A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

More Becker

Did play. Too much heat and humidity however to conclude anything much less play particularly well.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/borisbecker/borisbecker_serve/bb_2nd_serve/bb_2nd_serve.html?BB2ndSDeuceFront6.mov

Becker does turn backward as he tosses, just not very much.

Rocks backward (arms go down). That takes front toes up. Rocks forward. (Tossing arm and racket head go up.)

NOW he coils and springs. My opinion: His legs don't turn as he coils. His legs do turn as he springs.

It's really down up, down up-- pretty simple and with ease.

[bottle]

Thanks, both of you, for this exchange. Me, I'm just hoping my "new" serve is as good today with people on the opposite side of the net as it was yesterday when I was playing solitaire.

One thing about Becker: There is no step to complicate his compression and release. His serve is elegant, simple and way stripped down.

Even the toss in this "convention" of serving can be very uncluttered since the hips don't wind back until ball is launched. If toss weren't high enough, one could bow and unbow a little like Becker himself just to add a little juice. But perhaps that's unnecessary. Perhaps one can just stand there like an upright if relaxed stiff before rigor mortis sets in.

[tennis_chiro]

What about these guys?!

You are amazing, bottle. Your thread often coincides or intertwines with my coaching thoughts.

Some time ago on your thread I had a fascinating interchange of thoughts with 10splayer about coaching intervention.

Now, when Becker serves he lands on his right foot and not his left - unusual. The landing foot should be the left foot (if player is right-handed).

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/borisbecker/borisbecker_serve/bb_2nd_serve/bb_2nd_serve.html?BB2ndSDeuceFront6.mov

Stotty also lands on the wrong foot.

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

Becker gets away with it while Stotty's serve is impeded by it. For me it is a flaw, for Becker it isn't.

In the same clip of Stotty serving you will notice I have a rotary toss where I slightly over rotate the tossing arm. A flaw? No, I get away with it. At the point just prior to over rotating my tossing arm works independently from my shoulders so nothing is thrown out of kilter and no disorientating effect occurs.

There is a lesson right here and it is darned important.

Before coaches go wading in to fix unsightly looking problems, they should ask themselves: Does he/she get away with it?

Does Stotty get away with landing on the wrong foot as Becker does? No...fix it.

Does Stotty get away with over rotating on his his ball toss? Yes...leave well alone.

You're a gem, bottle...you provoke my thoughts.

Newcombe serve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlcVqEn3v2s

Smith(2:39) and Nastase(8:10)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZezxpCqbI4

Becker has a lot more kick with that left foot than you do, Stotty. And a lot more than Newcombe, Smith or Nastase! But they all served pretty well and a lot more consistently than today's players.

don

[stotty]

When to intervene...

You are amazing, bottle. Your thread often coincides or intertwines with my coaching thoughts.

Some time ago on your thread I had a fascinating interchange of thoughts with 10splayer about coaching intervention.

Now, when Becker serves he lands on his right foot and not his left - unusual. The landing foot should be the left foot (if player is right-handed).

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/borisbecker/borisbecker_serve/bb_2nd_serve/bb_2nd_serve.html?BB2ndSDeuceFront6.mov

Stotty also lands on the wrong foot.

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

Becker gets away with it while Stotty's serve is impeded by it. For me it is a flaw, for Becker it isn't.

In the same clip of Stotty serving you will notice I have a rotary toss where I slightly over rotate the tossing arm. A flaw? No, I get away with it. At the point just prior to over rotating my tossing arm works independently from my shoulders so nothing is thrown out of kilter and no disorientating effect occurs.

There is a lesson right here and it is darned important.

Before coaches go wading in to fix unsightly looking problems, they should ask themselves: Does he/she get away with it?

Does Stotty get away with landing on the wrong foot as Becker does? No...fix it.

Does Stotty get away with over rotating on his his ball toss? Yes...leave well alone.

You're a gem, bottle...you provoke my thoughts.

[bottle]

Shotput Serves

Because I want a longer runway to the ball, I've been looking into shotput serves based on Don's videos in # 1670 . And who says that a runway has to be straight? Certainly not a modern shotputter.

The best example I know of shotput serve in tennis is Boris Becker. In some of the many videos of him serving in Tennis Player, his left leg kicks back a lot, in some a little, and maybe if I keep looking I'll find one where the left foot stays put like Tilden or Budge.

One fact apparent from dance class: If left leg kicked back a lot there was a good push off of right.

Another: Feet aren't set too far apart. This allows a good double leg shotgun blast as in the sport of crew-- note similarity of this with Andy Roddick.

Another: Hips rotate backward in perfect tandem with bending knees. Hips then rotate forward with extending knees. The two actions are linked almost as if one is doing a standing jump with a half twist-- a fancy dive up into space.

