A New Year's Serve

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Ads on Both Radio and TV

Say, hey, it's Janet Lehman impersonating Dustin Hoffman playing Mrs. Doubtfire. Who would want to be a bully after watching her?

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Wawrinka Cont'd

It isn't just that Wawrinka's backhand is terrific and therefore worth study but that it is recorded at TennisPlayer in Dartfish configuration, at least on my computer.

This means you can glom on the button crossing in front of you and manually work the stroke back and forth until you understand it better.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_center/sw_bh_center.html?SWBHCenterOpenStanceFront2.mp4

This opportunity makes me think that Wawrinka uses hips rotation, but a minimal amount, and in a phenomenon discussed by Ivan Lendl in relation to Lendl's forehand-- no standard kinetic chain sequence of hips, then shoulders but rather shoulders first just naturally tugging the hips around.

Also, Wawrinka may straighten his arm at different times or perhaps a static photo sequence such as the current one of his backhand at TENNIS simply does not show exactly when he straightens.

A while ago I came to believe that forward body rotation of any kind is wasting itself if used to straighten the arm-- better to help cock upper body through straightening arm as you step out-- if you step out-- and my personal preference is to tock racket head down an eighth of a turn at the same time.

I see all new information on Wawrinka as an opening of options for those exploring one hand backhand-- not an invitation I welcome just when I'm getting happy with what I've discovered, but knowledge never stands still for anybody nor should.

The Wawrinkan backhand like any great one hander is liquid and one-piece and sweet.

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Repressed Hips: The Swiss Kid's Backhand of Stanislas Wawrinka

Alternate Titles: Stan Wawrinka vs. Barry Bonds, Hippies vs. Straights, Keeping a Master Class Shallow, Bow Legs vs. Pigeon Toes

Obviously, if I have a USTA subscription, I have attended MASTER CLASS on page 62 of the Jan/Feb 2014 issue of TENNIS.

Each time I receive my copy of TENNIS I turn directly to MASTER CLASS since the rest of the magazine can bore me quite a lot. The common denominator is low don't you know.

Also, I have always liked the author Lynne Rolley, one of the few women pros attracted to intricacies of form although she will tell you that kids just want to have fun.

In an article on topspin serve she said once to hit the bottom of the ball. Pretty simple, right? And simple is good. As I already said, Lynne Rolley shows an unusual attraction to form, and in case you think I am being wise-ass, know that the most simple observation in tennis is frequently the best.

Big one-handers have often splayed the front foot-- Adriano Panatta and Gustavo Kuerten come to mind.

The splayed front foot is a holdover from classical tennis in which linear travel is an important part of every stroke. A baseball slugger, more interested in torquing the hips, strides closed. (J. Donald Budge, who was a slugger in both baseball and tennis, is a person who comes to mind in that respect.)

However, there are baseball basics in Wawrinka's backhand.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_center/sw_bh_center.html?SWBHCenterNeutralStanceSide1.mp4

See his "launch position" and how much hand there is behind the knob and how he keeps his head between his legs and brakes with his front leg and "squishes the bug" (no-no for back heel) only at the end for recovery to center of the court.

GOLF MAGAZINE or GOLF DIGEST or GOLF REGURGITATED or something like that once did a cover piece on Ricky Fowler, another swinging athlete who doesn't use much lower body. And the same dental office magazine, if I've covered its name, ran basic instruction advising its readers to use less hips while taking the club head back in order to derive more elastic power at the gut to torque the shoulders.

(And how did Kuerten ruin his hips anyway? Could it be that his upcoming splayed foot didn't allow enough freedom of hips in the backward direction?)

In skiing, too, there are those who keep shoulders faced squarely down the slope and those pursuing opposite technique who always have turned the shoulders a lot, e.g., Jean Claude Killy of France. Such big shoulder turns used to be called "christies" and still are suitable for deep powder and very long skiis.

The most powerful swings in baseball and golf, as I understand it, incorporate elements of both approaches to technique at the same time. Fowler is neither Nicklaus or Woods, and Wawrinka though a wonderful player is no J. Donald Budge.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=lau%27s+laws+on+hitting&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=18381128347&ref=pd_sl_2cnidk6cbc_e

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A Message to Sam Querrey

Sorry, Sam, that you're telling everybody that your lousy tennis is due to your broken engagement but I think you're right to point out the connection. If you want to quickly shoot up the rankings, here's what you do.

