A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Re-Watching the Tennis Scenes from PAT AND MIKE

This movie was written by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, my former doubles partner's bosom pals until Kanin wrote the book called TRACY AND HEPBURN, which is by far the best of any Katharine Hepburn biography in print or film.

Decades later, Hepburn, Kanin and Gordon reconciled although I suspect Hepburn never at any time had a bad word to think about Kanin's wife Ruth Gordon.

You may ask, reader, why I am wasting my time watching old movies. My partner Hope is frequently apt to pose that question. And Katharine Hepburn, according to Hepburn biographer Scott Berg once posed it to him in those exact same words: "Why are you wasting your time watching old movies?"

In my case it's the tennis. The cameo appearances of Don Budge, Alice Marble and Frank Parker in PAT AND MIKE, though small, do manage to register. The scene of Hepburn as Pat Pemberton competing against Gorgeous Gussie Moran is more substantial if you know what to look for.

That would be first, the Hepburn backhand. Clearly, Tilden had worked on it, and I don't want anything to do with it since I'm happy with my own backhand right now.

Second, Hepburn's all-court game.

Third, Hepburn's serves. Pretty good, as I also recall from when she and I beat my brother and her brother in straight sets in Fenwick, Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

Fourth, her volleys. Crisp as her personality! Fifth, her forehand. I can't believe that Tilden would mess with it.

At the beginning of the Gorgeous Gussie scene, Pat Pemberton hits one overhand loop forehand deep to Moran's backhand. It is an approach shot with a bit of fade so good that I don't believe Moran even hits it back, but I will re-watch my DVD recording later to check any and all factoids. (Whoops-- Gussie hit that shot back.)

After that, every one of Pemberton's forehands is characterized by the scythe-like backswings of Connors, Evert and McEnroe.

And I know that Pemberton didn't steal that backswing from any of them since they weren't conceived.

So where does that golfy backswing come from?

Pitch shots, which were Hepburn's greatest strength as she made her brisk walk around the Scotch patterned nine-hole Fenwick golf course-- small greens and short fairways except for one monster, the fifth, where Howard Hughes landed his plane.

[bottle]

Unique Roll for McEnruefuls

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_forehand/mac_forehand.html?MacFHWideSide1.mov

The roll in this forehand is completely different from the roll in three discussed recently elsewhere in the forearm, viz., Cilic, Nishikori and Federer.

But that doesn’t mean the quick roll here is not similarly dynamic though not as long.

McEnroe’s grip requires dynamic roll to produce vertical strings by contact out front. This quick, propulsive roll also helps multiply ball speed.

From contact and a bit beyond, the strings remain vertical i.e. square.

Then they gently roll over as part of the comfortable followthrough—an entirely different kind of roll from the first one.

One could argue I suppose that the two rolls are the same roll performed at two different speeds.

No doubt there is percentage in keeping the strings vertical as arm proceeds out from the body, and the only balanced way to do that is with continued roll.

Reader, as in the case of so much in tennis instruction, this is personal opinion. If you care to, set me straight or present an opinion of your own so that others and I can have the opportunity to steal it.

[bottle]

Exploring the Outer Reaches of Palm Up Serves

Raonic and Isner are good examples. And then there is a fellow named Marin Cilic.

Vic Braden wanted palm down. Which led to a complicated in and out and in motion.

I have evidence from various sources (obvious under noses) that Don Budge was partial to keeping palm at least vertical and probably down.

One can no doubt discuss palm down vs. palm up in connection with every tennis player who ever lived.

Personally, I've explored palm down more than palm up. Time then for some palm up.

Think I'll start with enough palm up to balance a hundred small canapes on my strings at ready position, i.e., the hitting side of strings will form a tray that faces the sky.

This is more open than Ed Faulkner's reasonable median of hitting side of strings facing left fence at address to facing right fence after a down-and-up.

How much stance and shoulders turn and anything else are small details to be worked out later.

We will try Faulkner's opinion that one ought to hold elbow back during first part of the body mechanics forward so that delayed elbow can then be HURLED.

But we've far exceeded the Faulknerian specs, so who knows what will happen-- one reason that such endeavors are fun.

Note to Phil Picuri: If Goran Ivanisovich is just going to say "Throw the ball up and hit it," I don't want him to build my house. If however that is just a perspective-imparting front for the greater detail he shares through words or example with his chosen and very successful Croatian students, he's got the job.

