A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Are Auto Mechanics Permitted to Play Tennis? How about Carpenters?

Just slightly to re-phrase: Can such careful, thoughtful and precise people play the game well?

The special skills these artisans bring could, conceivably, be worth more than a special drink or some new breathing idea.

In personal experimentation today, I wish to think about mechanics in trying a second version of an 8-board serve.

Why? Because the normal service form seen here at Tennis Player rather than at Tennis One-- where leg drive typically occurs later-- has been going well.

And if something has been going well, it is only natural for the serious student of the game to apply it everywhere.

So, instead of turning hips backward as tossing arm and racket drop down, I shall not turn at all, at least not yet.

Nor will I bend front hip out as part of the toss, although that little maneuver does work if one wants to do it.

No, I want to explore, using Escher's moebius strip with its implication of eternity.

More practically, if we insist on close and literal level relation to the earth where one picture equals a thousand worms, we shall roll hips in three dimensions, down and up as well as backward and forward with all of this continuous motion performed in a smooth blend so cleverly balanced that one would not fall off an 8-board, a surfboard, a skateboard, or even a bongo board.

[don_budge]

Maxine...the plant.

Wow...that's real cool. You did good. She see's good old bottle in a different light now...the tennis aficionado, magician, wizard.

You plant the seed and see how it grows. Give it everything it needs along the way. Nurture. (From the Plant Kingdom)

See if you can plant a few other seeds with Maxine...get some of her little buddies in a group. They can grow up together playing tennis and staying out of trouble...the strength of the Wolf is the pack, the strength of the pack is the Wolf. (From the Animal Kingdom)

[bottle]

The Whole Deal

My partner has a beautiful 8-year-old grand-daughter who is a grand athlete. Two days ago, while both of her parents were working, we watched her win three blue ribbons in a swim competition-- with 800 people milling about and a new race starting every two, three or four minutes all afternoon and into the night.

The same girl, Maxine, belongs to a high level traveling soccer team. In one game, we saw her score nine goals before the coach benched her out of fear she'd score more. You'd see a group of girls close together. Out of the bunch would come the soccer ball as Maxine passed to herself.

Usual pattern: The ball stops just at the point where the goalie can't come out to get it. Then Maxine outruns the other girls (though her legs don't seem to be moving faster), feints, scores.

The day after the swim meet, Maxine sat next to me watching Wimbledon on TV, then wanted to play tennis. Although both of her parents are competitive players, they don't hit with her very much-- their jobs and sports engagements for their three daughters keep them overly busy.

At the court we played mini-tennis, but Maxine soon wanted to use the whole court, and did. There were many things I could have said but didn't. At the end of the session we both agreed that I had taught her one thing only:

A 2/1 service grip with heel of the hand on top slat of the racket and big knuckle on the slat just to the right of that.

Did I do well? She was nice to me the rest of the day. I thought she was promising enough to teach her proper serving grip so that she wouldn't have to gradually work toward it later as many coaches advise.

I hope this decision was correct. Above all, I didn't want to say too much, not having any wish at all to discourage Maxine from learning the game.

[bottle]

For Rotorded Servers Only, Unless Somebody Else Wants to Help

We rotorded servers have a real problem-- not enough spectacular upward spin combined with spectacular pace. (For a definition of "rotorded," see post # 666.)

Each rotorded server, if tackling his central problem on his own, which is most likely, should ask,

1) Which'll it be, animal or plant kingdom? (Explanation of these realms occurs in post # 670.) More poignantly, will hips keep rolling throughout the serve or stop for a while in the middle?

2) What'll I do to lower racket tip farther-- turn arm inward or outward?

3) What grip shall I use? (MOST IMPORTANT.)

4) What's the swing configuration that works best with that particular grip?

With a 2/1 continental, I'm finding that simple down and up works best. This doesn't take racket around the body. How could it?

Take your racket in this grip, reader. Let it fall and then come up. Now look at it. What do you see?

To answer my own question, I see a nice angle between arm and racket. I see strings that are beveled and facing a target.

From there I'm going to wind arm clockwise as I bend it up. (Model: Bea Bielik.) I'm going to continue this wind as the arm folds up. And as drop and downward radial cocking of the wrist occurs. (That would be wrist motion toward the radius bone, to prepare for wrist motion in the opposite direction up toward the ulna bone.)

Although the elbow meanwhile has twisted up, it will keep responding to the core body-- won't rise as sharply but should rise some. It mostly goes forward. (Model: Roger Federer.) My point is that the arm doesn't start extending just as elbow finishes its big upward protrusion. No, the elbow travels a little on core body instead, and then the arm extension starts, with elbow STILL SOLID WITH THE BODY.

