A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Mondo in Direction of the Shot

The context here is forehand progression/development along a line of emerging discovery, which sentence may sound too much like a word salad but really isn't.

One slowly finds a path through dense creepers out in a forest somewhere. And as one does this, one makes new discoveries-- simple as that.

I don't think too many people today are aware of the BAM forehand. The "BAM" of it is not some acronym such as "Bottle's Annoying Mess" but rather a cartoon word from the days of Joe Palooka or Captain Marvel.

BAM! would appear in a white balloon as Captain Marvel delivered an uppercut or Joe Palooka received one on his chin. Small stars or asterisks would fly through the air like projectiles of perspiration and emblems of the closed head injury underway.

I saw some of these forehands in the late twentieth century but never developed one for myself until now when I am 76 years old. A simple shot which I have lately been describing (and hitting) over and over.

The hand keys ahead as the elbow stays back. The elbow then flies forward up and maybe even back. Whichever the case, the knuckles brush one's own ear: a Captain Marvel uppercut.

This is a no wipe shot. It has a subtle or rather dramatic height adjustment meter built in.

A middling degree of arm bend figures into this. The arm is neither straight or right-angled. The keying action from stationary elbow therefore leads the forward action with one's hand down and forward as if one is about to push through a stuck cellar door with right palm turned back and down.

The blow is delivered straight ahead: Terms like "outside-in" or "inside-out" are irrelevant. It's an interesting if usually not great shot but becomes fabulous as a topspin lob, with only difference from a moonball being a very slight degree more of keying under before the delayed elbow release.

Flattening out this shot from same mondo produces a passable if somewhat mediocre shot since the different vectors don't quite line up.

Better to mondo as part of a roundabout swing with elbow still to delay. Roundabout swing (call this a different forehand now) equals roundabout mondo equals inside out swing. The hand stays at level of ball or even above it. The racket tip is what flips down then wipes up.

Wipe in a forehand, it seems to me, ought to be inside-out with the outside-in part of it from right fence to left fence only occurring after contact.

A slow motion sequence of Muguruza's forehand yesterday during French Open coverage showed no wipe until post-contact. Stanley Plagenhoef might say she was merely using wipe to relieve pressure on her shoulder.

In contrast, I remember similar slow-mo video of Roger where the wipe always begins well before the contact.

[bottle]

Self-Fed No-Followthrough Fore-Hands

I don't want to be distracted by how far or fast the ball goes or whether it looks like what.

No banking either.

I'll save aeronautical banking for my McEnrueful. No lift from the shoulder either. I'll save that for my BAM! Forehand including topspin lobs aimed at an imaginary clothesline coinciding with the net top but one mile high.

And now for the positives: Still hand with gyroscopic as well as stable placement. The head does not bounce around. It does not tilt in any direction either. It stays still. (I'm speaking of the human head.)

Still hand. Still hand? What are you talking about? The hand establishes itself at level of top edge of anticipated ball. (You never know when someone might hit a tennis ball near you.)

handbod 1: code for elbow and body establishing hand in a still position relative to the body which turns it a bit more.

handbod 2: The hand sidearms at top of ball before elbow chimes in. The elbow chiming in signifies a greater involvement of the whole body while including a bit of wipe. Stop the stroke there.

A bit of wipe? Are you crazy? You want a lot of wipe.

Yes, but most of it comes after the racket and ball collision, which is where I'm stopping this stroke right now. In fact, after collision, the racket will wipe toward left fence before returning to left shoulder, but not right now.

So over and over I go "handbodhandbod"-- knowing that establishing that inner voice is important to me if not to anyone else.

I make a partial stroke that ends with racket pointing at the right fence. I can't care less what the ball does after I hit it. Or what some stupid bystander thinks or says-- a person who doesn't know when to leave somebody alone.

(Driving ranges for golf in South Korea and the United States-- the one place in these countries where introspection still is permitted to go on.)

[bottle]

Elbow Schmelbow

Martina Navratilova, on TV, is good at criticizing forehands that have too much wibble-wobble in them.

Let's substitute the verb "mock" for "criticize" in order to generate more clout. But especially in my case I want to use better elbow awareness to complete the third unit of my three-forehand orchestration. Also, I once played Elbow, the dumb cop in Shakespeare's MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

In my McEnrueful, elbow stays pretty much in the same relation to rest of the bod until the very end, where it solos to relieve pressure on the shoulder.

In my BAM! forehand, the elbow turns under while scraping the ball but only as part of a forward arc so long and gradual that racket pitch remains controllable.

For an inside out wiped forehand I have decided today on a right-angled arm to get the thing going.

I am frequently the oldest guy on the court so I want to have interesting but more importantly effective strokes to compensate for any deficiency in movement or nerve.

