A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Contrast and Compare these Backhands with Those of Justine and Stan

First, in these one-handers of Roger we see a lower elbow at top of the backswing along with forward roll for 360 degrees of stroke arc. The beginning of this roll comes from partial straightening of wrist. Again as on Roger's forehand we should think of the extraordinary amount of wrist layback available to him.

Second, where is the grip change? All one-handers deal with the challenge of grip change in this direction or that, even Roger. So where and how does he do it?

Third, spin. Not always but sometimes the spin of the ball is "impure," i.e., hybrid rather than straight up. (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...r%20500fps.mp4) (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...e%20500fps.mp4) (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20500fps.mp4) (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...3%20500fps.mp4) (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...1%20250fps.mp4) (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...2%20250fps.mp4) (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...e%20500fps.mp4).

One may, as I do, view Roger's straightening wrist as unneeded complication great for him not for me.

And while I see the huge stroke grip change in the case of Stan and Justine, Stan is a combination of timing and strength, Justine an example of perfect timing alone . She is strong but not an ox. (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...neBackhand.mov) (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...tanceSide6.mov).

Justine therefore seems best model although my body type is very different from hers. Another reason for this decision is a 4.5 Afro-American friend of mine in North Carolina who sometimes would win that division in the tournaments. I don't think he received as much coaching as many of the other players in Winston-Salem. On his own, he took pains to copy Justine's backhand. The result was the strongest shot by far in his arsenal even though he is huge.

Note: In the case of Justine and Stan both I can see how left fingers and wrist start turning into loosened hitting hand but the left elbow then continues up to its coil-- all a single motion if one finds that knowledge useful.

Forward roll or zing to the ball or "turning the corner" now seems the most essential element of all three backhands. It starts with strings by trailing hip and ends with them on outer edge of the ball. I used to think that Stan rolled the whole way through the entire stroke like Roger but now see Stan's racket behind him as more of a descending knife, Justine's too.

Is the rumor I heard true that Roger springs his racket head loose having built up tension first in the other hand? One can try that or be content with natural separation since the racket spearing to outside at that point creates tension for the change of direction about to occur anyway.

If we know how the racket goes down with arm straightening in response to forward hip rotation as in all good one-handers everywhere, and we know how the racket slings around to contact, we then are in position to decide to continue arm roll after contact like Roger and Stan or send racket straight up the body angulation of a Belgian skier.

[bottle]

Claudius Caican Figure Eights, Henin-Wawrinkan Grip Change

The Caecus will either work or it won't. I of course will have a better chance for success with The Claudius Caecus serve than anybody else because of longer incubation time allowing me to work any wrinkles out. Went for a caneless two-mile walk yesterday wearing a pressure sock. Did not fall on the ice. Some quarter-slide work is indicated for today on Concept 2 Rowing Ergometer in basement including extra leg straightening in release position. Today's assignment came from the physical therapist during her final visit.

If the Claudius Caecus does not go as I expect, I will return to the Esther Eckhardt online yoga stretches of back and shoulders but only after my legs can fold. (They have never folded properly and so I have shunned yoga for my entire life.) Sorry Esther, you were too young, I too old, and besides, both of us already were involved...unless the grimmest scenario outlined here comes to be.

The Henin-Wawrinkan grip change is easy to do. Just remember, reader, start with fingers and wrist of the left hand then keep screwing and watch how easy-peazey the left elbow rises up.

[bottle]

How Bout Those Brits

Donald Young beats Wardie, so poor John Isner ends up the American goat (but not the greatest of all time). Poor John. Not enough pleasant experiences in his recent tennis history. First he gets taken over a barrel by ANATABLOC and then has the great misfortune to be coached by Justin Gimelstob. I like Justin, met him with Eugene Scott at Davis Cup Winston-Salem. And I'm sure he's a good coach. And a better commentato I mean commentator than some people think although he sometimes wheedles a bit. It's just that lead announcer for Davis Cup puts unneeded pressure on the lead player for the U.S. in this case.

