A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Re # 812

As you say, westcoast777, I am studying backhand slice at present. Therefore, my slice is de-chunked, like the pieces of a watch strewn all over the rug.

No, no, slice isn't that complicated, and yours like mine is working pretty easily and well, as junior versions usually do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SutBB9fzi00

Not that I'm disparaging them. Far from it. Any volley, obviously, is abbreviated slice, and I once watched somebody cut the biggest cannonball in our club all to pieces simply by volleying it back. Well, he let it bounce. But he used nothing other than his volley strokes to get it back.

In the video (and thanks so much for showing it), the backswing ranges from very short to medium. Fine. But if you want something bigger, I'd return to the Waltke article three or four times. We're simply talking about adding another shot-- much simpler than replacing one. Even for your "drop-shots"-- and I'm wondering if what you're describing aren't rather "dinks"-- you could take a huge backswing to become a theater person like Novak Djokovic. Drop-shots are total zen-like deception, so however you wind up for your most powerful ground strokes, that's how you should start. You could ham it up so much that your opponent laughs. That would be okay. Laughing sucks an extra two nano-seconds. Suddenly, racket finds the ball and cups it on its back and bottom, along with the hundred other intricacies it's better not to know too much about. The entire shot is guided by one purpose that tells all the little parts what to do., e.g., three feet over the net so ball comes down like a lob on the cord in practice. Lots of theater then! Ham to the max. Burlesque and more! I suppose the ultimate (way beyond my abilities) would be to start doing all the burlesque and then hit the hell out of the ball (but maybe I never had that thought until now and maybe I'll try it).

I'm curious about the one shot where you come up to the ball with both arms straight. I've seen effective shots like that but wouldn't try them myself. Inhibits motion, I would think, and I want involvement from all my joints.

As to hitting hard slice and cat-and-mouse floaters, both immensely useful shots, I might try, besides "studying" Waltke's article, i.e., slurping it up, to find the collector's item MASTERING YOUR STROKES with Okker, Ashe, Pasarell, and Solomon. Ashe is great at describing all the different kinds of slice that are possible, and he doesn't make a religion out of saying that one is "better" than the others.

Does anybody really think that Roger Federer couldn't hit flatter slice if he wanted to?

[bottle]

Where Serving Instruction Most Breaks Down?

It is at the point where the elbow has just inverted upward as the result of natural forces in the gross body.

Some pros, in describing what they think ought to come next, then speak of "adduction" and may even pantomime same.

Others then, of course, are only interested in abduction, particularly if the student is female and good looking.

Bill Mathias of Winchester, Virginia, a great guy who lost to Fred Perry in Guyana long before Jim Jones and his followers settled there, said, at a rather advanced age, "I have just discovered the secret of power in serving. It lies in arching your back."

This was funny to hear since Bill was an extremely accomplished player, having won the national 65's on both grass and clay. Among his other virtues, he had spent a lifetime cultivating a fantastic drop-shot hit from behind the baseline.

Well, he was already very old when I knew him, and by then he could only hit this great shot fifty per cent of the time. When it was on, though, he wouldn't miss one the whole day long. And he would destroy the same relatively young player (Mitch), who destroyed him the week before. It was an astounding sight to see.

One question Bill's remark about serving-- because he never just kidded-- raised for me was about "un-arching." If "arching" is important, isn't "un-arching," too? In fact, the USPTA pro who worked with me tried to get me to "husk." That was the word he used. The opposite of arching, I decided.

Then, in these pages decades later, Don Brosseau, a chiropractor among many other things, went two ways, scientific and common parlance at once.

Scientific: Line up the spine of scapula with your upper arm. Common parlance: delay the slingshot aspect of this.

All this led me to the Wikipedian definitions of "scapular retraction" and "scapular adduction" and that's where I am right now, wondering how much one should do it on the hitting side of the body only, or should one arch both sides equally, then fire just from the hitting side (?), etc. Finally it comes down or up to what feels like a Justin Verlander pitch.