Go to CZECH. While there, consult with Radek Stepanek. He will teach you how to handle women better.

I have never yet met a woman who didn't dislike it when I talked about tennis too much even if she were an engaged player herself.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sam+querrey+engaged&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&source=iu&imgil=yG3g3DikuuSr8M%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcThq8hWP9NnMquruws7owAQerjjE8U7UAGnd7ssOm4bYG78_k8-%253B477%253B449%253BqjKlTmc6genorM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fennvy.com%25252Fsam-querreys-girlfriend%25252F&sa=X&ei=h0LZUua4DuHhygGdnIGQAw&ved=0CDYQ9QEwAw&biw=1040&bih=670#q=sam%20querrey%20girlfriend%20emily%20mcpherson&revid=365060576&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=QvzO-h6jdZfmMM%253A%3BOMFYUg6U74GAhM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww4.pictures.zimbio.com%252Fgi%252FSam%25252BQuerrey%25252BEmily%25252BMcPherson%25252B2013%25252BBNP%25252BParibas%25252B5Ld68i_LALzl.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.zimbio.com%252Fphotos%252FSam%252BQuerrey%252FEmily%252BMcPherson%3B406%3B594

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Backing Off From Home Run Swings

It is Mike Agassi who became the foremost spokesman in tennis for the non-reinforcement of poorly designed strokes.

If people listened to him, there would be no tennis since first design is always bad not to mention twenty-first and thirty-eighth.

Andre has written, with good help, about his relationship with his father.

Famously, Andre is known to have hit the ball badly and hard until one day it started to go in.

At 74, I don't think I want to follow Andre's childhood example.

Building on my skunk tail slice, I shall continue to develop my home run swing on backhand side. Already it is in place though not completely tested in battle. So I think I'll back off a bit to let the stew simmer.

But none of this is a retreat from discovered form, which first and foremost is circular. One could think of a certain sized wedge of pie. Or of the famous clock faces that don't help people in tennis, just help their nightmares after reading "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Or of a dial capable of one-eighth turns-- that might be good. I refer to equal one-eighth turns of the racket during its time behind the back and when it's passing the body and when it's out front. Keeping these turns at equal size seems a good idea to me. I count three on each slice, three on each drive.

Skunk tail slice begins with the racket upright. Drive backhand begins at baseball's launch position, 45 degrees of difference. The grip for the two shots is different as well. Other than that, the two strokes are the same.

Admittedly however I have made a huge infusion of energy into the drive what with its modification to hips turn-- longer, faster and much more in discernible sequence. The delayed shoulders are finally released to do their home run thing.

For a few days I'll use my old more practiced hips turn, putting emphasis on the 45-degree-on-a-dial increments in racket tip position, i.e., dwell on arm rather than body work just to see what will happen.

Followed by a return to home run form.

Note: Tennis instruction fails in teaching people to hit very soft and very hard. The best thing I've ever read on hitting a drop shot is by a poet. The best thing I've ever read on hitting hard is by a batting coach in baseball.

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Backhand Slice: Sweep off the Top of a Table

Says Trey Waltke. Which is great advice. But since there is double roll in this shot, and the second roll turns the front edge of the racket down one can continue the edge downward through a bit of hand pressing and then finish more to the right before coming up.

Now we have two options off of the same initial forward action, and a third if we make the early part of the forward stroke higher and steeper down to the ball too.

And a growing list of options that comes with exploration of this shot.

The actual quote from Waltke's classical lesson in TennisPlayer: "more like you're sweeping off the top of a table with the racket face."

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Length of Hips Turn

Vic Braden spoke of snapping hips in an emergency in which ball is almost past you. Geoffrey Williams-- in his tennis writings-- suggests that anyone should try to rotate their hips as fast as the pros. I'd like to add length to my previous hips turn as well.

A tennis player goes for length when he splays his back foot in a "unit turn." A batter in baseball does this when he lifts his front leg and turns that knee inward. He does it when he steps out closed and then practically rotates his back knee past and through his front knee. He's doing it if the toes of his front foot then lay down rubber while rotating a couple inches more.

What I just described is a single hips turn, fast. I'd like to see the whole thing accomplished and over by the time my racket tip reaches low point in my one hand drive backhand.

