A New Year's Serve

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Progress Report

The new backhand was too intellectual, needs to simmer for a while. But the forehand innovation worked right away. That was about "winding up to the ball" for an abbreviated, topspun shot. The making the racket disappear idea seemed promising. I'm only reporting on my own experience, not that of a hundred promising kids or 500 depressingly overweight adults or any other sociological group. There's group wisdom in tennis but there's individual wisdom, too, and this is the area more apt to be neglected.

On serve, I think I'm open-minded about whirling elbow more forward-- in conjunction with whirling shoulders-- than some very good players. One of the very best players I ever competed against advised against this after our match was over.

He might have been wrong, for me. He was a different person, with a different physique. I think the principle of knifing toward ball enough-- on any serve-- is very important, and this can be done in different ways.

Has anyone ever seen a picture of the player Chuck McKinley serving? Eventually, he wrecked his arm, and that always has to be at the back of one's mind when considering the McKinley way.

But I don't know WHAT wrecked his arm and it would be presumptuous of
me to say. What I do know was that he delivered incredible spin serves and
his racket, in the photographs, came at the ball backside first.

My thinking, surely not original to me, is that on a pushed, mediocre serve,
the fault is often that racket opened up too much at contact. We all need to
knife past the ball in one way or another.

The hardest, spinniest serves I can deliver right now involve a lot of simultaneous rotation of shoulders and elbow helicoptering toward net. Since DIRECTION of the elbow is the crucial factor, not how close you get it to the net, perhaps some of the same magic can be generated from farther back but in a more upward direction. Toss to left obviously is crucial, too. Always, we rotorded servers must be on the lookout for possible compensation for our handicap. The Colin Firth movie about the King George who became a great public speaker proves once again that a simple story of handicap overcome will always be powerful and give pleasure to everybody whether audience or participant.

From reading Pat Blaskower and Helle Sparre Viragh together, I've been generating a whole new outlook on doubles positioning and poaches for myself. An immediate improvement I noticed today was ceasing to spectate when my partner serves. The instant you hear the partner's contact you can be going forward, before a split-step, before you even have any idea where the serve's going. Most simply, you build energy sooner. The chance of driving your opponents nuts is better, too. They only know that you're about to cut in some radical direction, anywhere, perhaps even BACK.

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Best, there's only one rounding of the body by the arm. No need to think of that as a separate entity any more. Rolling of the arm and extension of the arm (from the elbow just before contact) do remain quite separate animals, however.

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But hips went out first. Then shoulders and racket-going-twice-as-fast-as-shoulders caught up.

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The hand is not as far toward the camera as I thought. Hips, shoulders and racket length all get parallel to side fence at same time.

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In one day things can and normally do look different.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/new_issue/2011/january/new_issue_january_2011.html

Of course, if you have a short attention span, you just go with what you saw the first day and don't worry, happy in your mediocrity.

About my feeling that racket head is held back and then sprung: It that's true, the holding back starts behind you.

Shoulders rotate forward-- that's true-- but left hand rotates around at same time at a faster speed.

So there's no subtraction problem but rather an addition problem. Think I'll put length of the racket tip turn (before racket goes up at about 70 degrees) at 7.5 feet.

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1HTSBH: From 4.5 to 6-Foot Rounding of Corner

The front 4.5 feet of sharp curve are explained in Post # 536 . I try to tweak that foundation here, this morning, by suggesting a bit of sequence in all the simultaneity, i.e., that extension of arm from elbow be delayed until just before contact.

Here's the model. (In upper right part of page.) At one moment in the repeating video the player's elbow is slightly bent but is straight in the next.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/new_issue/2011/january/new_issue_january_2011.html

Just look at this repeating loop. You probably can't look at it enough. Does it contain 10 bits of useful information or 300? Is tennis better thought of as simple or complicated? It's a real question.

In either case, 10 or 300, we have to choose what to emphasize. Specifically, why does left hand release the racket throat from front part of high left thigh?

This situation folds while hips are going toward net and upper body is rotating to catch up so both are parallel to side fence. Conclusion: The racket is twisting backward as the shoulders twist it forward, producing a subtraction problem in which the answer is our usual convenient unit of 1.5 feet of forward progress around the corner.

