A New Year's Serve

[stotty]

Fitness

I cannot fully remember what Korda's defense was against the charges of taking steroids. But I seem to remember he denied knowingly taking any banned substance but failed to come up with the source of how it came to be in his bloodstream. But I believed Korda and pronounced him innocent at the time and still do.

The stop/start nature of tennis makes it totally unnecessary to take performance enhancing drugs. There is no rally a naturally fit young player cannot recover from given the luxury of a 20 second break. Contrast this with the relentless drone of running or cycling. Athletes who take performance drugs in these sports have an overwhelming advantage over athletes who run or cycle clean.

I know a lot about fitness. I was fanatically fit when I was young to the point of it being on the brink of a mental disorder. I was completely in tune with my body and what it could do. On this basis, I am convinced what I say about players gaining little or no advantage by taking steroids to be true.

Everyone has a "basic fitness" level. In players like Borg and Federer this basic fitness level is very high. Other players like Murray have to work a lot to become fit an stay there. Once players stop training they will gradually plummet back to their basic fitness level - the one that nature set for you. But whether you are a Borg or Murray, with work, you can dramatically increase your level of fitness (naturally, without drugs) to cope with even the toughest rigours of the game

I am confident in what I say. I have never been a top player or experienced such demanding rallies within my own game, but I have done equally demanding things in my youth in terms of fitness - probably more. I know few would believe me, but it's true: Players don't need to take drugs to reach their best performance. With a good fitness regime they can do it naturally using the body they were born with.

[tennis_chiro]

Sadly, Korda will just be remembered as a cheat. I never saw him that way, never will.

I forgot all about that. It's pretty sad. I wonder if it had something to do with him coming back after more than a year missed with groin surgery. He certainly didn't look like he was doing steroids. What was his defense at the time?

Kind of a lesson in there about how much the cost can be for getting involved in any way with PED's.

don

[stotty]

Poor Petr

Sadly, Korda will just be remembered as a cheat. I never saw him that way, never will.

[tennis_chiro]

Petr Korda

Petr Korda must be one of the most underrated players of the last 20 years. His strokes are a wonderful template for constructing a complete modern game. He does not hit as heavy a ball as our current top players, but he is not far behind. In fact, it is because he does not hit as heavy a ball that I think he might be a better model for most players to emulate. Simple straight backswings with the racket head up followed by a simple "J" or "C" shaped forward swing with relatively conservative grips and penetrating groundstrokes that put him in the driver's seat in the point. His footwork and balance are a wonder to behold. He did best on hard courts, but he had a complete game.

How many players in that period have won both a Grand Slam singles and a Grand Slam doubles championship? Were ranked in the top 10 in doubles as well as 2nd in singles? Won 10 doubles titles as well as 10 singles titles? There are others, although Rafter was the only one I could find who won at least 10 doubles titles in recent years. In 1993 he beat Sampras and Stich in consecutive matches to win the $2,000,000 first prize in the Grand Slam Cup. He was one of the best players of his time and seems to have been virtually forgotten.

We often talk about the best players never to have won a major, but here is a player who won a major in singles and doubles and seems to have been swept from the general collective memory. He was really good!

don

[bottle]

Low Backswing to Start Steffi-Slice

Explaining any new design is much more fun if you do so before you try it out. That's when idea burns most brightly. Imagine a health-conscious architect smoking a toy pipe at a huge drawing board under cantilevered lights full of weird elbows. Once he finishes his sketch, the poor guy/woman has to go out and talk with engineers, subcontractors, the zoning board, inspectors, advocacy groups, the mayor, governor, senators, customers, etc.

Today's thought grows out of previous research on Korda's backhand. Should one announce slice (a higher backswing normally) or drive? Which shot will you hit more often?

Hitting Steffi-type offensive slice is a big goal of mine. I haven't yet even examined the defensive slice that Korda uses to stay in a point. The immediate challenge will be to combine a pair of big shots-- Steffi-slice and Korda backhand drive.

So, high or low take-back? Let's continue to explore the lowness alternative.

Simply don't fan hand as much over the top of the handle as part of the flying grip change. A weak continental with big knuckle at about 2.5 (like John McEnroe) will work exceptionally much like a stronger grip because of slant in shoulders downward toward the net.

Instead of holding arm and racket stationary as rear shoulder wells up like a wave for the drive, one can lift arm to normal slice level at the same time.

What excites me about this is that hand rise will blend into elbow rise (which occurs as part of the self-assured forward action-- first of two arm rolls as a matter of fact).

When one takes racket immediately back to shoulder level there is a bit of abruptness as elbow next twists up from the hand.

Hand, similarly, is to be still for the first roll. The fulcrum for the second roll, similarly again, is the shoulder, not the hand, thus creating a longer and therefore accelerating lever. (The satellite farther out in space travels faster.)

[bottle]

Which seems as if it will be a good one for me. In addition to Tom's review
appearing yesterday, my other book, THE LAST WORDS OF RICHARD HOLBROOKE, suddenly sold 36 copies. Do I understand this? Not at all. But 36 copies in one day after one or two per month is quite a change. My internet writing started in this thread.

Thanks, Stotty.

[stotty]

Purchased...I'll read it over Christmas.