If I do that there will remain only one confusion in that or any backhand. Is achievement of low point as element of dynamic forward swing the same as pulling knob toward ball or are they successive steps in a sweet, liquid, one-piece swing?

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Letting Go through an Accumulation of Excruciating Detail

Sounds like a very sick joke but actually is a serious recipe for a blending of form and content, of passion and discipline.

The detail has to be THE RIGHT DETAIL, doesn't it (?!), and the prescription may not exist in any book or virtual or real tennis lesson but has to be found by an individual tennis player determined to make such discovery.

If you don't try at this, nothing happens-- you stay roughly and forever at your own personal level of mediocrity.

Subject today: Beefy bonk one hand backhand which would be a drive characterized by maximum amount of hand behind the handle-- a shot that will exist only in one's imagination until one learns to hit it each and every time one chooses to hit it.

Is the Trail to this shot as long as the Appalachian from Stone Mountain, Georgia to Mount Ktaadn, Maine? Probably. (There are a lot of different available spellings for Mount Katahdin so why shouldn't an American Literature major choose that of Henry David Thoreau?)

Yesterday, in seventh week on the Trail, the wisdom of skunk-tailed Rosewallian slice began to seep sideways into this stroke.

The skunk tail came from a surviving film strip put up here again and again by Rip Stott, Phil Picuri and myself. It is called 1954 DAVIS CUP-- remember those words and put them in a search engine any time you want to see the video-- the quickest way to get there. Ironically but perhaps only in my own mind, the foremost modern imitator of Rosewallian Slice, Trey Waltke, chose not to use skunk tail but went directly to what is known in baseball as "launch position." Study the following visuals of Trey Waltke to see this:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/classiclessons/trey_waltke/the_slice_backhand/the_slice_backhand.html

Lau Jr., the very good baseball batting coach, teaches his people of all ages to do this, explaining that sluggers of all stripe start with the bat in exotic positions but then all change to "launch position," so why not just save time and avoid slumps and simplify by going directly to launch position in the first place unless something else definitely is working for you.

Well, "something else is working for me," and now I want to modify it for a solid drive with a modicum of topspin for repeatability of the best two or three backhands I hit in my life, which suddenly happened during backhand service returns from the ad court one week and a half ago.

These shot were hit from waist high straight back palm sandwich preparation, something I don't want to use any more since I only hit the great backhands three times in a two-hour doubles session. (I am very greedy, don't you see.)

So, if you are playing against me in either singles or doubles, reader, and you watch me go directly to launch position, you may not be able to decipher my grip but will nevertheless know that I am about to hit a drive, not a slice, and you can use this information to beat me, but that's all right.

Most players of course never notice such a fine distinction or distinction in general, and deception in tennis except possibly at the very highest level is overrated. As Stan Smith once said while teaching his flat forehand: "The ball will be so well hit that disguise won't matter."

From a design standpoint, I'm copying the rhythm and uniform bite sizes of the three slices by Ken Rosewall in the Krosero posted 1954 DAVIS CUP video without copying the skunk tail there.

I only would use the skunk tail if I were hitting the underspin used by the batters in the instructional book LAU'S LAWS ON HITTING by Charley Lau Jr. with Jeffrey Flanagan and forward by George Brett.

Equal Mouthfuls
The difference between skunk tail and launch position is the same as launch position to palm sandwich from which the change to low point at one fourth of the dynamic forward swing is just the same amount of clock face again.

Did I try this? Not yet.

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Turning the Corner and Great Extension

Reader, what is tennis to you? And how is what tennis is to you different from what tennis is to me? Tennis pros may tell you not to get hung up on the really technical stuff in the game but here I am precisely in that boat.

Played seniors doubles this morning. The newcomer in our group was the Director of Tennis at Indian Village, Detroit. He has flat hard ground strokes impossible to read.

Against him and a very good defensive player, my friend Ron Carloni and I got behind 1-5 but pulled out the set 7-5 . Then the new fellow and I partnered and again I found myself down 1-5 . How did that happen? Fatigue? At some point my partner said we would come back and we finally did, getting the score to 4-5, but we couldn't pull out the set.

The new backhand worked pretty well but the finer points aren't completely mastered yet. I'm partial, I think, to stride on a 45 rather than 90 degree angle to the net. More of the extension then gets on the ball, it seems to me.