[bottle]

Revision of an Earlier Thought

The idea was to weaken front of one's forehand grip, particularly on a flat forehand. Whatever the reasons I imagined for doing that, I think I temporarily forgot the old saw about tightening the last three fingers of one's hand to firm up the wrist just as one's strings come to the ball.

That makes good sense and I'll keep the fingers wrapped closely to do it.

That doesn't leave a thumb's width between fingers and drumstick of the hitting thumb as Chrissie preached in her video but sobeit.

Exploration of some idea deserves exploration of its opposite. So I'll try squeezing the fingers early in order to relax them a bit during contact and expect to do both things in play some day when I grow up.

[bottle]

How Big a Patch Do You Mow on One Swing?

We are all in a single line across the field, we serfs, and there is no going back to cut some missed tuft.

We've got the manpower to level the field in a single take.

But the work must be perfect, and I as foreman would appreciate complete evenness from border to border with no rest until we reach that line of trees over there.

Oh my God, here comes Count Leo. Look, he has a scythe, brand new just like his new tennis racquet fresh out of its French box. And his supposedly new tennis court as if anyone knows where it is.

And if it's an outdoor or indoor site and whether Leo plans to hit off of walls.

Doesn't matter. Leo is quiet now but he can talk-- we all know that. And word gets around.

Leo wants to learn tennis from the double direction swing we all use. He can just watch then. But oh no, he has to do it himself, says that his scythe itself will teach him our technique.

Careful not to ding that shiny new blade. Watch out, stones and snakes! I'll come back later to cut the whiskers he misses.

Step cut step cut. Down up, down through. Get it right Count Tolstoy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Time#mediaviewer/File:LoC-Rotunda-Clock-detail-Father-Time.jpeg

[bottle]

Self-Feed

Self-feed is the tricky basis of true stroke invention. If a player can't toss a ball to bounce it and then hit it, he never will be able to deal with an oncoming shot from Marin Cilic.

Well, he most likely won't be able to do that anyway. So he may as well invent. For fun.

I didn't even know the term "self-feed" until I saw it in a Tennis Player article on Karsten Popp written by Scott Murphy. I was amazed that a tennis player, teacher and writer as good as Scott Murphy would suddenly start doing self-feed mid-career.

Come to think of it however, no really good teaching pro walking past has ever laughed at me-- at least not when I was doing self-feed. I imagine that such a person would never laugh at anybody doing self-feed.

It is the ignorami who make wise-ass remarks. The best course is to throw something even more wise-ass back.

On a beautiful Sunday morning a good tennis player I knew by sight and reputation only went strolling past.

He went down to Lake St. Clair-- a Great Lake on-line and in disguise-- and traced a long swatch of shoreline.

When he returned, he said, "Wow, you've hit a lot of balls." As you can imagine, reader, this led to a pretty full chat and not just because these were the final days of the U.S. Open.

He wants to hit.

[bottle]

Forehand Brainwork for Gentle Slope Downward Backswing

The gentle slope means that racket will glide to the outside.

For that reason I considered rejecting it since I've learned enough tennis over the years to know that hand in a forehand ought to help line up the ball.

And while playing doubles last week I noticed that my service returns were uncommonly good thanks to strict down-and-up bowlback.

Why not? Lining up is good with a straight rather than circular backswing.

But there is good argument for circularity. So my brain assigns a gentle and prolonged slope to the outside, yes; but, as hand and racket swing back up to inside of the slot they have aligned themselves with the oncoming ball.

While hand strays, eye looks into the future to line up the ball. I end in fact with eye and hand in a straight line to the oncoming ball while keeping two-way circularity of a 19th century guy with a scythe.

Note: One can catch a ball out front to help learn how to line up with the oncoming shot. One therefore can catch the ball behind one for the same purpose. When lining up, a surveyor is frequently quite far from his target. Does a few feet's difference in placement of the instrument really matter? But catching the ball behind one, when translated into tennis terms, places final alignment closer to the forward swing.

[bottle]

Post Court Conclusions

Roll up the ball and turn the racket immediately over after contact while hitting a Federfore. That's what you do in a serve, isn't it?

Roll to have racket square immediately after contact in a McEnrueful in process of completing the roll.

Bowl back higher than ball to bring strings down for scythe-like swing through the ball in your (my) flat forehand.

