A New Year's Serve

[don_budge]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/03/31/christians-celebrate-the-resurrection-of-jesus-christ-on-easter-as-the-world-debates-its-meaning/

[bottle]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...s-its-meaning/

I don't click on anything that has the name "breitbart" in it or gives other indication of being a computer virus. Still, I point out that sein Donald is huge government, a tyrant, anti-democratic, an authoritarian thug.

[bottle]

In Search of New Cues for Serve, Forehand, See See and Reverse See See

1) To make toss more unconscious focus on opposite shoulder. When rear shoulder goes up the toss shoulder goes down which is all the downswing for toss one will ever need.

2) Crushed version of cast net forehand divides the forehand into two parts, backswing and foreswing. The wipered version divides at a more forward place. First you backswing and cast. Then you wipe.

3) Cues come from theater where one should fear too much rationality. For see see, a difficult shot to pull off, I can only afford one cue per day. The cue yesterday was to fire hips to lower racket deeper from where you (I) already placed it. The cue today is to lift racket tip toward right front fence post and not through the ball.

4) Reverse see see is a backhand in which forward hips turn concludes weight on front foot. Racket corners at same time. Next one lifts both ends of the racket toward the target. I ask why anyone would want to roll arm just then when they can achieve the desired sharp angle more consistently in the way just described. Conclude weight on front foot before contacting the ball.

[bottle]

Breathe the Toss

I'm not saying to correlate parts of the breathing cycle with specific parts of the serve-- although somebody may successfully do that.

I'm thinking rather of toss as whole bod phenomenon rather than mere arm.

Forward hips glide, which used to come after the toss, is now intrinsic to the toss.

Final change in shoulders tilt is more extreme and accomplished through a longer range.

So allow time for these improvements. Toss slow to toss high.

[bottle]

Report, Including an Uncomfortable Truth

I try to tell the truth even when it doesn't uphold the neatness of some concept of mine. A scientist is supposed to do this so I try to do it too.

In the enumeration of 4128 see see is 3) and reverse see see 4).

I argue in both cases that if one has firmly anchored weight on front foot, a lift of the arm is the best way to administer contact.

But the key idea here is firm and complete anchoring of weight on the front foot.

If one has done that, one can either lift or roll. Some would say both.

One has more reasonable options than I first indicated in other words.

I just discovered this in self-feed. I know that lift works well in actual play, am not so sure about roll although like anyone I surely have done this for an occasional winner.

Repeatability is the goal here.

If rolling, the wrist must be laid back to the extreme; otherwise, constant orientation of roll toward target cannot be maintained and pitch of the strings will alter in an unwanted way.

If lifting the arm I have found a very straight wrist to be best. Also, recently, I've practiced this shot more and therefore am more apt to use it.

[bottle]

Careful vs. Carefree Cast Net Forehand

The careful forehand starts to lift the racket tip with opposite hand then continues this small tip rise as opposite hand slides across for more bod turn.

The carefree forehand separates the hands as early as in a John McEnroe forehand only the racket tip goes up not down (and the grip of course is different).

In carefree the full bod turn is accomplished entirely by opposite hand pointing across.

Is backward bod turn then faster in carefree? Absolutely. Which is essential to the wipered version which separates 1-2 rhythm at a more forward place after shoulders have reversed their direction.

Most likely the first distinction between careful and carefree will disappear as the training wheels fall off.

If power then declines one can return to the training wheel of left hand staying on racket.

Eventually however one will graduate to total bod turn from point across in both the crushed and wipered versions of this shot.

Essential to your acceptance, reader, may be prior understanding that the forehand a player usually learns is 1-2-3 rhythm, viz., 1) bod turn, 2) arm work, 3) bod turn.

Cast net forehands dispense with 2) (arm work) altogether.

The arm does reconfigure into longer length while performing a mondo but this opening up or cast net feature is driven by the reversing bod turns.

New attention then must be paid to nature of the bod turn. Unitary turn concept can still be applied to backward turn but in forward turn I believe at least for the moment that the hips ought to follow the shoulders.

This leads to more confidence in arm re-configuration and better balance at end of the stroke.

(Fire stomach muscles first.)

An irony of this is that hips chime in just as ball gets scraped.

You're really trying for less power but get more.

[stotty]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/tennis-and-writers

[bottle]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/sport...is-and-writers

Thanks for bringing attention to this admirable article and to these admirable tennis writers any one of whom should be a model.

I have in mind an image of Nabokov having a hit with his son Dmitri (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/27/dmitri-nabokov) when N. was quite old.

And both players hitting extremely well and keeping a single ball in play forever.

[bottle]

Better Late than Never: Graduation from Blocked to "Sticked" Volleys

Too many players are stuck for life with blocked volleys only.