The McEnrueful and the Bam! both have some dead stick in them which is-- provocatively I hope-- anti-loop.

To be consistent let's use dead stick at end of the backswing in third member of the trio as well.

Grip now is the only thing that closes the racket. One's right-angled arm is a bit shorter than the arm used for the BAM! if I want to think that way. The elbow can tuck into the side of the body for reassurance as well as geometric purpose. The hand leads the backswing although body starts turning at the same time. Will be good if we can do this without taking a leadership class. The tip is quickly back and ready to turn a smidge more as body turns just a bit more than most people turn it and where.

From here the arm keys vigorously forward mondoeing however it wants but keeping hand on a level path toward top edge of the ball.

How much to key? Dunno. Could be just a little. Then the elbow takes over.

Elbow elbow-- got to think about elbow. Send it straight toward the net as in the BAM! and the racket tip won't get around. Send it straight toward the right fence and elbow will close the racket too much, i.e., create great instability.

So one compromises. Send elbow with vigor equal to the BAM! but on a level path toward right fence post while starting one's wipe.

[bottle]

Inside Out

So I'll go with this adaptive new stroke when I play in two hours. Did try it out in self-feed yesterday. The shot may not be good for low balls-- depends how much I can bend my knees. But the BAM! forehand and McEnrueful both are excellent in picking up low balls.

[bottle]

Report

I figure that one self-feed session equals one terrific shot in the new way in actual play the first time out.

If one is lucky in persisting with one's new design the percentage of success (at the highest level of self-imposed standard) goes up after that.

[bottle]

Why?

All of a sudden my PetraKordian wouldn't work. Because I forgot to quickly put my elbow in a single place and leave it there for the first part of the stroke?

People emphasize one's athleticism, shrewdness and numerous other qualities necessary to becoming a champion.

Simple memory, however, may be one of the most commonly underestimated if one is developing some new stroke. Alzheimer's Disease may strike at any age.

A young and persistent kid lucky enough to be introduced to good strokes early won't need to think about things as much.

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=petr+korda+hitting+with+his+son&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

http://www.newsday.com/sports/golf/us-open/tennis-player-petr-korda-is-caddy-dad-at-women-s-open-1.5584315

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=petr+korda+hitting+with+his+son&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

[bottle]

New Name for Inside Out Stroke

The Clarabell. Honks a lot while saying nothing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarabell_the_Clown). A horn as clear as a bell. Oh well, hate to waste such a good name on a mere tennis stroke but naming something is always helpful.

Now, if one doesn't hit a forehand with full extension, one is a bad person. On the other hand, if one just hit a successful see see (short angle) one is a bad person who won the point.

So alternate Clarabells with see sees, BAM! forehands and McEnruefuls. Oh, sorry, I'm talking about myself or rather who I'd like to be.

For a see see or reverse see see the wrist will need to be laid back. But elbow can stay home.

Why lay the wrist (hand) back even though one desires acuteness of crosscourt angle? Because straight wrist closes the racket face when rolling any part or parts of the arm.

Twisting laid back wrist (I would say "depressed wrist" but don't want to create psychological problems) can lift the racket face.

For the best see see I now want to combine the three-quarter arm length and underhand topple of the BAM! forehand with the rolling arm or wipe of the Clarabell albeit in this case the wipe will come from the forearm alone.

"Underhand topple" is surely an interesting phenomenon. I've tried to identify it as a subtle meter built into certain forehands. The combination of three-quarter arm length and elbow staying back alters the racket pitch in dramatic fashion before one strikes the ball.

Can one control such a small movement as it produces huge changes in where and how the ball will fly? There is a trade-off for sure but one produces more variation this way with less time and effort.

[bottle]

Listening to Don Brosseau

The experience can be amazing. Don (tennischiro) explains once again that body should be moving forward when one tosses. Suddenly my whole arm feels like a whip. And I have new inclination to relax my shoulder even more.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

[bottle]

Find a Circus in Which to Play Doubles Tennis

The way things are going right now, once a week I'm playing with younger seniors who know each other's games too well-- kabuki tennis.

They are fast and can hit the ball fast. They are shrewd, can play at a difficult speed that tends to neutralize anyone's invention (should any one of the four players be so stupid as to go that route).

The circus of older players where I play two days a week is more fun although I need the heightened competition of the first group as well.

It's circus time today. Because of extensive gardening (professional) yesterday, there hasn't been time to try out the following idea in self-feed or any other form.

Practice a BAM! forehand in strict alternation with a see see hit with elbow held back.

Maybe I can do this for ten minutes after the competitive play.

The preparation for the two shots is identical. The elbow rolls up. The body may rotate a bit more backward then or not. The arm set at 3/4 length topples the mondoing racket under. All that is the same.