[bottle]

The Dumbest Coach in Any Sport I Have Ever Seen

Like it or not, I found myself watching a JV high school volleyball tournament all day long.

The captain of one of the teams has a connection to this family.

She reported this to us between a series of close losses. "She (the coach) thinks the solution to every problem is to keep me out of the game."

Poor L. Then, when she finally was in a game for a few seconds, she missed a couple of easy service returns.

This is a 14-year-old who stars on travel teams. She had her choice of playing varsity as a sophomore or being captain of the JV and chose JV.

The irony of her playing badly was that when she was in the game her whole team nevertheless played better.

Coach here was the villain. Whether this coach knew it or not, her secret wish was to erode everyone's confidence.

"Oh, but I wanted to show the rest of the team that they were better than they thought," she might say.

Not the way to do it. You build on strengths.

[bottle]

Intentional Weakening of Front of Forehand Grips

It is Sunday morning and my opponents don't know yet that my right Achilles feels ready to go.

So I'll just self-feed and have plenty of fun that way.

I bring attention to the part of the Evert video I recently posted where Chrissie advocates an opposite thumb's width between bottom three fingers and drumstick of the hitting thumb.

If the best available on-line instruction for throwing a curveball puts some air between palm and fingers, I don't see why a tennis player shouldn't experiment with less clunky and less nervously clutched forehand grips.

First goal: More scythe-like feel on flat forehands.

[bottle]

Today's Federforial

That Roger Federer has lost to Marin Cilic in the 2014 U.S. Open semifinals in no way detracts from the stealability of Federerian arm roll.

Here is Federerian arm roll once again as seen in repeating video on the right hand edge of the following page:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/new_issue/2014/september/

From being a varsity Dad Vail eight-oared championship four-man (1959, 1960 and 1961) and from being head rowing coach at West Virginia University and Skidmore College in the early 1980's, I know two things about arm roll.

When, while rolling in rowing, you press with your hand, the blade of the oar flies up.

The official term for this is "skying." Another way of expressing this time-wasting and crab-inviting phenomenon is to say that you are a jerk who is causing his crew to lose some race.

In ping-pong however I know that pressing while rolling is not out of the question and feels good as attempted slam.

Similarly, in tennis, one can press one's roll to slam. Not champion Lucy Venable but her daughter also singles champion one time used to do this on every one of her forehands at Crooked Run Racket Club in Front Royal, Virginia.

Me, I did it on every one of my forehands when Katharine Hepburn and I beat her brother Dick and my brother Derek at Fenwick, Old Saybrook, Connecticut.

Later, when teaching tennis, I advised my students not to do it for fear of becoming erratic. But I myself do it-- at the age of 74-- as a test of erraticness on a given day and out of desire to win on that day.

The second thing I know about rolling while rowing (called "feathering") is that if you do it with delicacy you don't damage the position of your handle.

My question: Is Roger Federer's wiper changing position of his hand? The answer is no.

A third but related question: Is the in-place feathering of Federer's racket due to impact of the ball on lower half of his strings as has been popularly supposed or continuance of the roll after the ball is gone?

And if the latter, should we not replace the word "delicacy" with the word "vigor" and act thereupon?

[bottle]

Hey, I Think I see Something I'm Going to Report it

In the repeating video on this page, Roger's hand stays back all through his wiper or arm roll.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/new_issue/2014/september/

Yes, this lesson is about keeping one's head sideways and rock still (or "keeping one's chin behind the ball" as my golfing father used to say).

Another phenomenon apparent in the video however is this business of keeping wrist laid back.

And by saying that, I don't mean that Roger JUST refrains from closing the wrist during contact.

He also refrains from sending half of the roll through the ball the way John McEnroe does in his forehands-- half up, half through.

I love that, try it often: Leads to a very quick ball. I use Australian grip although the name of it is less important than where I put my thumb.

I have been working on an abbreviated grip style which encourages more grip changes during a single point.

If you just adjust thumb without moving the rest of your hand nothing good will happen.

But if you relax hand treating it as a patch of ectoplasm, you can achieve any heel of hand and big knuckle double position you like but through a shortcut.

And tennis is all about shortcuts.

On a Federfore then somewhere near a 3/3 grip but with bent thumb resting top dead center you can use your wiper to go up back of the ball only.

Forward component in Roger's stroke then comes from other sources.

