A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Should the Russian Lady's Elbow Go Down?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um5q7Lx107k

I had one question about Amina's serve after a few days from my first viewing of this video went by. Did Amina drop her elbow as part of a hammering motion after Pat Dougherty administered his corrective?

The answer: no. The elbow stays up until after contact. But the elbow still does drop just before the arm goes up and out from Amina's body. It drops more just then than in Dougherty's own motion, but clearly he wasn't concerned or he would have "corrected" that, too. And I noticed a bit of this same phenomenon in Totka's kick, and it was always present in Lindsay Davenport throughout her playing career.

We rotorded ones have to be concerned, have to remain on the lookout for anything that might help our condition unless we've decided to give up. We're going to need some good independent elbow movement, so let it be of the rising variety. And maybe it can go up better if previously it just went down.

My concern recently has been with scapular adduction, which seems directly related to this question. But in one of his videos, "the serve doctor" stresses, that, one ought to think more about the muscles on the front side of the body, i.e., across the chest. He wants a feel of pulling the racket over the shoulder.

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Whip or Hammer?

So, which will it be? The two things aren't the same, are they? You wouldn't want to whip a house together (# 1068). And what do we think about the tennis gurus who use these two terms interchangeably? Do we normally notice? But if, through a miracle of perception, we've detected this shift, this sudden change in point of view, what are we going to do about it? Should we deny these guys their reputations, their credibility forever? Seems a waste. Instead, let's choose the one of the two devices we like better on this particular day. And where are we in our match-- what's the score? That could matter.

[bottle]

Different Cylinders

How different is the golfer's cylinder of Percy Boomer and David Ledbetter from the tennis player's/quarterback's/baseball pitcher's cylinder of Pat Dougherty?

Boomer's: The imaginary cylinder you put around yourself is full body and especially useful to keep yourself from bending your knees TOO MUCH. (They would snag against the inside of the cylinder, Boomer noted.)

Dougherty's: The imaginary cylinder you put around yourself is rather a girdle from knees to armpits to turn that section of your body into the handle of a whip. Here's Dougherty's video on the subject once again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c06ToXPyJYA&feature=relmfu

I continue with my idea of developing separate figure 8 repeating pattern exercises for flat, slice and kick serves, but while keeping body from knees to armpits in one piece, even when there is big bend at the knees, which would slant that one piece a lot.

Oh, here's another video which seems pertinent. The five or four or three or two or one "shadow" swings to which Dougherty refers, coming just before actually hitting a ball into the back fence, are figure 8's, flat serve variety.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um5q7Lx107k

Toss-hit, toss-hit. The rhythm of this seems everything. Start with that and you should see some dramatic changes in technique without thinking about them too much.

[bottle]

Powerful Kick

Phil Picuri (gzhpcu) is right. We're caught in a Sisyphean cloud of biomechanic ideas (# 1058), each one promising the lucky solution to Totka-like kick.

Bad enough that we have to push a huge granite boulder up a hill in Hades, but to have to push in nimbus mist and never cumulus-- well, talk about adding insult to injury.

Today's idea, however, may be the exception that proves the rule. For at the close of yesterday's session, the tennis balls started flying much faster-- not what I wanted but splendid omen nevertheless.

The Pelikan brand indelible black inklings of a breakthrough started with more continuousness rather than less, viz. abandonment of double-clutch once and for all. Yes, the elbow does fall down and climb up, and then fall down and climb up again BUT NOT IN THE WAY ONE THOUGHT!

In fact, scapular adduction and scapular retraction can prove much the same depending on one's physical orientation. Scapular something can take the racket down with the aid of gravity and scapular something can take the racket up the other side of a Wagnerian gorge.

The difference from recent experiments is that the climbing racket is spinning constantly like a propeller. No longer is there slavish correspondence between the bending of the body as longbow and the clenching of the arm to a geometric right angle. We're so unnecessarily stuck to whatever we first learned.

And as for significant change of direction in the arm transition-- it's limited to ulna-to-radius wrist cock.

No, the right-hander bends and bends and bends some more until the racket tip, not upright like a skunk's tail, points downward like a skunked dog's tail to-- viewed from behind-- eight or seven or even to six o'clock.

With all of this happening early and soon as part of toss-and-lift!

Now the legs can drive completing the bend of the body into its fully cocked archer's bow.

This is what causes the racket to come down a few inches, not some awkward, inelegant double-clutch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds6CZ4qCXD4

Note: The arm took a sharp turn close to the body as it fell down, with the size of this move increased then by body turn.

The arm indeed went out sideways from the body (not forward or entirely backward) as it started its spinning climb.

What is the strings orientation just then? Perpendicular to the target! Well, can this orientation be held during the subsequent upside down hammer chop? Why not!!

One thinks of spinning body pushing arm around. Not! The body spins. The arm hammers upward. But these two actions go in different directions. They diverge.

Does horizontal body rotation keep hand under the ball? Yes. Does vertical body rotation help ball catch on strings just barely missing the upper frame? Yes.

Should arm stay in one relation with shoulders rather than going for a solo? At least past contact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c06ToXPyJYA&feature=relmfu

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How to Hammer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RiKFmKXPKs

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Listen to Everybody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYpeawQ2-EI&feature=related

Is such a course going to hurt you? Not if you're rotorded already.

[bottle]

Rachael Turnbull

This person with a large witness-ship first says 7 to 2, then indicates 9 to 2, and 9 to 2 with racket head following a curved path around the numbers rather than cutting across the clock face.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WYPioDix1I&feature=related

[bottle]

Reversal of Notion about Third 8

No, by now I think the elbow only goes up twice, and the second time, Naomi Totka is demonstrating the hammering or tomahawking motion she did as a 7-part exercise but upside down.

