A New Year's Serve

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It's a good one or rather three just in the forehand section.

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Thanks for the nice Chris Evert instruction video find!

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Four of the U.S. Open Winners without Overhand Forehand Loops

Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Chris Evert, Tracy Austin.

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Learning The Chris Evert Forehand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WOcEIjGJQ

The way I'm going to try and do it is to drive to the court and drop balls.

I will use 2/3 grip, even "palm slide close trigger"-- the same thing.

What truly gives this grip its scythe-like feel is heel of hand on right bevel.

With slightly bent arm at constant setting forming a long scythe throughout and using as cue the elbow to move the arm both above and below it, I shall swing elbow from back to forward and up to the side.

This liquid move shall be the skeleton of the stroke if such a paradox is possible.

Only then will I flesh the thing out with body surge.

And will try next of course the flat, topspin and slice variations that Chris Evert demonstrates in the video each with its distinctive followthrough.

Together, the suite of shots offered are: 1) Flat in which one swings level and finishes with racket lined up with both shoulderballs. 2) Topspin in which one crowds and retraces the scythe-like backswing so that low to high becomes high to low, with strings vertical again at contact and followthrough ending up and over the shoulders line. 3) Slice in which open racket face scrapes into ball then dives and rises and dives to a finish in front of the shoulders line.

Report : The down and up backswing of all these strokes combined with a smooth elbow throw twice as long as in most forehands should put one in the number where the saints come marching in.

Note : Everett the old dowser and gravedigger of Parsonsfield, Maine gave an ancient scythe-- the Tolstoyan version-- to a friend of mine and so I was able to use it. Its two handles are at a slight angle to each other, and as the character Levin discovers in WAR AND PEACE, if you don't fight this instrument it practically tells you how to swing itself.

Coincidentally, Leo Tolstoy owned the first tennis court in Russia.

Backswing is always the same: Slightly down and up. Foreswing can be level or slightly down and up.

From this instrument came the golf-club cutter before the advent of the weed-whacker.

And thus we return to the classic debate ever raging in the Tennis Player forearm: Modern Tennis seen as the best of all possible worlds vs. Modern Tennis as moral decay.

Personally, I side more with moral decay as exemplified by mechanistic forehands that resemble weed-whackers.

This is not to say that one cannot hit a Federfore from the Connors-Evert-McEnroe scythe-like backswing.

One need only discard "patting the dog," which drains time, but keep the mondo or flip.

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Freaking Out with Aunt Frieda

Aunt Frieda, 100, doesn’t think that I, 74, should do tennis invention any more but should just play the game.

But a doubles player named Hector hit me with an arrow in my Achilles. As I stretch my soleus and my gastroc, I can only garden and self-feed while realizing that I probably shouldn’t even be deadheading roses.

Frieda and Hugh, who never had children or animals and hated gardens, gave up tennis in their early seventies, bought two big Harleys, launched a chapter of Hell’s Geezers, zipped all over Michigan.

Frieda lives alone in her own quiet house on a shady street. When she comes for dinner three or four times a week, I always start her with a glass of wine.

Yesterday, we got a call from the neighbor across the street. It was late in the afternoon and Frieda’s newspaper was still on her porch.

My partner Hope was out of town but told me by cell phone that I must immediately drive over, go up the stairs, wake Frieda if she was asleep to see if everything was all right.

I have my own keys. I went into the house and passed the wall with the framed photograph on it that I like so much. Standing in line are Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, Gardnar Mulloy and six other tennis luminaries with Uncle Hugh in the middle.

I limped up the stairs.

A sleeping centenarian (she was on her back) looks dead even if she is not, I discovered, and she was not.

As I followed the instructions from my cell phone, I lightly touched Frieda on the left arm.

A blue eye opened. She smiled. She said she had stayed up a bit late the night before and was extremely grateful for all the attention.

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On Dumbness in Sports

My father would always go to the Babe Ruth press conferences. The Babe would always make the same speech. Something to do with young boys and clean living. If people weren't paying enough attention he would slip under the table and give someone a hotfoot.

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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Whose is the smartest forehand of all?

I always thought that Chris Evert was smarter than Tracy Austin and Jimmy Connors. The latter two's dumbness is what they had going for them and still do.

All four of the players in this discussion of course are smarter than all the tennis players in the world who have forehand loops, but that doesn't stop half of them from still being pretty dumb.