The difference then is that in the BAM! the elbow, held back until then releases straight ahead to add some push on the ball and create upward spin and return knuckles to opposite ear.

In the see see, the elbow will never release, at least not while one hits the ball. The toppling under racket will quickly discover the string setting that is desired. The forearm will roll, almost at right angle to the motion that immediately preceded it. The elbow will only release or roll or both after the ball is gone.

I've never hit this shot. A lot of completely new shots are available to anyone at any time in this game.

I have no idea if this particular breed of see see will prove workable for me or anyone else. For fun I'll hit it untried once or twice during the competition.

I suspect it will work in self-feed, don't know if it will be loose and adaptable enough to deal with different oncoming balls, intend to find out.

[bottle]

Hips and Shoulders Turn in a PetraKordian?

The PetraKordian, a shot which I named myself, is one of the most minimalist and interesting one hand backhands there ever has been.

I have attempted to adapt this shot to my own needs.

I love the attempt and love the adaptation even more.

My question is whether Petr Korda as original model turns his hips and shoulders in sequence or simultaneous or at all (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA).

Sometimes it seems to me when one wishes to learn from some stroke one does best just to go with what one sees especially when there is little or no available literature on the subject.

I don't see the body turn here I associate with Wawrinkan or Thiemic topspun backhands or with that version of Rosewallian slice where hips rotation easily straightens the arm.

Instead I see the elbow staying in place and somewhat turning in that place during the first half of the stroke.

The forearm and upper arm both actively muscle to close the racket face while bringing it around to a certain extent.

Then and only then does arm swing begin.

This arm swing can go through the ball, partially through the ball and up, or almost exclusively up.

The almost exclusively up version is the one that interests me most just at the moment.

If elbow stayed back for the roll, the arm is next free to move in any direction one chooses, it seems to me-- there is no existing momentum that one must glom into.

In the almost exclusively upward version-- interestingly-- the rising swing will travel of necessity on an inside out scimitar like path.

Abductor muscles make the arm go up. How can the rest of one's body supplement the power of this lift?

Through an expanding accordion in Alexander's Ragtime Band. Or according to the Alexander Technique-- whichever explanation one prefers. But if one is still bent over for contact one may or may not want to add scapular retraction too.

Post self-feed: No scapular retraction. Stay on the ball.

[bottle]

Progression: Footwork in one's PetraKordian

Time to watch the guy's feet-- easy to do once one channels one's determination (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA).

We taught ourselves to look at the 16 topspin backhands in this clip while ignoring the 16 forehands (unless one's forehand is similar to Petr Korda's).

So we became selective in watching just the backhands. Now we become selective again in watching the feet in these backhands.

A first thing to notice: Petr Korda is not playing Andre Agassi on grass. He is having a casual hardcourt hit with his son. Everything therefore is relaxed preference. And Petr steps way across.

He does not step toward the net. Or even step on a 45-degree angle to the net as Arthur Ashe advised in his writing for kids. When left to his druthers Petr steps almost parallel to the baseline.

In SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER, Welby Van Horn discusses step-outs of this extreme nature-- probably an emergency for most players. His take on these shots is that one should slide back foot over in the middle of one's production so as to replicate on the fly the more classical arrangement of both feet lining up on a perpendicular to the net.

Well, we've arrived at a point where we think the PetraKordian is a wonderful since easily produced shot. And it's been helping me a lot in my small competitions. But also, I am puzzled that this shot won't travel as fast as one of my forehands.

We look around for a reason. Was the step-out too early? But Petr's step-out definitely is early. One could even say he steps out while the shoulders are still turning backward.

No early hips turn in forward direction during or even before step-out then. In fact I have trouble seeing forward hips turn at all. I do see a lot of "accordion," i.e., the body thrust upward.

And now I see the rear foot extending from way behind him ("behind" in a direction along the baseline) to way in front of him (again along the baseline).

Whether Petr is relaxed and grounded as when hitting with his son or hopped up when playing Agassi, Lendl or Rios, this along-the-baseline transfer of rear foot whether big or small seems to take place almost every time.

It happens both when he is grounded and when he is up in the air.

I can't see the hips wriggle in this shot one sees in the backhand accordions of Vic Braden.

Today I therefore concentrate on sliding foot to turn extending body like a slow-twisting while lengthening cylinder.

Note: One needs to watch Petr's front foot, both in this video and any other. It points on a 45 degree angle-- easier maybe for a slightly bowlegged person than for a pigeontoed one. But that allows space for the body rotation about to occur. In some of the tournament sequences where Petr is really pressed he seems to get front foot across right at the very end and then spring up while turning in the air for an end landing much the same as when he hits the more grounded stroke. Angle of foot point wouldn't seem to matter so much then. An alternative to either of these possibilities would be a big pivot on the toes of the front foot-- more dangerous for a tot or old guy? What if he didn't get up on toes, kept foot flat? Ouch? Call the ambulance? Or was the shot too mild and relaxed and limited and wuss for that.