(I wondered about this for decades. Why did I have to do that?)

About halfway through arm extension the body and elbow get still (Federer). Well, the body may be pressing but it's sure not rotating much, not compared to just before.

[bottle]

The Skinny

Something more should be said about this. Here's the skinny, which is slang for "information," i.e., opinion.

Every ready made assertion in life and tennis both should be challenged.

Assertion: Keeping the palm down facilitates a natural loop, particularly when arm is loose and the shoulders in a tennis serve change direction.

Although this assertion is correct, the implication that goes with it is less true, that any right hander who rolls his racket clockwise in the pre-strike stages of his serve is both a NIT and a TWIT.

The first and only place in tennis writing I discovered something to explicitly and knowingly counter this widely believed Bradenian notion was in RACQUET WORK: THE KEY TO TENNIS by John M. Barnaby.

Barnaby, in that good book, suggests that, to simplify cocking motion behind the back, one should open the racket, in a down and up serve, as racket passes by the right knee.

I'm not doing that now, I'm opening through the loop instead. But just the idea in all of this, that opening out the racket can work better than setting palm down, has been much too difficult to come by.

Two points: 1) Grip is essential. Grip, as Kerry Mitchell points out, changes every aspect of any swing. 2) The specific challenge of rotorded serving requires specific response.

[bottle]

Actuality

At the court, I found myself NOT KEEPING THE PALM DOWN. Instead, I opened the racket all the way through the loop and only closed it on the way up to the ball for best serves of this particular day.

[bottle]

Magnificent Transformations

Next two logical steps might be to push all of my arm roll stuff back into the up of any down and up serve and then to eliminate it altogether.

I'd hate however to eliminate something which is so obviously important-- since it directly pertains to the development of a deeper drop-- so I think I'll let it reappear, magically, at the peak of a golfer's or tennis player's backswing.

In other words, I'll just start from my normal address, the one I've had for years, with the racket on edge at middle height out in front of me.

But wait a minute! I changed my grip from a TennisPlayer 2-2 to a TennisPlayer 2-1 to put more angle in it. Should that change my address, too? How will I get my snail mail?

"What do you think, tennis racket?"

"I'm a thing, John. Tennis rackets and other objects don't think."

"Okay then. What do you think, my right arm?"

"Just leave me alone, you bastard, and let me do what I've always done."

"Okay den. I'm anti-war."

So Bottle decides to point his racket a little to the left of where he most often points it. This means that after the down and up, his racket will be incredibly closed, and what's more, be pointing much more toward the right fence and not back enough at all, with Bottle, John and I in total agreement on this point.

But we decide to go with it.

So now I do windmills and figure eights while dancing around like Marion Bartoli on a good day between points.

"Gender change alert!"

"Shut up, Bottle."

"Relax. You'll be fine."

[bottle]

Now Check Grip and Return to Experiment

Check grip demonstration here:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/teaching_systems/kerry_mitchell/the_lesson_process_serve_part_1/

I think the 2-1 continental is important.

Heel of my hand was slipping down to the 2-bevel for comfort and everything
was getting too straight.

You want just a little discomfort? You don't want too much straightness-- that's for sure. One wants the added arm to racket angle that having the two markers on different slats will produce.

There are different possibilities of course, but this is a very interesting one, and as for all the grip demonstrations we've ever seen, this has to be one of the very best.

[bottle]

~

Now, going to the animal kingdom, swing the racket tip all the way up to peak of the backswing. Body winds back, pauses for toss and traveling bend, then winds forward without or with leg drive.

Keep going through racket drop and enhanced snap and artificial completion loop to keep producing a repeating figure eight precisely the way Don has taught us in his 23 free videos at Global Tennis DC, YouTube.

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

[bottle]

~

Next step is to combine arm rolls one and two just the way u-i did in # 672 but without thinking about it.

[bottle]

Hold the Coil

"Hold the coil" means keep coiling in three dimensions. The persistence of this will help with the toss.

A statement here. Unlike most tennis writers, I have no allegiance to anything I've written. My only allegiance is to better strokes up ahead.

So, as far as the arm-turns-during-service idea, I and others need to remain flexible. The principle at the center, which came by way of Don Brosseau of Griffith Park, Hollywood, is that racket can move slowly ahead in the windup of any serve.

How exactly this happens may not be important. One good first step can be a rolling of whole arm to the outside-- the outside being the natural direction of the windup. Turning racket inward might also seem effective, but wouldn't this counter the natural motion?

