A New Year's Serve

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Yesterday

A lot of the guys wanted to talk about a shot I made. I was close to the net in a volley exchange. One of the volleys I hit was soft and right to the other guy. I went into protective mode as Walt Malinowski, USPTR , taught me, turned tail you might say. And couldn't see the ball though I knew it was coming fast. Made contact down low and behind me right on the sweet spot. For a clean winner.

A once in a lifetime occurrence for me, methinks.

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Stotty

I know you have a connection to Italy, and aren't you worried about Excommunication?

Strong continental forehands in which the wrist "pumps": blasphemy!

I'd always heard that continental players use more wrist than other players. But John McEnroe doesn't. Or does he?

Is that what the announcers on the Ploughshares Tour mean when they say that John has added a bit more topspin to his forehand arsenal?

Is that how he does it, or does he do it some other way?

Well, when you do it do you pump forward or upward or both?

I ask you because I'd like to try it although I understand you never would teach such a thing to one of your students.

Also, I heard you used to hang out with the werewolves I mean the Lloyds of London. Did John Lloyd do that thing too? Is that what happened to his marriage to Chrissie?

I'm kind of wondering if this shot wasn't the reason I could never take a set off of Senator Paul Laxalt on High Knob Mountain in Virginia. It was so hard to read. Paul said that he was 15 when Helen Wills taught it to him while removing the Moody from the end of her name in Reno.

[stotty]

Stotty

I know you have a connection to Italy, and aren't you worried about Excommunication?

Strong continental forehands in which the wrist "pumps": blasphemy!

I'd always heard that continental players use more wrist than other players. But John McEnroe doesn't. Or does he?

Is that what the announcers on the Ploughshares Tour mean when they say that John has added a bit more topspin to his forehand arsenal?

Is that how he does it, or does he do it some other way?

Well, when you do it do you pump forward or upward or both?

I ask you because I'd like to try it although I understand you never would teach such a thing to one of your students.

Also, I heard you used to hang out with the werewolves I mean the Lloyds of London. Did John Lloyd do that thing too? Is that what happened to his marriage to Chrissie?

Like a lot of marriages that wrap up pretty quickly, John and Chrissie were just mismatched. Chrissie played just once at my club when they were married. God knows what she made of the place. I don't know John that well as he is eight years older than me and was on the tour by the time I surfaced at the club. I know his brother Tony quite well. Tony was the best player ever to watch. Maybe even better than Roger. More on this another time.

Yes, pump I do. Or at least that is what it feels like. But as we know from this myth-busting website we write in, what we feel is happening and what is happening can be two very different things. I think I must be pumping my wrist because my extension is poor and I have never followed through over my shoulder like Novak. I have a poor forehand whether measured by classic or modern standards.

The heel of the hand sits plumb on the top edge of the handle when I hit my forehand, so a bit further that the classic continental. And, yes, I make sure I get the racket right underneath the ball when I hit my topspin...and I get a lot of topspin, believe it or not.

I don't think McEnroe used much wrist at all, but then he hit very little topspin. He just caressed, timed, and steered the ball around. He's probably the most fascinating player the game has seen.

I have a strong connection to Italy and yes what is going on in Italy worries me somewhat, and my wife. If what is expected to happen comes about, you are going to see hundreds of thousands of immigrants shipped back to where they came from, and sometimes where they came from is downright terrible.

By the way, one of the best things about you is you remembers things.

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Not birthdays, for sure.

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Next

Okay, I think I'm ready to give up my position, to come out with both hands up, no both hands down, no one hand middling up and pointed across and the other down.

There will be no self-feed first and no forehands with backward bod rotation melding seamlessly into forward bod rotation as I begin to hit with my new Ukrainian friend Iryna.

That doesn't mean the dead time between the two rotations can't be minimized to the max.

I see arm extended out to side (half of back swing) and butt of racket already to have settled nicely (second half of backswing).

Dead time between the rotations will be reduced to the mondo (or flip).

It won't be easy. Iryna had a tall and also beautiful partner the other day. She was all covered in sweat and full of dire warning that Iryna is pretty good.

This was the woman who typed Iryna's number into my phone.

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Keep watching her and don't be cynical (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...sue/2018/june/) just because you don't see as much arm roll as you would like for another shot.

I am convinced, largely from the crew coach certification program I matriculated through at Annapolis long ago, that some people are good at analyzing athletic movement from a single look, much like a dermatologist, while most are horrible and don't see anything.

There has to be virtue in this girl's stillness of racket just before she hits the ball.

The racket is going through all kind of changes but they are happening in one place.

The racket isn't going down, up, this way, that way. It was just coming down but got still when the body started up.

I could be speaking to someone other than myself or not.

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No One is Asking how my Date with the Lovely Ukrainian Tennis Player Went

I guess nobody but me cares. But I set up my forum opponents to make wise-ass remarks.

I just don't understand it.