So, applying this, we try for six feet of sharp curve in total. At that point the racket flies up to right side of body from two power sources: 1) clenching of shoulder-blades together and 2) upper arm continuing to open armpit to 90 degrees or more (Braden's "ATA").

Upward path of racket head-- starting from off back part of left thigh-- appears quite interesting in this scheme.

The left hand just went down on bent arm to front part of upper left thigh. From there the path is 30 degrees up to ball then about 70 degrees upward due to the two sources.

NOTE: Bent left arm, to invoke Don Budge's old cue, is "around the waist of the girl you brought to the dance" rather than straight and touching leg just above the left knee as in Braden's sit-and-hit. This is hitting through ball more.

Bring back, though modified, an even older image, too. In first part of the 6-foot corner-- the downward part-- swing sword and scabbard both. Twist racket tip in, building tension, then spring it.

If there's no sequence in this six feet of corner (best way of thinking perhaps), just be smooth. If there is sequence, however, it's most probably shoulders swing (1.5 feet measured at racket tip), arm roll (1.5 feet), then elbow travel and extension at once (3 feet).

Now, perhaps for the first time, you may be ready to defend your contact point.

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I Want to Try...

Fill in the blank. Surely there's something you'd like to try but won't because you don't have time, and besides... Fill in the blank again.

I want to try a forehand with a feel of "winding up into a catch." I'm thinking of an abbreviated forehand. If it works, of course I'll apply it (or try to!) to my 360-degree version as well.

I'm thinking, "How utterly left-brained to vote for double-bend or straight arm while neglecting all the possibilities in between."

So, when you catch a ball your fingers tighten around it. You want to preserve that feel. This is the bridge between soft hands and thrust of body and arm or subdued driving of racket (up more than forward though both) including a controlled wiper to spin the ball vertically like a golfer's putter.

The racket is what throws things off. So make it disappear. Put the feeling back in hands and balls of feet.

And whom am I stealing from? And whom did he steal from? Does that matter? Do we want to play exciting tennis or get picayune about attribution?

Keep focus on the middle of a racket propeller. That would be a piper cub propeller formed by your holding two rackets together by their handles with the heads facing out. Or maybe a drum major's baton.

Whirl this contraption but not so fast that the ergs flow to the racket tips like water in a hose.

(And is tennis technique rumination one of the few places where a mixing of metaphors could be permitted?)

I'm thinking of an abbreviated forehand starting out with a lift past right shoulder as in a Federfore. As left arm goes out toward right fence to maximize body turn, however, the hitting arm just straightens a little, then re-bends a little to "wind up into the catch" and help make the racket disappear.

Can't wait to try this. Right now, though, I've got to get my cross-country skiis ready to go.

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Use Rafter's Switch-foot to Develop Feel for Dr. Spain

Videos of Patrick Rafter's forehand don't usually reveal his Switch-foot, a rare shot he especially invented who knows for what reason.

To hit it, one thinks of one's most classical, neutral stance forehand except without a hitting step. One can inch forward using nothing but stutter-steps until the front foot is in normal hitting position.

At that point one moves into the air, stroking the ball as both feet switch position. It's fun and it's powerful and each foot flies 180 degrees-- you then stick the landing on balance, like a gymnast.

Recovering to the side might be a problem but one could go forward or backward.

Going open and using Lia Kiam as the model (see Chris Lewit's new, provocative article), both feet re-plant but not nearly as much as in Rafter's switch-foot.

I'm just one person, not a committee, but let me tell you what happened.

The first shot almost de-eared the net-man. His partner, directly behind him, missed the ball too. This was by no means where I aimed, but the result was nevertheless interesting.

Which raises such questions as: Depending on shot purpose, should arm add to power in a summing of forces or hold the ball with delicacy while body administers the real power. (Put another way, the racket "disappears.")

If going for a flat, fast shot, one can extend arm far back. For more topspin, straight arm division, one can extend arm closer to ankle and farther down.
For straight arm lifting, body then will spin faster (skater's effect). For straight arm hinging on ball, the same? No?

