A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Good advice. Don't have any movements in there that serve no purpose. Simplicity is key. Yet why is it that trying to be simple is never simple?

Amazing day today. Went to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam where I am presently vacationing. A fight broke out between a Dutchman and a Brit. The Dutchman was upset because the Brit called the Dutchman's wife a bitch over some incident that happened in the lift. Both men were whirring around the museum amidst priceless paintings and at one time just six feet away from Sunflowers. The Dutchman (a strong man) overwhelmed the Brit who then started yelling for security. Security cam and pulled the Dutchman off the Brit. Both were then escorted off the premises. The incident certainly woke the browsing intellectuals up....and my family. My son though it was the highlight of the day.

What a great man Van Gogh was. He only started to paint aged 27 and became a master in no time. Aged 37 he was dead. Ten years of painting, virtually non-stop. He could have been a writer. His letters to Theo and to other painters were detailed and wonderfully written.

Walker Percy, the late novelist, wrote about a similar incident where somebody fell through a skylight. His theory was that the people in the museum then looked at the paintings with better attention and understanding. Was that true for you and your family?

[stotty]

Walker Percy, the late novelist, wrote about a similar incident where somebody fell through a skylight. His theory was that the people in the museum then looked at the paintings with better attention and understanding. Was that true for you and your family?

Tough to say as we were just about to exit the museum when it all kicked off. Amsterdam has a mad, chaotic side to it which no one told me about. Just about anything can happen. The people are friendly yet robust. People fall off bikes but just get up and hop back on as if nothing had happened...the women too. I love the way beautiful women race around on bikes in long flowing summer dresses. It's sight to behold on a hot summers day. The temperature here is 32c.

Stotty

[bottle]

PetraKordian

Such vivid description and evidence of life outside of tennis (http://www.rapidtables.com/convert/t...#calculator=90 degrees in the streets of Amsterdam). I almost hate to get back to my PetraKordian. But bottle's tennis game must march on.

The crucial part of the PetraKordian, it seems to me, occurs right after the backswing when bent arm is fully back and up, and front foot has either stepped out or is about to.

We know what the arm does or at least have stated essential motions for it, viz., a straightening and roll of it to the outside.

We know too what the hips are supposed to do in tandem with this motion of the arm. And we know that the hips contribution becomes greater if we use the splay splay formula, i.e., splay one foot back and the other forward. There may be additional steps in between or not.

Lay on hips-- that's all I want to say. That will better activate the accordion part of the PetraKordian-- the rising of already rotated body from the leg.

The rest of the stroke, a short stretch of arm work, is almost an afterthought.

[bottle]

Lob, Katoui, Lob, Katoui

Was in neighborhood of tennis court yesterday checking on health of Aunt Frieda, 102, and therefore decided on ten minutes of self-feed.

This was first self-feed since injury to right leg. Another first was Katoui self-feed since that never had been done. Happily, the Katoui from doubles last Saturday was still there, and right leg despite the possible foolishness of anything to do with tennis today is still there also (first medical appointment is on Monday).

Today: lob, Katoui, lob, Katoui. For technical reasons already explained these two shots are a natural pair. I do not anticipate this practice lasting more than ten minutes.

[bottle]

Armament within the Katoui Plot

1) Katoui forehand (no loop)

2) lob (small loop)

3) moonball (even smaller loop but nevertheless a loop)

Note: In a staple Katoui forehand a jibe substitutes for a loop, i.e., the palm of one's hand becomes a sail which pops open with air to push one's wrist back (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jibe).

[bottle]

Brave and Braver Forehand Lobs

The two best senior senior lobbers in the Grosse Pointe, Michigan tennis establishment make no attempt to disguise this shot.

And the height of their lobs is conditioned by the height of the roof under which they customarily play during the winter months.

Every player should wish to improve, however, and improve specifically within their peer group no matter anybody's age.

In most of these peer groups an unbelievably high lob-- outside-- is a great asset nearly every time.