But I've never felt that anyone (other than Don) describes all this stuff particularly well.

I've tried scapular adduction right while I'm on the ball with a few interesting results. Today, however, it will occur as continuation of elbow first inverting up. "Slingshot" is the operative word.

[bottle]

Servicing the Tennis Strokes Along 100 Miles of the Erie Canal

The teaching pro will be more effective if he rides a horse.

[bottle]

You could hire WBC. He would start by replacing all of your teeth.

[bottle]

Thanks for the chance to comment. I'm thinking. Give me a day or two and I'll see if I can come up with some ideas. (I realize I'm not like a dermatologist/teaching pro who takes one look and instantly responds-- just not my way). Also, maybe I should be your hitting partner and not say anything, like Hank Harris in the previous post. One person did hire me as a silent hitting partner for a year and a half, but then my wife beat him and he ended our relationship the next day. He was a tennis court salesman and always played with natural gut. If he had hired me to speak, I would have told him how to beat my wife.

[westcoast777]

Considering that you are studying the slice as of present, perhaps you could provide a thought or two on my slice backhand. Linked is tournament match footage, most slices in the clips are drop shots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SutBB9fzi00

[bottle]

More on Waltke Article

Thinking more about THE SLICE BACKHAND by Trey Waltke (see post # 808, "Who has a Stronger Grip for Backhand Slice?") seems a very good idea.

Best material on tennis technique sometimes is ridiculously simple, but is more apt to be complex and dense, requiring re-readings like a great poem that slowly gives up its deepest meanings. If nothing else, such re-readings can develop a person's patience and perceptions.

From inside and outside of the article: If Roger Federer's big knuckle is closer to panel 1 than Ken Rosewall's is, then Roger's grip is the stronger.

Equally interesting, though, at least to me, is the following Waltke sentence:
"After taking tons of lessons and hearing pros bark at me my backhand improved the most by studying and mimicking the best player."

This is the ultimate heresy in tennis. Bypass the teaching industry and play like the pros.

But you can subsidize tennis teachers of course by keeping them on your payroll as consultants. Or you could do like Pam Shriver did with Hank Harris. Take him all over the world as your hitting partner on condition that he never speak.

[bottle]

Re VERTIGO

This film, which rivals the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock, reveals more about Andre Agassi and Roger Federer than either has been able to do in all their great interviews.

To give one example only, Roger serves. Is his serve a normal Federer serve?

No, he keeps his left foot down and brings his right foot forward like Taylor Dent or any old-fashioned server.

He knows that if he leaves the court and kicks his right foot backward, he will fly over the rim and hit the boat below.

[bottle]

Vertigo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lxp8gz_QN0&feature=related

[bottle]

Who Has A Stronger Grip for Backhand Slice?

We go now to Trey Waltke in classic lessons to see who has a stronger grip for backhand slice-- Roger Federer or Ken Rosewall. Both have big knuckle on panel two so they're not that different.

Here's the article. Note the pictures of Rosewall's grip. Pictures of Federer's grip are everywhere, including in the same article, or in the post just above this one, which contains three samples. Decide for yourself.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/classiclessons/trey_waltke/the_slice_backhand/the_slice_backhand.html

Again, I think that Federer's slice is flatter than most people think. I also think that Rosewall's slice is steeper than most people think. I love this article, especially for its motion sequences demonstrating the separation (confidence) in all first-rate versions of this stroke. All in all, I see more similarities than differences among the three backhand slices (Federer, Rosewall and Waltke) and don't think Waltke needed to disparage Federer's version quite so much.

[bottle]

Now Let's Do It

A really good question: How far toward left fence-- typically-- is Roger Federer's hand at contact when he hits his backhand slice?