Not that blocked volleys aren't great and necessary shots.

I remember playing up a level or two one time in northwestern Virginia and losing a tournament match to Greg Didden, seniors state champion of West Virginia.

He was very kind, always urging me to play up rather than beat kids just learning the game.

Once he even brought his family across the state border to watch him demolish me-- don't know why he did that but he did.

On the occasion I most remember however I hit a very solid volley winner that he thought was too good.

He and the other players of his level whom I knew well, he explained, usually didn't hit volleys as sound as the one I just hit but rather sloughed them into the open court or whatever space the opponent offered.

Blocked volleys, I now say.

But the time eventually comes when one wants to stick a volley, maybe hit it parallel to the net.

And one does this by squeezing one's fingers as one hits one's otherwise blocked shot. This whips the racket tip around just enough.

To stick a volley down the line one can do the same thing only from a new contact point farther back and more on inside of the ball.

The way to develop my new sticked volleys (you're stuck if you don't stick) is against a bangboard. Not as volleys, I have decided, but as little chipped slices off one or two bounces-- doesn't matter.

The limited goal is to learn more subtlety of finger pressure along with different contact points, to hit preconceived spots on the bangboard, to do all this in as unhurried and relaxed a manner as possible.

I won't even try to take the ball off the wall out of the air. That is for kids.

I save taking the ball out of the air for cardio drill or actual matches.

If this information is as good as I think, why didn't I learn it sooner?

Poor tennis instruction! As we know there are some tennis instructors in the world who are out to display their ignorance. And I had to read a hundred tennis books before I found one-- by Dennis Ralston-- that even discussed fingers compression as prime determinant of shot direction.

[bottle]

Brief Description of a Serve

Yesterday's service used gravity which was good but did so too soon.

It is Spring break for all the Detroit schools: one week in which to retool.

A work order: Preserve and exaggerate invention while restoring traditional straight arm toss please.

Both arms to separate and straighten on a level path until they are extended tree limbs set 90 degrees apart. Turn backward at same time a portion of the total backward turn one will use.

Drop front shoulder and raise rear shoulder. But drop front arm and raise rear arm at the same time while keeping both straight.

During upward half of the toss reverse tilt of the shoulders while winding them farther back.

The palm down rear arm is permitted just then to bend at the elbow as part of a deeply exaggerated fall.

But it is more backward turn of the shoulders even as they reverse their tilt that sets up a speedy because unconscious whirligig.

Two blended reverses are what contribute to spaghetti arm racket head speed: reversal of tilt and reversal of horizontal rotation.

The shoulders tilt differently three separate times.

I can't see turning shoulders, stopping them, then continuing the turn.

The turning therefore cannot be long and gradual enough.

I furthermore can't see sliding hips toward net without sliding them away from net first.

Pursuit of this tactic could lead to shape of a gorge: steep on one side, level in the middle, steep on the other side.

Report: a very disappointing result.

I shall nevertheless persist in this design.

Just kidding.

A very promising result.

Note: This report was written before I went to court.

[bottle]

Late Bump of Hip toward Rear Fence Worked Well

I guess it got the body writhing in the correct way.

[bottle]

To Spite All Naysayers

"No wight has the power to break us."

"Can Elizabeth bring herself to kill a rival?"-- Phillipa Gregory

Sein 10splayer has asserted that I don't have meaningful "aha" (or Eureka) moments in tennis. Does he really believe this? Or is it that he is deeply into mind games like the person who owns him, sein Steve?

Steve owns 10splayer. Trump owns Steve. Putin owns Trump.

And this is why Steve, 10splayer and Donald all three have "sein" affixed to their names. "Sein" means "his" auf Deutsch. Also, sein Steve likes to watch old episodes of "Seinfeld."

Assume the image of two tree branches at same level 90 degrees apart. Now lift the hit arm straight up. "Air the armpit," Vic Braden used to say. This exercise indicates where you want the serving arm to be, however lift it there another way. Take it up the hypotenuse.

Now the thrust back of the hips can work both arms passively, pushing the rear one up higher, the front one low (downswing for the toss). The arms do nothing in this great second stage of the new serve. The bod does everything.

New Serve as it Evolves

Toss arm at first need not go down. It can straighten a little but never get fully straight. While at the same time the hit arm does get straight. Next, hip bulges toward rear fence. That diminishes my earlier image of two tree limbs set 90 degrees apart unless one can imagine one of them as almost stiffly straight while the other retains some gnarly bend or the hint of an elbow.

Toss then is from one's ice cream coned hand. The toss arm is still bent and won't get straight. Whether it compresses more during the toss I don't know. If so, a small amount. Everybody wants a parabolic toss which just is starting to come down when you scrape upward at the precisely desired contact point.