Second Note: Splaying front toes toward the net is not as difficult as I thought when one is stepping along the baseline. One can simply turn heel toward the side fence and call this a dance step.

Third Note, after Self-Feed: Let's look for a cue to make the second step-- rear foot sliding along the baseline-- work to twist the reverse-telescoping bod. I go to the knee since knee travel can lift heel and then drag toes.

[bottle]

Clarabell is Having a Baby

Names are important. Titles are important. Words are important in describing a tennis stroke. Drawings can sometime get into secret places where photos and film cannot. Words can sometime exceed drawing. But one should draw on it all.

Me, I've got on the forehand side my McEnrueful, a solid body shot. And my BAM! going straight forward. You never have to worry about how inside out some swing is the way you do in golf or the swinging tennis strokes. The BAM! starts with a subtle keying forward of the racket tip both down and around. Much of this small move resembling a chip shot in golf is a function of 3/4 arm length. As I add to my store of useful terminology-- some of it personal since tennis is a personal game-- I see "half or right-angled arm," "three-quarter arm" and "straight arm" as increasingly potent distinction.

The BAM! forehand then is the subtle chip whose momentum melds into smooth elbow push and return of knuckles to the ear. If ever there were a forward emphasis shot this is it. "You had good energy in that forehand," Ken Hunt said yesterday after I ripped a winner. He is my favorite hitting partner ever, and I had the great good fortune to be paired with him. We won every one of the first ten points and might have continued that way if I hadn't pointed this out, but we played together a lot and never lost a game. And when the competition was over, Ken said, "John, you were hot today."

But working on new shots should never stop. And the Clarabell has room to develop. I picked that name because I thought this shot would honk without saying anything. But now I see it may be more subtle than I thought, unlike the hotel guy Clarabell Trump in whom I don't see any potential to develop past his sclerotic labels.

The Clarabell is hit with half length arm. Another way of putting this is that the arm is right-angled at the elbow. One assumes this pose early without the burden and superfluous motion of a loop.

Keying of the racket forward as if upper arm is the spoke in the hinge of a farm gate is the time when the hand mondoes back and down.

One cranks with whole arm then as elbow finally pushes forward like Manny Pacquaio.

Up until now, my design idea has been to combine this with a Federer like follow-through to left shoulder. But why not just maximize the crank out front instead and save BAM! as an entirely different looking forehand?

Mondo and crank seeming like equal motions now balance one another, but I haven't tried this symmetrical shot, the Clarabell junior, yet.

[bottle]

Report

Now, having tried various versions of my Clarabell, I see that shot mechanics are going to carry the racket around and back toward the body.

But one can crank or wipe with all the vigor one can command. The fullest cranks will carry the racket tip up and sharply down.

The racket will return toward the body but low, not around the shoulder.

The form of any windshield wipe improves, it seems to me, when one has done something first to bring the racket tip around.

On a see see, e.g., one could use 1/2 arm length, key the forearm around level while mondoeing the hand.

That process however might take too long. Using 3/4 arm length instead, one purposefully twists the elbow, which though a risk is a shortcut.

The advantage is a quicker setting of strings in required position.

Similarly, in any kind of a Clarabell, one can hit the shot from 3/4 arm length too.

Earlier I tried to dismiss this maneuver despite its opportunity for more consolidation in one's game.

Today however with a more extreme version of wipe the 3/4th arm length self-fed Clarabells did not appear to be mediocre.

[bottle]

Are there any Tennis Players for whom Abduction is Better than Windshield Wipe?

Seems like a good question to me.

Abduction in anatomy (but not in astronomical pornography) is a lifting straight up of the arm so that the hand gets farther away from the bod.

Suppose that the arm is at 3/4 length. And that the racket has already achieved the perfect setting for what is about to come, namely topspin from abduction or from windshield wipe.

One will achieve one's better forehand, at that point, through simple choice, n'est-ce pas? nicht wahr?

[bottle]

A Comparison of Clarabellan Honk

Honk in the case of Donald Trump has a clear context. Donald, like the original clown on the Howdy Doody Show honks but never says anything.

When one applies the word "honk" to a forehand in tennis, however, one means an entirely different thing.

And so, my Clarabell, named after Clarabell Trump, may turn out to be a good shot.

I know the tennis here, anathema to so many of my friends and relatives, will off-put some, but think of these two strokes-- the BAM! and the Clarabell-- in the following but no other way.

The BAM! can hit the ball in one direction. The Clarabell off of same preparation can hit it in another.