A New Year's Serve

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New Backhand at Bangboard Stage

Almost Ready to Overhaul Backhand Frisbee Stroke (never have been able to throw a Frisbee worth a damn)

Old backhand was pretty good at least for one attempt in doubles against the USPTA pro.

There we were in crosscourt ground stroke duel, slice for slice, when I uncorked a double roll drive hit with fingers spread diagonal grip thumb along and flat wrist.

The pro's entire body, theatrical, expressed amazement. Who ever knew that John Escher possessed such a shot?

That winner was the product of two different sessions against the Grosse Pointe public bangboard. How many shots were delivered-- 200 to produce one backhand winner at the tennis social?

Time for a new backhand, I'd say, one that I will feel inclined to uncork more often.

And I've been hearing about an elderly couple in Florida who record every minute of Fox News so that they can bring their simmering rage to a boil from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. every night.

In honor of their diligence, here is my favorite tennis player Foxie Neuse hitting his no nonsense no hand backhand once again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XryKA3z_uWk

As I seek to modify this shot to my purposes through declaring snake head and my racket hand as one and the same, I say to myself:

How about a horizontal loop parallel to the court? To learn the shot, you take racket head directly to rear hip, even resting the strings there for a bit of exaggeration. But to build up timing and feel, a bit of Foxie Noise like coil of the neck into the body as hips rotate forward might be just the ticket.

Using one grip for all shots except for my Federfore, I flatten wrist immediately unlike when hitting Rosewallian slice.

Although I considered the design feature of a spiraling down loop, I rejected that deciding I would incur too much falling racket syndrome good for another genre of shot but not this one in which the goal of building tension transcends all.

Horizontal loop compressing the two resistant halves of the arm together seems best way to build pressure for the rabbit punch about to unleash.

One does something similar if one pre-loads triceptic extension in a serve, does one not?

I'm working toward the following design:

Hand circles body at a level determined by the oncoming ball. The strings now are parallel to rear fence. Maintaining the parallelism, the arm pulls racket head into body simultaneous with forward hip rotation for maximum compression of a spring and generated feel of the coiling neck of Foxie Noise.

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Changing Views

I'm sad to tell you, reader, that your groans don't count.

This is about MY tennis game and nothing else.

I've got a one-grip system (Australian or 2.5) that's oriented toward backhands. Oh, there is an occasional exception, a Federfore i.e. ATP3FH (3.5 arrived at through immediate manipulation with right hand).

The three basic instruments in my orchestra however are 1) Double roll backhand slice in which the second roll is delivered by the wrist, the arm having gotten barred early in the cycle.

2) Single roll backhand drive from the hip in which arm retains its bend late for a punch as in Roy Emerson's straight-wristed slice. That slice for some reason doesn't work well for me. Some principles at its core however work very well so long as I'm hitting a drive.

WBC has successfully conveyed this stroke to me. It came across intact. Key was his suggestion that strings should face the back fence and also that the shot employ the illegal punch in boxing that sometimes is called a "rabbit punch" and that this punch, whatever its other contributors of power, comes from maximizing straightening at the elbow.

I might not have understood this last part for a long time (my sister to my girlfriend: "Give him very clear directions"). Films of boxers illicitly killing one another when they aren't killing rabbits might be useful-- does the tennis world deserve less?

One great principle in tennis illustrated in this shot and enumerated as such in THE OLD CZECH BOOK, a book so cheaply made that its pages fell apart, is that of swinging an arm that suddenly gets longer for added leverage. I've always thought of a satellite bumped into a wider orbit where it then goes quite a bit faster.

3) Pendulum style straight-wristed John McEnroe forehand hit with Australian grip and single full arm roll to contact just like him.

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Questions to Improve (or Destroy) an Already Good Stroke

Second Roll in Rosewallian Slice

Is it a straightening of Ken Rosewall's wrist?

Is there finger roll involved, too?

A little bit of full arm roll still?

The backward roll is full arm since one can clearly see-- in video-- the elbow turn up, the strings flatten to become a tray (the image most responsible for my adoption of Australian over continental grip).

Study compass positions of elbow in Rosewall and Waltke through second roll.

Is there still mystery in Rosewallian slice? Of course! To deny this, a person would have to be a nut.

Is an attempt to crack the mystery a good idea?

Maybe or not but an idea for sure.

One pulls the knob to initiate last part of the drop and keeps pulling through contact to end of the followthrough.

Here is one's fist at contact.

(Left click on link, right click on picture, left click on "rotate clockwise.")

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On Thumb Along and Thumb Wrap Backhand Slice

One thousandth viewing of the Rosewall, Hoad, Seixas, Trabert clip: Ken Rosewall's wrist goes from concave to straight to concave in the sequences of his backhand slice shown at the end of this post.