Figure that out and you might begin to master this beautiful stroke since
separation in tennis is all confidence rather than something in your genes.
What I see in this video, stopped at contact, is hand out a foot or more.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand_Slice/RF_BH_Slice_Wide/RF_BH_Slice_Wide.html?RF%20BHSlice%20Wide%20Front%20250fps%20.mov

In this video, hand is out a foot-and-a-half.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand_Slice/RF_BH_Slice_Wide/RF_BH_Slice_Wide.html?RF%20BHSlice%20Wide%20Rear3%20500fps%20.mov

Imagine then the racket tip sliding all the way to baseline in THIS VIDEO before it stops following the ball (sort of) and goes sideways/backward/upward. Memorize the baseline image for future reference until you can chunk the whole stroke.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand_Slice/RF_BH_Slice_Arm_Action/RF_BH_Slice_Arm_Action.html?RF%20BHSlice%20ArmAction%20Side2%20250fps.mov

Also, how far is Roger from the baseline to start, in this video which we have decided is more important than all the others?

This is like formatting a computer. Later, you won't worry about such stuff. For now, you're formatting a slice backhand, so again, how far is Roger standing behind the baseline: 3.5 feet? If that's what you think, stand exactly there and drop some balls and hit them.

You want awareness now of the racket tip just reaching the baseline as it stops going forward and downward and to the right, and starts going backward and upward and to the right.

Get some bearings, in other words, and see what a difference this makes in the way the ball flies!

[bottle]

Moral

The trouble with arrogance is that it doesn't allow you to see very much.

[bottle]

Roger Federer's Slice-- Best in History?

Celebrity worshippers and people stuck in the past and people who value enormously expensive loaded numerically based educational studies over actual education tend to adulate Ken Rosewall's slice too much. It was a great shot, and Jimmy Connors' sidespin was good, too, but neither is as good as Roger Federer's long, flat chop or chip hit with huge separation.

How can a chop be long and flat? Well, observe the following video:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand_Slice/RF_BH_Slice_Arm_Action/RF_BH_Slice_Arm_Action.html?RF%20BHSlice%20ArmAction%20Side2%20250fps.mov

Roger's intelligent rather than muscular power begins with a small hydraulic timing move behind his neck.

From there the powered up racket chops like an axe in every which direction-- sideways both ways, frontward and down (though not in that or any sequence-- we're speaking of a blend) all the way to the baseline, and all in the exact same downward, spiraling plane-- which also could be compared to a coarse screw thread...a very effective lever, in other words.

Does the racket go frontward to hit the ball? Yes, the whole way to the baseline. Only then does it retreat backward. Does frontward motion continue after contact? Yes again.

Contact is not by Roger's left ear or navel-- for those who argue that Roger hits to the side. Contact is in front of the front thigh toward the convenient reference point provided by the baseline present in this video.

This would be a great shot for any kid to learn, even an American.

[bottle]

Wide Slice mph's-- No Camera or Measurement Allowed

Re #'s and : Instead of 4 4 4 4 4 20, I tried 4 5 6 7 8 20 resulting in a few good serves, then 4 4.25 4.50 4.75 5 20, which seemed the estimate of the future.

Actual numbers aren't important; the idea of gradual or abrupt acceleration is.

One can quickly chunk a set of numbers, once chosen, down to cue or verbal principle only, i.e., "gradual acceleration" or "abrupt acceleration"; however, presenting a pillow without its stuffing is inadvisable, too general and just the case.

Note: I'm coming to appreciate corporate jargon's term "chunking" more and more. The term "indexing" is too secretarial, the term "metaphor" too literary, but meaning in all three instances is the same, so why quibble?

My just-at-the-moment first serve is 4 3 2 1 0 20 which certainly does contain its own wide slice possibility as well.

[bottle]

~

No, no, you have to imagine the rest yourself. Also, I neglected to say that Pym's parents, from Baltimore, found her name in the pages of Edgar Allan Poe.

I'd say that she either became very famous for her serve that now rivaled that of Brenda Schultz McCarthy, or that there was no strength whatsoever available in her little move from supinated to normal shoulder, and that she soon was playing in satellites, finally, tennis socials.

As for me, I find that the extra push from such special case scapular adduction works best combined with inside out wrist movement, finally giving this backward design the chance to generate awesome, upward spin.