knowledge of Justine's roll is concerned, it comes exclusively from a short demo she made for TV. "I turn de racket over on de ball like dis," she said, rolling her strings around every possible facet of de round ting.

[bottle]

Dancing in the Face of Abusive Food and Drugs

I've always thought, Bottle, that you had a special spot in your heart for people crying out for justice.

The following is very upsetting. You can watch it for free until March 6.

And you should.

https://boughtmovie.net/free-viewing/thank-you.php?AFFID=NONE&email=donbrosseau@earthlink.net

don

Yes, as house parent for retarded young adults in Yellow Springs, West Virginia, I loved the wild dancing with them every single night.

Thanks, Don, for posting this appalling, awakening, consciousness-expanding film. I do think the FDA has let us down and find very interesting the film's assertion that pharmaceutical research was only on the level in the 1960's and 1970's and since then the companies had their greedy way leading to documented increases in diabetes, obesity, autism, Alzheimers, etc., etc., etc. We need a return to honesty in research and everything else and to a true concern for public health.

[bottle]

Look Again

Now re-examine these four clips of Justine to see that she does not do what she thinks she does:

(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...neBackhand.mov)
(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nterFront2.mov), (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nterFront4.mov), (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...LevelRear1.mov)

Note first, reader, the total deliberateness with which Justine changes to an extreme grip. The change is in two parts concluding with her re-adjustment of fingers of her hitting hand. This is one part of a fast stroke in which she thoroughly takes her time.

Second, grab the capsule with your cursor and slide it backward and forward. This is great technology so don't let it go to waste-- use it.

Third, reader, notice that Justine comes to the ball with racket beveled so that the strings open naturally to contact. Contrary to what she mimed in her TV demo the strings do not roll over the ball in any one of these four clips.

[bottle]

Through not Over the Top?

I thought of that too. Maybe the miming-- the rolling of the strings on different sides of the ball-- was meant to mimic the overall stroke, to pull and compress it down into kernel form. Also, could one say that Justine does roll her arm but rolls it through the ball rather than around it? But if the racket does close a little at impact the oncoming ball is the agent, not Justine?

[bottle]

When Should One Claim Victory

Never? After an ace? Certainly not before one has tried the Claudius Caecus (internal flesh requires about six weeks to heal even in the case of my partial knee replacement, the therapist said yesterday).

Still, if the Claudius Caecus is a great shot, even external internal servers who have enjoyed spectacular success for scores of years may wish to try the CC just as a matter of self-education. It is truly "twisting the stick the other way."

When it comes to rotorded servers-- the ones who have trouble pointing their racket tip at the ground-- no more sympathy for them.

Not if they now have a good way of pointing the racket tip at the ground but refuse to use it.

If the Claudius Caecus (internal external internal arm rotations in that sequence) won't work-- and there could be many reasons-- the rotorded students can bump along through life same as usual.

I and others won't mock them other than to beat up on their serves.

[bottle]

No Then Yes On Baseball Swing

(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...neBackhand.mov)

Now I'm adding something a few days later. The grip that Justine chooses combined with a very straight line toward contact fulfills a verbal imperative instilled in us by many tennis instructors including Nick Bollettieri.

The shaft of the racket is a flashlight. Or a spear. Or a rope.

The "swing" toward the ball is therefore more down than anything else. It is a drop or a push or golfer's descent or bowl as in bowling or a pull (I don't care which as long as it isn't a roundabout baseball swing). The racket butt goes straight as a taut rope until the racket head is close to the trailing hip.

From that benchmark the arm rolls to bring the strings zinging onto outside of the ball.

The speed of the zing achieves this. The subtle arm then uppercuts more like the baseball swing it just took pains to avoid.

[bottle]

Roll to the Ball or Through the Ball?

To the cusp (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...neBackhand.mov).

Now one can hit the ball with no force as in "on the paddle" in crew. (Read THE BOYS IN THE BOAT or see the movie to learn a few things but not everything about rowing.)

The best forms in any sport work both on the paddle and at full strength and everything in between.

Also, I wonder if Justine's slow grip change is not the siting/timing mechanism that some coaches write about.

For coordinating one's watching of the oncoming ball I can see the argument.

Behind one I think of a piece of lumber being jostled into place since the tip no longer goes back overly fast.

Personally, for my "little backhand" with preparation to side I still fan hitting hand over top of handle; but, for THIS shot I twist the racket clockwise with left hand as I do counterclockwise to change to a forehand.

This provides the memorizable feel/look of left arm snakily coiled at the top-- clear delineation between backswing and foreswing, slow speed and fast speed, delicacy and drop.

Note: The great extension lauded in beauiful one-handers can come from the design factor of roll to the ball rather than muscularity.