Concave to straight to concave is something new for me since I never noticed it before. Does this mean I should try the new thing? Possibly not. I've spent time working toward flat wrist throughout.

But you know me well enough, reader, to say that I will try this small difference whether I SHOULD or NOT.
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I was lucky enough to play doubles against a really good USPTA pro last night. He had a weak partner, I a strong one. The score was 5-5 at which time we went to new partners in the next round of our Friday night tennis social.

As I said to my partner about the pro: He gives you a lesson even when he's not giving a lesson. I like to revise mediocre strokes after an experience like that.

The mediocre stroke the pro helped me identify was thumb along slice with a double roll. I'll save the double roll for my Rosewallian slice with Australian grip (big knuckle on 2.5 with thumb wrapped).

This thought predicts a return to the purity of Emerson's lesson when hitting basic thumb along slice. I'm thinking no roll in the basic version of this shot.

# 2043:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=1198&page=205

Please note the flatness of Emerson's wrist (only slightly cocked up) in pantomime, backswing, contact and followthrough. That along with the diagonal eastern grip, I believe, keeps the strings closed enough to let one get away with hitting the ball so far out in front.

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What's in a Tip?

Self-congratulation.

I know something you don't, so nyah-nyah, and what's this information worth to you? Bend your knees please. That will cost you $198 please and it's payable immediately.

I propose restricting the tennis term "tip" to racket end whether wrapped in lead tape or not. Indulge me also, kind reader, for calling the opposite end of the racket "the knob." That term is taken from baseball, viz., the instructional book LAU'S LAWS ON HITTING by Charley Lau Jr. Well, you see, I noticed a bulge at the end of a tennis racket similar to the bulge at the end of a baseball bat.

And I'd like to save the term "butt," kind reader, for your ass. Everybody will be better off.

As a matter of fact, since tennis interpreters are always weighing in on "what's wrong with American tennis" I'll state unequivocally: "Too many tennis tips."

A more humble and therefore possibly more effective approach although admittedly more wordy than the one syllable of "tip" is "some stupid little thing that might make a big difference."

Those words come from my good friend Frieda Johnston, who gave up tennis for big motorcycles at 72 and just turned a hundred.

If one honors or, better, respects her language, the ring of it can sling one into a more speculative world where there always is intention with surprising result.

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Is Backhand Slot Determined by Satellite, Compass or one’s Body?

I go with body for today, the better to employ Chris Lewit’s advice to conceal one’s racket work behind oneself.

This abets use of hips while pulling knob straight toward the ball with 45-degree stride set-up, double roll and inside out swing—a bunch of different ideas, but who ever said that people don’t work on 1htsbh for a lifetime.

Concealing one’s racket work behind oneself doesn't have to mean getting racket tight around body and in close.

A slantwise orientation of the whole stroke allows one to keep racket work in the slot and yet bring racket tip in toward body during backward roll and to outside of ball on forward roll.

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Fingers Adjustment for ATP3FH

Thumb and middle finger can offer 90 degrees of pitch adjustment without discombobulating this swing.

In bangboard drill I noticed that the ball was departing on a lower trajectory than I would like.

The bangboard system I use includes two bounces to allow time for more thought.

In actual play, I often find that I want to close the racket an extra bit especially if the oncoming ball is loaded with topspin.

It’s easy to be romantic and say that finger method, starting from a 3.5 grip, affords any pitch adjustment one wants.

One might have a day like that, but more likely the finger rolls, after a period of customization, will produce a 45 degree per shot adjustment in different direction.

From the beginning since I added these silently received schemes to my musings I have urged that one can use shots with or without the finger roll, which occurs when it does occur at the top of a Federer type forehand loop (unlike Lendl, hand stays at level where it started).

Also, from the beginning, the finger rolls have offered rebellion against the very complicated method Roger Federer himself uses for mid-stroke adjustment of pitch.

Whatever that method is I have forgotten having moved on from imitation of it.

So, I was hitting the ball too low against a bangboard. So I tried hitting the shots with no more backward thumb down middle finger roll.

Ball still too low. So I shall push middle finger down thumb instead.

Now the shots should work while opening new possibilities for hitting wide to a right-hander’s backhand.

Will take this notion to bangboard today and play doubles tomorrow.

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How Long to Roll?

The forehand easiest to hit could be a pendulum like that of John McEnroe.

That he can hit it better than anyone else goes without saying.

Still, in imitation, I find that this unique genre of shot saves energy for a big ATP3 some other time and hits the ball pretty hard and affords surprising control.