Down and up go the Evert and McEnroe backswings. McEnroe swings. He makes contact! He continues to roll his arm to finish with his strings off to the side.

Chris Evert is up at the plate. She makes contact! Her elbow comes back and finishes to the left. Did it ever stop? Was Evert's addition of body weight in the middle of the stroke what lent the heft and pace to this no-miss shot?

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Farm Gate or Farm Scythe?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/jimmyconnor/jc_forehand/jc_fh_arm_action/jc_fh_arm_action.html?JCFHArmActionSide3.mov

When I first saw this clip I thought the racket came around like a farm gate. That would predict a section of the overall stroke where elbow acted like the hinges of the farm gate. The elbow would twist more than it moved toward the net. The strings would pass the elbow as if they were having a race, and this would all work best if arm were quite bent in fact formed a right angle.

Now I see that may not be true description of Jimmy or even partially true if "swing elbow to swing both upper and lower arm as a single unit" is the operative cue for best understanding here. Jimmy's arm like that of Chrissie and Tracy is neither right angled or straight but in between.

But the stroke still is Ziegenfussed, i.e., the arm swings the racket easily forward before one's core chimes in.

And there is no reason not to try my perceptual "mistake." What if one may hit great drives that way as well with sharper angles suddenly enabled?

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Note How Tracy Dilutes Chrissie's Model of Finishing off to Left

I refer to the films of Chrissie and Tracy in that order in # 2218.

Clearly, Tracy is answering Chrissie. Nobody else suggested a followthrough way off to the left. Tracy could have addressed any topic in tennis or under the sun but chose followthrough off to the left.

Me, I love Tracy's forehand but hate that dilution.

The relationship of Chrissie's unique followthrough to the rest of her stroke is something to explore rather than to dilute or dismiss.

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Evert, Austin, Connors, McEnroe: Forehand Backswing Comparison

Here is Chrissie giving instruction. Note her backswing despite the moviemaker’s annoying habit of flashing from ready to backswung with nothing in between.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WOcEIjGJQ

Here is Tracy wanting to give instruction for $3.99 .

http://www.protips4u.com/how-to-hit-the-tennis-forehand.html

Without paying the $3.99, note the early hand separation in the still photo of Tracy.

Here now is video of Tracy. Despite her early hand separation, she did very well in her career (understatement).

http://www.usta.com/videos/stonyfield_tips/default.aspx

Here is John going down and up. He gets a gravity assist.

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

Here is Jimmy going down and up with what I assume is 2/3 eastern grip (8/7 since he is left-handed). He too gets a gravity assist even though the backswing makes a shallower U than John’s since his arm is bent. The rhythm of Jimmy’s total shot is provocative and interesting. Perhaps one should think of a grandfather clock vertical style going back and a grandfather clock horizontal style going forward. The level forearm swings racket around like a farm gate. The elbow, the fulcrum for this, stays where it is for a long time.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/jimmyconnor/jc_forehand/jc_fh_center/jc_fh_center.html?JCFHCenterFront1.mov

For a high ball in the case of a player modeling Connors, I can see the level
takeback of Austin as acceptable variation. Whatever the model I think the two arms should resemble each other in bend or straightness in the backswing phase of the stroke.

Where I'm going with this: As a player gets older, he should shorten his strokes. If a teaching pro started that player’s tennis education with straight back preparation that player should reach an understanding that big loops are often overrated, i.e., are stiff and romantic hotshot mechanics encrusted on an organic game. Time maybe to return to one’s childhood if one didn’t already do that in middle age.

All players should suspect that their strokes are getting too long and always be on a quest for simplicity.

Notes: The four players shown here break the rule that one should keep left hand on racket a long time to help turn the hips and shoulders. In some of Connors' forehands in the TennisPlayer cache, his arm seems straighter and sweeps then more like a farm scythe than a farm gate. In Chris Evert's backswings one can see mild down and up action. But that's not for Tracycakes. Her backswing is level as a pool table.

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O My Arm is Getting Tired!

Tired arm is the rap on not keeping opposite hand on throat of the racket for all or some of the forehand backswing.