I could repeat the last sentence here as it might pertain to a second step but won't. Simply roll the wrist straight with the forearm, which will close the racket for the first of two separate times.

If you're going to open the racket twice, you'll need to close it twice in order for things to come out even.

But if this seems logical enough, then you can simply combine steps one and two, dropping the opening racket in tandem with the roiling and never stopping hips. And keep the racket tip going around by rolling wrist straight. And blend this all into a single move. To put things another way straightening of the arm can be spread out while strings first open then close.

Again, I'm still working within the previously identified plant kingdom, waiting until later to apply these or similar ideas to what I call the animal kingdom.

Here's a Don Brosseau exercise that helps ANY kind of serve.

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

Only 27 hits at youtube to catch the greatest and most assimilative tennis tip ever offered in one of their videos? Tennis players must be stupid!

[bottle]

A More Specific Service Trial: Will this Spoil the Progress?

I can do only one set of experiments at a time. This one is in plant kingdom (post # 670).

One-- Turn elbow down as it falls and straightens though pretty much in tandem with roiling body
Two-- Roll forearm and straighten wrist
Three and Four-- Turn elbow down again (both while arm is straight and while it is bending).
Five-- Close racket to aid in completing racket drop as elbow twists up

If trial seems promising, run it again, but in the animal kingdom.

[bottle]

Animal Kingdom, Plant Kingdom

If down and up serves are animal kingdom, and 8-board serves are the plant kingdom, then try 3-turn back-swing with both.

More detail on how to do this in animal kingdom serves is available in post # 669, and the same ideas can work in plant kingdom although the overall motion will be more compact, the three arm turns more closely cobbled together.

In plant kingdom serves, hips move constantly to form a moebius strip. M.C. Escher liked to draw moebius strips and my name is John Escher (unrelated), but never mind, I like to draw moebius strips with my body.

A moebius strip, which is the symbol of infinity, is a sculpted figure eight in which the loops go up and down as well as around.

In the short time you wind hips back and up, which naturally sends hitting arm-- quite solidly connected to body-- down, you can make all three arm turns, but you should try two, also, and none, and various numbers of them in different sequence.

Getting too literal minded about this serve will be counterproductive since it is a knacky, right brain thing. It kind of works or it doesn't. Although it will be better on certain days, it's always good for a change of atmosphere or to surprise.

The big question is what is the quality of the ball spin/pace it produces.

If spin is very good, you may find yourself going with this serve more and more, particularly as you grow old.

The distinction I draw between animal and plant kingdom serves, though possibly stupid, is not as stupid as the men are from Mars, women from Venus idea, which was one first step for mankind to learn as little as possible about these two planets.

[bottle]

3-Twist Up and Down Back-swing: Plenty Complicated and Plenty Good

Nowhere to go but down now that I've been identified.

This take up may contain four twists instead of three depending on how one defines things-- pretty complicated. Note: One could assemble a crew of film-makers, photographers, kitchen workers and concession persons with a grant from Warner Brothers to make things more complicated yet.

The turns of which I speak begin with a slight twisting of the racket outward as it falls. Second twist is to the inside. Third, to the outside again, starts with arm straight and ends with arm bending. Fourth closes the racket again.

Why would anyone employ such crazy twists? To reduce arm work. Each turn pushing racket slightly ahead means that the arm can go a bit more slow (ly) and maybe not quite as far.

Assuming that one is able to accept that, wouldn't one want to know whether arm just twists to best setting at top of backswing or keeps twisting while arm is in the act of bending-- for more economy?

Maybe. I'd probably suggest that as a question to a student, but I was just at a party here in Grosse Pointe, where Curt Leibbrand and his two brothers were celebrating their parents' 60th wedding anniversary.

Half the people at the party, including the parents, were great tennis players, and Curt was one of the most successful teaching pros in this part of Michigan along with Peaches Bartkowitz, the late Ken Angyl, Steve Navarro and half a dozen others.

Curt, just starting out, was so adept at identifying any student weakness and then fixing it that his telephone was soon ringing off the hook with requests for lessons.

The volume was so great that Curt had to enlist his two younger brothers in the enterprise whether they wanted to become teaching pros or not.

In our conversation, Curt stressed that the most important thing in tennis instruction may be knowing when to shut up.

I agreed. Still, I'd tell my student if I had one today all about the three and maybe even four arm turns.

The goal is to create a deeper racket drop in which the player receives the benefits of gravity for a second time.

[don_budge]

John Escher...

He's bottle!