A New Year's Serve

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To Exhale or not to Exhale: Winning or Losing the Service Point

That being true, one should research the subject, try different correspondences between deliberate breathing and other body actions, make a firm decision and then not stick with it.

I. Light research of the subject.

Assumption here is a good service motion in working order. Without that it won't much matter whether you breathe or not.

A. Breathing and pitching in baseball (http://m.mlb.com/news/article/57941576/). (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/sp...FExercise&_r=0). (http://www.nextlevelballplayer.com/p...-stephen-fife/).

B. Breathing and serving in tennis
(http://www.feeltennis.net/breathing-in-tennis/). (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rSPqLQ4Hz0). (https://www.usta.com/Improve-Your-Ga...219_Breathing/). (http://moderntennislessons.com/image.../articles4.pdf). (http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index...-motion.60603/).

II. Different Correspondences.

For starters, breathing in while racket goes up seems a good idea. Breathing out while racket falls in cahoots with gravity seems a good idea. Breathing in while racket rises twice as fast to throw position (arm slightly bent, fingers just loosened as wrist performed radial deviation) seems a good idea.

The seeming now becomes less sure-footed. I try holding breath through folding of arm, opening wrist, taking of extra clench between the shoulderblades (SIM) and first half of the throw (sharp triceptic extension, sharp adduction of elbow, sharp external rotation from shoulder while sharply straightening wrist-- SIM). Exhalation is saved for internal upper arm rotation and anything else you are doing just then.

III. Play with the Variables.

These include wag of racket to outside at racket's low point. Know all the variables well enough to play with them, to have fun with them. Then and only then make a total design decision. Stick with it for a good while. Then and only then be willing to change it at the drop of a hat.

Note: Now and only now I'm going through the material assembled here. I found this. "Do breath-holding techniques have a place in tennis? Saviano says that when you hold your breath, your muscles tighten up and your coordination turns to mush: 'Holding your breath in tennis is a sure-fire technique for poor performance.'" This is what I mean by being willing to change. I am willing to change the design I just outlined if such change will produce better serves. Easy to test! On the other hand is a deep breath followed by brief holding of it followed by prolonged exhalation the same as just holding your breath? I doubt it. Also, one should explore the tricks from track-- try sucking in air through both mouth and snout at the same time. And puffing cheeks to keep some air in lungs for longer during the extended and relaxed exhalation. Maybe this, rather than holding big breath, is the reason that Boris Becker's and Gabriela Sabatini's faces at important times looked so incredibly weird.

Must try:

Intake during rise of racket.

Holding breath during radial deviation of hand with fingers getting loose.

Outtake from there until after contact.

[bottle]

Snort then Blow up Cheeks in Serve and Backhand

Putting loosening of fingers and radial deviation of hand with the 2 of 1-2 rhythm led to better serves. Don't know yet whether putting the extra shoulderblades clench with 2 or 1 is better. If 1 is better the clench can come at end of inflation of the upper body. The old VHS "Virginia Wade's Class" was good at teaching this, showed Wimbledon singles champion Virginia stretching her two shoulders far apart.

I enjoy trying to play tennis with snort (intake of air through mouth and nose both followed in natural breathing rhythm by cheeky exhalation) on both serves and McEnroe-like backhands, maybe later on other shots too. On those backhands the secret for me is starting to lower the shoulder blended with backward body rotation right away. That is a body only backswing. The puffy cheeks as one exhales do prolong muscle relaxation as advertised.

[bottle]

Two Volley Backswings of John McEnroe

1. BHV. Racket is already cheated over toward backhand. Here comes the ball. It is at shoulder level (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...acBHVFront.mov). But McEnroe's racket is at waist level. So how is he going to get the strings up there? Give me an answer please, reader, A or B? A. Lift his arm. B. Lower his hitting shoulder while drawing it back a short distance. Answer: B or A and B.

2. FHV. Racket is cheated over toward backhand. Here comes the ball. It is at shoulder level. How is McEnroe going to get his strings up there and way over there so far away?

A. Keep opposite hand on racket for about half of the backswing so it turns with the body (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...MacFHVRear.mov). Look, it's still low maybe even got lower than it was. B. Spread arms.

So, in which of forehand volley and forehand ground stroke does McEnroe keep his opposite hand on the racket for longer? The answer is just a curiosity, with my persona that of the bearded man in Prudential TV ads who tells us to sock away a dollar a day for retirement. We can always hope that big slabs of drywall fall on his head.

[bottle]

Backhands-- Cage Man vs. John McEnroe: Late vs. Early Banking Up

Cage Man performs a one-hander as the TennisPlayer website opens.

John McEnroe performs a one-hander here (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...enterFront.mov).

Forget the armie backswing vs. the body dominant backswing-- also distinguishing characteristic.