Here is my argument, which comes from Stendhal writing on love. Too much openness (read "publicity") destroys love. There is a wombish aspect to coaching as well as to love. For love there needs to be a hornbeam twig in a dark crystal cave where crystals keep growing on the wood (Stendhal's famous image, not mine). Another way of putting this is that a tennis personality less prominent than Coach Justin has a better chance of bringing John to match readiness.

Who needs so much laundry aired in public? What player-coach combination doesn't need to incubate the player's chances in darkness? We're talking about the thin edge between winning and losing here. Which in John's case came down to a point or two after he won the first two sets of the second Davis Cup match against Wardie (I loved the home crowd chants of "Wardie, Wardie") in Glasgow, Scotland.

I blame John's troubles on too much coach's BLAB.

[stotty]

Wardie...

Who needs so much laundry aired in public? What player-coach combination doesn't need to incubate the player's chances in darkness? We're talking about the thin edge between winning and losing here. Which in John's case came down to a point or two after he won the first two sets of the second Davis Cup match against Wardie (I loved the home crowd chants of "Wardie, Wardie") in Glasgow, Scotland.

I blame John's troubles on too much coach's BLAB.

Good point.

I missed the tie due to a heavy workload. God knows how Wardie beat Isner. Doesn't seem possible on paper. That's two years running the US have lost to the Brits. We can hardly believe it.

I am surprised Courier didn't put on his shorts and come to the rescue.

[bottle]

Appius Claudius Caecus (Seek-us): "Man is the Architect of His Own Fate"

You pick a name for your new serve and soon will find the name contains secret history you forgot or were unaware of.

Will this secret power affect the serve? Of course.

Appius built the Appian Way connecting Capua and Rome. He built the first Roman aqueduct, Aqua Appia, which brought water into Rome from the Sabine Hills (See The Sabine Women). He was a Roman dictator before there were Roman dictators. He said, famously, "Man is the architect of his own fate" and he didn't like the sound of Z or see its need in the Latin alphabet which meant that it was out for the next 300 years. (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...laudius+caecus)

Appius Claudius became Appius Claudius Caecus according to Livy the Roman historian when somebody or something put a curse on him which caused him to go blind in his early sixties but this didn't slow him down.

So, one picks and sticks even though the name, different from what one thought, is Caecus Seekus rather than Caecus Cake-us or Long I (land) Kaikus maybe in Brooklyn. I was about to launch a ship with CLAUDIUS CAECUS lettered in gilt on its bow to celebrate my new serve but think I'll just modify the serve itself a bit.

My serve in development is not as exotic as first thought. We probably all have played opponents who try to serve somewhat this way (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ServeFront.mov).

I love a big down-and-up to way back and around in that it will offer me an Appian Way back to my regular serve any time the chicks begin to cluck.

But if one is going to twist the humerus the opposite way why not just do it off the first fall of both hands: tossing arm then goes up while hitting arm, real slow, bends and paws the ground like a bull about to charge.

The elbow is more or less as middling as Big Unit Randy Johnson's level of wind-up but the forearm is ready to wind downward on the press and downward more as the rocket takes off. And then the racket takes off. Seek-us and ye shall Find-us.

[bottle]

Two Jacks and One Dennis

I'm sorry, reader, but this is not the way you hit your slice serve, and I don't mean the low takeback. A lot of people do that (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ServeFront.mov).

No, the proof is in the paveloader finish. Jack Kramer looks as if he has just used his racket to scoop up some loose dirt and rocks. He did not use the external internal humeral twist sequence that we all like but rather carved from contact in precisely the old-fashioned way that currently is ANATHEMA.

You think, reader, I don't know what I'm talking about? Well you are wrong. If Jack Kramer had just internally rotated his arm so racket tip went way out to his right side before it finished way back behind him as here, he might have been looking for total leg replacement right after this film was made.

So why is this kind of serve ANATHEMA? Because it unteaches the ex-in we want? Because it is ineffective? Er, why then did Jack use it? Or why did it enable me and my beginner partner-- he of the great kick serve-- to win the biggest doubles tournament of my life?

John M. Barnaby (Jack), the Harvard coach of 50 years whose three books taught me the paveloader finish, didn't seem to care about the other genre of serve for his particular readership. His attitude was that one gets all that stuff from magazines or other instructors or on one's own. This enabled me to win. I've got to love him.

