A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

You Gotta Do Those Dishes

This is Earth to Major Steve. You been practicing your layup? Been going to the dentist? Been stuck in the Amazon conversion machine? A big translation job came down? Swedish Nobel Committee Critique of Norwegian Nobel Committee in English with a copy in Magyarul to Pest? Horse pooped upon? Literary agented? Been Stig Larsoned?

[bottle]

Pro-Mondo Army on the Surge!

If kinetic chain distracted from deceleration-acceleration, how about reverse action? Bane or benefit?

Well, reverse action works almost too well in old-fashioned ground strokes making for good power and slightly poor accuracy. That's where the arm is still winding back while the shoulders are winding forward.

Djoker doesn't do that. But his wrist does wind back while his shoulders are winding forward. The arm, though? No, he saves it. It's solid with the body until he stops the body.

All reports from the front indicate that the Anti-Mondo Army has paid off the peasants to turn in anyone who looked at them funny for imprisonment in Guantanamo.

[bottle]

Anti-Chaos for Auntie and Uncy

If you're looking at films, why do you need me or anybody to tell you about the films? Because A) films like words obscure tennis and B) As Jon Lovitz might cry, "You're lazy and don't really want to look at the films as much as you should!"

Let's search for a unifying principle today in the forehand ground stroke technique of Djoker, Nadal, Federer, Murray, Ferrer, all good one-handed topspin backhands and all good two-handed topspin backhands.

You can, in fact, sift through the videos of the top 20 players, men and women, to pan out this gold or can simply take it from one player right here in the repeating video, fifth furniture down, in "Suffering and Service Returns: Novak and Rafa and the 2012 Aussie Final." Note how close the stoppage of Djoker's shoulders is to his contact with the ball.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strategy/craig_o_shannessy/suffering_and_service_returns/

Here's the principle: Body turn, no body turn, body turn. That means abruptly stopping the body on every modern ground stroke so that the arm then flies. "Deceleration-acceleration," Vic Braden called it. Of course he delineated kinetic chain in excruciating detail as well, and the two ideas taken together succeeded in manufacturing chaos. Maybe the young Braden had a tournament that week and wanted to make sure that he won.

So let's just stick with deceleration-acceleration. Freezing stomach muscles and any other devices you can think of stop the whirling body so that the arm flies. Once arm has flown, body can continue to rotate.

[bottle]

That's right brain (the image part). But right brain language could give even more shape to the image-- take it a step closer to something that would work on the court SOON.

Hey, I know I lose people sometimes. Goes with the territory. But what I aspire to is different.

Maybe an actual poet-- a tennis-loving poet like Richard Wilbur could do it.
But younger. Richard Wilbur is well into his nineties by now.

Wouldn't that be amazing? Beautiful language yet language that everyone could understand? Because the language would speak immediately to the human hand?

There was a writer over here named Wallace that everybody decided was the cat's pajama. Actually, he had been a promising junior tennis player. I usually hold off on my literary judgments because I know they're apt to change after 10 or 12 years, which is when I'll be ready to read Mr. Wallace. Because I was thoroughly turned off by the article he wrote on Roger Federer's forehand in The New York Times Magazine. In any case, the poor bastard killed himself, so I certainly can't feel jealous. And I HATE suicides. We're supposed to feel sympathy, but a better response, when you consider what that act does to the people left behind, is total awareness of the total selfishness of the scrawny, boil-infested mutt.

[stotty]

So, if you agree on that as advisable action, how's the best way to go about it? Read books? Watch videos exclusively? Play only, never watch?

Reading books certainly won't do it. You're a good writer and it isn't always easy to follow your explanations and relate them to an image of you carrying out a certain stroke.

No, videos are definitely the most powerful tool for conveying to students how to do x, y, and z.

The most important thing after that is to practice mentally. When I was a kid I used to practise tennis strokes mentally whenever I was involved in anything boring or mundane...like school. I would envisage myself carrying out wonderful strokes, hitting passing shots, serving aces...it works...you can improve a shot simply by working on it mentally.

[bottle]

Words and the Right Brain Topspin Backhand

Winston-Salem, N.C., 2002 . Bea Bielik, on her way toward winning the NCAA singles championship is demolishing everybody in sight. This is an earlier season tournament at the Wake Forest University Indoor Tennis Facility-- which gives home court advantage to the 6-foot Beatrix named after King Matyas' wife, the sixteenth century queen of Hungary. "Bielik's main weapon," according to Wikipedia, "was her powerful serve, which happened to be a major cause of injuries." A bit of revealing sports trivia lies in that concluding biographical statement along with its slight inaccuracy. For the Budapest born but very American Bea offered another main weapon, her backhand-- one rather similar to that of Richard Gasquet, I would and do say.

As I wander around speaking to everybody in the audience sitting or standing on the high ship's bridge separating the two extensive sets of playing courts but concentrating especially on formidable and pretty players, I notice a consensus of opinion beginning to emerge. The subject isn't Bea's overwhelming serve-- for there are some other great serves in the building-- but the very quirkiness of any great one hander. How many people in the world actually have one?

Bea's is clearly superior to all the two-handers that ten college women's teams under the same roof can produce but also to the one or two other one handers.

"I can't understand it," a nationally ranked (high up) two hander probably from Duke, UNC, Clemson, Michigan or some other big place says. "I just don't see how she gets all that topspin, and all that pace, and all that consistency and accuracy. It's very strange. How does it work? I have no idea."

Perfecting a one hander in a single lifetime of course is a joke. That's why we see David Letterman miming his on late night television.

Golfers mime their strokes, too. And not just weekend warriors. Jack Nicklaus told Cliff Drysdale that he has fiddled around with his strokes for every day of his life.

