A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Altered Plan

Originally, I thought I would describe an extreme topspin version of Post # 1986 .

The ratio of snow to available court time here in Detroit however is such that I need to slow down my playtime within the present design.

What if one were to put low point here or here or HERE? Variations of pace and spin in need of thorough exploration, correct?

[bottle]

Smooth Uppercut

Some stupid little thing makes a big difference.-- Former Tennis Player Aunt Frieda Peslar Johnston, 100

1htsbh or 1hfbh

I'm hoping that Frieda's "stupid little thing" will be to straighten and lock the wrist, but am always amazed at how easily someone gives straightening advice without defining what the straightening is FROM or IN WHAT DIRECTION or FOR WHAT DURATION since one's wrist is versatile, probably too versatile.

"The shot should be made with a firm grip, the wrist straightening and locking naturally at the time of contact."

From what, from what?

In following the latest progression running through these posts, the heel of my hand is now stuck to slat 8, I am poised in launch position from baseball, the wrist is extremely concave as I look back at it.

Most tennis players would probably describe the shot I'm proposing here as level or flat although there is a slight down and up to it.

The wrist smoothly straightens during the slightly downward section of the easy and unified swing. Now it firms. Now it flies up to the palm-parallel-to-court position that I have decided should happen by my thymus.

Upper bodies are constructed differently, so neck, chin, breastbone-- somewhere around there but most likely same place every time.

After that, there may be more followthrough-- a Budgian relaxing of arm from elbow joint seems appropriate.

This is one shot-- a waist high hit-through drive.

Don't crowd the ball. Stay away from it. Contact 12 inches in front of front foot, say Talbert and Olds. Even with front shoulder, says Ellsworth Vines.

One feature: Openness of racket face in launch position with strong grip.

Straightening wrist while swinging racket down lowers racket tip causing acceleration that continues as karate edge of hand comes round to right and everything goes up.

Press down, bonk up but pull knob the whole way.

[bottle]

Lausy-Law Backhand (Theory)

. Get grip numbers straight. 1 is TDC (Top Dead Center). 1.5 is the pointy ridge to right of that top slat. 2 (Continental) is the slat to right of that. Big knuckle on 2.5 (Australian) is comparable to John McEnroe's all-purpose left-handed grip. 3.5 is Roger Federer's forehand grip. Slat # 8 is now where I want to put the heel of my right hand.

. There should be no difference in changing grip from 2.5 or 3.5 to 8 . Pull with left hand then slowly turn left arm. Relax right fingers so handle slips, but then reposition right hand on the handle as it slowly turns in same direction (and while you continue to straighten arm and you stride).

. Left elbow now is pointed down so that one looks like a big league batter in baseball with bat in launch position (racket or bat at 45 degrees). One shouldn't worry about whether racket passed through vertical position-- it didn't. Save verticality (skunk tail) as a helpful aid for some players hitting Rosewallian slice.

. Left hand pulls racket back. Right hand pulls racket forward.

. Main goal is a flat palm swing, which means that palm is parallel to court or less as strings leave the ball. "Less" means that racket length was still slanted downward at contact.

. Question: Is there forward arm roll? Yes, a little, to bring strings steeply up to ball. But strings depart from ball in a shallow uppercut, and this transition is seamless.

. Question: Why this design? To bypass the major complication in the backhands of Ivan Lendl, Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka. Those guys are athletic and smooth in rolling strings closed in an unnecessarily contorted way. I refer not to the forward roll I just described, which they also do, but to their earlier roll after start of the forward swing but a long time before contact. They all do it at different places and in different ways (Lendl with the aid of freakishly long left hand fingers) and I'm tired of thinking about it. This is where I go with Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Simplify! Simplify! Simplify."

[bottle]

Fail Better

"If a 74-year-old," I wrote, "can talk himself into a great 1htsbh I may do it now."

Lunacy. Nobody writes stuff like that, and there is no more sure way to make one's potential scuttle backward into the shadows.

Friday night tennis social with full dinner: I am attending for free because of "the situation" that arose two weeks ago.

My new doubles partner cried "mine!" and ran at me while I was hitting an easy forehand from short in the ad court.

Rather than clubbing him in the butt, I aimed for a winner but squashed my loop which caused an excessively muscular upward roll that cut me above the left eye.

The tennis facility provided first aid but neglected to drive me to the emergency room. I did that myself in heavily falling snow, and there could have been a concussion, sudden death, a lawsuit by my girlfriend Hope (or so she nicely says) and I think all of this could be the reason that some facility employes may have been bawled out.

The superglued laceration is now healed leaving the semblance of a scratch, and here I was playing at my first social since the accident.

My new partner had never played on clay and asked what the phrase "first one in" means.

On the other side of the net was a 79-year-old brother I have played with and against numerous times whom I would never underestimate and a tall sister who is one of the more promising juniors in the United States. I had told her mother that I would write a college recommendation for her and I will, but I have not interviewed her yet and had never had the chance to hit with her.