The first thing I learned is that Ukrainian grandmothers tend to be younger than American grandmothers.

Second, that Iryna is not a tennis player but just a beginner.

But someone with so much natural ability that she already looks like a tennis player when she hits the ball.

This is what threw me off. I did spy on her a couple days ago with one quick look.

Other surprises were that she showed up wearing a dress and brought along a small dog, Sonya.

Since the time was late Saturday just before dark we had our pick of the courts.

I chose the pair of courts that are independent of the others and best enclosed-- perfect for a small dog.

And Sonya, extremely well-behaved, stayed quietly to the side.

Iryna's forehand was classic. But shots to her backhand soon convinced me to fetch my basket from my car.

As the lesson went on, I decided not to overhaul Iryna's forehand but rather to instruct her on how to get a bit more topspin out of the one she has.

Gangbusters.

The more athletic the person, the quicker they can learn. If they are of a mind to. That's where the rub is, usually.

Earlier in the day Iryna provided sustenance for octo and nono genarians. And swam 75 laps at the Neighborhood Club across the street.

As I suspected, she is married to an American.

In a while her grandson arrived along with his rather comely mother.

I gifted the boy with a baseball from my basket.

A while more and I said to all, "Too much talk. Let's just hit."

There will be a repeat.

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Following Directions

The forehand direction is to get one's forearm parallel to the baseline. Such a position, however, could be hard to visualize when one is on the run.

So I recommend to myself, in the self-feed session I am about to conduct, a simple standing of oneself slightly in front of the baseline.

Then turn in such a way that the forearm coincides with the baseline.

Then lift the racket with ESR-- external shoulder rotation. "Twiddle the humerus," could be another way of saying this.

Memorize this position. Then go there directly next time.

Then chop from the elbow joint albeit without force. Grip will matter. In my case the elbow direction wants the easy chop to take the racket toward the right rear fence post. If the elbow had a personality it would be determinist, not a free will guy.

What is the wrist doing through all this? Well, it's laid back or rather up with a bit of ulnar deflection thrown in.

I wouldn't mind maintaining this fixed wrist position once initial lift establishes it all the way through the stroke.

And what happened to mondo or flip?

It is no longer a combination of wrist layback and forearm turn. That definition like much in tennis is outdated.

The wrist layback has already happened. The flip therefore is arm turn down, a right-hander's clockwise twist.

When one watches videos of Rober Federer straightening his arm from his elbow one sees his racket getting parallel to the court, maybe a little more or less, but never far from that norm at least in most of his forehands.

Yes it gets parallel to court just before the mondo happens.

Now, because the forceless chop took racket back a bit more, one has a nice space in which to create a spear.

The racket head speed-- in the two different system directions, forward and up-- is very extreme from flip through contact and somewhat beyond.

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Credo

I believe Brent Abel when he says that super-seniors champ Paul Wulf started late and figured out how to play the game.

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Latest Forehand Iteration

Brian's phrase "hips for flips" has finally expunged the word "mondo" from my vocabulary.

His separation of the flip-to-contact tract into useful thirds has finally given me one thousand per cent confidence in my forehand.

His judgment that straightening the wrist after contact is "not a great thing" has given me another option.

I don't know how much credit Brian wants for anything in life. If he is the normal human I suspect, too much credit should make him nervous.

His revelation that he himself uses Cont. grip is splendid illustration of the old saw that "rules were made to be broken by those who know them."

Me, I use a strong eastern grip morphing through the months into a semi-western. The loose thumb by now is on top of the racket. But I will explore Cont. grip for these shots later in the summer only after celebrating present progress first.

Among other changes, I have abandoned seamless bod turns with no transition between them, except for a few attempted service returns. One can be more accurate with the transition. Which now is a forceless chop from the elbow most commonly in a mildly backward direction.

Videos of Federfores now have more meaning. Roger's flip, coming from behind the ball, seems part of hand "linearity" in this shot.

The only swashbuckle I retain, i.e., evidence of the Gilbert and Sullivan inner pirate king, is immediate separation of the hands as part of the unit turn. The high thumb, I believe, helps keep racket stable enough.

The rest of the stroke is a matter of following directions.

P.S. I may or may not be the villain guilty of introducing the esoteric term "ulnar deviation" into the discussion over at the straight arm thread. I only use ulnar deviation to provide interesting positioning and added stability at top of my forceless chop.

I can't see corresponding radial deviation at contact as useful additive.

Two different motions from solo arm seem complicated enough.

Any radial deviation happening then is unconscious result of loose grip.

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See the Ball. Hit the Ball. -- Craig Monroe, Detroit Tigers

Stet., Stotty.

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Internal Voice, Speaking to Self

Don't think. Right. Not when you're up to bat.

Do think when you do design. And keep a reasonable interval between your design times and your hit times along with the inclusion of work-in time.

Reflect on this maxim: Less is more.

So could one subtract something major from one's forehand, something one has done one's entire life?

