A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Class Action Suit

I can detest the anthropomorphic in literature while thinking it just grand in tennis.

My forehands have soulful eyes and ears and a big mouth, and just put in a class action request to have sex with one another.

Thus my McEnrueful, furious at being neglected for weeks, argues that the form of its backswing-- a succinct bowling action down and up-- can be applied to strong eastern as well as composite grip shots.

Will they feel as good? I don't know. Certainly they will get hand to the same place (now, reader, stop any prurient thoughts you may have).

From there one can hit a Budge-bam-- shoulders first and finish off with hips-- or use the basic form of the McEnrueful, which is hips first to lower the racket followed by uppercutting shoulders.

Will these shots, once in flight, behave differently enough to justify such orchestration? How will they bounce?

I suspect big difference but haven't tried them yet-- we'll see.

One certainly will have fun if it's true.

The Ocelots, sadly, did not fare as well in competition as hoped. It's probably back to Federfores and Grigorfores for me.

But first this down and up experiment.

Once getting past don_budge's Orc-talk, an actual human being could see him making two or one point.

It's true that many people can not follow these technoposts of mine.

But is that because they are any more clotted, dense and obscure than technical discussion by anybody else? Or is it that tennis readers, not wanting as they have been taught to think too much, won't decipher anything?

To summarize this experiment then so that someone other than myself could try it, hit some forehands where shoulders go first and hips second.

Then hit some forehands where hips go first and shoulders second.

To get to the beginning of the option use identical form.

[bottle]

How First to Use it

I'm still trying to figure out how to use the super sidesteps, better than most one sees in tennis, learned from the varsity basketball coach at Voyageur College Prep High School on Military Drive here in Detroit.

He didn't address the lesson to me (a substitute PE teacher that day) but rather to a select pair of individuals from among the hundreds of students playing basketball during their regular PE classes in the Voyageur gym.

The super technique requires steps so rhythmically small that they amount to a vibration.

And insistence from the coach that this change is no harder to perform than the wider, more lurching sidesteps used by almost everybody.

Three sidesteps rather than two, he argued, or you won't get open for the next pass. Then he demonstrated five sidesteps instead of four.

The two high school kids followed everything he said and soon were doing what both he and they wanted.

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In doubles at the net, I'm thinking. Sidestepping to start is far from the only beginning to a poach but is one of the good choices.

One could just start outrageously early to buzz one's feet through rapid alternation without going anywhere.

Then do the same thing but suddenly start to travel this way or that.

The goal is to drive one's opponents stark raving mad, right?

[bottle]

Credo

I am perfectly willing to dump the Trump thread just as its founder did sometime back.

The reason I have kept it going is my passionate belief that one should stand up to a demagogue (Trump) and a sophist (don_budge in all things political).

These two goals can be accomplished in other ways, e.g., participate more in the letter communities at Reader Supported News and Common Dreams.

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Down and up Budge-bams are just as effective as the other kind, viz., straight back or loop, and in my case may be more so because of all the McEnruefuls I have hit in recent years.

Why I didn't realize before that a McEnrueful can be hit with a strong eastern grip I don't know other than to say I didn't try that enough in self-feed. This is an exciting new route to explore.

Down and up backswung Budge-bam with two permutations, hips first and shoulders first, now becomes the default forehand.

Shoulders first includes the joker factor of semi or demi mondo-- a sidearm throw as in skipping a stone.

This gives extra impetus to one's racket work, which can lead to brilliance on certain days. On the other days the hips first version is safe.

The McEnrueful proper, hit with composite grip, now becomes an underspun shot.

I especially enjoy a version where hips lowering of racket melds into aeronautical banking but DOWN.

For more topspin I now go for a small round loop but with forward pressure from bending knees and strict avoidance of knee straightening or jumping like the plague.

I'm old and tall. This keeps me grounded. But might be a sentiment proper for anyone.

One can-- again-- hit a hips first or shoulders first shot.

And re-orient from maximum hit through to narrow vertical corridor to encourage low to high strokes.