In addition as elbow rises upward for the second time, it curves to the side rather than following a linear path. Before, I took what I saw too literally, and I am first to admit it. The chopping down with the elbow was very straight. The chopping up with the elbow in the actual serve is on a curved path somewhat like a hook shot in basketball but for a very short path.

The shoulders meanwhile are combining end over end and horizontal rotations.

[bottle]

Double-Clutch and Pinky off End Throughout the Three 8's

Elbow up three times per 8 .

1) Down and UP finishing with bending of arm to a right angle.

2) Down in universal direction every time but UP in one of three possible directions.

There is time for a good hips-shoulders sequence. Spiraling hips equal all cocking of the arm. Shoulders however are saved for the hammer.

Rotorded servers, with whom my sympathies most lie, should try a return to the monumental hitting elbow of John Newcombe. That means taking elbow up higher than is regarded healthy during the toss. You wouldn't want to hit the ball with elbow that high. Arm would pull loose from its socket, or at least would if you were a plastic doll in a Vic Braden video. But little u-i won't take that chance. Our hammering, partially driven by downward scapular adduction, brings elbow to the normal place.

3) DOWNWARD IS UPWARD??? How can something go downward at this point? Doesn't make sense. Beep-beep, there goes the road-runner at bottom of the cliff. Well, shoulders are whirling up at the same time. So what's the sum of the actions, a positive or minus number? Two inches up.

I have to write like this before I go to the court at which time I will be swamped with new sensory impressions which might interfere with my concept.

Signed, Wile E. Coyote

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How I Think it Works Today

Totka-like kick, I mean.

The elbow goes down, then it comes up TO THE OUTSIDE to a VERY HIGH POSITION. At that point Totka is ready to hammer, and she does hammer, but the hammering elbow does not drop as in Totka's seven special demonstrations, because the hitting shoulder drives upward just then.

My point: The elbow is trying to come down for the third of three times but can't.

Immediate benefit is possible.

But, driving shoulder also goes forward, not just upward. So, does elbow independently go forward and then get wedged backward by the whirling shoulder? Does elbow independently fly forward as it tries to dive downward, thus keeping up with the whirling shoulder?

We'll find the answer in Chapter Twelve bankruptcy if Uncle Wiggily doesn't have a sciatic attack.

[bottle]

A New Service System Based on 8's

What I won't do: 1) change from right hand to left hand, 2) change from platform to pinpoint stance, 3) change gender.

All other changes are fair game. Question: Is this process desperate? Is it medical and remedial in nature?

No, no and no.

My readers could cite a thousand ways in which I am not the reincarnation of Pancho Gonzalez.

In one significant way, however, we are exactly the same, viz., when we see something in tennis we admire, we may go for it.

In my case, that would be the kick serve of Naomi Totka. Here's the video again that caused my burst of enthusiasm. Underneath it is a string of comments which taken together became more positive yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds6CZ4qCXD4

We, you, one, me, I-- it's all the same-- we start with Totka's finish up past her opposite shoulder. Here's where we'll create the artificial curlicue that enables us to perform linked Totka sick kick figure eights until the novelty at the end of time.

Figure eight or moebius strip, which is a 3D figure eight, i.e., the loops have depth, is pretty much the same idea, and if someone has trouble understanding this, they can watch Victoria Azarenka during a coin toss.

Next, we'll work on flat serve figure eights putting the curlicue down by the left leg which some of us may have done all along.

As to slice, I want a slice specific figure eight as well and think I'll put the curlicue halfway between the other two curlicues for now. You'll see me performing all three figure eights as I wait for heads or tails.

Then, once I've added the Roddick-Davenport double-clutch combined with better hammering technique (if anyone has trouble learning this, that anyone should bring in a hundred carpenter-consultants but a good shop teacher may do), this new service game will be ready for launch.

Note: I won't even think about concealment until I can get all three balls to do what I want.

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Pancho's Training and "Analysis"

A natural athlete, sure, but who isn't? And he definitely was lucky enough not to have had formal training. But he didn't use analysis? I don't know about that. I remember a TV broadcast with Chris Schenkel from Hilton Head where Pancho explains how Virginia Wade's service motion allows for the occasional errant toss. And I've heard for a long time about how, during his early development, he wandered from court to court looking for the best strokes to emulate. And his written instruction whether collaborative or not is very sharp.

Not a real difference here. Of course he was physically exceptional. What I'm trying to say is that he worked more through synthesis, characteristically, could take in a whole stroke at once and then make judgments, etc.

No reason that, having shopped among the available tennis voices and views, we can't emulate him IN THIS.

[bottle]

The Serve Doctor's Dilemma

Yes, I'm one, too, and so is every tennis player. And we can't do much about water running out of the pond without 10 locusts of earth-moving equipment and top of the line materials like Pontius Pilate's concrete that already could cure underwater to make a pier.

But a toss that rises then falls then rises again? I see that as overly morbid and fanciful. So, since we are indeed faced with a dilemma, let's limit the problem-solving and direct our energy solely upward at the fruit.

We'll give it to Tuesday. Then we'll have to bring in a carpenter, somebody who's hammered nails every day of his life.

He's got to have the answer about how and how much the arm opens as the elbow drives down.

[bottle]

Or Tantalus standing in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit always eluding his grasp and the water always receding before he can take a drink.

The fruit however seems close now, a controlled low toss.

[gzhpcu]

What I have always envied are the "natural" players, (like my hero Pancho Gonzalez, for example), who, without any traing, any analysis, just went out and did it close to perfection.

We mortals are engaged in an never-ending quest for perfection, analyzing every biomechanical nuance, in the hope of having finally solved the riddle (while the actual execution of what we find remains very elusive...). Somewhat like Sisyphus...