A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Using Mule to Invigorate one's Mulch Pie

How are new tendrils going to push through the leaves if you haven't built your pile with proper detritus in the first place?

When my ex-wife and I were farmers for the Jay Hambidge Foundation in Rabun Gap in the steep mountains of northern Georgia, we worked with a famous Southern gardener named Marie Mellinger.

Her name, which to me suggests the Slovenian teaching pro Tomaz Mencinger, was in retrospect appropriate to somebody with a green thumb.

Marie knew of a barn on the Hambidge premises (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Hambidge) (https://www.moma.org/artists/62438) that was full of mule droppings from top to bottom, and no one had made use of them in sixty years.

Susan and I used the farm's ancient red Ford pickup truck to carry all that mulch load by load the half mile to Marie's famous garden.

Having studied four years worth of Latin, all I could think of was that we were cleaning the Augean Stables, a not nice job (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/stables.html).

But mule droppings, not the same as other manure, loved a nice clean shovel and had the slightest of sweet odors if any.

This is how one improves one's tennis strokes. There may not be a better way.

[bottle]

Serve in which the ta (toss arm) , shoulders and he (hitting elbow) are in line: How many Experiments?

Well, the difference between starting with arm straight and arm fully bent is a racket range of about 180 degrees. Answer then: 180 experiments.

[bottle]

So Embarrassing

It is so embarrassing to have to say you are good at something. But that is what all the kids in the Betsy DeVos charter schools of Detroit seem to be asked to do.

As a guest teacher, I decided to do their written exercise myself. And so I wrote:

I'm really good at the stroke known as "volley" in tennis. I hit it in a special way-- a combination of increasing finger pressure and opening of the racket face. This blended move works best when done from out in the hand. The whole arm doesn't rotate but only the tip of the arm. The wrist can be straight.

To work on this shot I use a verbal cue and hit a ball against a bangboard off of one bounce even though that seems counter-intuitive. Volleys are hit in the air not off of a bounce. But the practice bounce gives one extra time to get the finger pressure correct not only for smoothness but direction of outgoing shot. The verbal cue I use is "Twist the racket simultaneous with finger pressure application as if you are undoing a stuck lid on a peanut butter jar."

[bottle]

Yet Another Iterations March

The basic javelin-style serve recently put up by gzhpcu in the twist vs. forward rotation thread lines up toss arm with shoulders line and hitting elbow. The arm bends to a squeezed trophy position as knees and bod bend. A lot of action happens from there to contact.

But kick serve as taught to "almost anyone" by Chris Lewit appears quite different, with elbow way above the shoulders line. What's coming to mine right now is an interjection of bent arm elbow rise to substitute for bending of straight arm in same timing slot.

This is radical self-authorization.

The downtogether-and-uptogether will be with both arms straight for flat and certain slice serves.

The same rhythm may be carried out with ha (hitting arm) kept bent for kick (preparation).

Extremely flexible servers can hit good kick from straight arm preparation but I can't, at least so far.

And so I feel I most accomplish my kick purpose another way.

The immediate area for exploration thus emerging is less early bending of the arm than have been doing in the kick form.

The same compression of arm before triceptic extension may be able to occur in both forms.

The right angled or more squeezed arm shall get that way higher for kick (the experiment).

But if results prove negative there could be a return to bent arm squeezing to fully closed as elbow rises for kick.

Note to self: Don't even think about the serving of Novak Djokovic, a guy so flexible he can hit any serve he wants from bent arm construction all the way.

What may work however in the bending rather than bent arm serves is bending arm less while lifting elbow so that racket still points toward the sky.

Or, pushing the same idea still further, go directly to the higher elbow position on the downtogether-uptogether then bend the arm less.

[bottle]

Should we Resist Ideas that may Interfere with our Beautiful Athleticism?

Yes before a match. No before a practice.

I'm thinking of Tomaz Mencinger's radical departure from conventional unit turn instruction, his idea of turning shoulders back more than hips.

I haven't heard or yet found Mencinger's explanation for this although he is fabulous at explaining anything.

So I offer the following experiment: A bit of resistance in legs as shoulders turn back. Legs then to relax to let the shoulders pull them. The hips thus turning reverse direction to create centrifugal force in a loose arm.

[bottle]

More Hop on Serve from Following the Path of Greatest Resistance

A friend, Gretchen Ruff, gave me the beautifully bound book full of blank pages in which I write at this moment.

The corners are rounded. The cover, black, displays my name, "Bot," in metallic paint.

The company that made this book, Shinola, has diverse products. It was brought to Detroit because somebody liked the saying associated with this company which existed elsewhere before.

I've written on the first page the famous words: "Can you tell shit from Shinola?" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/know_shit_from_Shinola)

A black ribbon swings down from the book's spine to mark the present page.

At almost 80, despite my trick or lapsed shoulder, I'm getting more hop on my serve and will test it today, an early Sunday morning, against a group of enthusiasts not all of whom are seniors.

The kick serve, though not of the great veering kind, nevertheless bounces higher than it used to, high enough, one hopes, to be uncomfortable for any opponent.

Bod is turned around. Forward twist of bod is eschewed in favor of forward somersault. Elbow stays turned around even as it moves forward. It has no place to go but up so long as I maintain intent to murder an imaginary spot down on the court.

[bottle]

Trick Shoulder Tricky Kick

While being aware (too aware) of having a trick shoulder, I don't know how much its lapsedness impairs or does not impair my ability within the complex structure of a tennis serve to get my elbow high.