This serve is good for a player hoping to save a bum front leg since back leg helps out.

Very conventional paused or frozen right-angled trophy or throw position cocked as toss goes up seems to work best for me. (And I was prejudiced from decades of continuous arm motion.)

Nothing but knees and hips and twisting upper body take this medium high frozen arm pose (a right angle) down and around.

As one spirals up and into the ball the shoulders can pull down a little to add horizontal weight.

Hips rotation is more emphatic when back leg pushes rather than being the leg that kicks back.

The rotorded server-- he or she with limited flexibility for bringing the racket tip down low (we all would like to twist it to perpendicular to the court but can't) may want to turn Becker's stance clockwise. Just pretend that Boris Becker is a doll. Grab him over his head and turn him a bit to the right. The purpose of this is to provide more shotputter's whirl to compensate for one's physical limit. Toss for this serve won't be a problem if tossing arm is only angled 20 degrees forward from the baseline.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/borisbecker/borisbecker_serve_and_volley/bb_1st_serve_deuce/bb_1st_serve_deuce.html?BB1stSDeuceFHVSide1.mov

Postscript: The white stripe on his shorts, in the following clip, shows Becker's hips rotating backward which action melds into his deep knee bend. Spiral up then followed by a push from both shoulders seems a good description even for this second serve:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/borisbecker/borisbecker_serve/bb_2nd_serve/bb_2nd_serve.html?BB2ndSDeuceFront6.mov

[bottle]

Not Another He

Roger Federer: "There shouldn't be another me."

So let's try to be exactly like Juan Del Potro.

I'm half-kidding.

Because to be roughly like Roger Federer was never a bad idea.

To be roughly like Juan Del Potro won't be a bad idea, either.

Roger turns his shoulders as he points across.

Juan's shoulders are already turned as he points across.

And Bottle-I only cares about the design that eventually will work best for Bottle-me. I furthermore am partial to any forehand backswing that spreads itself out on the way to the ball but am open to variety in the way that this may occur.

So I now return-- maybe just for Tuesday-- to the Three Musketeers complete shoulders and hips turn that is one for all and all for one with forearm pivoting up too. (The usual way that such excellent unit turn is preached is to keep opposite hand on the racket's throat but one can simply keep the two hands pretty close to one another for same result.)

Now the arms separate. Call the backward movement of the right elbow "The Nudge." But halfway through "The Nudge" one (Juan?) drives off outside foot to activate one's gross body parts.

The god of reverse action should love this new shot. Forward body rotations will counter the arm stretching back and wanting to catch up.

Now comes "The Flip." But whatever happened to "Tapping the Dog?" "Tapping the Dog" will have to take care of itself with a slower, more deliberate version of "Tapping the Dog" scheduled for restoration on Thursday since I plan to use this newest design in round robin play on Wednesday (tomorrow) after I try it out today at remote lakeside courts where nobody will notice me doing self-feed.

[bottle]

I think you're right.

[stotty]

I only want to think about one slice right now-- the one that goes the fastest, skims the lowest and skids the mostest.

This slice has the least slice. Rosewall's backhand bordered on flat much of the time...but always with some slice. His backhand travelled fast, low and skidded upon impact (at least on grass, the only surface I witnessed it). But the clincher was his passing shot. Few can hit sliced passing shots with repeated success. Because if you slice TOO much your chances of passing a swift player are slim...the ball cannot afford to hover. Rosewall could pass...pass anyone with his backhand.

Getting too much slice on a sliced backhand scuppers the shot in just about every conceivable way...save the drop shot perhaps.

[bottle]

Building Rosewallian Slice

To say I'm ecstatic about my new double roll prominent slice would be understatement.

Not that I talk about it anywhere but here. On the court, I use it, in silence, with some new variety emerging yet with how much more still to be discovered/revealed? And I receive all kinds of reinforcement/encouragement back from the old guys I play with three times a week. (Good thing they haven't discovered my politics yet.)

They slice too but there's doesn't go as fast.

As recently as this Spring I could only play tennis one time a week. I take two pills of Aleve now for the arthritic swelling which otherwise will occur in my left knee.

Fascinating to me is Stotty's statement made sometime back-- that among the players he regularly sees (clearly a lot) he sees some with imitation Rosewall backhand slice seemingly perfect in every detail but without the result.

Me, I don't claim to have found the elixir of youth but am seriously interested in contemplating this statement.

Is Rosewallian slice high maintenance? Is it like an old radio that needs to warm up unless you're Ken Rosewall himself? Does the radio station one wants to hear only happen after soon-to-return static goes away?

I only want to think about one slice right now-- the one that goes the fastest, skims the lowest and skids the mostest.

