A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

What's the Best Amount of Variety in One's Game?

Chris Evert won't advocate too much. Hana Mandlikova might espouse more-- or would she? Is she still burning from the extra losses she incurred by becoming too fancy? Or is she still pleased from the variety that enabled her to win The U.S. Open?

Isn't it awful the way through the decades John McEnroe's forehand always looks the same?

Having more than one or two forehands is a lot of fun-- that's all I know. So long as they're not all in "a state of slight disrepair," to use a phrase from the tennis writer John M. Barnaby.

[bottle]

Ocelots

https://www.google.com/search?q=Ocelots&hl=en&newwindow=1&rlz=1C2CHFX_enUS519US520&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=WXBXUdjNGIeeywGU3YCQDw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1422&bih=790

[bottle]

Snarling Letter from Ocelot Camp

"In late March of 2013 you wrote a post or posts at tennisplayer.net claiming that Ocelot Camp for Rotorded Servers has been in existence "for decades" when in fact Ocelot welcomed its first campers on June 6, 1911 and recently celebrated its Centennial along with four other successful businesses in the Ozarks which I shall not name.

"You act, in your posts, as if you coined the word 'rotorded' when in fact there's nothing new under the sun, and that goes for your idea of lower register elbow take-back in a rear-legged serve.

"You think you're far out when you suggest a racket tip rise of one inch as part of a rhythmic down together up together tossing motion.

"But the most rotorded server ever to come through our front gate is playing Futures tournaments right now. For him, we found a better solution.

"Raise the racket tip one inch? Hardly. I won't give the real name of the player, simply will call him "Harry" since I don't wish to stigmatize him as rotorded, but rotorded he is.

"I will send you video but only if you request it. Harry does bend his arm on the toss but pushes his racket head downward at the same time. This creates extra reverse twist in upper arm in time for the elbow draw-back."

Sincerely,
Louis Lew
Director
Ocelot Camp for Rotorded Servers

[bottle]

Design Feature to be Transferred from Upper to Lower Register

In one of my design features for a rear-footed serve, brought about by necessity, I hit upon a down and up toss rhythm followed by a drawing back of the upper arm (in tandem with backward hips rotation to coil rear leg as if to throw a stone while lifting front knee up on its toes).

Then comes a bottom up throw that depends on transverse stomach muscles rather than frontward hips rotation. I see this method in the serves of Tony Trabert and the golf swings of Ricky Fowler, although Trabert certainly is firing off of the front leg.

I like the elegance and simplicity of 1) lift hitting arm out front 2) draw it back 3) twist upper arm through pre-determined range in reflex to body throw.

This serve is pretty good for upward spin though not for pace. I get more pace when most of whatever mechanism I choose happens down low.

So I'll try: Down together up together but the "up" will keep the elbow in bottom-most position so that only the racket tip rises as elbow bends and upper arm twists-- a little-- and toss occurs.

Well, how much should the upper arm twist? Whatever of it you use early you won't be able to use later, right?

How flexible are you? The more flexibility you have available, the more you can put the significant upper arm twist behind you so that it makes the racket tip go DOWN.

But suppose you're not flexible. Remember how Justin Gimmelstob, as a good tour player, used to complain about Pete Sampras' God-given flexibility before he-- Justin-- became well known as an announcer?

"You use what you got," Vic Braden said.

My interpretation of that statement has now changed to the point that I say, "Well, if you haven't got much, then steal from your overhead. It's bad enough that you can't stretch the racket tip as low as you'd like, but does that mean you have to have a limited throwing action, too? Why not give yourself a fighting chance? Why not give yourself something to work with?"

I agree with coaches who say you can eventually get elbow to about 10 degrees above the shoulders line or clavicular line or spine of scapula line when SOS is parallel to the clavicle.

Before that however if you are extremely inflexible, your upper arm twist-- in resistant or "pre-load" mode-- might even take the racket up and over the top before it starts down.

The rotorded server needs the same amount of tract as anybody else for equivalent racket head speed.

Where this is going: Down together up together with racket tip rising maybe only an inch. The initial racket tip rise becomes carefully calibrated through the experience in competition of actual serves.

Special case in all this: Rear-footed server. His feet are close together. He stays tall for a long time. The down together up together toss is uncomplicated by body turn, which happens later. "That's a sneaky serve," my favorite opponents say.

The new design feature will permit me to sink and coil my body while I once again draw my upper arm back (the beginning of its rise), a feel I like very much.

[bottle]

Observation

The Homunculus Hogan may be hit with weak grip (more forward roll of arm before contact) or strong grip (less or no forward roll).

WHIHTTY: Warning however; I haven't tried this yet.

Last Wednesday, I had three Synvisc One jabs in the side of my knee and am forbidden tennis until next Wednesday.

[bottle]

Tommyhawk

And for fun, since tennis is all about fun, we'll try on the Tommy Haas forehand.

Can't be done? Of course it can. Anyone can imitate anything.

Well, I see the flip as the one where forearm inverts as wrist lays back-- pretty simple. Followed immediately by a nice wipe with Accu blade rubber insert. So set up with slow, sensuous rear part of the loop, so that both events-- the flip and the wipe-- can seem to happen all at once as in a shortstop's throw to first.

Reader, you won't have to worry so much about arm-straightening as in a Federfore.

Just make a comfortable loop that gives you a comfortable arm length for the actual shot and keep a light grip.

Reader, you may have developed a certain musculature through all your hitting of straight-arm shots. Or of double-bend shots with right angles all over the place. If you've trained your muscles and nerves with both, I recommend an arm length somewhere in between. That's what Tommy Haas' arm length looks like to me.

Does this decision to try on the Tommyhawk mean that all other forehands shall be abandoned?

Of course not. The Hunc Hogan, short for Homunculus Hogan, is a hell of a good shot (bounces low). And so is The ATP Forehand (bounces high).

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/tommy_haas/th_forehand/th_fh_center/th_fh_center.html?THFHCenterFront1.mov

But I don't know. When, three years ago, I was about to take my big bus ride from Winston-Salem north to Detroit to see what was what, I was told that if I had one of those hair bob thingies at the back of my head like Xavier Malisse, George Carlin or Tommy Haas, I could just jump on the bus and go home to North Carolina.

[bottle]

Abbreviated Homunculus

"Homunculus" because named for a graceful little fellow with long arms (Tom Okker or Ben Hogan). "Abbreviated" because the arm work sends the racket not in a circle but straight line-- sideways.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/flash/hom.html

Circle enters the picture from hips rotating first and shoulders rotating from the gut second.

At contact, less contorted than a golfer, you almost face the net.

If you hit one of these special forehands long, take a counter-intuitive measure immediately to hit another-- open the racket as part of the continental-gripped backswing. This will exaggerate forward arm roll in the opposite direction.

Reflect on the event here. The body is rotating the racket around but the arm is not doing that, but rather accelerating the racket head sideward in a straight line, so there is a good split in function.

Your hand is smoothly gaining on your gross body (pulling away as in a race). And the racket head, through rolling, is pulling away from the hand (again as if in a race).

Key to understanding these arm and hand stratagems, which conclude before contact (!), is your decision to loop the elbow into your side ("Hogan's secret") and meld this effort into a push beyond your side again while extending and rolling your arm.

And then the arm of course, as sideways becomes forward, bowls through the ball and continues far away from the body in full followthrough that finally circles back.

For fun, try one now that's all hips and no shoulders.

[bottle]

Arm-Wrestling at Ocelot Camp

The reason for this activity repeated through the decades has been to demonstrate to the rotorded server community just how vulnerable they are if their forearm clocks much past one.

To try to build service action back there is totally absurd said Louis Lew, director of the camp.

After a few weeks at Ocelot the camper will have an up and down service motion resembling a volleyball serve in which the elbow rises severely before the hand.

[bottle]

There's Always a Surprise

I haven't yet found anything wrong with this shot other than that it hits the ball hard and the ball then sizzles low-- maybe not my expectation. But I'm good with having one solid forehand that bounces high and another that bounces low, with both easy to get off.

[bottle]

We're in agreement about a lot. And I do see Tom Okker "micro adjusting his grip." From what and to what, I wonder. His fingers loosen and replace. This happens with both hands on the racket as anyone would expect. Keeping left hand on the racket for a long time is definitely part of the stuck. Which makes the stuck close in some respects to the Rick Macci stroke (the ATP forehand) although start of forward swing is from a completely different place.

My projected stroke, which I won't try out (for the very first time through self-feed) for at least another hour lays back wrist early and gradual like a golfer and entails no alteration of continental grip.

Then comes "Hogan's secret" in which downward plane is altered from upward plane, i.e., from backswing. The plane is still upward-downward but a bit more toward parallel to the court.

The video at 1:16, as we've both already discussed, is a flatter, briefer and higher version of the Tom Okker full lollapalooza in which racket tip looks like it's about to hit his foot though some of that is camera angle.

And his elbow never comes into his body, so I guess he wasn't a fan of Ben Hogan on that particular shot.

Okker himself, in MASTERING YOUR TENNIS STROKES, makes a big distinction both photographically and verbally between his flat and his topspin forehands. To me they're all topspun forehands.

I'm looking for something utterly weird and great though maybe not so fluidly beautiful-- we'll see.

1) I hope it works. 2) I hope it's great. 3) Would like it to be beautiful as well, but it might be more of a rough sidearm. If I don't immediately write something more about it, I detected some serious flaws. (But I still haven't made it to the court yet.)

[stotty]

I agree Okker's forehand is interesting and unique. It's long and fluid. It's strange how he manages to close the racket face so completely during the backswing with the grip he has.

Also, when I watched Okker years ago I remember him micro adjusting his grip just before the forward swing. The clip at 1:16 catches him doing this. Strange the things you remember as a kid...that stay with you forever.

I just love the full extension he gets on the follow through. I find the shot beautiful from start to finish.

[bottle]

How to Use the New Information

Here's the logic of new things: It's good to be weird in tennis. But people who don't have an ounce of zaniness in their souls would like everybody to play the same.

Relentless pursuit of this goal might lift the general level of competency but...you fill in the blank. Personally, I would be so bored that I would move to another sport, perhaps to a super-seniors pair in international rowing like the young men Tony Johnson and Larry Hough in the twentieth century.

Their gold in the World's and silver in the Olympics was at least partially due-- according to Tony's high school coach Charlie Butt-- to balancing application of power. A pair is two persons with one oar apiece. A double is two persons with two oars apiece. In the Johnson-Hough pair, Tony got the power on early and Larry got it on late. Because of these personal idiosyncrasies, their boat went unbelievably straight.

To me, the Tom Okker forehand is one of the best gems ever in the game of tennis. I compare it to the Pancho Segura backhand-looking forehand or the Andy Roddick serve or John McEnroe's or Marion Bartoli's total game. I'm talking about effective uniqueness, not who can beat whom.

But Okker's forehand, not too long for him, is too long for me. Is size of loop the essential ingredient in Okker's magic so that I should forget it? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

I'm looking for a shot to balance my succinct, working and promising ATP forehand. And Ben Hogan right hand, I think, is the way to do it. The "flip" in a Ben Hogan golf swing clearly happens early with hand still high and hips just starting their forward pivot.

But golf doesn't apply to tennis, you say. Ivan Lendl, who plays both, once made that argument. In the book he collaborated on with Gene Scott, he suggested that the intricate sequence in the golf swing, if completely carried out, would lead to uncontrollable power in tennis, which is a running game. Wise words, but on the other hand Hogan's view of the golf swing is more stripped down than that, and offers the possibility of something extremely powerful but controllable.

I'm interested today in a one-piece circular backswing that may be golflike or not-- I don't know-- but with gradually laying back wrist. And with continental grip (but not for the ATP forehand). And with John McEnroe's method of turning his shoulders (not keeping hand on racket but a big point across). And with rising plane substituted for McEnroe's down-and-up.

Then comes a mild flip with elbow falling into the side to change trajectory into a flatter, more baseball-like swing, which in tennis terminology, will create more separation as it descends.

What will be the ingredients of this part of the stroke? Arm extending at elbow but elbow itself simultaneously moving away from the body.

Roll of arm and fixed, laid back wrist will then, very smoothly, brush strings up the back of the ball.

Later note: The roll discussed in the previous sentence comes from the words of Tom Okker himself in MASTERING YOUR TENNIS STROKES, but I no longer believe that his roll happens on the ball. I think it concludes before contact. Because there's no roll as he comes off the ball.

[bottle]

More About The Little Mermaid And Her Two-Handed Backhand

I enclose a picture, not of us dining together in a very expensive cavelike restaurant, a tomb beneath Stockholm really, but of V. in her natural habitat.

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+little+virgin+in+copenhagen+harbor&hl=en&newwindow=1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=bP1OUf6KBInxygHr54GoBA&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1422&bih=790#imgrc=ZNI1zPZ1QPfmnM%3A%3BUwCWozoOrjpQlM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.travelstring.com%252Fimages%252Fcopenhagen-0661.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.travelstring.com%252Fdenmark-copenhagen%252F%3B700%3B525

She was well aware of my negotiations with the Danish government to set up a student exchange. The way it would work was that twenty Swedish students from the big university in Stockholm would ride a chartered bus to Copenhagen, where they would give speeches on how their grandparents and even great-grandparents, back in World War II, despite their neutrality, were not as bad people as the Danes thought.

In return for this, V. and I would take public transport-- a bus again-- from Copenhagen to Stockholm, although the Danish government was quite suspicious of my motives, especially since V. had been cut loose by thieves with acetylene torches more than once.

While we were visiting the Vasa Museum in Stockholm Harbor, V. insisted that we find an indoor tennis facility. By wandering around in the dark mist used to preserve the excavated and re-assembled black timbers of the Vasa, we finally found someone who wasn't a tourist, and that guy told us where to go.

I know that all expenses are relative to what one has in one's pocket, but again, I found the indoor court time a bit too much.

V. however hit the ball very well. She didn't think much of my own backhand especially when I told her I was modeling it on Peter Korda that day.

"He does drugs," she said. "And I don't like Czechs." She stared at me in a way that suggested a different spelling of that word.

I would like to describe in full detail our dinner and time together, but that is a sore subject. I was hoping we could discuss the Magna Carta, but V. only wanted to speak of tennis technique.

"Your forehand, what you call it, the ATP forehand-- very interesting. But I think you should extend your arm more like Gulbis. And your other forehand, the crazy one with Hogan's secret. Once you tuck your elbow in like that, you're finished. It might work some day but you'll need a lot more invention. More likely, you'll hit the ball right up to the roof the way you just did."

[stotty]

Okker and autographs

I love that forehand at 1:16. It's relaxed and loose. He had no problem with high balls and could generate heavy topspin despite his continental grip. I watched him in the 70's at Earls Court in London playing someone I cannot remember. He moonballed with heavy topspin very effectively at times in that game. He could get as much topspin as Borg when he wanted.

Okker was/is small (and suffered from "small man syndrome" to a degree). He wasn't too friendly when I asked for his autograph as a boy years back. He was dismissive, off-hand. You remember these things all your life. (Nastase of the other hand was very friendly and ran all the way back down a corridor to sign my book...which I still have...which has a single page of signatures from Okker, Bob Lutz, Billy Martin, Corrado Barrazutti and Stan Smith...quite a page of autographs).

I also like the close up of the forehand volley after the backhand approach in the clip...for the same reasons as don_budge. He is clearly caressing it deftly crosscourt...killing any pace the ball had left in it...a simple put away after a well constructed point...lovely.

I could watch clips like that all day. Trust bottle to get us all started.

[don_budge]

Tom Okker's Dunlop Maxply? Is it longer than standard issue?

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

Tom Okker (The Flying Dutchman) and Marty Riessen (The Northwestern Hoopster) enter the stadium...Okker carrying four Dunlop Maxply’s and Riessen carrying just two Wilson Kramer’s. No luggage...no overnighters. Both players all dressed in traditional white. At .20 a classic tennis point...return of serve to the Riessen backhand followed up with a crosscourt forehand wide to the forehand. A reply to the backhand which is in turn answered with a drop shot. Riessen sensing the invitation to the net slides the ball deep into the backhand corner with a combination of underspin and sidespin and Okker puts up a high defensive lob followed by another lob until he is in position to change the momentum of the point where he immediately goes on the attack.

The next point that we are treated to is an Okker first serve to the Riessen backhand which draws a short ball upon which Okker seizes the initiative and slides a low sliding ball with sidespin into the Riessen backhand who in turn lobs...into the teeth of an Okker smash.

Next is a slow motion view of the lovely free and relaxed classic serving motion of Tom Okker. See how he makes that initial move with half a back swing to loosen himself up for the free flowing serve to follow. That is what is referred to in golf as a waggle. It is a preview of the swing to come. Nice slow backswing, the tempo of which is dictated by the movement and turning of his shoulders with the whole body engaged...a beautiful long follow through to match his swing on the other end. Is it a platform or is it a pinpoint? I will let you be the judge...but I think it is a platform with back leg swinging through. Now this might sound a little strange...but is his racquet longer than regulation or standard size? I swear that it looks like it is...or is it just that he is so diminutive?

One more thing...Okker hits a couple of forehand volleys in the purest of classic tradition. The racquet goes directly towards the ball in flight and never breaks the plane of his body going backwards in his backswing. No muss...no fuss.

He has elements of the modern forehand? Hardly...it is the other way around.