For four games we hung, 2-2 . My Rosewallian slice, returned to its pristine wonder from my reading Ellsworth Vines' repeated disquisitions on Australian grip (a single grip system used by John McEnroe in which big knuckle is on pointy ridge halfway between the continental and eastern steppes) was zinging my backhand returns quite nicely due to the extreme pace of the junior's serve.

So I tried the Wawrinkle 1htsbh-- ono.

Reader, I'm telling you, these TennisPlayer videos of backhand Wawrinkle with their own technology that allows you manually to slide a capsule on your screen are one centimeter away from effective emulation of "a great shot in tennis" by you.

The experience of watching them is similar to sitting in the midst of a party of pot-smoking and guitar-strumming Hungarians chatting among themselves in Magyarul.

"I can understand this language," you say, but you can't.

So I will change my grip even more. There will be a flying grip change as at present to form the palm sandwich and verticality I like so much, but the grip change won't stop there but rather will continue as arm extends and rolls backward.

A protracted grip change like this sounds insane unless one says to oneself, "My hands are wolves and it's time to dance with them." As you step out, you will stride closed while your racket turns to the inside and your right hand's turning, detached, goes even faster for re-purchase of heel on slat/steppe 7 if 8 is TDC (Top Dead Center).

Why, at 74, should one voluntarily submit oneself to such a bone marrow, liver or heart transplant?

Because my entire career in backhand exploration has been in Don Budge styled opening of the racket face rather than Ivan Lendl styled closing of the racket face, and when I turn knuckles to point at side fence I can hit good backhands from a dropped and bounced ball but never in high level play.

Alternately, I've got for seniors doubles a single grip (Australian) system in which every backhand is sliced.

Not enough. I still want towering, solid, rapid backhand topspin that kicks high from one foot from narrow end of crosscourt alley box.

Note: Reading Ellsworth Vines, a number one tennis player who believed in reading about tennis and still remains the best tennis and golf player combined has made me think more about grip change than I usually do. While I have opined that a flying change can easily and smoothly take one to any grip in the universe, I now believe that LENGTH of the change has a built in limit. From Australian to semiwestern backhand looks good but not 3.5 eastern for a Federfore to the 7.0 semiwestern BH position-- the reason for my dancing with hands/wolves idea. All of this requires further exploration: I shall now pick up a racket for the first time today.

[bottle]

Find the Ball with your Hand

Strings can come up to the ball from significantly below and away from the ball, but notice how the hand is nearer to the ball. It's at same level and close. (Just slide the capsule back and forth until this contention comes true.)

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHCenterCourtLevelFront.mp4

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHRunningArmActionRear2.mp4

[bottle]

Singular Peace

The Lausy batters in baseball hit with a palm sandwich. Except that they aren't lousy.

In tennis, once you start to roll the racket head in a 1htsbh up to the ball, like Stanislas Wawrinka, the racket head, as if it has an ego, wants to get higher than the hand.

Don't let it! Counter the tendency by swinging your fist sideways in the direction of its bonking edge.

"Swing it!" I say. But we need to review, to back up, to slide the capsule in two directions beneath the Wawrinkle backhands.

Twisting the arm shall flow now into swing until everything sliding back and forth is a single piece.

Don't, reader, keep the shoulder down. That's for some other kind of effective shot.

The front shoulder goes up to help racket tip achieve its low point and then stays still (like the Stanimal's head) for what comes next. Or is this too exact? In some of the videos the shoulder still seems to be rising at contact. One fools around with/from some basic idea? Maybe not until you hit a great shot do you say, "That's it!"

[bottle]

Good for a Try

Me, I'm not ready to try it yet (so don't know what will happen) but will in the spirit of Stan himself, a person who believes in all tries.

[stotty]

Weight transfer

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ActionRear.mp4

How about the late stride? That's something worth noting, too.

Terrific shot this one because he's moving back yet still manages to transfer weight forwards, visibly. When I try this sort of thing, the ball drops off the racket and goes nowhere.

[bottle]

Swiss but not Federer

In this one the palm gets parallel to the court at the same place as for high contact (# 1978), but the ball was hit lower with top of frame significantly below the hand!

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

A person trying to master this particular breed of one-hander needs to understand and accept such basic slanted down contacts (racket length tilted 45 degrees in this case) even though there was roll of the arm to bring strings up just before contact, just not as much as one might expect.

I'm also circling back to the earlier idea of adopting a skunk tailed backswing just as I do on my slice.

A more vertical racket-- in the 1htsbh-- will minimize the twist and turns of other one handers (Federer) by getting strings more closed at the beginning.

Gravity will become more of a component too as one pulls knob toward ball while cranking the hips.

Wawrinka is seen in this month's issue of TENNIS Magazine with racket at 45 degrees, the basic "launch position" in a baseball swing-- but these videos show the simplification of more verticality. The racket knob is pulled but can almost form a waterfall coming down.

Tony Roche's backhand comes to mind. All I'm saying is that there is a dramatic drop. But hips most likely are bringing shoulder and the whole dropping apparatus somewhat around at the same time.

If a 74-year-old can talk himself into a great 1htsbh I may do it now.