There is no magic bullet, Brian Gordon said. But straightening wrist after contact is "not a great thing," particularly if in spite of one's best intention this started during contact.

But what if one keeps the bend in one's wrist-- perfectly-- through contact?

Shouldn't matter to the question of advisability being considered here.

Not straightening wrist could improve one's wiper. Whether it does or not, it would be one less thing to do.

So it's good! A bit idealistic, I suppose, since it counters one's conditioning.

If it doesn't work, forget it but if it does work, go with it.

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A Possible Future

Figure eight forehands, depressed wrist for power off both sides; straight wrist for slices, volleys and McEnruefuls.

I have a great new hitting partner, who is making some of this material come together in my brain.

Iryna knows enough English to deal with basic concepts but tends to learn more from whatever it is that I may be doing.

She read Theodore Dreiser in Ukrainian translation but not in English.

We say, "See the ball. Hit the ball." It's a very good joke.

Since I only play doubles with geezers, a radically new stroke is almost a disaster, so arrhythmic is the nature of that game.

But when, suddenly, you get the chance to hit 10 forehands in a row, you start to get new ideas.

Once wrist is depressed or concave as you look down at the top of your hand, you can keep it that way if you wish.

You now have a modified wait position. The grip changes will feel strange for a while.

But all in all there will be less to do on both sides.

A Stanley Plagenhoef backhand, as I have assimilated it, excludes any drop of the racket behind one.

There's just a straightening of the arm melding into a roll or turning of the corner in which the wrist gets straight for a double-ended push on the ball.

Sarah, a teaching pro here, has noted what I am doing with great interest and calls it an inside out backhand.

Iryna seems (intuitively) to want to adopt that.

She did after our last hit go out and destroy her usual partner. And she was much better this time with me in this last night hit, is improving in "leaps and bounds."

She did experiment with the ATP III forehand I briefly outlined for her but found that too forbidding.

And I'm not about to inflict it on any grandmother just picking up the game.

For me however it's great, and I don't see why I can't use my early hand separation version to pound some imaginary opponent into complete submission with 10 continuous figure eights.

Will be out of town for a week.

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False Assumption: That a rotorded server can only improve his game by defying nature somehow to get his racket tip lower

To create a longer runway up to the ball. To allow for more room in which to accelerate the racket. But the word "runway" conjures up the same image in everybody's brain of something straight.

So curve the runway like Pete Sampras and John McEnroe. You are not they. All the more reason to steal what is stealable from them. Either they or some coach was extremely smart. They could get the racket tip low-- plenty low-- and you can't. So don't bark up or rather down the wrong tree.

John and then Pete probably weren't unhappy with their racket lowness. They just wanted more rotary power to add to the mix. And rotary power is denied to no one, not even John McEnroe when he had back problems. It is not denied to the rotorded server like half of his internal drive, viz., half of that part of it which is vertical.

So turn around. Turn WAY around. Bump out the rear hip and start the hitting arm long before you toss.

Works for me, i.e., is better than anything else I ever tried.

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The Better Humor that Comes with Better Humerus

The humerus, if you let it, will turn your bent arm sideways in a forehand and off of the ball.

But what happens if you twist your humerus the opposite way and do so during the backswing? The racket flies way out to the right which is where you want it. If you add some cocking of the wrist, that too will impart energy to the racket.

Seems like a case of too much early muscle, right? Right. So add the passiveness of arm straightening down from the elbow, my "descending milkweed" image that LadyPro liked.

The descending milkweed replaces as one's timing element the pause or slow down at the top rear end of an overhead loop in older style forehands.

One has so much energy available that one needn't do anything-- the arm will straighten by itself.

Now it's "hips for flips."

And while hips turn the shoulders turn too. There is sequence but the sequence is "marginal," to use Ted Williams' apt term, he the famous baseball slugger and later genius batting coach.

That leaves straight arm to take its combined solo of straight elbow push forward and straight elbow twist, i.e., short radius wipe.

The backswing wipe was long radius. The foreswing wipe is short radius and quicker. Same thing on a serve. Get the arm straight before ISR.

In the past, we forehanders straightened our wrist shortly after contact. I choose now not to do that. The wipe therefore takes the racket head abruptly down as arm bends and wrist finally does straighten-- down low-- for comfort.

Racket has spun. Body has spun, both in a maximal way. Racket is low and to side like a sword on one's belt. How then to get it back to ready position (which will be cheated left in my and many another case to favor backhands)?

Use both hands while keeping hit wrist straight.

The theory for that is not good if most of the planned forehands and backhands will start from concavity of wrist when looking down at it. One would like to keep hand cocked up like that just as it recently was.

But straight wrist configuration allows for a greater variety of shot and simply feels more comfortable (to me), possibly from habit, who cares, comfortable is comfortable.

And tennis is a personal, not sociological or robotic or "paint-by-the-numbers" game.