Reader, do you want to keep your shoulder down until the end of your one-hander or not? McEnroe doesn't. Are there advantages to both?

[bottle]

Faw Down and Go Boom Backhand Footwork

This is for right-handers. Starting from cheated over pull hitting shoulder down and around as right foot moves toward ball-- a little or a lot or even a big cross over. Guess what? There wasn't an orthodox unit turn. The left foot didn't splay. Splaying happens on next step and will happen more naturally because of tension built up in the body. All that then remains is the hitting step and rasp of the shot.

[bottle]

Now Check Out This Dennis Ralston "School" Forehand

It happens in Furniture 2 of this great article (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nt_of_contact/). Notice how Ralston uses his hips yet keeps both feet flat to hit this shot. Then his rear heel comes up in order for him to finish in perfect balance on the front foot.

That's a lot of grounded structure, isn't it? And slightly different from the Welby Van Horn model in which rear heel comes up throughout the forward action followed by a slight replacement step to player's right or not.

Now compare both of these shots to more contemporary shots in which there is up to twice as much body rotation due to feet lifting up off of the ground.

Why even point all of this out? Because it is empowerment. If your forehands include a spectrum from heavily structured to medially structured to airborne fluidity you conceivably could win your next match.

Note. Can't see the need to puff cheeks during exhalation in a maximally structured minimalist shot.

[bottle]

This is for right-handers. Starting from cheated over pull hitting shoulder down and around as right foot moves toward ball-- a little or a lot or even a big cross over. Guess what? There wasn't an orthodox unit turn. The left foot didn't splay. Splaying happens on next step and will happen more naturally because of tension built up in the body. All that then remains is the hitting step and rasp of the shot.

But the right foot movement could come first. Then right shoulder start down and around as left foot splays. Or the splay could happen right away as part of orthodox unit turn followed by replacement step of right foot followed by hitting step by same foot (right foot).

But I don't know about replacement steps such as the one that Cageman uses at the TennisPlayer threshold. Is such a replacement step a training wheel the purpose of which is to teach Cageman when to quit moving his arm and let backward rotation of both shoulders take over? Tommy Haas has a great one-hander and just steps over-- once.

It seems to me that in dancing or tennis I do best with steps that naturally alternate.

Where I got in trouble-- in actual play, not in self-feed-- was when I skipped sideways like McEnroe and lowered the shoulder very late. Result: the shot was very late. Proving once again that nobody, not even me in my fiction, can move like McEnroe and get away with it.

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Right Brain, Left Brain: The Accelerative Breathing Program (ABP)

Reader, this breathing business is going to cure you of two terrible diseases that have plagued you for your entire life but only if you follow my directions precisely as I give them (note the influence here of Donald Trump).

The first disease is apnea by analysis (PABBA), the second apnea by not enough analysis (PAPNEA). Some people substitute the word "paralysis" for "apnea" but not I. And what can I say? I thought it cool when Martina Navratilova revealed a container of Metamucil in her Bag Check.

One wants to suck in air through both the nose and mouth so as to absorb twice as much oxygen. Some people again think you ought to breathe in through the nose or mouth but not both. Left brain nonsense.

As one snorts in all this air one can be lifting a tennis racket in order to serve. So the chest puffs out. Toward the end of the puff you can clench your two shoulderblades an extra amount the one toward the other.

So you blew up your body as if you were an inflatable doll. Don't stop there. Now blow up your cheeks even though that is the clue like it or not that the most active part of the serve has begun.

As the cheeks puff out the fingers relax and the hand performs radial deviation-- another clue or cue that speedy motion has begun.

I thought a lot about this closed mouth puffing out of the cheeks. It does waste a bit of air, but the idea here is prolonged exhalation to relax all the muscles involved in the most crucial part of the serve. And one will obtain more elongation this way rather than just blow a blast that has to both puff up cheeks and accomplish relaxation. So puff out the cheeks early. Well puffed cheeks will offer more resistance than half-puffed cheeks. Now form a small nozzle at the mouth through which to continue to exhale like that of Donald Trump.

[bottle]

A New Backhand

Sorry to complicate my posts, my tennis, my life; but, the fact that one good backhand leads to another is immutable.

If you are trying to hit a John McEnroe backhand with depressed wrist (the opposite of John) and with bent thumb on Bottom of Back of the Racket Handle Ridge, you might as well try a backhand with bent thumb on Composite Ridge, a much nicer name for a ridge.

You prepare for this shot the same way by simultaneously rolling shoulder down and around.

The difference is that you don't then bank shoulder back up to level like John McEnroe. You just golf the racket under the lowered shoulder. This leads to a "topped" shot that might not go as much to crosscourt as you would like. If hitting crosscourt with it you might want to turn shoulders in that direction but just a little. It's a totally relaxed and gravity assisted shot so don't snort.