Anyone could and should quickly become addicted to a shot like that.

The different double rolls I'm now using have different lengths to them and rarely are equal, i.e., backward and forward rolls as copies of each other. The fastest variation, as seen in the Davis Cup '54 video, is very long and level from behind the back to the ball.

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

I have been experimenting with forward hips turn to not only extend arm passively from the elbow but to produce a muscular tug at the shoulder as arm tries to go backward some more.

A bit of forward lean takes all slack out of the arm, Arthur Ashe used to say.

The thusly spring-loaded racket head starts out so open (because of simultaneous backward roll) that it could be a frisbee. And it turns over for contact, which prolongs the gradual acceleration (unlike the more abrupt acceleration of a serve or the ATP Style Forehand, say).

This is my only attempt to explain my one transcendent tennis shot today. It zinged past the left ankle of the best player out there and made me feel good.

[bottle]

Different Cue

Accuracy of wipered forehands improved today, in a self-feed session, when I changed my usual cue of "Flip, Spear, Wipe" to "Sweep, Flip, Wipe."

What's happening in this second case during "Flip?"

Not only is the wrist laying back and the forearm winding racket down in various degree, but the arm is pre-loading big time for slingshot effect.

This change, I feel, closes a 3.5 grip produced racket face more, at least for a person with half of Federer's wrist range.

As in all innovation after a certain age something old tries to come back.

This would be my "Ziegenfuss," a stroke in which arm swings forward in a controlled way before body extends the hit and followthrough.

This is different however, robbing and combining features of several different strokes.

First, everything having to do with arm and hand seems to be coming to a stop. In actuality, this isn't true, but an ancient precept in the lore of forehands says that the hand and body are always in a race.

So, okay, one can leave the wrist relaxed but straight all the way through tapping the dog and beyond to allow the dropped arm to ease forward.

Now body passes the arm.

This will create the spearing effect we all desire even though everything is traveling pretty much in a direction toward the net and opposite fence.

Next to me was a young punk of opposite philosophy, using a rapidly popping ball machine to drill the horrible design of his forehands deep into his lizard brain.

[bottle]

Bad Boy Tennis

At the Crooked Run tennis facility in Front Royal, Virginia, there was a foursome of doubles players who'd stuck together for half a century.

To substitute in this group was always a pleasure. As Kathy Jordan of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania once said, playing with very old men can teach anyone a great many useful tricks much of them concerning what not to do.

The foursome in Virginia called themselves "The Bad Boys." The equivalent group in Grosse Pointe, Michigan is more like 20 or 40 persons who play three times a week outside and inside without ever departing from their round robin format.

Everybody sticks their racket butt down in a hole in a carousel that looks like an umbrella rack. This determines who's going to play next. The sequence is supposed to be clockwise, but the second day I played I had an argument with another geezer about what was clockwise and quickly learned to shut up. In either case-- whichever is counterclockwise (are you looking up from the ground under the carousel?)-- the system unfailingly works.

So, as four different courts complete a game, someone yells "Player!" and you grab your first place racket and run out to the designated court perhaps hitting your head on a tree branch and serve.

So you play four games, switching positions (clockwise) and then get a rest. You keep your water bottle, etc., in an oasis between the courts, something it took me one bad experience to learn.

"Who couldn't like this?" I said to the town doubles champ running it. "It's a circus."

He agreed. (I could have called him the Grosse Pointe seniors doubles champ but chose not to.)

In all these clockwise rotations, if you have a limp, you quickly learn that every limp is relative. All kinds of players come prancing or crawling out to your court, with a new player making his appearance every single game.

The youngest player is 55. I at 73 got to play five times with Wally, who was number one at South High School in 1942. That makes him about 89. We won three times and lost two.

Kathy Jordan, of course, won a total of seven grand slam titles.

[bottle]

Which Foot Can Kick Back

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/borisbecker/borisbecker_serve/bb_1st_serve/bb_1st_serve.html?BB1stSDeuceCourtLevelRear.mov

Answer: Either.

[bottle]

French persons have told me that my French is quite bad-- an advantage, I'm sure, in watching this fascinating video.

[stotty]

A little treat

Here's another treat for you, bottle. Rosewall hitting with Newcombe. Check out the running sliced backhand at 0:40. Also, the open stance backhand volley at 1:54. Rosewall was excellent at hitting his backhand volley off any stance. It's balance that counts...and he can find balance and weight transfer off any volley whatever the predicament. After much practice I learnt to do the same myself. A great skill to learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aUnSCp64S0

I don't understand French, not a word. If you do, let me know what the narrator is saying.

[bottle]

Taking Backhand Lob to Another Level (Sixty Feet Higher)

Try linked double roll in which there is nothing else between the rolls.