So far, it’s had one drawback. Because of so much roll to square the racket face just at contact there are apt to be misshits (seldom if ever for McEnroe—we are talking about one if his few imitators here, viz., me).

I’ll get more misshits with this forehand than with my other main choice, my ATP3, but I’ll also get more “brilliance,” e.g., a passing shot that lands short in the crosscourt alley.

For a shot like that, does one keep rolling after contact? It’s all out, so perhaps one does, making this a high risk but big reward and virtuoso shot.

Here seems the route to go for more consistency with this rare breed of shot: Just roll to contact. Stop roll at contact in other words. The down the line possibility may amaze. One can hit the ball way out front despite using Australian grip with big knuckle on 2.5 pointy ridge.

The roll puts much hand behind the racket head, hence generating solididity and power. Hand can be at the whirling gut. Control of the ball, as in any shot, is determined by how strings come off of the ball.

Note: Just as in an ATP3fh, there is roll to followthrough, not to be confused with windshield wipe or “turning the door knob”—a verbal cue that Rick Macci uses during rallies on court (noticed in the increasing number of videos of him at work). One cranks the flat-wristed McEnrollathon as part of forward pendulum. The cranking however, not to be confused with natural roll continuing in followthrough, is a separate device that can start late and happen right up to the ball. Well, where does it come from? Most likely from upper and lower arm both.

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Monday Bangboard: 1htsbh's and 1hsbh's and s&v's

Fill pockets with tennis balls. Leave basket at home.

Let your intuition flow.

Hit most backhands right on the back of the ball.

Use opposite hand to sweep backhand backswings straight back. Sweep straight back rather than tight and way around.

Use hitting hand to sweep backhands straight forward.

Use double roll to halve one's contact point.

While still at the bangboard, do some serve and volley but don't hit oneself.

Note 1: "Sweep." Senator Paul Laxalt's tailor-made advice for me. He was Nevada Boy's Champion getting personal instruction from Helen Wills as she dropped Moody.

Note 2: Take one ball to bangboard, not six unless working again on serve and volley.

Note 3: Everybody says to hit farther out front, but only the rare person tells you to hit less far out front.

Note 4: In McEnrollish forehand use roll not so often for power or angle but rather to reduce contact point just as can be done on backhands, i.e., bring contact point in closer to body while still keeping it out front.

Note 5: Waiting position combining flat wrist for backhands with forehand grip restores full mondo in ATP3 forehand and may aid in assessing ball since strings face the ball for a longer time. This mondo won't be as harsh as Federer's if one has less natural range in wrist than he.

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Self-Feed Stage

The shots under construction work well with thumb along and thumb around, enabling a long sweep characterized by late double roll.

The thumb alongs enable hard slice and solid drives whose mechanics and appearance are almost the same.

The thumb arounds enable solid slice along with extra versatility in the form of drop shots, dinks, chips, lobs, etc. One must for the basic shot, however, remember to roll forward more.

The hardest part for someone like me is to remember to start with wrist quite flat in all cases.

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Flat Wrist on Backhand Side

How straight is the wrist in the attached illustration? “Comfortably cocked” as author of the text John M. Barnaby says? Sure. So what is the difference in string pitch between a wrist that is comfortably cocked and one that is uncomfortably cocked? By my reckoning, 45 degrees. Which applies to thumb along, thumb wrap, drives, slices and volleys.

Attention to this detail could change one’s game quite a bit.

First, I’d say, reader, lie on your back in your bed humming the old country western song “I’ve got tears in my ears from lying on my back in my bed crying over you.”

Then hold your right arm directly above your eyes and look up. The back of your hand and forearm make a straight line. Curl hand down five degrees and you’ve got something like Ashe or McEnroe. Cock hand up five degrees and you’ve got something like J. Donald Budge shown here hitting a slice which is all but indistinguishable from his drive.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DBBHSliceFront1.mov

While we are considering this subject of wrist flatness, let’s ask some questions. How aware of “amount of cock” (sorry!) are most teaching pros in assessing some student’s grip? How likely is a reclusive tennis player to develop bad habit here from being on his own? Why do famous tennis players change the amount of wrist cock right in the middle of a backhand stroke?

Would it not make sense to find the amount one wanted in ready position so as to avoid later adjustment for the sake of simplicity? Grip change and wrist straightening could not then possibly interfere with one another to hurt one’s overall stroke.

But would the flatter-wristed resting positon (with forehand grip) affect one’s production of an ATP3 forehand? Of course, but it wouldn’t screw up forehands as badly as extremely cocked wrist screws up backhands.

Now, get a tape measure or tape cloth and lay it out flat on the smooth bed cover.

