A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Re Short Soft Slice of # 1714

So how's the effort of this right-hander to hit deuce service court sideline at halfway point? Coming along but with difficulty.

Should arm be bent at a right angle like Dennis Ralston's or start completely bent on the toss?

Where should elbow get to-- forward or back? Hit target (sometimes) both ways so decided to put elbow halfway between these extremes.

The best idea might be to stay tall with just a little body sway and establish a slow race between elbow and racket as both turn forward with racket slightly ahead to put strings flat on ball just before the hand and body carve.

Is this clear? Probably not. You no longer are using "external rotation" of the upper arm for propulsion, so you use it for the non-propulsive placement of the strings flat on the ball. The elbow circles around to the right. The racket tip circles around to the left. The arm slowly and non-propulsively extends. And all this and probably something else one doesn't know about takes place SIM.

[bottle]

Making One's Bowled Backswing Continental FH As Reliable AP

Try Susan Pendo's Tennis Channel tip of keeping a coin balanced on frame for all of the backswing and dynamic drop and level swing between the horns.

After you've passed the second horn, consider rolling the racket over. Exception: When you start your roll at contact to hit slightly above center line of the strings.

The rolled shots are probably very good but not quite as reliable as those hit with the racket perfectly square. (Middle of the strings will then be best place for a clean interchange of energy.)

But what are these "horns" I'm talking about? Damned if I know. Perhaps I have some hallucinatory image in mind of stunning a longhorn bull which may not please Temple Grandin.

Lately I've been trying to bring contact point for this shot back just a little to minimize the need for all adjustments. When one studies the different Tennis Player videos of John McEnroe's forehand, one sees contacts in which racket is either square or slightly beveled-- if beveled, emphatic roll already started.

Clearly, it's time for me to post a link to "long toss" at Jaegersports once again.

The famous long toss exercise in baseball (on a football field) can teach a tennis player how to enliven his or her arm like nothing else.

The knowledge applies to ground strokes, serves, overheads, lobs, volleys-- pretty much everything.

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=jaegersports&mid=34A1544C111B03C6D43F34A1544C111B03C6D43F&view=detail&FORM=VIRE2

[bottle]

Simple-Minding A Forehand (And Composed In A Shower)

Open, nudge, tap, flip, ship...this old man came rolling home.

[bottle]

Ultimate

"Put the face on the ball flat, AND THEN go around it just a little as you press it out and pull down...don't slice until after you are on the ball."

This is the dreaded and normatively reviled advice to "carve your serve."

But rules are made to be broken by those who know them.

Bend the stick the other way.

Pure John M. Barnaby. His book, RACKET WORK: THE KEY TO TENNIS, came out at the same time as TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE by Vic Braden.

One book went boffo; the other quickly became a collector's item.

But when I along with 500 other passionate persons met Vic Braden in Winchester, Virginia, he hit a pyramid of four balls on the service sideline extremely close to the net on his first try.

How did he do that? Did he read John M. Barnaby? I don't know where that Vic-trick came from.

I only know I'm back in the hunt for it, gyrating pre-dawn curlicues and figure eights while still in bed, practicing at mid-day the three rear-footed serves recently described in this thread and now embarking on a fourth-- a carved number with pave-loader finish for exquisite feel.

This serve breaks all the rules. And helped me and my partner win a final against a good high school first team in Berryville, Virginia.

"Externally rotate the upper arm for vast power." Not on this one. In fact, I want throttled down speed at one-tenth the norm.

Yup, I now return to my old swisher with a rear wheel drive version I haven't invented but know will work.

Give me a week.

[bottle]

The complexity is almost infinite, which is the way that tennis should be. Keeps the experts from being too full of themselves (or should).

How far does elbow get past ear before the body takes over? Some. Nose but out to the side?

[bottle]

Slice Serve Off Back Foot

Load the arm with the arm. Throw the racket with arm only then add body turns (horizontal and vertical) at the end to add solidity to the whole shebang.