To conceal a forehand lob off of a Katoui forehand one need only continue roll-back of the forearm while plying it forward (and while keeping elbow back and mondoing wrist same as usual too).

To increase height then one can blend forward arm roll with forward/upward elbow travel having delayed both until then. Some added body extension is apt to occur too.

Does this all take a little longer than a normal Katoui forehand? Yes it does. So both shots should be practiced together.

[bottle]

More on Concealing a Lob

Few players of style have ever communicated exactly how they hit a lob outside of speaking with their racket.

Harold Solomon is one, writing in the old book MASTERING YOUR TENNIS STROKES. If I could easily find it I would extrapolate from it here, but my general recollection is of full body contribution blended with elaborate racket work and everything to travel together upward.

Of course Solomon is a very small man. Small persons have the advantage in fully controlling bod through any complex athletic or balletic move.

Other bigger persons on the current tour may be so fast that, arriving at the ball, they have almost unlimited time to do whatever they want.

We slower recreational players can mentally put ourselves in their shoes, but would we really want to hit a lob off of a big overhand loop?

Me, I've been more likely to simply place the racket down low to begin the lob.

But I rebel now, looking for compromise.

The lob, hit off of Katoui forehand preparation, has bought for itself a bunch of extra time.

So will there be leg extension? How about body straightening? And banking up of the hitting shoulder? Should an old man fly up in the air?

I would prefer a maximum number of options here, including the choice of adding just at contact some radial wrist rotation to the whole arm rotation-- because I've probably just run a long way and not too fast either. Keeping head and body as still as possible might be the way to go.

[bottle]

Further De-Coding of a PetraKordian

A PetraKordian, which is an imitation Petr Korda backhand, comes in code as any other tennis stroke does. Simple difficulty of code breaking is why most tennis players become self-deluding romanticists who say stuff like "Don't think" and "The shot makes the mechanics."

One code principle implicit in a PetraKordian: A racket circling the bod horizontally at constant radius does not change pitch. But pitch opens when racket moves away from the bod, i.e., moves straight forward and up.

That is the case after one makes contact in a PetraKordian. The strings go forward with relatively low racket tip finishing just to right of target "to form a roof." Mainly, the racket travels a small distance on a straight line, and that straight line opens pitch a small amount.

Memorizing this pattern, I believe, helps one to hit the ball with subtle movement from the quadriceps rather than from a lot of arm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA).

[bottle]

Narrative

Somebody hit a ball that set me up to hit a PetraKordian, a new stroke I am striving to master.

I hit a good but not great backhand, good enough for it to come back to the exact same spot.

This was rare, wasn't it?-- a duplicate return offering educational opportunity.

The second backhand I hit was not good but great I would say if I were Donald Trump.

Let us assume that, extraordinarily, Donald was right.

The next question becomes: "Why exactly was the second backhand you (I) hit so much better than the first?"

Because you just hit the shot and then had the chance to improve on it.

But what did you do that was different?

The answer should become the subject of systematic search.

Present sequence that I am willing to edit for purpose of quest: 1) forward hips rotation, 2) small rise from front leg, 3) elbow, which has been held in, moves out from bod a small amount.

New paradigm: 1) forward hips rotation, 2) small rise from front leg as elbow moves out from bod a small amount.

Of significance: Step 3) has disappeared.

New design then: The arm straightens and rolls-- a single motion that is very personal and requires attention to develop and make smooth just like someone working out a dance step.

The arm then swims in molasses toward the net as front leg puts a bit of bod on the contact.

To repeat in slightly different words: Elbow moves out nine inches while front leg raises bod an inch or two.

[bottle]

Forehand Feel for the Ball and Cream the Ball Paradox

Reader, it is only fitting that you take your biases out on the court. And that I do so. Or would it be better if we listened to somebody else?

Me, I am an old port oarsman. I feathered or twisted the oar with my right hand to prepare it for going in the water (the catch).

