A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Amar and Ayesha

Amar has decided to go public with Ayesha, or rather Ayesha has permitted Amar to move this YouTube video from private to public sector.

Thank you Amar! Thank you Ayesha!

A bit more body weight could be moving through these shots, but I hope dear reader that you like me take notice of Ayesha's variety and consistency and promise.

You can watch the video here or in Post # 899, where the link now works.

Whoops, the video there just went private again!

Here's the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efQdy...&feature=email

Maybe it will work for you as it did for me three minutes ago, or maybe by messing around a little you can get this video to work.

[bottle]

~

Thanks, Stotty, especially for pointing me toward Nasty's backhand and forehand slice. I'll go there, at least look there.

Maybe the reason Korda's backhand drive doesn't impress more people is the sheer up and down rhythm of it, sort of like Lendl's backhand before he made it more conventional, with a middle step or transition added into the equation, I would argue, as appears in most of the backhands we ever see.

Korda's backhand is more abrupt and primitive than most, no doubt about it. But can't one hold this type of shot longer than the others? Since there's one step less to do? One really can wait for the bounce if one wants to.

Do away with the vagaries of weather and funny bounce by getting the shot off "late" this way, I tend to think, at least right now, and don't commit overly soon, the biggest mistake we all make according to -- yes, the dibble with the name that starts with "O." Funny that now there's a new dibble and in Spain and appropriately enough another "O", "O" Borras. It's the "O" that does it, I think, zero at the bone from the poem by Emily Dickinson.

(And "late" of course is the hallmark of all of Steffi Graf's groundstrokes which is maybe why she stayed at number one for longer than anyone else).

It's all opinion. I have no trouble with that. Unless there's more knowledge here than meets the prejudice. More on Korda's backhand coming in a few minutes.

[stotty]

I'm not that impressed with Korda's backhand. I find lefties tend not to have great backhands yet do tend to have great backhand volleys...strange that. I notice Korda supports the racket with his right hand virtually up on the strings. I always cradle the throat myself.

Steffi, on the other hand, always seemed to have a good topspin backhand but rarely used the shot during her career. I could never understand her complete lack of confidence in using her topspin backhand.

I always thought Nasty had a nice sliced backhand...even rarer, a nice sliced forehand too.

[bottle]

~

Keep head still.

[bottle]

A Day of Dramatic Reversals

If one sends force enough to the outside through lethal bonking (or perhaps just through swinging moderately with the butt rim), the hand is going to stop the racket unless you release it.

The hand will stop or slow the racket with momentum left over. Perhaps the racket then can-- effectively-- fan upward and forward.

An alternative would be to pull the rim inward to accelerate the fan.

Or combine both attempts.

We want A) workable racket head speed and B) an inside out swing coinciding momentarily with desired line of ball's outgoing flight (with slight hip nudge adding pace precisely along the line of that projected flight).

To consider the totality of hip movement in this stroke, one maybe needs to go back to TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE (Braden and Bruns) or simply decide that hips first rotate forward, then slow or stop, then nudge on a slant off toward the target to the right.

[bottle]

Never Play like the Pros?

Which grip change is better for a Korda-like backhand?

1) Barnaby: "There is one aspect of changing grips that is misunderstood by an extraordinary number of competent people. This is that the racket changes its position in the hand rather than that the hand changes its position on the racket. What's the difference? The difference is very great and crucial. It is awkward to change from a forehand to a backhand grip without moving the racket. It is unnatural and a strain. By contrast, if the racket is moved (by the left hand) ninety degrees from the forehand position, so it is parallel to the stomach instead of at right angles to it, the change can be much facilitated so it is easy, quick, and also includes a good bit of the backswing motion..."

2) Others through Bottle: "For the bonk drive I'll hold racket still with left hand and push palm over the top, and continue this push to open racket tip all in a single motion."

Maybe I'll combine the two answers (as Barnaby at least partially does in his complete treatment of the subject-- I just excerpted one passage), dunno but will investigate. In any case there will be one motion only. What generates the most feel? When there is one motion, the racket can get open early so that all the hips need do is rotate to straighten the arm (rather than be accomplice to any backward arm twist). That maybe edits certain pros. One less thing to do behind the back is an improvement no matter who subtracts.