Because of the major change to my serving practice-- due to injury-- from front leg to rear leg drive, I feel I've had to relearn everything. There is nothing wrong with that.

Relearning could be like re-reading a book you didn't like twenty years before at your first attempt "to get it."

My serve is nothing like this guy's. Dennis Ralston, in these videos, only bends his arm to a right angle, no more.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/famouscoach/denn_ralston/developing_the_slice_serve/developing_the_slice_serve.html

But he is the splendiferous example (to use Zorba's word) of someone swinging with the arm before his body chimes in.

I also think, within rear foot mode, that I'm qualified to achieve the same right-angled serve though from the opposite direction.

In other words, the arm closes early (i.e., its two halves press together). I see no reason not to start back leg drive at different times or places in the total cycle.

If the two halves of the arm pressing together becomes the reference point, the leg compression-and-drive combo can start just before, just after, and quite a bit after in middle of the forward throw-- three different serves.

Have I tried this yet? Of course not but will within the next half-hour.

[bottle]

Recipe: A Nice Rear-Foot Seniors Topspin Serve

The key image may be a low ceiling which you push up against with your hand to help you bend your back knee.

You (I) got the arm completely bent together on the toss. That's early enough to be bizarre.

I (you) now do the imaginary ceiling trick which means you toss with your hitting arm to half-extension as you coil your back leg.

Now you fire your hips and bend the upper body slightly over to the left to get it out of the way (rapidly sequential) as your arm finally twists out and up but mostly up.

Left leg can gently extend with left foot becoming flat and stable on the court. Right leg (or rear leg, having done its thing) can kick slightly out to right.

The followthrough is on the left side. The topspin is quite pure, it seems to me.

Intersperse this serve with hard slice by not bending arm quite so much on the toss and use a fuller, faster, longer hips pivot with left leg becoming airborne and kicking back.

The topspin serve described here is the only serve I've ever hit from concept with no development or practice yet used it to help win all my service games (with good if elderly doubles partners in the equation).

[bottle]

One Brain Impulse Instead Of Three

On my first forehand, which is all in ATP Style, I wish to introduce continuous hand movement to the backswing so as to be more like a serpent coiling to strike.

Previously, I kept elbow down but used opposite hand to help lift the racket head (brain impulse 1). And got the racket around from extended body turn while keeping hitting hand in a single position (brain impulse 2). And once shoulders had stopped, nudged backward with elbow to instigate tapping the dog (brain impulse 3).

What if one lifts racket tip more slowly for a total of around three inches throughout the unit turn and pointing across?

That combines (1) and (2). We then add on the nudge (3) since all three brain impulses move the hand.

Hitting hand, independent of gross body, twists to lift from elbow and then moves back. This is all a continuous hand movement once one has figured the differentiation or complexity out.

One hand movement, which is one brain movement, goes into effect.

Note: Opposite hand just starts the hitting hand up. But the hitting hand continues to achieve the three-inch rise all by itself. The stroke therefore is a bit more free-form. A snake, however, is nothing if not smooth.

[bottle]

Tweaking The Number Two Forehand

Here is a link to the lyrics of The Continental, well sung by Fred Astaire but even better by Ginger Rogers:

http://www.songlyrics.com/fred-astaire/the-continental-lyrics/

And here is a condensed version:

Beautiful music, dangerous rhythm
it's something daring, the continental
A way of dancing, that's really ultra-new
it's very subtle, the continental
Because it does what you want it to do...

And you'll find while you're dancing
that there's a rhythm in your heart and soul
A certain rhythm that you can't control
And you will do the continental all the time

Oh no I won't, not all the time, but when I do I'll use John McEnroe's bowling backswing. And the higher up this backswing goes, the more closed will be the racket face, which I will then plunge straight down as I fire the first three links of the kinetic chain, in this case using just enough leg thrust to put both heels up on their toes (1), and a powerful and quick hips turn-- think of a spinning tire (2), and upper body rotation (3).