But always with pliable rather than stiffening knees thus striving for effortless power.

On all shots that rely on delayed hips pivot, the pivot is the weight transfer, one and the same.

This means that early turn of the shoulders happens on the rear or "prop" foot.

The default again is neutral step-out with a few foot-to-foot semi-opens thrown in.

[bottle]

NYT READER POETRY

There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
And he found a crooked Pence with a crooked little smile.
He had a crooked daughter, who married a crooked louse,
And they all played together in a crooked White House
.

[bottle]

When Not to Think

Whether one's self-authorization to think more than other players entitles one to turn around and then pontificate on when not to think, I do not know.

I only know that I try never to think about when to make final step-out in a forehand or backhand.

[bottle]

Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas

I think it was my Hollins teacher, the Nobel Prize winning William Golding, author of LORD OF THE FLIES, who pointed out in class one day that a certain amount of vanity is present in the work of any writer. Without some self-interest, he suggested, there would be no writing at all.

Where he was going with this, I think, was that concealing one's annoying vanity is part of any writer's job.

[bottle]

No Surprise

It is no surprise that he who so easily accuses other players of writing out of vanity is so vain himself that he will even delete one of his own posts and re-post it in the most recent position.

This reminds me of the city newsroom in which I worked. One reporter would look around at all the other reporters to assess the degree of absorption on each face.

If some other reporter looked absorbed, he might be working on something good. And Richard couldn't stand that. Richard always had to be the best. So he would engage that reporter in conversation just to interrupt. Richard was the open singles champ of East Hartford, Connecticut by the way.

[stotty]

Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas

I think it was my Hollins teacher, the Nobel Prize winning William Golding, author of LORD OF THE FLIES, who pointed out in class one day that a certain amount of vanity is present in the work of any writer.

Lord of the Flies is an excellent book. We had to read it in school around the age of 15 along with another book which contained two stories: Billy Liar / The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner was a very powerful book for me. The character in the book might well have been Kern Gunning, a classmate of mine. Kern was from a poor background. He was very bright but had no interest in school work and was consequently a low-achiever. He was always smoking in the toilets, truanting, continually in trouble, and always hung around with other bad types. Despite being a problematic character, there was nothing threatening about Kern, which is why I guess most other kids liked him. He was cool.

Kern had a scrawny yet durable physique and every year he would win the cross country race by a 200 yards at least. Kern refused to read books but I convinced him to read The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner by virtue of the fact the story was short and that it was about running.

In the final cross country race before we all left school, Kern stopped just yards from the finish line and let the rest of us trailing behind finish in front of him. Like the character in the original story (Smith), Kern loved the idea of free will....up yours, I'll do what I like. Anyone who has read the book will know what I mean.

I often wonder what happened to Kern. I haven't seen him since we both left school aged 16. Neither of us went on to further education, opting to go out to work instead.

You write really well, bottle. You have a style all of your own. I find your style acrobatic.

[bottle]

You are very kind, not to mention endlessly interesting. And although I have heard about The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner for most of my life, I have never read it and now will. The title Billy Liar intrigues me and I'm going to read that too.

[bottle]

Spin-off

A spin-off from my recent experiments with down and up backswung forehands is a slice forehand that naturally combines backspin and sidespin.

Think how good this would be for an approach shot down the line in singles if one could enhance the sidespin even more.

First body basis for the shot is forward hips turn to lower the arm while keeping it solid or connected.

Followed by divebombing aeronautical banking that brings right shoulder inward as it comes around.

If one straightened arm out to right during the initial hips rotation one could then put a vigorous long-armed cross on the ball, with shoulders and arm working independently in the same direction as one.

The question remaining in my mind is exactly when to get one's hips away from the ball. During the initial forward rotation of them I guess. That would make sense and produce a cantilevered effect of hips going one way while shoulders go the other.

Now both arm and bod's capacity to do harm have been enhanced.