I remember the zingy noise my strings made as they carved the ball. And how that didn't happen as often once I shifted over to the modern way. And how, with that shift, I lost my best serve seemingly forever? Why wasn't I smart enough to keep on practicing it along with the others? Why shouldn't a tennis player go for maximum variety like Hana Mandlikova? Okay, she only won The U.S. Open rather than the eight other majors she could have won had her game been more boring.

This is a different kind of slice, it seems to me. In any case the number one high school doubles team whom we played in the final acted as if my serve came from another planet. Stays low, it seems to me-- something Jack figured out.

Hope I can get it back. But does that mean I now lose interest in THIS slice
(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...e_serve.html)?

Not at all.

NOTE: The way Barnaby's books taught me the paveloader finish (my term not his) was through the following backwardness.

Start fully finished, copying end of the video here of Jack Kramer.

Next slightly raise the racket tip and chop back to the same finish.

Then take racket a bit closer toward the net and repeat, but don't return to the original position.

In nibbles like this, one works up toward a place where contact may actually occur.

Somewhere in the midst of the nibbles, start adding a bit of fingers loosening and closing to the mix.

The whole deal does not take long.

Now starting at paveloader, do the same thing again, only finish at full paveloader each time.

NOTE II: Damn the new technology. Grabbing the capsule to stop it and mush it around with one's cursor reveals immediately Jack's internal rotation from the ball, thus disproving once and for all my contention that carve has occurred from the ball.

This illustrates the sudden reversals possible in tennis stroke intricacy research.
But why then does Jack carve the rest of the way to paveloader finish way back? To be ready in case he wants to carve one?

[bottle]

So, How is the New Imaginary Serve System Coming Along?

Glad you asked.

Probably, I should be using whatever powers of visualization I have to create new exercises and programs for speedy recovery from partial knee replacement since the professionals have decided with my concurrence to leave me alone.

But no, that's not how the imagination works. Sometimes you can tell it what to do, more often it wants to tell you what to do and will if you dare to let it.

Think now of the middle of Andy Roddick's serve while ignoring its overall structure (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DeuceSide1.mov).

How much external rotation of the arm is there before the internal rotation? And how straight is Andy's loose arm when that transition occurs? Finally, is it a speed transition involving muscles with agonists defeating antagonists-- and did the motion dependent tension or load build up properly first?

The serves I want keep the whole arm a wet noodle ("spaghetti arm" you've heard but I prefer noodles tonight).

Everything is about Brian Gordon's circular arrows changing color as the humerus, spun by two industrial conveyer belts working from opposite sides of the body spin the humerus in one direction if I correctly understand Chas. Stumpfel.

This is like the British game of skittles in which a string spins a top only now there are two strings on the stalk of the top and it is as if two people are administering the spin in the same direction in the same split-second.

In addition the magic takes place in a mobile cave in the middle of the most unstable if versatile joint in the human body. If the cave is not held perfectly centered by muscles fore and aft there will be hell to pay in the form of injury or feckless serves. (Feckless, Webster's Collegiate: 1) weak, ineffective 2) worthless, irresponsible.)

Reader, have you ever faced huge cannonballs that come at you at astonishing speed but with downward spin? Figuring out how to return them is not as difficult as usual, and in fact many of them don't land in the service box in the first place.

But they may have good power and copious amounts of lousy spin.

The question is whether external arm rotation can effectively centrifuge arm straight upward and maybe even a bit backward at the ball, with other parts of your body compensating to bring racket edge more forward to the ball.

("They always tell you to hit the ball way out front," a friend of mine in Winston-Salem NC, Johnny Johnston, owner of the bar Swaim's Grocery, said. "Well, way out front is right over your forehead.")

This scheme, off of Big Unit Randy Johnson baseball windup, perhaps improbable in its chances of actually working, at least affords inflexible servers with range of movement in which to work.

And one can always go back to what one did before.

[bottle]

Manny Pacquiao Affected by Arm Only Short Angle

The first Manny Pacquiaos, an imaginary shot until I get out on the court, entailed high opposite arm with fingers aflutter to distract opponent for a sucker punch.

