A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Spitting out Gristle

Boswell and Johnson disparage a peasant by suggesting he is happiest with a big piece of meat sort of like a dog.

Doesn't bother me. Especially if I'm dining alone. In that case I buy a lesser cut of meat, which compared to something else is really cheap. So you can buy much more of it and then spit out half chewed mouthfuls, right on the same plate. In this way you can get plenty of taste and whatever nutrients the meat offers and eat more of it.

But I am biased. After we negotiated a training table for our eight-oared crew, back in college, we ate a lot more red meat. And loved it. This was back in the days before carb overload. And was, I think, a reason we went so fast.

Charlie Butt Sr., coach of numerous national champion Henley-bound high school crews, was not our only mentor but was one of them. And never could understand exactly why we went so fast.

Because we felt well-fed? Just one theory. In any case, we didn't spit out any food back then. Once you have become a solitary spitter, the following article will seem nothing but ludicrous to you.

https://cnneatocracy.wordpress.com/2...eak-etiquette/

[bottle]

From Two Brain Impulses to One is a Mega-improvement in Forehand Backswing

First impulse: Take shoulders and hips around with both hands.

Second impulse: Continue winding body back through separation of hands and pointing across.

No need ever have the second impulse, i.e., to think about it.

Through momentum from the first impulse the second part will happen by itself if only you will let it.

The key as discovered before is to lift a desired amount with both arms as body turns. The lift is straight up. It is the body turn that takes the racket around.

The solid momentum of the connected body and arm produces the unification.

You never think about the extra turn again.

Once you lift the arms you are ready to hit.

*************************

This however is the engineer in me coming out. When one studies clips of the older J. Donald Budge, one sees that the loop he uses is improvisational rather than schematic, e.g., has concentrated apogee or mountaintop in it rather than a high plateau or plain.

One of these two methods, improv or schematic, will work better for different temperaments.

Was disappointed with down and up backswing borrowed from my McEnrueful.

The shots, great in self-feed, worked in competition but sadly were mediocre at the present time.

[bottle]

Reaction to Two of the David Bailey Videos

Better, once having zoned out on one of the above discussed combinations while using some wrist, not to use any wrist once one is out of the zone and back in one's natural state.

I am especially interested right now in exploring Budge-bams that utilize David Bailey's eighth and ninth moves, two-foot pivot for shots hit in crosscourt direction; one foot pivot for shots hit down the line or flared wide from ad court.

To me personally, more than three golden moves is too many to remember, so I will just go with these two for now and check back later for the other ten or whatever the number is.

I love the way there is no leg straightening in these two shots, just the opposite.

[bottle]

What is the Ratio of Bad to Good New Ideas in Tennis?

About nine out of ten. A high number, that one, of which I am proud.

[bottle]

Reaction to Two of the David Bailey Videos

I love the way there is no leg straightening in these two shots, just the opposite.

Okay, okay, wot I say is true of the double foot pivot and HALF TRUE of the single foot pivot, where rear leg last second cocks and fully thrusts to drive the hips.

[bottle]

To Beware or Not

One could, to simulate J. Donald Budge's seniors' loop, put a little mountain in it by both raising arms/arm straight up and lowering them/it straight down during the Budge-bam's duration.

This could add to the efficiency and amount of downward racket drop in a hips first stroke.

And make a similar though milder contribution to racket lowness in the shoulders first version.

This is a crazy idea threatening to undo recent progress.

But I am in favor of getting all new ideas out on the table over turning one's soul over to some tennis guru as Brent Abel recommends.

His way, you never will become your own coach.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...DBFHFront2.mov)

[bottle]

Once Again, a Crazy Idea Leads to a Sobering One

Woe to those who don't know how to have fun.

The arms and arm, as in the immediately preceding clip, can rise more slowly until the racket head is its own width above the human head.

I stick to my prescription for the arms then arm-- straight up straight down, with bod to do the take-around.

But it's the footwork here-- the smooth rhythm of it-- that has to be seen to be believed.

Perfectly duplicatable, my basketball coaching friend Mr. Tuomi would say, or, "It's easy, so do it!"

[bottle]

With the Humble Feel of Riding Evolution, we Adopt the New Guru shot Complete with its Sidestep, then Adapt it to our own Nefarious Purpose

Here is the guru whom we always liked anyway but now of a certain age.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...DBFHFront2.mov)

The two hands rise slowly then diverge as shoulders continue to wind back.

We've been saying we want two forward shots, one in which shoulders go first, the other in which hips go first.

That design remains yet in slightly altered form.

The guru shot now begins with a paper cutter fall which activates the shoulders followed by the hips.

The hips first shot remains basically the same as before but is contained within a narrow frame.

For the paper cutter fall in this latter shot wants to keep dropping forever. Which brings the racket farther forward to thus narrow the backside of a new frame.

The new frame gets foreshortened on its front side as well. What does this is reversal of the paper cutter, a second arm lift again straight up with hips pivot the engine that brings the racket tip sufficiently around.

Is there a vertical extension up through the bod called "Alexander Technique" happening at the same time? Probably. But we may exempt the front leg from that.

We go with Tom Okker instead. I like to think Tom drew the black arrows in MASTERING YOUR TENNIS STROKES himself.

The arrows, located behind a knee, both point straight at the net.

Final question: Should whole arm then turn (wipe) to abet the independent arm lift and aeronautical banking already underway?

Sure. Why not.

Seldom has the beginning to any forehand felt as good as this one useful for two different shots.

Think of an imaginary X drawn in the air to the right and slightly behind one.