Standing bedside, use a racket to mime closed stride backhands, i.e., don’t be a splay foot or a big foot. If you (or I) hit a slice like the J. Donald Budge one on video up above and didn’t perform a double roll like him—well, exactly where would you have to make contact to hit a cross-court to exactly where you would like it to land?

In my case, with front foot lined up with end of the tape measure, contact point would have to be two feet out for me to hit the famous long diagonal that the majority of tennis players do not own...

To hit an angle sharper than that I could probably chop or flip or hack with result not as good as if I could double roll.

With double roll, I can find the long diagonal contact point at one foot out. Sharper angles exist at 13, 14, 15 and 16 inches.

I see double roll as part of forward dynamic, never as transition. Old tennis books would sometimes suggest that you remove all the slack out of your arm by leaning forward with your shoulder. I fought that for many years and tried to do it but now think the idea of it is ridiculous. The shoulder still presses but the double roll begins late in the hit.

Note: Right-click on the picture. Left-click on rotate clockwise.

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Taking the Sweet with the Bitter

Imagine, if you will, a doubles partner and opponent who always starts talking two or three shots before any point is over.

If you are like me, reader, you detest this. But what are the options? Lecture him with all the repercussions that brings? Murder him on the spot and get life?

The best solution I can think of is to find a practice partner who will talk and shout and fart every time you're in the process of making a shot.

If it's golf, get him to screech or light a butane lighter halfway through your backswing.

If it's crew or sculling, get him to make S's in front of you, i.e., behind you with a 30-mph motorboat or jet ski.

One needs to develop total immunity to all distractions.

That postulated, however, I'm glad for another reason I didn't say anything today. If I had, the same fellow would never have made the following statement.

"YOU HAVE A GREAT BACKHAND, JOHN."

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Report

Tried mental but not physical connection between hands on my very first serve. We used the first time first serve in rule and it was. Can't remember whether my partner and I won the point. Reverted after that to exclusively ingrained habit.

Played at every opportunity with the backhand I practiced against the bangboard rather than the one more recently theorized. This shot worked well but will get better. Since shoulders are simultaneously at work, turning wrist and arm "around" rather than "down" will get the racket siting nicely with the butt cap. While this happens, wrist can straighten followed by the "wrap" grip change.

To start, wrist will be the site, next butt cap will be the site. I'm using "site" not as in website but as in gunsite. The wrinkle on this is that aim point will be in front of ghost ball or actual contact point on net side in other words and way way out as would be determined by a 180-degree swing without double arm roll. But the double arm roll cuts that contact point in half. To rephrase, you hit the ball in front but not as far in front as if you had no double roll.

Maybe I should keep to myself such a complicated notion rather than put it out on the internet. On the other hand, a destroyer or corvette is permitted to find its range with a depth charge in front of its suspected target so why shouldn't I be?

I'm big on streamlining configuration since there can be a modicum of racket fall before the strings turn in before they turn out before they rise straight in the direction of the next target which is on the other side of the net.

Note: Press down a little on grip change to maintain continuity (this is a one-piece swing).

To help evolve this shot, I'll play at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow and skip the tennis social in the evening and save ten bucks with which to go out with HOPE.

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A good challenge. I have seen it done where the opposite hand is never connected to the racket at all.

A similar challenge would be where players are expected to connect up the opposite hand to the racket at the start of the serve. Roger Taylor never did; Borg neither.

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

Makes you wonder whether perhaps it's better not to...

Oh God, now I'll have to try this (sparingly) tomorrow too. My whoever partner and I will be lucky to take our set.

Roger Taylor, by the way, was a doubles quarterfinalist at Wimbledon with Tony Pearman. Tony, who knew who my girlfriend Malin was and appreciated her beauty and thought I ought to stay in England, cleaned my clock one and one.

But there's something to be said about a girlfriend who arranges for you a match with the third-ranked senior in some country. Shouldn't have talked so big, I guess.

My three huge national championships in eight-oared rowing (Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia) grow ever more distant.

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Design Change Resisted

I hate it when I've worked a new shot past self-feed and bangboard stages, and then I get a brainstorm that threatens the whole scheme.

"The shot you practiced is the shot you play with," Stan Smith said, and fact he said it shows that my problem is not unique in the history of the game.

I'm thinking that, in my 1htsbh, I should maybe delay fall of the racket until racket butt points at ghost ball. Because of my strong belief in design refinement however I tend to go with the new idea even if later I have to retract, retreat and repeat.

My quest for the stupid little thing that might make a big difference means that I don't have the good sense to follow Stan Smith's unquestionable wisdom.

Oh well. Rules are made to be broken by those who know them, and tomorrow I may play, once again, with a shot I haven't even tried out.