[bottle]

Lethal Bonk Debunked

1) Apology and Warning: I'm sorry for using the term "POSTCARD" in Post # 898. Microsoft, apparently, has declared that POSTCARD FROM HALLMARK, discovered within the past several days, is the worst virus in the history of computers. We all could lose the contents of our C-drive. So don't open anything new that has the word POSTCARD on it, at least until the anti-virus operators have come up with a solution.

Apology again (probably): Check out this website and others.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_postcard_virus.htm

2) Answer to a 31-year-old question. Why in doubles can't I terrorize a good net-man on a backhand poach in which I cross from the deuce side? Because a slight continental grip is good for all volleys except for a high backhand. For that, one needs to easternize.

3) In our continued study of Petr Korda's backhand, we find that Petr's bonk, though a bonk, isn't lethal at all.

Somewhere in the two books written by my favorite tennis writer John M. Barnaby we see the author, in a photograph, bonk a netpost. "The heel, or edge, of the hand takes the impact."

How hard is Barnaby bonking the netpost, though? Certainly not hard enough to hurt his hand. Similarly, Korda is taking his train slowly out of the train station. And if pressure on the butt rim then fans the racket head up, it's all part of a smooth and effortless (and non-violent) action.

http://vimeo.com/1968432

http://www.tennisserver.com/turbo/turbo_01_04.html

(See photo of Korda’s finish on a full backhand)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9DLyMp9acM

31, 1:02, 1:15 , 4:46, 6:25 (jumping split), 7:34 (Pete gets him)

[bottle]

Lethal Bonk Banned from Boxing

Something completely different now-- or maybe not-- if we use Petr Korda for our model.

http://vimeo.com/2877301

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QJj8k3oeE0

The first video is hard to control, the second easier. Can we see the lethal bonk in Korda's backhand? Whether we can or not, how do we go about achieving it?

For my slice, I use a flying grip change, which means simply pulling with left hand while relaxing fingers of the right.

For the bonk drive I'll hold racket still with left hand and push palm over the top, and continue this push to open racket tip all in a single motion.

Korda, he's bought so much time here he can change grip with a wriggle or any means he chooses, but I doubt that I'll ever have that much time.

Forward hip rotation simply straightens the arm, which wasn't that bent in the first place. The great arm extension that pedantic teachers always talk about is largely achieved behind the back and to the side rather than toward the target.

Now begins the lethal bonk. Don't hit anybody. You'll kill them!

Arm roll completes the inside out swing causing strings briefly to coincide with desired line of flight if you nudge a bit with your front hip before the circle of the arm swing continues to right of the target.

So what is the grip we achieved with change method # 2 ? Enough to get the bonking edge of the hand leading in a big way. To adjust grip more precisely, though, we'll use post deed activism. We'll put the arm and racket partly forward and sideward until the whole line is perpendicular to desired line of flight. Then we'll loosen fingers and adjust pitch to where we want it, declaring that this is our grip and memorizing it for replication.

The forward roll in this shot only begins at end of the lethal bonk. It is not spread out over the whole forward shot and doesn't continue much after contact but does embrace that contact.

Other views of model: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyGy62vWQgA

Best view is at 13:02, but there are other good ones at 1:53, 3:10, 9:58, 12:09 and 12:48 .

[bottle]

"Variety is the Spice of Life."-- Tilden

Here they are again-- Steffi and Petr, with a third video thrown in for those of an ambidextrous nature who are tired of this whole subject of one hand drive backhands.

In Boco Raton, Florida and 80 per cent of the United States, ruffled feathers is a fatal disease, but in the other 20 per cent, healthy Americans can always use the slight irritation they feel to effect change in tennis or anything else.

In India, where there didn't appear much irritation, people like my friends Ayesha and Amar calmly observe Ayesha's slow but sure progress as she myelinates her consistency along with everything else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efQdyb_CFbU&feature=email

Note the easy right-handed forehands. Note Ayesha's easy left-handed forehands, too. Note the twin tight rolls in her right-handed slice. My only question is whether she has similar left-handed slice, which would confuse her opponent even more.