The X is where the hands separate after which both arms rise up and away in a mild breaststroke.

The X meanwhile can move farther around.

If one can continue the loose expansiveness of all this one will hit a great shot.

[bottle]

Arm Adjustment in One Direction only thus Allowing Forehand Levers of Different Scope

I'm tired of turning the shoulders in two different ways, don't you know, by first keeping opposite hand on racket and second by point-across.

I can't see what's great about that since its only object is to turn the shoulders a maximum amount.

However one wants to achieve that maximum amount is fine with me so long as one does it.

So why can't two hands on racket do it all? One merely needs to shorten (bend) both arms during the unit turn. This lifts the racket straight up and in toward the bod where opposite hand can easily remain on the throat.

In the case of Grigor Dimitrov, this lift of the racket sometimes even leaves racket tip pointing INWARD toward his bod.

Once one gets the idea of this down, one is ready to hit flat shots of different arm length from extremely bent to extremely straight scope.

One's arm length can better adjust for emergencies and/or to one's idealized distance of separation from the ball.

One should learn along the way the arm length that actually produces one's best shot.

But for heavily topped shots one can crowd the ball on purpose and unfurl maximum scope of the arm straight down.

Put arm straight and close to your bod in other words.

In a hips first shot, then, one can next generate maximum upward spin from 1) lift of arm up a longer runway, 2) uppercutting shoulders (aeronautical banking), 3) brief wipe or twist of whole arm.

1), 2) and 3) may be thought of as simultaneous whether that is true or not.

The departure in all this from what one has been doing may be too great for some players to achieve.

Me, I don't care so much about that as achieving most intelligent method.

I will in other words put in the time to make this change believing such effort worth it.

For increased adaptability to awkward bounces if nothing else.

But I see at least one other advantage as well.

That would be more stillness for one's breaststroking transition from backswing to foreswing.

One no longer will be simultaneously turning backward as one spreads one's arms no matter how one plans to do that.

[bottle]

Hawthorne

The greatest American writer of fiction, based on one novel, THE SCARLET LETTER, and one short story, WAKEFIELD, is Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The jealousy of the British writer, D.H. Lawrence, especially of the good-looking Hawthorne's blue eyes, does not subtract from that judgment.

In reading or re-reading TWICE-TOLD TALES, which is early Hawthorne, one is struck by the smudged kinship or smallness of difference between fantasy and certain journalism.

Both are tales, but CHIPPINGS WITH A CHISEL, about an engraver of headstones on Martha's Vineyard, is pure journalism

[bottle]

Jumpy Style

I notice in don_budge's overblown reaction to Stotty's calling my writing style "acrobatic," a confusion between literary term and person.

Clearly, don_budge took Stotty to mean that I am an acrobat, something very untrue as anyone who knows me well can attest.

My uncle George Hubler was a Dayton, Ohio acrobat, and my great-grandfather John Ohmer was a Dayton, Ohio inventor with more than 80 patents.

Me, I try to be an inventor like the Wright brothers every day.

Sometimes it works.

[bottle]

Topspin Forehand

Try to make aeronautical banking of the shoulders go more sharply upward. Try to make arm-lift-with-roll follow the same precise angle of upward incline.

The closeness of the two hands to one's neck-- there to launch one's flatter versions of forehand-- feels like the top of a baseball pitcher's windup while also creating a myriad of new topspin possibility.

One may not want a bunch of new options here, and I don't, but I would like to make one or two choices.

First would be some kinds of powerful lob, second, the best version of topspin forehand drive available out of the new context.

One could press palm down as racket descends somewhat toward rear fence. Not only does this feel unnatural but uses up one's arm roll before one needs it.

One could lower while keeping racket square.

Or open falling racket face which does feel natural and increases range of upcoming roll.

There to scissor arm or not as part of the independent though simultaneous lift.

Or try to combine some scissoring with roll.

Or use no roll.

One needs to simplify here, i.e., to decide what is repeatable and true rather than respectable and false..

[bottle]

Decision Made

Well, it isn't yet. But I am excited at the prospect.

[bottle]

TSFH: Don't Waste Hips on Lowering the Racket

Wipe is the given. But what are the variables that can add powerful speed to the wipe?

We deal with a mixture of public and private sector now.

Public is the same for everybody. Private is recent development that has altered one's personal landscape.

We're back to unencumbered arm movement between the backswing and the foreswing, both of which are close to being pure core.

As opposed to the flat stroke transition, this swan dive or breaststroke-- take your pick-- resembles the Atlanta Falcons logo with one wing going out and the other down.

The racket arm thus extends low before the hips chime in. The other arm will maintain its point-across until the hips fire. Arm uses the biceps muscle to bend itself but does not roll as the hips fire.

Arm rolls and straightens as shoulders fire.

But what makes shoulders fire upward as well as around?

The hips. They snaked ahead as they fired.

To summarize:

The arm extends and bends and extends and bends.

The scissoring arm, considered alone, lifts the racket somewhat. Upwardness however is transformed to levelness by angulation of the rotating hips just before the sharp rise of everything but the legs.

Worth a try. Stay very loose, Bottle, so as not to hurt your arm.

[bottle]

This Guy

Why are you so angry? Why are you vehement? This guy has the perception of a natterjack toad.

How about this different question: How come you are so mirthful when it comes to the subject of don_budge or Don Trump?

Would the real Don Budge have supported the real Don Trump? I don't know. I hope not. At least don_budge's real father didn't, the time I met him. And he picked up the bill. What a nice guy. An actual adult.