[bottle]

High Ball

Here's a very high one. Despite the height of contact, Stan's palm just got parallel to the court.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHCenterArmActionRear4.mp4

[bottle]

More Swing Level to the Ball

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHMovesBackArmActionRear.mp4

How about the late stride? That's something worth noting, too.

[bottle]

Modeling on Wednesday at Noon

I really like this one and think it has to work and believe I will be able to do it if I concentrate enough. Reader, grab the capsule and slowly slide it back and forth. Stop with racket tip by right calf. Behold the extreme slant of the racket! Could you do that? Why not? You got a prejudice against big slant?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

One thing I'm NOT going to experiment with: The splayed front foot of Wawrinka in every video where he steps out. I am a closed front foot guy both from reading LAU'S LAWS ON HITTING and from being slightly pigeon-toed.

[bottle]

A New Scheme Out Of All This

Stick the stride.

Start the hips while shooting racket tip way down.

Use rise of heel, i.e., hips rotation moving shoulder to bring racket tip (still way down) perpendicular to rear fence.

Whirl the racket up.

Transmute energy of upward whirl into simple racket trajectory-- upper cut on more of a "through the ball" vector.

How provocative is this? Very, in that the strings come up to ball on a steeper slant than they depart from it.

[bottle]

A Lot of Hips or A Lot of Shoulders?

Look at all the hips in this one, and how rear heel comes up early, just like a baseball batter determined to avoid the dreaded “squishing a bug” yet still able to freeze his swing without coming around if he's taking the pitch.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHWideArmActionSide2.mp4

One could have the rhythm down for this shot but still be lacking Stan's fullness of loop as racket goes down and ALMOST gets parallel to rear fence (but not quite), then circles in the low position until racket butt is perpendicular to the net.

That is when the arm rolls to give strings their upward brush, in my view, followed by NO ROLL in some videos and STILL MORE ROLL in others.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHWideArmActionCourtLevelFront1.mp4

In this one the Lynne Rolley assertion in this month’s TENNIS that Stan doesn’t open his shoulders too soon seems accurate. Hips carried shoulders and “kept chest on ball." There wasn’t independent swing from the gut at least by contact time:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

Anybody who decided to feature Stan’s backhand just before The Australian Open may possess prophetic powers.

But that doesn’t solve the point of contention over whether Stan keeps his hips relatively stable and derives more power from gut or whether he uses a lot of early hips like one of the Lau book baseball players.

In those videos and articles I’ve seen he does both—perhaps in the same match or at different times in his life. Not that my prime interest is to get this straight. My concern is which method is going to work best for me, and I put that in the future since until now I have been down and up and up and down, success-wise, in trying out these ideas in doubles competition from the ad court on clay.

[bottle]

Different Definitions of Extension, Cont'd

From gsheiner:

1. I've been focusing on getting a really good upper body rotation with a significant angle between the upper body and lower body. Doing this enables me to get back to the ball with my core and not have to use my arm as much.

2. Extension, extension, extension-- but within the context of core rotation. So, the core rotation never stops but at contact I try to extend the hitting arm structure as much as possible. Also, I try to keep my head fixed as possible on the contact point after contact since lifting the head ruins the stroke for me.

To purposefully limit my discussion to 1htsbh, this sounds like Stanislas Wawrinka. I have spoken before of the “Wawrinkle” as consisting of relatively stable hips combined with a lot of continuous shoulders.

Reducing arm motion through more use of core is pure Vic Braden.

At opposite extreme from the Wawrinkle is Lau type batting from baseball where the hips and arms get going early and then front leg slams on the brake to throw everything forward (and maybe over the fence).

That these variations seldom get discussed together seems fairly moronic since they are what’s out there.

One thing that Wawrinka and good batters have in common is that they come level to the ball. Wawrinka doesn’t generate his topspin from a foot or more below the ball the way so many of us were instructed.*

It seems to me that Wawrinka’s rollover then provides racket tip extension straight at the target long before his arm points straight at the target.

The Lau type batters meanwhile, with no rollover whatsoever, create underspin for carry—seemingly a whole different thing.

Ever since I read Don Budge’s autobiography, however, I have wondered if the most penetrating topspun and underspun shots in tennis are not, technically speaking, almost the same.

How else could Don Budge have confused them before a Wimbledon final for which he solved the problem just in time.

*Oh, sorry. I'll stick with most of what I just said. But in this one the Stanimal comes to the ball from underneath:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHCenterArmActionCourtLevelFront1.mp4

Here's another come from below.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHCenterArmActionRear1.mp4

If these special format video links to the Stanimal are beginning to disintegrate, we'd better enjoy the good ones while we can. The inclination to do so certainly becomes greater right after the Stanimal wins a major. For the sake of tennis history, the Stanimal didn't blow Nadal off the court for just a set, but rather for a set and one break. That was when the standing nine-count occurred.

Followed by everything in that and the next and then the final round.

No rollover (!):

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

Rollover this far after contact doesn't count as rollover:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHWideArmActionCourtLevelFront1.mp4