A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

In the rear-leg serve here envisioned the toss is almost violent and the leg drive controlled and precise.

The rear leg in fact will start to skate from a flat foot which will turn heel up as hips rotate into front leg stayed bent like a Tai Chi master whom one can't dislodge.

Orienting properly to the serve is more important than slowness of preparation which I have always thought paramount. Since initial downward action shallowly away from bod is part of toss strength, go fast. Make both arms go fast. The roll to square in ha keeps unwanted racket head momentum from becoming a problem. That roll neutralizes. The body turn backward lends force to ta. The arms straightening lend force to ta. Wanted: a speedier toss.

As a result of this, better and speedier upward orientation becomes possible. The real serve now begins with tossing arm a confident hold, not a miserable quaking wretch of a ta struggling from willpower alone to stay pointed upward when it really doesn't want to and would rather plunge early as it has done a million times.

Well maybe the bad plunge can now be used to advantage in which case it will be bad no more.

The starting place is ta's backward transition from 12:30 to 12:00 o'clock: That is a feel that needs to be perfect. When and only when it is perfect, reverse engineer from there. Speedy action will generate more time for perfect feel at the top.

Something needs to be slow in any serve but not what you (I) have thought. The serve begins from TDC. One count to TDC! All you know compressed into a single count and there you are at TDC (top dead center) with the ball starting to drop.

1 ppffutt two where two is the follow through.

At the end of 1, both legs are coiled. The rear leg now fires. Better, mentally speaking, to put front leg extension with the follow through even though it happens precisely at contact.

1 ppffutt 2 is rhythm for the serve. The ppffutt is many things but also a maximized short somersault from two different fulcra, 1) foot and 2) gut.

Correction: Brian Gordon just indicated in forward rotations thread that cartwheel comes first. Just before the ppffutt, my noise. I'm thinking that leftward lean must also happen just before the ppffutt. In the example of Federer. he seems to lean both forward and sideward, i.e., across the net at left fence post in a single outdoor court.

[bottle]

More Powerful or Faster Toss or Both

ha and ta are straight. ha now to rise four inches, not two. ta stays at rising a yard.

[bottle]

Small See See

Small lift to outside, small to inside. The word "small" also means relaxed.

Then a more pro-active wipe. You never get rid of the spot if you don't put some force into your wipe.

A difference of several inches between purchase points on the racket handle helps.

Swi-i-i-rrl wipe.

[bottle]

Editor in Two Ways

Can you edit moving sculpture? Can you edit your own words? For you will have to do both to become a teacher of stroke technique to others or to yourself.

Stroke technique? What a bad idea! Fake the dropshot and lob over the opponent's head.

A great idea that no one can carry out unless he has 1) a dropshot and 2) a lob and 3) the temperament of a fiend.

[bottle]

October 12, 2018 . I'll be happy to keep this short. Recently, however, I spoke of the death of Thomas Wolfe, one of America's great novelists ever. I know we don't do politics here now, but one of the strong points of this forum, in my view, is that it has permitted tennis players to explore areas of biography and other stuff that wouldn't normally seem a part of tennis discussion. And not just Stotty and I have discussed writing from time to time.

I recall from my pre-computer days reading that when Wolfe was dead and they opened his skull there was grotesque pressure inside. From that I connected to Oktoberfest and what I had heard of Wolfe and it. This direct account by Wolfe himself contradicts some of what I thought, so there could be other discrepancy too. And I don't claim to be a literary historian, e.g., I was off by ten years-- the beating apparently was in 1928, not 1938, which was the year of his death.

http://theamericanreader.com/4-octob...ine-bernstein/

[bottle]

Breaking one's Horrible Habit of Failing to Orient Properly

You will have to have viewed the pertinent video and read along on this topic. The solution will not reveal itself from one post alone.

Remember, we (I) are committed to Kramerserve. Which abbreviates the beginning of the toss by directing it sideways.

Both arms straighten on the down of downtogether-uptogether. And both arms do go down. But not very steeply. More away from the core.

The hitting arm (ha) also rolls open to square. The tossing arm (ta) cannot do that and must remain simple. The ta hand is in the shape of an ice cream cone holding one scoop.

ha next should rise two inches while ta rises a yard. Ball is released at half a yard with a half a yard more continuing in no-hesitate magnetized follow through.

From release one uses index finger to begin pointing at sky.

If you have a good one hand backhand, use the same scapular clench with which you conclude that stroke. The clench, along with lengthening of the sinews between shoulder and hip will add agency to your previously too lackadaisical toss.

To repeat, straight ha goes up two inches while straight ta goes up a yard.

Get a good body turn as hands go down. That adds swinging force to the toss as well.

Sorry for the hortatory tone-- almost a necessity, it seems to me.

When anybody decides to do how-to whether oral or written, they can use third person "one" or second person "you." Once you're in that "you" mode you are half-way to screaming at the person.

[bottle]

Having Fun with One's ppffutt

The ppffutt is a noise caused by sudden exhalation with a bit of voice chimed in. It is also code for external rotation of shoulder, external rotation of forearm, extension of wrist, elevation of elbow, passive straightening of arm at elbow, ulnar deviation, internal shoulder rotation and wrist flexion.

These are the seven upward rotations many of us have recently reacted to, designed to happen in .1 second. I choose my own words to possess them.

Seven is a lot of rotations to accomplish in .1 second. We abet the task by combining (1 through 3), (4-5) and (6-7). Now we have only three items to implement-- turning out, javelin throw and ulnar deviation.

Some might say I've left out the most important motion, viz., internal shoulder rotation and wrist flexion, but that must be unconscious so yes, I did leave it out. I hope to do all seven of the original items in one ppffutt.

I think I want to include lowering and bending of left arm in the .1 second ppffutt. What most initiates the ppffutt exactly when toss arm reaches Top Dead Center, in the form I'm using, is a big spring from rear leg with front leg still bent (though not for long).

[bottle]

No Toss High Enuf

It's two follow throughs, right?

Be pointing at the sky during both.

Two follow throughs on every serve, that is. I was in a unique position to evaluate this idea early this morning after I walked through Balduc Park, Detroit, to get to the indoor tennis place since my car is still down.

I have a history of lowering my toss arm too soon or not getting it high enough in the first place and wish to correct this fault. But my wish is pretty intellectual if I can't get to a practice court to install some new action.

No, I'm just going ahead and playing the way I think best. But I need a super cue if I really think I can bypass all necessary repetitions and discipline.

What might bridge the gap tomorrow night is taking the first follow through to within one inch of plumb line down from the sky. With index finger and hand then sliding sideways. I think I conceived of a two inch migration in the previous iteration. Just one inch next, Mrs. sport goddess, please.

In either case, this cue is similar to the image of hanging on to a steel ring to keep the arm up, substantially different only in that continuous motion is maintained.

I really am taken with Mencinger's cue of magnetized hand and ball so that hand seems to keep lifting ball even after it releases it. Suddenly my serves were flying high and bouncing high too.

Despite this, I was getting a little less work on the ball. Am hoping that time will naturally fix that. But a higher initial follow through way beyond ball release also seems the way to go.

Summary takes into account my decision to employ Kramerserve. On the down of down together and up together the toss arm swings out to side, which gives it some early energy. The hit arm falls but down a shallow runway while twisting the racket face open to square. On the up of downtogether and uptogether the straight hit arm only rises two inches. But the simultaneous toss arm really takes off with ice cream cone hand zooming beyond ball release to almost a pure vertical to the sky. Way up there in other words. If you want to do something extra from ball release point your index finger at the sky. Then complete the perfect vertical with one more inch of follow through still pointing up as bod and hitting arm separately bend.

[bottle]

Philosophy

How can a premise be false when it's pre-mize? Pre mean before. "mise" is the part where we examine the facts.

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No Toss High Enuf

A frequent problem for overly relaxed and lackadaisical players. It can result in a serve as bad as one's serve at the end of one's first week of playing tennis. Half a century later may be the time to do something about this.

(https://www.feeltennis.net/serve-toss-drill/)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5Q2Lc9AllM)

Here's what I propose for somebody developing basic Kramerserve structure. Although the following solution, addressing other unnamed problems as well, certainly does apply to the drive-off-rear-foot variation chosen by myself, I see it working in other forms too. Probably.

The solution: Not just more muscle and better pro-active mindset but a higher initial follow through to the motion of one's toss.

We western persons tend to be too schematic when designing experience for ourselves.

We break our toss into ridiculous halves. First half: Toss up to release. Second half: Toss from release up to top of follow through.

Reform, sinners!

To begin with, toss past release to close to top of follow through. Just leave a couple inches more for yourself to be pointing with index finger at high point in the planetarium when the one tenth of a second pffuttt begins.

See and feel the symmetry.

The straight hit arm in Kramerserve only rises a couple inches during the toss.

The straight toss arm, likewise, only rises a couple inches during the body and arm bend.

This is something you can practice with tears in your ears from lying on your back in your bed crying over you.

Reps while lying on back: 500 .

Or just five if you are a headstrong person out of a Henrik Ibsen play.

It's two follow throughs, right?

Be pointing at the sky during both.

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Forgive me my Hortatory Voice

An Irish poet, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, went absolutely batshit when she heard it.

But you see, I had exerience with actual teaching pros, guys and two women who don't mince words.

I guess I like to be told what to do. So I mimic the hortatory voice, turn half of me into an imaginary pro standing next to me and giving me clever orders.

[bottle]

In Response to Brent Abel's Good Sense

Changing hats is the ticket. Brent is right about that. When you are a player you are not a teacher. But when you are a teacher you might be a research scholar, i.e., "student of the game," something that maybe should happen two months ahead of play.

The trouble is, that, when you always are trying something new, you occasionally find something that immediately works (not often but it happens). Would you want to incubate it for two months? Of course not!

Present conniptions in my pursuit of Kramerserve come from keeping front leg bent while firing the rear leg so that the .1 second throw will actually pull the front leg straight so that the nose and mouth may be rising a little at contact. (A gross image perhaps but better than if they went down.)

Circumstance forced trial of these court-connected serves along with a bunch of holds, at least that happened today.

The key factor seemed adherence to the notion of a .1 second throw starting from slight bend of arm at elbow and ending at contact.

Rhythm of the whole serve then is down together up together, two-inch arm-lift-and bend, .1 second throw, absorbent follow-through.

Or 1-2 pffuttt and slow.

These serves tried not in practice but immediate combat weren't great but good with a chance of becoming great.

[bottle]

An Especially Good Essay from Brent Abel

James Clear is one of my favorite online writers - https://jamesclear.com/ .

I’ve mentioned him before in a few of my posts.

He gets straight to the point, is very clear (pun sort of intended), and James is a tremendous story teller.

In today’s email from James, he wrote …

“The mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead wrote, “Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.””

Which of course got me thinking about our tennis.

Our skill level in tennis advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.

One of the challenges I’ve faced as a competitor is to try and play my matches with my tennis teaching hat … off.

It’s waaaaay too easy for me as a teaching pro to consciously try and make strokes happen and then also analyze my opponent’s stroke technique.

No bueno …

And even if you’re not a teaching pro who loves to compete, but instead you’re a student of the game who loves to compete, it’s easy to fall into a trap of over thinking technique … especially as you play points.

So I believe it holds true with our skill level in tennis — the more we can automate our strokes, the more we can concentrate on actually “playing the game”.

And to me, learning to play the game — advancing your skill level — is mostly about absorbing and sticking to which shot to shot patterns work well for you and which patterns tend to get you in trouble.

The more you focus on manufacturing stroke technique, the less you learn about yourself in relation to those winning and losing shot patterns.

So how do we actually automate stroke technique so that you can trust it — set it and forget it — in your matches?

You pare out every little technical thing that doesn’t help you become a more consistent shot maker.

Tom Stow used to tell me ... "That little flair on top of your backswing is artificial. Get rid of it".

Mr. Stow's time with me was to teach me how to get as minimalistic as possible with stroke technique.

I thought when I first went to see him that he'd have some kind of totally different way of hitting the ball.

He did.

But yet he didn't add one thing to create that something new.

Instead, Tom removed this and that so that I could end up with a totally different way ...

Winning more matches is simply about putting more balls in play. It’s easy math.

The more complex your stroke technique is … the more that can go wrong and the more your mind will be consumed with manufacturing each and every shot.

The answer is to simplify technique so much that it becomes super easy to automate and repeatable in matches.

This is way easier said than done. Not that I’m letting you off the hook here.

It takes an organized player to sift through the enormous information overload we now have online.

But at some point, if you’re ever going to automate your strokes, you’ll have to stop ‘getting ready to get ready’, stop looking for that golden nugget that you can add to what you already have, and instead, trust that simplicity will allow you to learn how to play shot patterns that are optimal for your uniqueness.

If you’re a young buck of 8 years old, and you’ve got Uncle Tony, and you’ve got all day on the court to work on technique, and you’ve been blessed with an insane level of athletic talent, and you’ve got a burning desire to be world #1, then yeah, make that stroke technique as complex as you want.

But if that’s not you, then let’s simplify, let’s pare away anything not needed, and let’s begin to automate stroke technique so that you can … advance civilization ;-)

The best way to know which parts of your current stroke technique that aren’t really needed is to get yourself on video.

It’s so easy to do now. And it’s the BIGGEST reality check if you’re serious about wanting to become a better tennis player.

You’ll want a coach who gets the idea of simplicity and who has a keen eye for this stuff. Lots of teaching pros out there have this skill.

If you don’t have that person in your area, then reply to this email and let’s see if you and I can work out you getting me a short video of whatever stroke it is you want to simplify.