So, if you agree on that as advisable action, how's the best way to go about it? Read books? Watch videos exclusively? Play only, never watch?

I say, read, talk and all of the above. But of course I would say "read" since I'm a writer. I just think that on-court coaching and watching models isn't enough. Too much explanation is involved as one acquires one's strokes which we've already decided is a lifetime process.

This does of course suggest left brainedness, that bane of tennis, the tendency to atomize, the famous paralysis by analysis in which a centipede has a major breakdown.

For psychologists, those labellers, tend to view language as left brain. But isn't the truth in that idea limited to the language of scheming logic and quarry and attack? Poetic and visual language draws an exemption in my view.

[stotty]

I'm part way thru reading your book The Last Words of Richard Holbrooke. I'm enjoying the read and agree with much of what you say.

Amazing, isn't it, that the educated people who run our respective countries haven't learnt from history and the mistakes made in the past. Brings to mind a quote (and the title of a chapter in one of his books) by Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

"Education doesn't make you smarter"...could be some truth in that.

[bottle]

Great responses. I love learning a bit of rhyming cockney slang and what to call a suit. And as for letting the interviewer off the hook, I agree. But I was madly editing myself on the run and trying not to be abrasive on the subject of 1 per cent complacency--had to!--throughout. Federfore, Ferrerfore, Ziegenfuss, Backhand, Slice Backhand, Net Game, Latin Dance Serve all coming your way in video just as soon as it gets warm and my sprained left leg heals a bit and I've found a paper publisher for my tennis book. But I'm going to play dubs tonight inside-- last week was so much fun. Doubt if I can be zoned out twice in a row but what the hell.

[stotty]

But, most of all, I want to see some video of your Federfore, or even better, your slice backhand. Come on, give us a peek in a youtube video. I guarantee you'll get a lot of feedback!

all the best,
don

I agree, that would be wonderful to see...

[tennis_chiro]

Ditto, but I want to see you hit that backhand!

I loved the interview, John. It's funny actually seeing you after imagining you as I've read your blog (or TLWORH). I think I'd have liked to see you standup at the end of the interview so we got the full sense of your height.

But I thought you left the interviewer off a little light when he asked you what you meant by being engaged in current affairs. Your voice is so much stronger about how wrong the whole Afganistan situation is for us.

But, most of all, I want to see some video of your Federfore, or even better, your slice backhand. Come on, give us a peek in a youtube video. I guarantee you'll get a lot of feedback!

all the best,
don

[stotty]

Link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ABvVJnG2F0

Link for the books: http://goo.gl/VX6Xs

Lovely interview, bottle. You came across as candid, which is the most important thing in the world in an interview. I really liked you a lot. You are everything I'd thought you'd be. You're different... that's a compliment...hope you take it that way.

I think I'll go and buy that Afghanistan book of yours...

Great to see you looking so smart in a "whistle and flute"...that's cockney rhyming slang for a suit...ever heard of cockney rhyming slang, bottle? I'll teach you some:

apples and pears = stairs
dog and bone = phone
mutt and jeff = deaf

Probably all double Dutch to you, but it's a whole language over here

Just purchased The Last Words of Richard Holbrooke...

[bottle]

Link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ABvVJnG2F0

Link for the books: http://goo.gl/VX6Xs

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Video isn't uploading yet. YouTube says to wait a few minutes. Uh-huh.

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In Praise of a Ziegenfuss

In A NEW YEAR'S SERVE, the book, I define a Ziegenfuss (a goat foot) simply as a forehand in which hand travels toward the oncoming ball before the body chimes in. This is very much a "spring don't swing" forehand.

Well, how significant or rather pronounced is the hand travel, and aren't there all kinds of forehand in the universe in which a person doesn't drive from the back fence any more than a good golfer gets vigorous from the top of his backswing?

All I can say is that in my other forehands, I drive off the sole of the foot pretty soon-- so this one is different.

It's small, efficient, and has improved recently thanks to Geoffrey Williams talking about keeping hands together in a one hand backhand.

What you try on one side you then will try on the other if you are anything like me.

Having guide hand farther down on the racket creates ease in getting the racket head back-- farther. It creates time, too, since you no longer are pointing at side fence just on this one shot.

The double snowplow image works well on this shot. From a small C-loop the left hand ploughs slowly toward the net followed by right hand doing the same.

Delay seems a crucial component of best athletic movement. If I don't send both snowplows forward I'm not taking enough time on the shot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's a video of myself which I succeeded in putting up just minutes ago. We can see together if the new link will work. I'm trying to use this video to promote my three books, one of which is A NEW YEAR'S SERVE: PERSONAL TENNIS STROKE DESIGN.

Link for the video: http://youtu.be/6ABvVJnG2FO
Link for my books: http://goo.gl/VX6Xs

[bottle]

Using Injury for Health and Profit

What a strange time to zone out-- when you're hurt. It surely did help that my third partner, John Cutter, had a shock and awe forehand that neither of our opponents could return-- not once.

But I played well throughout the evening. Pure desire to play must have been part of the reason. Also, I made conservative decisions to honor my injury, choosing to go with the mildest of my forehands although pretty soon I may have to call it my best. Starting out slow and gradually working into one's shot shouldn't be a new idea for me or anyone, but sometimes we need a reminder.

Here's a true story: When I told the above scores to Hope, who likes to advertise herself as a simple and very upfront person, she said, "Who gives a damn!"

At net, the timing seemed good, and in serves, something good happened the closer I brought the racket edge to the ball.

Thanks for listening, reader. I have to add that there was a price: Barely being able to walk at first every time I got out of a chair the next two days.

Tomorrow my physical therapy at the hospital resumes. Ten minutes of heat to start, almost an hour of exotic exercises, ten minutes of ice to finish. I hope that Jennifer won't be horrified that I played three sets.