At Hope's 70th birthday party I spoke with an 11-year-old prodigy baseball player whose last name is Vanderbrink. "When you're hitting, Nick, do you use your lead hand to pull the knob at the ball?"

"Yes!" he said.

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Grip-Shots by Top Photographer at GM

FIRST SHOT: A palm sandwich with both palms parallel to floor and racket handle in between.

SECOND SHOT: Same structure but now the palms are vertical, i.e., perpendicular to floor.

THIRD SHOT: Same structure but now the palms are diagonal to the floor ("launch position" from baseball).

FOURTH SHOT (one fourth through forward swing): Palms are now less than parallel to the floor, i.e., the plane they form slants somewhat upward at the ceiling of the War Memorial in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

FIFTH SHOT (contact): Whatever the plane of the swing the width of the hand is entirely behind the ball and on that plane lending beef.

SIXTH SHOT (followthrough): Great extension but who should care about tilt of the sandwich any more once ball is gone?

SEVENTH SHOT (contact point of a soft topspin passing shot either to opponent's feet or short angled off of the court): Because of roll-over and short extension and lack of weight behind this stroke, the knuckles have turned toward the target.

Actually, none of this happened so I can't reproduce these pictures here. The photographer for General Motors was doing a shoot of the hundredth birthday of my friend Frieda Johnston, a tennis player, skier and motorcycle rider whose parental family originally came to Detroit from Buchavina. To me, from having been a ghost-writer of resumes, a person carries all experience in every present moment.

The photographer did a great job but neglected to intrude upon my thoughts.

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No Reinvention of the Wheel

My skunk tail slice is too important to my game for me to use different structure for any other backhand save roll-over topspin at somebody's feet or short off the court.

Last week I hit my skunk tail slice to my diagonal opponent. He then turned to his doubles partner and said he missed the shot because he was trying to figure out how I hit mine. Not a tactic to count on, so next time I see the fellow I'll tell him how to hit that shot if he wants to learn it.

Go to skunk tail position while cocking hips enough to turn front knee in. (I think I'll call this "cocking the lower body.")

Adjust vertical racket to the 45-degree slant known in baseball as "launch position" while stepping out closed and straightening the hitting arm. (I think I'll call this "cocking the upper body.")

Land on flat foot but more on heel, reader, and pivot hips for all you are worth and fully enough to lift rear heel up on toes and swivel front toes two inches around while laying down rubber. Pull knob with hitting hand toward ball at same time. Left hand can stay on racket as passive guidance for part of the way or all of the way for a high ball as I have suggested although this still is personal theory not yet developed in practice.

Now swing both shoulders and arm freely from THE SHOULDER with combined motion creating huge extension. (You need physical strength for this!)

In the case of slice, because of continental grip, the strings can slide down from ball just a little before they fly out and to the right (if one is a right-hander).

In the case of drive, because of palm sandwich grip, the whole hand stays naturally behind the butt rim through contact, or put another way the strings stay naturally behind the hand by a lot.

In both of these strokes there need be some forward roll to ball but none after the ball. Hand and racket roughly retain achieved position relative to one another to the end of time and followthrough.

Note: I'll probably keep the shoulders fairly closed and let the arm do the work in a slice and save the two shoulders turn plus arm swing for full drive.

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Two Hand One Hand for a High Ball

Never swing at anything above the hands.-- Charley Lau Jr.

Yup, Steve, great. But my Quicktime Plug-in 7.7.1 has crashed. Hope to get around that soon.

Adjectives I really like in the Lau book are "liquid," "sweet," "one-piece."

Stan Wawrinka's one hander surely does open up the possibility of more shoulders rotation than we were taught.

Billie Jean's shoulders used to be square to departing ball at end of her backhand.

If following the Lau Jr. prescription for Big League hitting one can just set down front foot and bust the hips around while pulling on the knob with one hand or two but not pulling with the shoulders yet.

Now let the shoulders release to change direction of the front arm spearing action that the Laus admire so much in a Little League or any league swing.

The cover of LAU'S LAWS ON HITTING has a small kid with good front arm extension on the right, a slightly bigger kid lifting front leg like a flamingo only with knee turned in on the left, and Barry Bonds in followthrough in the center with amazing symmetry of all body parts.

If Bonds is using steroids he is using them well in that photograph.

His hips are centered between his feet. His front leg is straight and braking on a great backward slanting vector. His two shoulders form a straight line with his bat.