It's practically impossible to have an even remotely accurate discussion of anyone's serve without mentioning their physical shortcomings.

That would be first in my case severe rotordation in the shoulder joint that never allows more than five degrees past vertical with axle for this the yardarmed upper arm perfectly parallel to the court (ski accident).

And second a dropsied, lapsied or fallen shoulder like that of Pam Shriver (from birth).

"Rotordation" (my neologism) is a subject teaching pros don't want to discuss. John Yandell had a small bit about it in his book VISUAL TENNIS. The player could get his elbow so high that racket tip then would point down at the court in spite of itself. Yes, but upper arm would be so far above the shoulders line that all hope of straight Sampran shoulder-line-to-arm connection for power would be gone.

To address the challenge of my fallen shoulder I ATA (air the arm) right away. This turns the shoulder into a normal shoulder whether weak or strong before I do much else.

"Try and try.
You'll succeed at last."-- Jimmy Cliff

[bottle]

Use Hit Arm to Develop New Figure Eights

They won't be the same as whatever you did before. Make sure the toss arm goes down and up the way you want.

After a while, throw a toss into the continuous motion and serve.

More figure eights then with toss only mimed and no ball release.

Another serve.

Etc.

Figure eights, for all else they do, would be a good time to drill holding toss arm up after the tossing if that is the best idea.

But perhaps such a hold is no longer necessary now that that toss occurs one beat later.

[bottle]

Brainstorm on Thursday Apt to Destroy all the Good Work Put in for Test on Friday

Yes, you can't train brainstorms to happen in a timely fashion. Try to do that and you probably won't have any at all.

Start serve as described in 4137 but with butt way back toward rear fence like Pete Sampras. Which eliminates ONE WHOLE STEP!

This is probably self-instruction-- for myself only. But so what? Does that make it less valid?

No, and it's going to be fun to feel the racket go up on a steeper path than the hypotenuse of a triangle I described before.

But I doubt very much these serves will work in any other way than the one I practiced all week. And that serve, too, won't work as well thanks to the new feeling that I ought to be doing something else.

The solution: Aim for the cardio warmup and tennis social next Friday rather than for the social tomorrow night. But do the drill and play tomorrow and have fun, because you never know.

Well, I'll have two serves to test, one I only tried in pantomime and without a racket.

(Hey, Bottle, try some of these serves with your eyes shut.)

[bottle]

Report

I don't know. The new serve is so interesting that even fallen sinners without a fallen shoulder may wish to try it.

Before I go into that detail however let me pick up on the narrative already started. The Detroit schools charter and public alike took a week off and called it Spring Break.

Snow happened four times during the week.

That gave me, a guest teacher, a cold week in which to re-tool my unsatisfactory serve.

My forum antagonists sein Steve, sein 10splayer and sein 1alexander accuse me of personal arrogance and surreptitious gender change and worse pretty much all the time.

Regardless, I ignore their taunts and in fact offer them a great new serve as their own begins to fizzle.

My true fear was not of anything these three guys might say but that all the neighborhood courts would be filled with the South High School of Grosse Pointe tennis teams.

Not to worry. Those boys and girls were drinking margaritas in Cancun. So I had all 12 courts to myself. (I'll check on that number later.)

The wind however was such that the balls were arrayed along one fence. The heavy iron gate kept blowing open. But the wind nicely pinned my hat against the chain link until I could pluck it off.

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

The serve starts with weight on back foot and butt protruded like that of Pete Sampras at the rear fence.

That however is where all similarity ends. And could even be viewed as embarrassment if one were of a mind like sein Steve, sein 10splayer, sein 1alexander so deeply into that stuff.

Embarrassment would seem too much what tennis is all about. People were discussing the decline of attendance at our tennis socials.

Well, in my case there is not just the embarrassment of possibly losing (though loss failed to happen last night) but tardy revision if one is the kind of person who constantly tinkers with his serve.

This was no tinkering but overhaul.

Slowly and smoothly the right arm steeply rises backward and upward toward the roof. The left arm can stay as and where it is (a new development since last night). One has to decide at what o'clock on the path of the big hand one will slightly straighten one's other arm (the small hand) into a mimicking arc to start one's toss.

The hips to glide from rear fence toward front fence as part of the toss in which one's hit arm finally bends and one's whole bod turns inside out.

"Create the illusion of imminent motion in a still object."

That is a writing assignment but could be a serving assignment if one is willing to call a tennis serve an "object."

(Jane Birkin, designer of the Birkin bag: "I like to be an object.")

But there will be new changes-- I know this from experience. And each will humiliate. By demonstrating how wrong and stupid one was.

Accept and go on. Invention is humbling. Accept accept.