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Alternative for Hitting this Shot that Doesn't Want to Go Crosscourt More Crosscourt

I've never hit this proposed shot in my life but certainly will try it at my next opportunity for self-feed.

One golfs under extremely low shoulder realizing that tilt of the shoulders affects pitch just as much as one's hand placement on the racket stalk or amount of roll of the arm.

The farther the racket bowls out from under the shoulder the more it will open. Since converse is true, too, this easy backhand should work when dealing with a low ball.

But we want to use it now to hit a waist high ball more crosscourt than it wants to go.

Before the racket gets too far out and up and to outside of the ball try a big clench of the shoulderblades to rip the ball more sideways.

Much later: I'm becoming disenchanted with the clench idea. If too much body rotation spoils a one hand backhand by taking strings off ball too soon same thing ought to be true of a big clench of the shoulderblades unless it happens after contact.

[bottle]

Getting More Basic than Fancy with an Old-Fashioned Serve

Fancy is walking with outside foot before one pivots it in mid-air.

Basic is keeping rear foot down but let the heel spiral up.

A fancier version of basic is to start rotating the hips and knees before you let the heel come up.

Fanciest version of basic is to let heel come up (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov) at second cross-hatch plus five and finish coming up about ten frames after that and rotate out for five more frames with whole foot only getting airborne after the ball is hit.

How high or low is hitting arm at toss? Another aspect of serving altogether.

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How Much is Guide Hand a Training Wheel; How Soon Could One Take it Off

I want to find out in a minimalist backhand somewhat like that of John McEnroe. Having decided that there need be no loose arm motion in the backswing, I want to see what would happen if I more or less left the racket where it was as hitting shoulder went down and around. By saying "more or less" I mean to suggest a range of adjustment in which the imagined shot would or would not feel good. Purpose of the scheme: to generate weird angles.

From a learning standpoint one would build on the training that one already had through repetition instilled in guide hand. In other words guide hand would go to exactly where it did before and in the same manner; in self-feed and subsequent play one could alternate full versions of the shot with the new one.

The thinking is that there is more body involvement in a John McEnroe one hander than in many others. I just want to see if the idea could apply to different beginning arm positions to create more elegance and freedom of choice or would it result in too much tip-off and instability?

[bottle]

Varying Length of Backswing in a McEnrueful

Very advisable, but only if one has decided to adapt John McEnroe's backswing and straight wrist to one's own purposes. One should vary length of backswing the way a golfer does for different situations and clubs. A chip shot is not the same as a mid-range iron or a wood.

Abandon the golf analogy there however and assign instead a connection to bowling. One bowls down and up. How far down? Not much if one started with racket parallel to court like John McEnroe-- level with court and cheated over to backhand.

It is the body turn caused by pointing across with opposite hand that turns what might seem a bowl across into a bowl back.

How far back? Well, how closed or open do you want the racket face to be? That decision will affect not only the height of your shot but its direction.

For the right-hander: Higher equals more closed equals a shot that flies lower and more to left. These could be low passing shots, deep hard drives, even the topspin angled see see.

Lower by contrast equals shots with more margin including deep down the line and even reverse short angle, an almost startling new opportunity.

What else varies however? You can't vary length of backswing without affecting everything else. Point of contact no longer is the great constant for which you may have striven.

The design principle here is a solid shot more body than arm in which the body-pushed arm always goes down-- for the second time-- the same amount just in a different part of tract.

[bottle]

Easier Breathing and Meeting the Navarros

At midnight tomorrow I'll turn 76-- time to breathe easier. Better to eliminate any thought of closed mouth puffery-- that distracts. So snort air through both mouth and nose during uptake of the racket, then form Trump mouth (a small nozzle) as part of a long cheek-puffed exhalation. Adjust mechanism of the serve to this natural breathing cycle rather than vice-versa which would cause the breathing to become unnatural.

Today we drive to Dearborn Michigan to meet Steve (Don Budge) and his philosopher father Hammering Hank Navarro the former infielder of the Toledo Mudhens. Will bring along a photo of Stotty. Should prove interesting to say the least!

[stotty]

At midnight tomorrow I'll turn 76-- time to breathe easier. Better to eliminate any thought of closed mouth puffery-- that distracts. So snort air through both mouth and nose during uptake of the racket, then form Trump mouth (a small nozzle) as part of a long cheek-puffed exhalation. Adjust mechanism of the serve to this natural breathing cycle rather than vice-versa which would cause the breathing to become unnatural.

Today we drive to Dearborn Michigan to meet Steve (Don Budge) and his philosopher father Hammering Hank Navarro the former infielder of the Toledo Mudhens. Will bring along a photo of Stotty. Should prove interesting to say the least!

Be sure to give Steve two hugs; one from you, and one from Stotty...