That indicates to me that if I really want to incorporate a Big League home run swing into my backhand I need to keep the free shoulder motion going after my spearing to the outside.

If I didn't my implement would not line up with shoulders the way Bonds' does.

I'm thinking that for a high ball I ought to use a two hand one hand to solve Roger's problem with Rafa once and for all.

For a low ball from standard baseballer's launch position (45 degrees implement just off rear shoulder) I'll bowl down and up getting closer to body and be one-handed for a longer proportion of tract.

I appreciate your latitude in de-emphasizing the difference between two handers and one handers.

The Laus certainly do that in advising a single pull from knob-adjacent hand the whole way whether it's a two hander to finish or two hander one hander (one hander from contact) or baseball or golf.

My upper New York state older brother-in-law Allie Malavase, despite two knee replacements, hits all kinds of home runs batting this way and keeps on winning golf tournaments and says swing for both is the same.

He wasn't quite as good a golfer as my father but I would play nine holes with both of them and then feel pretty inadequate unless I had just won a mixed doubles best ball tournament with the arthritic niece of Katharine Hepburn, yeah the little one who married Sidney Poitier in GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER.

We won because I hit long and she hit short and careful, even "cherce," you might say.

From the Talmud though Escher is a Swiss name (and I know you already know this): "A lesson taught with humor is a lesson retained."

[don_budge]

Charlie's Laws...apply to Johnny Escher and Johnny McEnroe

This reminds me of Steve Navarro winning a golf tournament in central Sweden because he was thinking about keeping his chest on the ball. Or Jack Nicklaus saying that he has changed his strokes every day of his life.

I need to let go.

Wow...how cool is that? To be mentioned with Jack Nicklaus in the same paragraph when discussing something related to golf...or tennis, or baseball swings for that matter.

Say there Johnny...I have been following your discussion with keen interest. All swings have something very much in common. All swings that are properly engineered, that is. Be it a a baseball bat, a tennis racquet, golf club or hockey stick. In golf for instance there are certain fundamentals that putting strokes, chipping strokes and pitching strokes have in common with the driver swing. In tennis...be it a forehand or a backhand, volleys, half-volleys, all share certain fundamental characteristics. There is always some wiggle room...but I always recommend being Fundamentally Correct (FC).

One of the most important Fundamentals of Swing when applied to any of the aforementioned objects is to keep your chest on the ball.

Just for the sake of it...point your right shoulder a bit downward at the incoming ball. Put the racquet back on the same line of your shoulders and step to the ball on the same line. Left elbow pretty much attached to your left side and hip.

Here comes the forward motion...turning the shoulders while simultaneously pulling the racquet butt at the ball to begin the swing. Keeping the racquet on the same line with the shoulders will happen quite naturally. Once your rotation gets to the point where the chest is on the ball keep it on the ball...which should be slightly before the point of impact...then the racquet arm should be whizzing through your field of vision if you keep your head down and stay behind the ball. After impact and follow through the chest should still be on the ball tracking it.

One more thing...with regards to the left hand. Keep the left hand on the racquet long enough to get the thing going forwards. It is actually a two hand swing...the left side of the body must be engaged. Just as the batter's right hand side is engaged.

This Johnny does a pretty good job of it...and I now believe that his grip is the eastern side of continental. Due to the experiment of last year. But doesn't it appear that he gets his "chest on the ball" right about the moment of impact. Doesn't he keep it there and allow his arm and racquet to swing up and through the ball? It sure looks that way to me.

See the three lines of shoulders, racquet and feet...ala McEnroe backhand. For righthanders...just pretend you are looking in a mirror.

Front view...

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterFront.mov

Rear view...

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterRear1.mov

I trust that none of this breaks any of Charlie's laws...and we all sort of need to let go as well.

I swing a baseball bat left-handed and swing a golf club right-handed. I throw right-handed and play tennis left-handed. Perhaps that accounts for my fascination with mirror images.

This guy did a pretty good job of keeping his chest on the ball as well...here he is running wide and he still manages to do it on the full run...ala Don Budge. The real one as Doug Eng discretely put it.

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

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Progression Progression but is there Progress?

Sara Sessions, the tennis social organizer, gave me a 5.0 partner-- I took backhand side and we won 6-0, 6-0 . Before that, there was a half hour hit with my golf caddy friend Victor and two other sets which I and my other partners did not lose either. Why did I have a good night? Because I was working on my backhand and forgot to be bad.