[bottle]

http://bottle-booksandstuffbyjohnescher.blogspot.com/

Click on the cover.

[stotty]

A review of my tennis book is currently featured at tpatennis.net . Tom Allsopp wrote it.

Nice review...you must be proud, bottle...gonna have to buy this book...another sale coming your way...now, where's the bloody Amazon link!

[bottle]

Review

A review of my tennis book is currently featured at tpatennis.net . Tom Allsopp wrote it.

[bottle]

A Very Low Backswing

How low does Petr Korda take his racket back? The question is significant since no one-- myself especially-- ever sees what is right in front of their nose.

The rapidly interpreting brain in fact assembles a bunch of blurred light and most often sees what it wants to see.

Korda's forearm slants down. It becomes parallel to court as the result of his rear shoulder's rise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypaqILo4rFo

(.20 -- just stay there and click repeatedly)

One video obviously won't cover all possibilities but can provide some ballpark understanding. If nothing else, we can begin to differentiate between the more common big league topspin one hand backhands in which the racket rises higher than the level at which the ball will be hit and those like Korda's where racket starts back low as if sneaking up.

"You've got to have a big loop" says Elliott Teltscher, "if you want to have a big one hand topspin backhand."

He has big both. Korda nevertheless proves that his (Teltscher's) isn't the only way.

So we who don't play tennis all day every day can say to ourselves, "I have a choice. What would the advantage be of almost scraping the court with my racket butt as I take it back?"

A lower center of gravity. Better orientation since the court itself becomes part of one's hand to eye.

Okay, that discusses Korda's backhand. What about his forehand?

A low takeback once again. A loop but a small c-shaped one that doesn't rise very high. (Contrast that with the flying elbow and huge, elliptical loop of Ivan Lendl.)

[bottle]

~

Korda's forearm slants down. It becomes parallel to court as the result of his rear shoulder's rise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypaqILo4rFo

(.20 -- just stay there and click repeatedly)

[bottle]

Old Grand-dad and a Bottle of Merlot

Here's a very full description of the one hander-- what's wrong with it other than that it's too long?

http://www.optimumtennis.net/one-handed-backhand.htm

First, it doesn't draw essential distinction between Amelie Mauresmo and Roger Federer. It fails to remark on the totally different places of straightening arm.

Obviously, my recent model has been Petr Korda, whose arm straightens at a point directly between that of the other two players.

Also, Petr gets a huge result without the loop of either. Racket goes back lower and opens. A completely different and possibly more efficient form is the result.

Not that any one player among others is ever going to "get it right." But another birthday has gone by. Now I'm a 72-year-old man who has kept his backhand malleable enough to change it 30 more times.

But why would anyone want to do that? Must be nuts. The other answer is that I'm having fun building on unique principles offered by Don Brosseau and John M. Barnaby.

These are: Throw the racket out to the left side at the ball as if it (the racket) is a second ball on a string or rope or chain of a mace.

Make the swing go effectively inside out. (See post # 898 for three drawings on this subject.)

Bonk the ball with heel of the hand (Barnaby). How much should the racket have turned, i.e., pivoted or come around by contact? 180 degrees, I suggest.

I know I've stated before that racket should get parallel to back fence or net or far fence or baseline-- after arm drives straight. If you start 10 degrees from that you can finish, i.e., arrive at contact also 10 degrees beyond parallel to baseline and still keep all 180 degrees of a big blow. If not getting fully around start the straight-armed turn at 20 degrees past baseline and deliver a 170-degree smooth blow. Starting with slight bend in arm, one could be parallel to baseline. First part of the swing-- arm straightening along with body rotation then can cover the 20 degrees.

So, will we learn anything useful from the article? Among other things, we'll start a foot below the ball and finish a foot above it before the racket goes way up like Korda's-- not exactly what the author had in mind but so what. First pattern then is a slight uppercut rather than a level swing parallel to the court. The turn is accomplished by 1) arm straightening and 2) arm rolling (a sequence) and 3) body rotation which can be simultaneous with 1) alone to make sure that weight posts on front foot soon the better to sling the racket around quickly.

The arm roll employs a fourth principle with this one provided by John McEnroe: "Keep the elbow in."

Thus, the way this shot is cracking up, there are two separate rises-- a gradual one and an abrupt one as the strings leave the ball.

The zen of it is 170 to 180 degrees of racket turn from the time that arm gets straight to the time of contact.

Note: This post was helped by Old Grand-dad bourbon whiskey and merlot wine and laced coffee imbibed at The Dirty Dog Jazz Club in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

[bottle]

Idea: Korda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypaqILo4rFo

(.20 -- just stay there and click repeatedly)

That shoulders are loose until rear one goes up. But that it goes around as it goes up. It ratchets up the tension.

You go from shoulders naturally turned to shoulders actively cocked (or stretched) under the chin.

One can see the shoulders uncock the other way if one is looking for that. Like so much in tennis, there is a combination of movements. Similar to gross body action in a serve, there is horizontal and vertical release as well.

[bottle]

Thanks so much. Same to you. (But being a writer these days is really strange. No one even wants to look at my books. I get read here but not at Amazon: http://bottle-booksandstuffbyjohnescher.blogspot.com/ .)