(We may have to go with this verbal description. The film keeps getting blocked by a private sign although I was allowed to see it several times first. Maybe Amar can find a way to help me show Ayesha's variety here or in another post. For now, Ayesha does not want to go public.)

Here's Steffi now. Use cursor to go to 55, clicking incessantly to make the topspin pass repeat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMS8pmjLlk

I suggested once that Steffi's hand swing is roundabout. And suggested once that her hand swing is upright. Today I'm ready to state that her hand swing is in between, containing both of these elements.

Here's Petr. Go to 1:00 and 1:30 and 1:53 . His swing is more roundabout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqrMV05hIsM

And J. Donald Budge is most roundabout of all.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DBBHRear.mov

If one buys my previous idea that steady roll on any long-armed ground stroke can be a good idea, one gains an understanding of how any long-armed shot could be viewed as compact.

You start here (A) with racket head down behind your back. And you want your racket head to get to here (B)-- one place carefully chosen by you.

If you don't twist your arm, the racket head will have to travel farther to get there. If you do twist your arm you can be a real kool kat.

This notion will cause me to hit more Federfores and fewer Ferrerfores. My version of Ferrerfore employs more reverse action. Bent arm whips back and forward to pass whirling body, much like a serve. Mondo occurs at same time and in same way as the reversing arm.

In a Federfore, by contrast, arm simply gets straight in the backswing leaving only the wrist to mondo in response to all the forward body whirl. Once the mondo-forming body has rotated, creating sufficient flashlight (if racket butt can be imagined to be a flashlight), the steady roll can begin.

On a Ferrerfore, at least as I envision it, I don't want the manipulation of forward arm roll to interfere with the purity of bent arm whip in both directions.

And on a one-handed topspun backhand, one could ask, "Since you got a handle on arm roll, and Budge is at one extreme, requiring the least of said roll, what about the opposite extreme, in which arm doesn't swing roundabout at all, but merely falls and rises like a golf club cutter. This swing would be more vertical than even the most upright Steffi swing in tennis or Sam Snead swing in golf.

Yes, the primitive, right-angled golf club cutter goes more vertically than a golf club, which just isn't built for such extremity.

All you would need is a maximum of arm roll and hip nudge and a minimum of rotation of the hips since you wouldn't need them to remove slack from your arm, which would straighten in response only to gravity. And a slow ball, perfect for easy topping in this way.

[bottle]

Lousy One Hand Topspin Backhands

The live versions of these drawing links appear with colored logos down below. But I put the identifiers here first with the idea in mind of discussing them here.

[IMG]postcard 3.gif[/IMG]

[IMG]postcard 2.gif[/IMG]

A good one now. Swing along one's chosen circle but with this geometry, perfectly understood, and enable it through hip nudge.

[IMG]postcard.gif[/IMG]

I won't, hopefully, stop coming up with my daily theories and preferences as more and more aspects of my life try to compete. Today's: Swing in a circle but keep the elbow in so that the racket tip goes faster than the hand. Incorporate ongoing roll from low point behind the back to end of the follow-through.

I've done many experiments in which roll is a subspecies of the larger swing-- it can happen abruptly, in other words, somewhere along the way.

But I am struck by the unity and compactness of Korda's swing (see link a couple of posts-- in tennis-chiro's-- above this one). And think I see the same element in Graf's swing. The difference is that the filmed version of Graf at 55 contains more uprightness-- which is excellent for a very pure topping of the ball. To flatten out one's shot and generate more heaviness, one can swing wider and shallower like Korda at 1:00 and 1:30 of the Wimbledon videos that show HIM.

I'm also ready-- today-- to reject a persistent idea that a one hand topspin backhand should be circular then straight, with straightness determined by arm extension away from the body with both ends of the racket traveling at the same speed.

While "straight tract" remains a primary design feature as shown in the third drawing up above (I mean down below), let it be determined solely by the slight hip nudge.

[bottle]

When somebody gives me great information, I then usually put it into my own words. Then the first person observes my words and says, "That's nothing like what I said."

This happy routine nevertheless does not occur often enough.

When it does, one really has the opportunity to learn something.

Both Graf and Korda initiate the forward swing with lowering of the front shoulder or raising of the rear shoulder (take your pick).