And on that note it’s time to get out there and help someone else have an amazing day :-)

Brent

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Interesting. I heard Hemingway wrote between 500 and a 1000 words a day; Stephen King 2000 words a day. Is this do you think in terms of a finished product, or just drafts and tinkering? Franz Kafka would write a short story in a single sitting. He wrote The Judgement in a single sitting, starting at 10pm and finishing at 6am.

I don't think I could ever write a book. I wouldn't be able to stop tinkering and trying to make things slightly better. I'd never finish the thing.

Didn't you once say Nabokov would sketch beautiful drawings in the margins of his work? It always fascinates me the habits and working methods of accomplished writers.

I don't think Nabokov drew pictures in the margins of his own fiction, but when he was talking about other writers yeah, he might do that.

I know because Nancy Hale's husband J. Fredson Bowers, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia got me into the UVA library's cork-lined, atmosphere-controlled literary treasure room.

Most spectacular is a tall watercolor of Emma's hat from N.'s teaching copy of EMMA BOVARY. Which he used at Cornell, Wellesley or Harvard or all three.

Whether in N's notes or in another teaching copy-- can't remember which-- there's a diagram of Gregor Samsa the dung beetle's apartment in Kafka's "The Metamorphosis." That drawing looks like it was done by an architect or engineer. Besides being a butterfly collector and the author of LOLITA, N. was a chess expert (and tennis teaching pro) who wanted to know where everything was.

A couple of years ago I picked up a book carrying reproductions of everything I saw. Cost: $1 in a Michigan estate sale: VLADIMIR NABOKOV: LECTURES ON LITERATURE, 385 pages edited by Fredson Bowers with an introduction by John Updike.

The Bowers are gone. I never saw them together for more than a minute but I miss them.

Interesting the different amounts of pages or words that different writers produce and how that works for them. I guess that the more fast and furious somebody writes, the more they need to revisit with a really good second draft. Second draft is often the best even when there are six or seven.

Compared to everybody else, Thomas Wolfe must have been a volcano. He got mad because he thought Perkins got too much credit thanks to his cuts and edits for the excellence of LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL (which I am re-reading with nothing but delight right now). My copy has a black loop on the cover indicating that the Brit owners of a recycling bookstore in Winston-Salem decided it was worthless and gave it away for free.

Those bad Brits! But I'm glad I'm the one who got it.

Despite his split from Scribners, Thomas Wolfe (not Tom Wolfe) considered Maxwell Perkins his best friend for the rest of his short life. He got conked on the head (supposedly with a full pitcher of beer) at Oktoberfest, Munich and a few years later died from brain tumors.

[stotty]

How Much Wood Should A Writer-Chuck Shuck?

I read somewhere, perhaps in E.M. Forester, that Sir Walter Scott wrote every morning until he had three-and-one-half pages then around 10 a.m. got on his horse.

That Thomas Mann only wrote one-and-one-half pages but polished it a lot.

Nancy Hale, descendant of Nathan and first woman reporter for The New York Times and later a successful short story writer and novelist became a mentor of mine after Jean Valentine, someone who later won the National Poetry Award, arranged a private reading for me in front of Nancy and Jean at the MacDowell Colony.

Nancy, I believe, managed to write five pages a day (far more than I). She and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings were the two women writers taken on by the most famous American editor ever Maxwell E. Perkins at Scribners Publishing House.

Neither was Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald or Thomas Wolfe but still... And one of the last things Nancy ever said to me was, "You'll be all right." I am not entirely sure that is true. (Car has still not been taken into the mechanic's garage next door.)

And Perkins says this in his next to last paragraph of his introduction to LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL, referring to the mountains around Asheville, North Carolina.

"Wolfe was in those mountains-- he tells of the train whistles at night-- the trains winding their way out into the great world where it seemed to the boy there was everything desirable, and vast, and wonderful.

"It was probably that which made him want to see everything, and read everything, and experience everything, and say everything. There was a night when he lived on First Avenue that Nancy Hale who lived on East 49th Street near Third Avenue, heard a kind of chant, which grew louder. She got up and looked out of the window at two or three in the morning and there was the great figure of Thomas Wolfe, advancing in his long country-man's stride, with his swaying black raincoat, and what he was chanting was, 'I wrote ten thousand words today-- I wrote ten thousand words today.'"

Interesting. I heard Hemingway wrote between 500 and a 1000 words a day; Stephen King 2000 words a day. Is this do you think in terms of a finished product, or just drafts and tinkering? Franz Kafka would write a short story in a single sitting. He wrote The Judgement in a single sitting, starting at 10pm and finishing at 6am.

I don't think I could ever write a book. I wouldn't be able to stop tinkering and trying to make things slightly better. I'd never finish the thing.

Didn't you once say Nabokov would sketch beautiful drawings in the margins of his work? It always fascinates me the habits and working methods of accomplished writers.