Now that I am a tennis player I do the same thing. Or to be as honest as possible, I finally do the same thing, glomming in on the muscle memory or myelination of a million shell boat strokes.

But one needn't have rowed if this is a sound idea.

What I like is that forearm gets cocked early as blended part of the backswing so that I will be fully ready to pry and twist the other way.

"Pry" and "twist" are violent verbs. "Feather" is not. One feathers in a featherbed, i.e., relaxes. I feather the forearm clockwise. I pry and twist the forearm counter-clockwise.

The non-violent feather maximizes, with delicacy, the unmitigated violence of pry and twist (SIM) toward the net.

The wrist stays straight as the forearm smoothly twists about 90 degrees. I can't believe that there is any pre-load going on, just deliberate positioning for what will happen next. We're getting ready to lob, in fact, but won't-- not this time.

Intead, we twist the arm with "brio," i.e., with unrestrained joy. At same time wrist flops back to feel for the ball as if to catch it.

Then elbow releases and twists the racket a bit more as arm and racket go out.

[bottle]

Three Corkscrew Forehands

A tennis instructor, like Donald Trump, repeats himself. It is both his strength and his undoing.

I am no different. Reps are essential for the understanding that comes before the mastery of these three forehands. You could say they are wiperish but I would prefer they be viperish.

The change today is verbal, which is appropriate to a person such as myself who believes that words have a life of their own even after you have stupidly tried to alter the intention behind them.

Scratch: "windshield wiper." Substitute: "corkscrew."

Now for a Katoui forehand we get better extension since elbow goes out during the internally rotating hitting part of the forward stroke. Think of a punch by Manny Paquiao.

Now for a Katoui moonball we still get better extension although there has been some real along with "felt" loop.

Now for a Katoui lob we have more trouble using the corkscrew image, but we remember what Robert Frost told us, that there always is a place where metaphor breaks down.

The lob is really more of a big swishing figure eight, but, because of waist high vicinity takeback combined with the headstart we gain by opening strings to begin all three of these Katoui forehands, remains manageable.

[bottle]

Phlebotomist Backswing for Forehands

I'm still writing about Katoui forehands, aren't I? I don't seem able to stop.

One could call this foolishness, I suppose, or passion to make my description of the new shot full and accurate.

An observation: The ability to describe the shot does not mean one won't be able to hit it, although the maxim probably still holds that the better the player the less he knows what he does.

I just think one can work toward that sef-forgetfulness through a lot of design work first. You think about the thing a lot and then you don't.

I'm about to have a physical. That means a blood test. "Which arm?" the phlebotomist will ask.

The one opposite from the one you hit with if you are a tennis player.

But you stretch out your arm turning the soft side up. How is the wrist? Straight. How is the imagined racket in your hand? Pretty open.

Just the opposite of Sam Querrey.

[bottle]

The Katoui is a Double-Crank Forehand

The first crank is from the forearm. The second crank is from the whole arm as elbow goes out.

The Katoui, inspired by Katharine Hepburn, is an exceedingly simple shot even though it took me half a century to figure it out.

Katharine Hepburn praised it when I still didn't understand it. And she wasn't Bill Tilden although she had lessons from Bill Tilden. But she was Katharine Hepburn, so that her praise impressed me. Actually, praise from anybody impresses anybody else a lot, I have found.

Put another way, if Katharine Hepburn did not praise the shot I almost surely would never have figured it out, not with all the distraction I encountered as I later followed conventional tennis learning routes.

[bottle]

Reflection

Those other forehands, the ones you see on the tour, are silly what with all of their waving around of the arm.

Waving the arm around takes up too much energy and time.

A boxer doesn't do it so why should a tennis player? Kid Gavilan from Cuba had a bolo punch but it was his short preparation punches that knocked people out.

[bottle]

The Backswing

What could be better for tracking the ball than a backswing that feels like a catch?

The body turns. The upper arm turns. The lower arm turns. All three turn as one to take the racket tip economically to where you want it.