All of this downswing will enliven the arm, which keeping the racket somewhat closed will lessen the amount of roll needed for solid contact out front.

What happens afterward is interesting if you like the Charleston, just one of many sub-dances possible under the name The Continental.

Yep, both feet can Charleston in the same direction for a very solid, penetrating shot.

Today's tweak is to spring the arm while it is still behind the body but make contact in front of the body. Such detail is another factor lessening the amount of forward arm roll that one will need for a sudden, different and very penetrating shot.

[bottle]

Tweaking The Number One Forehand

Happily, I belong to the tweakers, a different association from the one in which I’m playing this summer. I argue that excellence in a tennis stroke or anything is elusive. It can’t be bottled (who said that?) and may even change from week to week. Where is the electron? Is it here or there? Particle or wave? Both or neither?

The ATP Style Forehand is very exciting for a player like me because of its new tennis concepts such as “nudge,” “tap the dog” and “partition.” In addition it’s Federerian, and I had been hitting Federfores for more than a decade before it came along.

Exactly. So I’m likely to have bad habits. But I’m part of a 20-strong senior men’s group where the youngest player is 55, the oldest 94, and none except for me generates difficult topspin. The excellence of these experienced guys is in hitting through the ball.

This is a perfect situation in which to fool around and I do it for two hours with these friends three times a week. But on Tuesday, Thursday and weekends, I intersperse self-feed.

The most common doubles forehand has to be the wide one. So here are four wide forehands, seen from behind. Terms: SEQ = Sequential; SIM = Simultaneous.

1) Hip flip then spring. What do Roger’s hips actually do during the following sequence? They turn to perform the flip and enliven the arm, no? And then they don’t turn much. And then they turn some more. It is important to note, I feel, that the leg springing a bit late is not what performs the passive flip. Forward turning hips do that.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_wide/rf_fh_wide.html?RFFHWideOpenStanceCourtLevelRear1.mov

2) Hip flip then spring from bent leg but very high. Leg springing and arm shipping or flashlighting or spearing are SIM.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_wide/rf_fh_wide.html?RFFHWideOpenStanceCourtLevelRear2.mov

3) The dog gets tapped as outside foot puts down. The hip performs the arm flip. The leg drive and arm ship are SIM. The UBR (upper body rotation) starts marginally after the hips turn (SEQ), which is what the baseball slugger and batting coach Ted Williams always said.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_wide/rf_fh_wide.html?RFFHWideOpenStanceRear1.mov

4) The outside foot gets put down SIM with an arm nudge (!). The arm gets straight as knee plies along the baseline bending then engaging with the court. The hip performs the flip. The leg drive, more vertical, is very brief, lending itself to early flight or take-off SIM with shipping of the racket butt.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_wide/rf_fh_wide.html?RFFHWideOpenStanceRear2.mov

How useful is this information to you, to me, to anybody? Reader, I hope that it is helpful to you, but, sorry, my main concern is with myself—the tennis student I concentrate upon the most.

And for more than a decade, I’ve probably been using leg drive to implement the arm flip. Just as I’ve been “nudging” during the point across with opposite arm to facilitate the second part of my backward upper body turn (UBT).

One CAN nudge there or during unit turn or even to assume a strong waiting position. Most comfortable for me however is to start UBT with the both-hands-on-the racket of the unit turn and continue it with my point across.

This point across assisted second half of my backward turn will now be more compact since uncluttered by a flying nudge. And as shoulders stop I will nudge and then tap the dog and then flip with hip and then ship with leavening leg drive to help bring the ball down in the court.

Will I pay for these changes, i.e., hit long? Already have. But long term they’ll be good.

[bottle]

Gentle Rolls For Breakfast (1HBH Slice And Drive)

Double-rolls need semi-conscious attention whether coming in the form of raspberry jam or re-sizing so that you never need use a flashlight again.