This is a locking into the oncoming momentum of the ball. If you were a snake you might pull your head back a few inches which would amount to the same thing. The point is that the little movement is timed to bounce of the incoming ball (before that, after that or dead on). You're taking air (I mean aim). Rear shoulder goes up while you step.

My take on Don's word "planar" is that I can go almost straight at ball but there still will be outside curve in my hand's path.

Don's advice along with what I see in these three videos and my own ideas, combined, lead me to "keep my elbow in," viz., roll the tip around con brio between the two differentiated hip movements.

And scapular retraction will happen in the followthrough, sad to say. (Dammit, I always wanted to use that extra force.)

Time now to try all this at the court.

[bottle]

Thanks so much. I'm excited.

[tennis_chiro]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMS8pmjLlk

The shot of interest starts at 48 . ...

One more question. “Where does racket tip reach its low point?” Some would say at the end of arm straightening but not I. First, backswing was fairly wide. And racket doesn’t come in too close to body ever in this free-wheeling design. So arm gets extended toward rear fence as well as down. And since no roll of the arm is scheduled for a while, the actual low point can happen at beginning of arm swing with racket still somewhat behind the body. Pattern then: A very slight down and up to the ball or shallow U.

You can see the stroke really well by repeatedly clicking on 55, just need to turn the volume down so Billie Jean's voice doesn't drive you nuts. This is a beautiful classic topspin/drive backhand. Graf used to hit it very well and a lot in practice and appeared to have total control of it, but my understanding was that she rarely used under pressure. Certainly is a perfect application of its' advantages right here.

I would be careful with the "u". I've always tried to get students to understand you wanted to complete the downward movement of the racket head before you really started to accelerate forward; otherwise, you generate downward momentum which you have to account/compensate for. The beauty of the "classic" 1hbh exhibited here is that as you swing the racket out to the ball, the motion just naturally unwinds into the ball almost as it would if you were simply throwing your arms apart. Right at the contact point, all the power is going in the right direction. Now at that point, you have to control that unwinding a little bit to keep that power going in the right direction for just a little longer. And that might be where you get that second movement of the hips that Bottle is referring to, but it's not so much a rotation as just a little nudge in the direction of the target. By completing that downward motion before going forward, you can hit the ball with a planar movement of the racket almost in a straight line up through the ball right on the intended path of the ball which means more momentum in the direction of the target and more effortless power. One of the prettiest examples of this was Peter Korda's backhand. Check the commentator's comments here. It's grass, but there are backhands are at 1:00 and 1:30.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqrMV05hIsM

don

[bottle]

Steffi's Topspin Backhand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMS8pmjLlk

The shot of interest starts at 48 . I’m happy with my understanding of Steffi-slice but not of her backhand topspin. Here, it seems that she gets her racket open and her arm straight early (I have to see that as a sequence). The swing then is primarily a horizontal circle. Let’s say that the seven inches embracing contact is straight. She bends her arm in the followthrough. It’s a two-part shot. Backswing includes a lowering of front shoulder. That’s interesting. But Foreswing includes all the complex stuff. Using weighted racket to establish pattern helps develop feel of swinging the racket head inside out on a slight upward plane for perpendicular intersection with line of desired flight. Toward end of the pre-contact phase racket tip goes faster and farther than hand. Pretty simple, eh?

Backing off and viewing the whole thing again, one might ask, “When do hips turn? When do they stop or slow?” And maybe answer, “They turn early as racket tip pivots down and arm then straightens. They stop or slow once arm is straight. They resume their original speed near end of the followthrough.”

Okay then, “When does arm perform its roll so essential for closing racket face and other things?” Not until racket butt is close to contact.

One more question. “Where does racket tip reach its low point?” Some would say at the end of arm straightening but not I. First, backswing was fairly wide. And racket doesn’t come in too close to body ever in this free-wheeling design. So arm gets extended toward rear fence as well as down. And since no roll of the arm is scheduled for a while, the actual low point can happen at beginning of arm swing with racket still somewhat behind the body. Pattern then: A very slight down and up to the ball or shallow U.

[stotty]

From LAWN TENNIS by Bill Tilden: "England will never be the advanced tennis-playing country that her colonies are, for her whole atmosphere is one of conservatism in sport."

Think Bill was right....