As flutter occurred, the same fluttering fingers slowly descended. In tandem, the racket head rotated downward on the forearm.

Arm only short angle now teaches however that hitting thumb can rotate upward through two clock numbers during the initial body turn. Thumb rotating up is racket tip rotating down-- there is no difference.

Manny, like all boxers, prefers a still fist before he throws it, and there is nothing wrong with that.

[bottle]

Figure Eights and The Bull in the Woods, Inc.

The feral bull pawed the ground, about to charge. I picked up the nearest stick and threw it. My throwing motion however caused the rotten stick to crumble into powder. The bull, confronted with a cloud of black powder, retreated ten feet then returned to the exact same spot and pawed the ground again. I threw a newer stick this time. The bull didn't move but was distracted just enough so that I was able to zip past on my bike.

So much about island living on Ossabaw ten miles across the inland waterway from Savannah, Georgia. The image wanted here is the bull pawing the ground.

You (I) as player, paw the ground with your racket. The racket in other words corresponds to the bull's right front forepaw.

From this position you do figure eights just as many top pros do as they wait for the coin toss at the net. They may not have the Appius Claudius Caecus serve in mind but they perform their continuous figure eights.

I may not have the Caecus (a blind serve) in mind either, but I do continuous and connected figure eights right now as I recover from surgery for knee replacement.

This one is a Caecus (seek-us), that one what I did before. Figure eights are what hold the different forms together to minimize cost of any experiment that might not work.

The Caecus seems promising however. It puts more fire in the belly and more belly behind the back.

[bottle]

Eight Backhands

Below, I've listed thumb designations for eight shots. This course of action takes to heart J. Donald Budge's advice to put more thumb behind the handle and then exceeds it.

In the radical system I propose, the thumb is always on a diagonal halfway between wrapped or extended for backhands, forehands and volleys. The thumb has added to its own functionality through becoming the pointer on a dial.

TABLETOP SLICE: Full Designation (2.5--2), Thumb Designation (7.5)

CHOP SLICE: Full Designation (2.5--2) , Thumb Designation (7.5)

CROSS SLICE: Full Designation (2.5--2), Thumb Designation (7.5)

LOB SLICE : Full Designation (2.5--2), Thumb Designation (7.5)

DROPSHOT: Full Designation (2.5--2), Thumb Designation (7.5)

SIMPLE SIMON: Full Designation (1--1), Thumb Designation (7)

UGLY SLINGSHOT: Full Designation (8--8), Thumb Designation (6)

BEAUTIFUL BACKHAND: Full Designation (8--8), Thumb Designation (6)

[bottle]

On Discussions of Grip

Grip discussions are very important if for no other reason that they establish priority in the chaos of tennis instruction.

That priority however may not be an educational priority. Too much concern with something as dry as grips could easily turn somebody off at the beginning of a tennis career or distract from other stuff that ought to come first.

Conceivably although this is a long shot one might use grip to bring into net a wonk or dweeb or computer geek or technocrat.

Whatever the nature of the beginner, a more seasoned player who has pretty much established some strokes may some day want to experiment farther with his grips.

To repeat a hypothesis voiced on the airwaves by Martina Navratilova, one of a handful of commentators who in my view is not a commentato, you've just hit a ball into the net. Next time what if you swing the exact same way but with a different grip?

Other arguments for expansion of grip gradation can be given, e.g., more topspin and more backspin and more authority in dealing with high and low balls.

Much too lacking in all the grip discussion is HOW to make the changes. If a player has an easy yet accurate way to change grips he will be much more inclined to play with the added variety of doing so.

In my present array of recently invented strokes I can see myself using a flying grip change for what I call The Simple Simon, which involves great simultaneity of backswing including immediate straightening from elbow and relaxing of hitting hand and pulling of racket toward side fence to reach a 1--1 without altering or twisting of the hitting arm.

In many other changes to either side the forehand-to-backhand method of Justine Henin and Stanislas Wawrinka seems smart but maybe in the sideways emphasis abbreviated backhand (The Simple Simon), too.