Are my metaphors sufficiently mixed? The better question is whether the two linked rolls are sufficiently unequal.

Backward roll is not linked to forward roll by flashlighting, at least not in today's scheme. The arm is either rolling the racket backward or forward with no transition between these two acts. The arm is slinging the racket head at the ball with all the clever feeling that Arthur Ashe's word "sling" implies.

In self-feed, start with equal rolls. Now shrink the A-roll and broaden the B-roll. Gradually follow a progression until there's no A-roll (backward roll) at all. Now gradually reverse the progression until the two rolls are equal again.

Be patient. Keep going. As you hit each bounced ball gradually broaden the A-roll and shrink the B-roll until you start missing shots. But don't stop, as Molly said on the back of Gibraltar. Make sure that the mistakes are emphatic.

Then reverse again, slightly broadening the B-roll and shrinking the A-roll until the ball goes where you want it to go.

Now apply some of this thought to backhand volley if you have someone on the opposite side of the net to set you up. (Just imagine that you do if you don't.)

Start with blocked volleys with no rolls of any kind (slow forward easing of the strings to use the pace of the oncoming ball).

Add forward roll, Hoad-like, to stick some balls. Add double roll (Rosewallian), to stick some more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7kvBGntW8

[bottle]

Nudge

Reader, you're a tennis teacher, but so am I, even when I'm only doing self-instruction, and I wish to nudge you toward the following understanding of forehand "nudge."

When, in the Federerian model, Roger waits with his right arm farther out from his body than his left (so that from behind one can see some light coming through), he has already performed the nudge.

If he has turned back for a shot and then taken his elbow back a little more, he will, equally, have performed the nudge.

Similarly, if he moves his elbow backward while finishing his shoulders turn as he points across, he's done it-- the nudge.

These instances along with a fourth in which he nudges during his unit turn appear in different videos.

[bottle]

Re 1703: Exhilaration So Far

One needs a lot of ground force to serve well, and if it's not going to come from thrusting front leg, it's got to come from somewhere else.

[bottle]

Re 1700: Disappointment So Far

Which is only a way of speaking. A negative experiment creates freedom: Something one doesn't have to think about any more. Of course I only tried a few of these special backhands in doubles. Haven't done self-feed yet. I suspect the presumption that clenching shoulderblades can accelerate the roll in one's arm is mistaken. It definitely can make a relaxed arm straighten through sudden change of direction-- interestingly-- but that process is more simple. So, live and learn.

[bottle]

Boris Becker Spin-off Serve For Front Leg Gimp

If you want to know the truth, everything is geared to a more powerful whirl from the hips, and yeah, the front foot gets off of the court, which is all that prevents somebody's enfeebled front leg from breaking into bits, but I'm not even sure this small bit of elevation didn't come more from BACK leg than front.

Because back leg is already hard at work to make this kind of serve give the hips one hell of a whirl. And a small amount of this back leg energy could be siphoned into the short body lift.

The lift is midget whether you are a midget or not, compared to Sampras, Federer or any other Michael Jordan server springing high off of his front leg.

Question: Is the best initial throwing position a perfect trophy as in Becker's own case, or a more palm down pose with arm more bent (but not completely "needled," not yet) which builds more on a model like this:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/ivanlendl/lendl_serve/lendl_serve.html?LendlServeAdBodyRotationSide.mov

A Lendl-like serve, it seems to me both from this video and Lendl's second book called HITTING HOT, squeezes both halves of the arm, upper and lower, tight together quite early in the serving sequence.

This allows the arm to open out to a right angle on the fly and beyond to full extension as part of a hearty throw.

Like any romantic and mercurial player, I'll typically have a peak moment which then tends to rewrite my entire program.

A service returner suddenly says, "Where did that come from?" and I am off and running, saying to myself, "Did a different thing with the hips. Now, does it matter which throwing pose I reach on the toss?"

Am looking into this right now.