As Billie Jean King says to conclude her introduction to the McGraw-Hill book PANCHO SEGURA'S CHAMPIONSHIP STRATEGY, "Good luck, and hit lots of sidespin forehands down the line."

[bottle]

Basketball-type Sidesteps (small but with motoring quality and big frequency)

I don't see why one could not gently tread from foot to foot then accelerate the frequency and pressure of one's feet as one gets ready to poach, fake-poach or simply rearrange or stay.

Too much pre-point activity could exhaust one. But this constant but subdued movement appears superior to the sphinx-like stillness of most senior players and too many others as well.

A primary goal in doubles tennis must always be to avoid becoming a mushroom.

One could similarly do the alternation in a forward and backward direction.

Now let's see if I (you he she it) actually does it.

I know I've articulated plans for a better system of poaches before but then gotten out on the court and thought, "Eh, that would make me too tired," and reverted to my usual sphinx.

So this may be my last best hope for quicker reaction. Because the preliminary movement is so subdued that it's barely more than a series of self-relaxing wags that won't drain any energy at all. Then, as everything picks up, I plan to concentrate only on the left foot. It will lead to the left or push to the right or stay where it is. (The male dancer leads with his left foot.)

[bottle]

Effective Exhortative Image?

The full circle that Pancho Segura advises on a serve is measured from obtusely angled trophy to exact same position with ends of the racket inverted and with arm out to right angle.

Coincision of racket therefore might be effective exhortative image. The racket tilt is comparable. Tip slants same way slightly out toward rear fence.

The circle, I say, is to coincision of an image of the racket itself.

The arm has completely bent and then opened to a right angle like that of Charlie Pasarell and many others.

Segura, the marvelous explainer, suggests that he never would achieve his characteristically extreme vertical body and arm extension without the fullness of this circle.

So go with it as an experiment to try and improve one's own serve.

Controlling emphasis on long straight runway has now been replaced by more circularity behind the back.

Because of the unique positioning of all this, the opening of arm from completely squeezed to right angle puts hand farther behind the back for what happens next, viz., player uses everything to hurtle upward.

Me, I see a body and arm tomahawking toward the sky.

[bottle]

To Maximize one's Self-Authorization, be Aware of all Technical Possibility

Isn't this obvious? No it is not. If one has a choice of two forehands, one may delay applying some feature of the one to the other for an overly long time.

Me, I've got bowled backswings on hips first and shoulders first forward shots.

On the shoulders first shot I have "skip a stone" downward wrist action that in no way disrupts the solid connection between one's bod and one's strings.

Currently, I have not done the same on the hips first version followed by aeronautical or uppercut banking of the shoulders.

I don't envision a slavish imitation in bringing this element across but rather will embellish it with occasional early wrist lay-back (cocking) during the up of the down and up backswing.

This means that one can actively close wrist as one fires it down-- as an option.

Such a no-no will happen so far before contact that the error potential will seem irrelevant.

[bottle]

Coincision

What does coincision in a Segura type rock and roll serve really mean?

It should mean, in a world where every concept is pure, the beginning and end of a circle where one's racket, seen in time, disappears into its earlier image.

This, in fact, does not happen.

The circling racket gets to a place where it was with tip of racket tilted toward rear fence as it was before.

But it was tilting upward before and now tilts down.

Forms an X in other words. I suppose we could tie a bow at the crux of the X.

Do that, reader, and you then have an exhortative image, your "Do Now" as appears on every classroom board of every charter school in Detroit.

SWBAT! Student will be able to tie a bow at the crux of the full circle in a Pancho Segura type serve.

Of every tennis player I've ever observed, I don't believe more than two or three were apt to conduct provocative experiments on their own strokes.

And those several people, all guys, never did it for long enough.

This experiment, supposing positive outcome (the only attitude one should have), replaces the straight arm to slightly bent arm transition that occurs in so many serves.

Too cumbersome. One needs the same time for completion of the full circle. So at the top of the down and up motion that starts the Segura type serve the hitting arm must already be bent.

[bottle]

Celery

https://draxe.com/benefits-of-celery/