This reminds me of Steve Navarro winning a golf tournament in central Sweden because he was thinking about keeping his chest on the ball. Or Jack Nicklaus saying that he has changed his strokes every day of his life.

Other players in all sports never think that way. They have already put in their experiment and practice time, don't you know? So they think about strategy or psychobabble or like my painterly 4.5 ex, about clouds-- best of all if you are this kind of person.

I'm not. And I obviously have great fun with my perpetual experiments and need to learn never again to doubt the efficacy of them.

So how was my backhand? Miserable. There were one or two good ones but no great ones like two days ago when whatever partner I had along with me lost every set.

I think I need the baseballer's classic launch position if I'm going to learn from the Charley Lau's senior and junior (45 degree implement just off rear shoulder).

Junior sees lower and upper body triggers: 1) Front knee turns in as hips cock to explode and 2) Hand and arms go out behind you as you stride.

But how does a baseball stride compare to a tennis stride when hitting a backhand? The baseballer starts at shoulder's width. He then strides another half shoulders width.

The tennis player props on rear foot if he ever listened to Tony Roche's "Prop, Prop! I'm telling you, PROP!" But where is front foot as one props? In various positions. But can one turn in knee and cock hips no matter where front foot is? Why not?

The trick is to achieve-- on stride-- the equidistance of dynamic balance (head halfway between feet with there being a slight tilt from back to keep weight on balls of those good feet).

The baseball player already has this pose waiting for the ball. And recreates it as part of the re-plant. The tennis player on the other hand must achieve his dynamic balance and equidistance in one swell foop.

My last new concerns: Was not at all happy when I lowered racket tip to inside as I stepped out. No, one steps out and then lowers to a farther forward place close to the body as part of a bowling action slightly to the outside. There is no way I can take knob on a beeline toward the ball without bowling it.

Also, I cannot afford any more to think about delaying knob while hips start to explode.

I need to let go.

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Turning the Corner and Fatness of Hand

The main topic, reader, is mildly topspun one hand drive backhand if you didn't guess that.

I've wondered ever since witnessing a high level tennis lesson in a huge inflated white bubble in the middle of Budapest which languages are best for the instruction of tennis. Old English is good for many things but maybe not for tennis technique.

The phrase "turning the corner" for example doesn't mean much if one hasn't understood that 1) corner happens fast and 2) could be synonymous with "slinging the racket head at the ball" but might refer to the total action in which a minor action is enclosed, 3) direction is equally up and out, 4) roll but not roll-over is involved, 5) home run hitting power comes from body rotation setting up a tug-o-war with early establishment of arm glide, 6) This is David's slingshot whether Old Testament or not or whether one goes to a Christian church every Sunday or not.

Or so I would have it.

The phrase "fatness of hand" is more straightbackward. Arthur Ashe, who put almost no hand behind his handle but curled wrist instead, was quick to advise udders to put more beef behind. "Udders" of course is a word used by Andre Agassi in the phrase "give to udders."

The most interesting photograph I've seen on this subject is the tennis instructor John M. Barnaby bonking a netpost with the karate edge of his fist.

(My readers now absorb themselves in karate for five years before returning to this post.)

Just think about a palm sandwich swing. One palm faces down, the other up with racket handle the filling in between.

If one has arrived at this pose from a flying grip change, the racket is behind one and the hitting arm is somewhat bent.

From there, as one takes a one shoulders width and a half stride, one can slightly straighten upper body (backward!) and finish straightening the arm and turn the racket slightly around one's body to the inside with all of this happening at once.

The hitting palm no longer is parallel to the court. The goal will be a return to parallelism or palm down at contact.

One's head is between one's feet, not strictly over one or the other. This is the body cylinder that golfers think about.

Hips start spinning before arm glides. Racket knob then glides on a beeline toward ball as hips complete their rotation to fully lift up heel on rear toes.

A beeline? Yes. Charley Lau Jr. thinks hands should twist bat down a little at the one-fourth part of forward home run swing but I already took care of this as I finished straightening my arm to enable a slightly upward beeline uninfected by any downward dip.

To hit the ball one rotates one's shoulders which snaps the strings simultaneously forward and around and up, restoring palm downness or "solid bonk" for coming off the ball into a followthrough hugely extended toward the target.