Of first importance: At the end of downtogether-uptogether the racket must be perpendicular to rear fence or more.

Second, there needs to be space between one's elbow and one's bod. The farther back the elbow, the higher it already is.

Third, the more the elbow goes around the less it will go up. So plan not to let it go around at all. This will create something akin to a hook shot in basketball in which the elbow does go up.

Fourth, know exactly when you wish to lower left arm (not until beginning of triceptic extension) and when exactly you wish to drive the legs (simultaneous with triceptic extension). Fire the extensors baby!

What happens between the toss and the firing of the extensors is the prime time of loading without which nothing else matters.

The core elements for this are straightforward just as a somersault is straightforward.

The arm until now a mystery can hook the racket decisively forward from both shoulder and elbow joints.

As a believer in cues more than anything that actually happens, I choose a spot on the court a foot to the left of my left foot. If I drive the racket with full intention to murder that spot the elbow will go up. It has to.

And once arm is fully squeezed the upper arm twisting to load will take the racket head slightly to the right.

[bottle]

Don't Film your Serve

Wait for five days.

But my second graders were tired of being read to. So we made a film in selfie mode so they could see themselves as they mugged into my phone. This led to a follow-up film. The girls gnashed their teeth in preparation for eating the boys. The teacher interviewed the boys to see how they felt about it. Think I'll watch these two films again right now.

[bottle]

The TED is Almost 360 Degrees of Racket Travel

"Constructing the Kick" (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members..._the_kick.html).

[bottle]

Forehand Maintenance

excavation spring
outside inside straight
outside inside lag
upward downward lag
knees breeze
lag to straight
lag to elbow
compress ball and roll
roll and flair
racket head stick
in air

[bottle]

Weird Serves from the U.S. Open

Francis Tiafoe has a different way of taking Ha up. Another fellow started with Ha all the way up. He only lasted one or two rounds, but he made it to the U.S. Open, yes he did, and that is all I need to know. Ha all the way up before Ta goes down and up is what I'll do in self-feed this morning, and I will play in excellent competition-- next level from this summer-- at 6 p.m. tonight. That is if I have the stamina to do both things. My resumption of guest teaching MWF has led immediately to a cold or virus, and I need to be very careful when the subject is respiratory stuff.

But, Stotty has let me know the importance of slight variation in elbow level. And Tennischiro long ago expressed displeasure at a toss which comes from too far back. Both pieces of advice will figure today. Anything that anybody says ever can make a huge difference to someone like me.

If anyone asks me (doubtful) why I start my serve with Ha already up, I will answer, "Because I have a trick shoulder."

[bottle]

It might be a good investment. It's tough to raise the elbow to the right degree on your own as you are relying on your own imagination to do the trick.

It's a quick fix if you have an assistant on hand to stop the elbow dropping. After 100 serves with an assistant, you will get the feeling for it and be good to go.

I'm sure you're right. But it's gotten to the point of being an intellectual challenge. I want to see, if, working with the camera (an almost unlimited reality, really, when you have a cheap tripod and the camera is just your phone). Filming is so easy, and I've never had the chance to film anything before, yet have been curious, just as I am about script-writing (see the book STORY by Robert McKee). But, if after the 30th filming, I'm still dropping it, I will go to Aziz, a young teaching pro who says he wants to be just like me when he gets old. He sees me working on my strokes alone and likes that, I guess. I got to play with him once and when we got to 5-0 and I was serving for it, I got behind (because I was dropping my elbow) and Aziz said, "Don't falter now, John." No one had said that since my classics professor in college. He (Professor Workman) used to play a game called DOOM, and after months of everybody trying to solve the same problem, which concerned authorial bias in the great book by Thucydides, I was close to the answer. Only one or two of the 20 handpicked persons would be lead speaker for the two hours, and I was up, and Professor Workman said, "Don't falter, Mr. Escher." Well, in both cases I managed to prevail but if I told this story before I apologize. I sure do think about it a lot as I myself teach now three days a week. A beautiful girl in the same class, Penny Ritscher, married an Italian guy and they started a private school in Florence. She recently came out with a book called SLOW SCHOOL. I don't read Italian but am sure it's about going slow when you teach or are trying to learn.

[stotty]

I Don't Like the Serve. The Elbow Still is Low. I Can't Believe This.

When Serena's elbow is low, Patrick Mouratoglou (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Mouratoglou) gets close and pushes it back up.

I haven't yet hired anyone to do that for me.

It might be a good investment. It's tough to raise the elbow to the right degree on your own as you are relying on your own imagination to do the trick.

It's a quick fix if you have an assistant on hand to stop the elbow dropping. After 100 serves with an assistant, you will get the feeling for it and be good to go.

[bottle]

I Don't Like the Serve. The Elbow Still is Low. I Can't Believe This.

When Serena's elbow is low, Patrick Mouratoglou (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Mouratoglou) gets close and pushes it back up.

I haven't yet hired anyone to do that for me.

But I can stand by a mirror and push my elbow to where I think it belongs. So why not the instant I record myself hitting serves?

A camera lies, but not as much as people fooling themselves.

Determination shall solve the problem by placing an imaginary steel band around the top of my ears to hold my elbow sufficiently in.

But that reduces the amount of forearm fall I want, so arm up there is apt to be half straight.

When these changes have been instituted, I shall record again.

[bottle]

Rate the Tripod

I ignore all the repeated requests from Amazon to rate my $20 delivered Chinese tripod, but I'll tell you here, reader, since you seem respectful today: I rate it highly. Just don't want to step on it or catch it in a door. It's frail.