And didn't Jimmy and Chrissie and Traceycakes use opposite hand to turn the shoulders? I don't care enough to investigate. Reader, you do it if you want. Okay, okay, I'm lazy today:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/jimmyconnor/jc_forehand/jc_fh_arm_action/jc_fh_arm_action.html?JCFHArmActionSide2.mov

I can turn my shoulders all I need using one function instead of two. A big point across will suffice.

But that leaves my arm to become wearier and wearier according to classical instruction.

Okay. I'll save ice cream coned level takeback for emergencies.

More often I should have time for John McEnroe's backward swing down and up instead, which uses gravity and requires no effort at all. Jimmy does this a bit too, judging from the video here albeit with a different grip.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/jimmyconnor/jc_forehand/jc_fh_arm_action/jc_fh_arm_action.html?JCFHArmActionSide3.mov

So simple. Hmmmmmmm. And Ziegenfussed, too. (Well, Jimmy didn't articulate for his fans the arm going forward with the body next chiming in to lengthen followthrough. Valerie Ziegenfuss did, in the forehand chapter of a book called TENNIS FOR WOMEN.)

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Ziegenfussed 2/3 Eastern Gripped Forehand is Aided by Turning Front Knee During Prop

The pertinent self-instruction: "Turn knee in during the prop step. Turn knee out during the stride. This is a single feel."

Furthermore, coordinate this mild but hip-turn beginning stride with the self-instruction "break the straight arm to gently feel forward with the strings." You may, because of the low velocity of this, be feeling but you are swinging and sweeping in a very unified way too (and are about to accelerate).

I continue to report here on the self-feed program organized by # 2214 .

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Cut the Wire Backhand Slices Require Less Forward Roll

Cut the wire backhand slices require less or no forward roll because of increased racket head speed causing more emphatic sliding of the strings past the ball.

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Stubbed Slice and Scissored Ziegenfuss

I wanna try...

A) Some stubbed slice. Believing as I do only in progressions not answers, I think I owe it to myself to stub a few backhand slices. Ordinarily, in my backhand slice, the right hand gets out of the left hand rather early and smoothly with no resistance from that left hand lightly surrounding the throat. Once separated, the racket spears a little before it rolls more closed.

Now we add a bit of strangulation to the mix or is that too strong a word? I hope so. Since fingertips only are on the throat, they can add a bit of pressure during the spear with the spear now happening before more abrupt separation, i.e., "cutting the wire."

Our progress with the sit-and-hit version of a diagonal thumb backhand drive indicates that "stub" is always roundabout and never continuation of the spear.

For slice I'd say this still is true no matter the slice grip one uses. Personally, although I use diagonal thumb for drive, I use wrapped thumb for slice.

B) Some Berdych-like scissoring before contact in a Ziegenfussed 2/3 eastern gripped forehand. Tomas Berdych, with 3/4 semiwestern, is going to have his forearm move according to different direction and musculature.

Undaunted here in the forearm, from either Tracycaked level takeback or McEnrueful golfy-goofy takeback, we use every bit of natural timing we've got to seamlessly change direction of the racket then break the arm to gently feel forward with the strings.

By the time gross body chimes in (gross especially if we've recently added belly fat) we're back into double-bend philosophy even though we long ago chose the straight arm route.

Note 1: If using Tracycaked level takeback with big point across over unnecessary clinging with left hand to racket, let left hand go in a level path too.

Similarly in McEnrueful takeback since the racket goes down and up the pointing across arm should go down and up too.

Why? To feel good. Dancing is not just about the feet.

Note 2: Nobody said anything about the elbow moving in relation to the rest of the body. Should it or shouldn't it? I'll decide in self-feed out on the court.

In this proposed shot, however, the rod of the arm-- (the forearm)-- gets pointed toward the net and ready to push.

I know that if I push on a stuck cellar door, the legs and body are going to work more than the arms.

My guess is that the elbow might independently move a little but not a lot.

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Set-up for Fans of Domenic Thiem

In one semifinal at Kitzbuhel, Domenic dominated Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-1 .

The announcers for this match declaimed that Monaco was their pick.

Kitzbuhel being in Austria, however, the crowd was for Thiem (He's from Wiener Neustadt).

The announcers admitted one email from out in the world into their ski-place coverage.

The emailer pronounced that Domenic Thiem was overrated.

All the shenanigans, not to mention the quality of Thiem's play, made this tennis broadcast a satisfaction bigger than most.