Okay, is there proof in this pudding?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_forehand/mac_forehand.html?MacFHCenterSide1.mov

Going through the shot with arrow button only, one can see McEnroe's racket still square after the ball is gone. Shortly thereafter the racket tip rolls ahead of hand. Not a definitive answer then. Everything should be tried. It's what I'm gonna do, not McEnroe or you.

[don_budge]

Our government...hard at work

http://news.yahoo.com/trial-dealt-hit-ex-governors-reputation-171905027.html

Nice to have you back. It must be beautiful up there around Glen Arbor this time of year. You got to treat those geriatric old girls just like the rest...don't toy with them. Good to hear your Achilles problems are improving. Do your exercises...you will be ok.

[bottle]

Did John Isner Have a Separate Contract Superseding his Agreement with ANATABLOC?

One can tell that I am interested in questions such as this through the similarity of two names.

John Isner is the name of the tall guy with the big serve. John Escher is the formal name of "Bottle," although my older sister Drusilla as in the Cinderella tale named me "Bottle" shortly after my birth.

To complicate things farther, John Isner and John Escher used to live only 20 or 30 miles apart, I in Winston-Salem, he in Greensboro.

Now that former governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell is convicted on 11 counts of corruption thanks to his relationship with Jonnie Williams, John Isner must be glad that he has minimized his own relationship with Jonnie Williams through changing his hat.

But will Nick Bollettieri allow Jonnie to keep his condo at Nick's Academy?

And did John's contract with Lacoste maybe predating his contract with Star Science (producers of Anatabloc and other substances that possibly are not science) proscribe that he wear a Lacoste hat at the U.S. Open although he could wear any other hat he wanted at the minors just like any American?

The silence of those who know the answers leads to my honest speculation. I simply wish to learn if John Isner made a conscious decision not to wear his ANATABLOC, knowing as I do that real sun block works better.

[bottle]

The High of Playing Tennis and Winning after Serious Injury

The level of the tennis played would not have mattered. I would have been elated if I beat anybody or could play at all.

As it happened however we were in a vacation house up north-- at Glen Arbor on the Michigan side of Lake Michigan.

The house Hope rented was a short walk to the beach and a short walk in the opposite direction to the center of town.

In the few days we were there we never drove once except when we did the dune walk in Sleeping Bear National Park.

That bare-footed adventure-- in which you climb one dune only to find another and then another higher and then one higher yet-- told me that my Achilles sprains were gone.

Not that I didn't already know that. The day before, Hope's daughter Melissa, Melissa's husband Greg, and Melissa's youngest, Maxine, went to play switch-off doubles with me on the nicely surfaced town courts.

Two weeks before that, my orthopedist ordered an MRI-- because my acute pain despite my sessions of physical therapy had lasted five months.

Jeffrey the orthopedist was afraid that the X-rays might have missed a 50 per cent tear about to become a full tear.

Options could include immobilizing my right foot in a boot, injections and/or surgery.

The MRI showed two very small spots on opposite sides of the ankle-- more like a bit of fraying of a rope than small tears. Other interpreters at Beaumont Hospital did call those white spots small tears but Jeffrey said he wouldn't. He pointed to a thickening of muscle above the sprains-- a good sign.

The physical therapy was continuing at 6:30 a.m. two days a week.

Also Jeffrey prescribed heel risers for my shoes. A new pair of tongueless Diadora tennis shoes arriving in the mail just then fit my feet like two gloves. I had decided to order them no matter what.

The heel risers wouldn't work in the canary colored Diadoras but that was okay.

The new shots I invented during the layoff all seemed to work. More important, the sprains did not hurt for the first time either before, during or after play.

Now, neither Greg nor Maxine wanted to play. I believe they felt they didn't fare well enough the first time out.

So Melissa and I walked to the courts to play singles. But one of the town shop-keepers saw us warming up and said how crowded the courts were and asked if we would consider doubles.

Our opponents had come to the court with him-- two elderly women who let's say were the geriatric champions of northern Michigan.

We started to play. Every ball came back. The score was suddenly 2-0 geriatric ladies.

Melissa and I looked at each other as if to think "We're better than this." In fact, Melissa's USTA mixed doubles team just qualified for the Ann Arbor sectionals.

Before I served she said, "May the force be with you."

0-2, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 5-4, 6-4 .