The racket turns into the hand rather than the hand turn over the racket.

This slow and deliberate change actually lends itself to rhythm of the backswing in big one-handers that generate from somewhat around the back.

More than that, one refuses to mess with the hitting arm. The elbow points in the same direction-- down-- before and after the change.

[don_budge]

The Conduit...

Grip discussions are very important if for no other reason that they establish priority in the chaos of tennis instruction.

That priority however may not be an educational priority. Too much concern with something as dry as grips could easily turn somebody off at the beginning of a tennis career or distract from other stuff that ought to come first.

Conceivably although this is a long shot one might use grip to bring in and net a wonk or dweeb or computer geek or technocrat.

Whatever the nature of the beginner, a more seasoned player who has pretty much established some strokes may some day want to experiment farther with his grips.

To repeat a hypothesis voiced on the airwaves by Martina Navratilova, one of a handful of commentators who in my view is not a commentato, you've just hit a ball into the net. Next time what if you swing the exact same way but with a different grip?

Other arguments for expansion of grip gradation can be given, e.g., more topspin and more backspin and more authority in dealing with high and low balls.

Much too lacking in all the grip discussion is HOW to make the changes. If a player has an easy yet accurate way to change grips he will be much more inclined to play with the added variety of doing so.

In my present array of recently invented strokes I can see myself using a flying grip change for what I call The Simple Simon, which involves great simultaneity of backswing including immediate straightening from elbow and relaxing of hitting hand and pulling of racket toward side fence to reach a 1--1 without altering or twisting of the hitting arm.

In many other changes to either side the forehand-to-backhand method of Justine Henin and Stanislas Wawrinka seems smart but maybe in the sideways emphasis abbreviated backhand (The Simple Simon), too.

The racket turns into the hand rather than the hand turn over the racket.

This slow and deliberate change actually lends itself to rhythm of the backswing in big one-handers that generate from somewhat around the back.

More than that, one refuses to mess with the hitting arm. The elbow points in the same direction-- down-- before and after the change.

The grip is the conduit between the player and his racquet. It is through the grip that the energy and intellectual intentions of the player are transferred to his shot.

Pondering grips has been known to cause sleepless nights.

[bottle]

True.

[bottle]

A Rotorded Server Reflects on his Caecus ("Seek-us&quot

If time from low point to contact takes .2 of a second in the case of a good server, time in the case of a baddie baddie rotorded server (We'll call him Egbert) is .1 since he follows a shorter path.

When Egbert inaugurates his Caecus, the same time takes .4 since his humerus isn't used to throwing backward (external shoulder rotation) yet.

When Egbert returns to his normal serve, however, internal shoulder rotation kicks in closer to contact. Through repetitions of the Caecus, he has learned a closer transition point.

Thus The Blind Seek-us, in a few short minutes, will justify its name so long as Egbert doesn't change his to Julius, Nero or Augustus Caesar.

Alea iacta est.

Alea iacta est ("The die is cast") is a Latin phrase attributed by Suetonius (as iacta alea est [ˈjakta ˈaːlea est]) to Julius Caesar on January 10, 49 BC as he led his army across the River Rubicon in Northern Italy.

[bottle]

Ultimate Balance Test: Here's How To Do It

Follow the example of Anna Pavlova, first of great dancers to tour the world. She is best known for her interpretation of a dying swan. In Wellington, New Zealand the people liked her so much that they named a famous meringue dessert after her (Pavlovas). In China, she twirled 37 times on the back of a lumbering elephant.

https://www.google.com/search?q=photos+of+Anna+Pavlova&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&oq=photos+of+Anna+Pavlova&aqs=chrome..69i57.13775j0j9&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

https://www.pinterest.com/daeaton/anna-pavlova/

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=anna+pavlova+dessert&revid=1831788106

Still can't find any pirouette on an elephant. Some photographer must have been asleep at the switch. Here is the closest I got:

https://emblah13.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/20_dovima-theredlist.png

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=photos%20of%20manny%20pacquiao

http://www.tmz.com/2015/03/14/manny-pacquiao-home-buys-diddy-mansion-beverly-hills-house-photos/