Or, should arm come level to ball before rising to full extension? What's true of another form might not be true of this one.

Usually, I'm open to input from other people, solicit it, steal it, etc. On these questions however I'm happy to try and derive the answers from myself.

The spring don't swing forehands many of us have read about and emulated seem defied by Okker-Federer-Nadal type whirligigs where the shoulders really get going long before contact.

On the other hand, one could preserve the delicate wipe of the spring-don't-swingers thus possibly combining advantages of different methods.

Where's the point of greatest arm extension? Can hand or maybe elbow come slowly up to ball with loose grip before tightening of hand and mild arm acceleration?

If, however, high extension is a bit more to left, cannot front deltoid get into the act? Wouldn't we be summing forces then for a sharp crosscourt?

These should be the subjects of personal experiment.

Note: An anatomical chart reveals that every person has a bumpy, bony part in the middle top of their shoulder. Just in front of it is a small muscle, the front deltoid. Just behind it is another small muscle, close in resemblance, the
rear deltoid. A person could live for more than 70 years and not know this.
He might think a deltoid was the web of flesh in front of the armpit since it looks like a river delta.

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Perfect Balance at End of a One Hander

Re last paragraph of # 536, here are eight or nine possible endings for one hand topspin backhand drives.

Federer: Happy flamingo-- raise rear foot to counter with it

Wawrinka: Leap, throw out left foot and stick landing with both feet parallel to net

Henin: Slide back foot up to front foot even laying down rubber (if going forward)

J. McEnroe: A little pogo stick hop with front foot into court with back foot then coming up in the mildest of save steps

B. Becker: Leaves court and sticks like Wawrinka sometimes but more commonly re-plants back foot partway up and then ships front leg off toward center

Sabatini: With racket still high, she re-plants left foot then pushes toward center

Edberg: Like most of these players, does different things. Saw some though where he kept rear foot back, re-planting it but only a very small distance from where it was

Lendl: Different endings, the most unique of which is where he threads his left knee through his right forming something that resembles a camera tripod.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVvv7OV7xIM

http://tennisopolis.com/video/backhand-demo-of-mcenroe

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From Tennis Racket to Snow Shovel and Back

Mostly I've lived in the country, so this is my first experience of suburbia, where the paved driveways of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan are level and the lawns perfect except for the one I take care of.

Across the street, a man right now is removing the last speck of snow from his driveway as if it's pigeon poop.

My approach is the opposite. Since you're not supposed to shovel snow once you're 70, 65, 60 or 10 (ask your physician), I want a system that minimizes lifts and throws.

One needs a good shovel with double-bend structure in the handle whether that's the way one hits a forehand or not. I start by making two stripes, one down each side of the driveway. This is traditional shoveling where you push and deposit in a single motion and always the shortest distance possible. I'm grateful that as a teenager I worked for the Haddam, Connecticut road crew.

Once the two stripes are cleared, however, everything is one arm, alternating right and left. You push hard into one snowbank, use internal rotation of the whole arm to free up the shovel, pivot and thrust the opposite way.

The pushing is across the driveway if somebody didn't understand that. It's rhythmic, vicious, very fast. I've heard of an anger management technique where a person goes down in their basement and beats a mattress as hard as they can with an old tennis racket. This could be something like that, but why be angry?

I'm back in the house when all the neighbors are still at work with their snowblowers. The cleaning man, who comes once a month to remove every mote of dust, said, "I'm not impressed."

The cars can get out however and I'm ready to play tennis.

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Straight Wrist Early?

Reader, I don't know about you, but when I change to any backhand grip, there's a valley between my hand and forearm. The valley persists when I hit slice or a volley, and I don't plan to give this up.

The question is, what should wrist look like at contact point of a one hand topspin drive? Straight or fairly straight, I think.

My experiment will be to get wrist perfectly straight as part of backswing, with less to do therefore than in the wrist description of post # 536 .

I'm reading two great tennis books right now, both by women, THE ART OF DOUBLES by Pat Blaskower and DYNAMITE DOUBLES by Helle Sparre Viragh since women are well known to be in closer touch with their own feelings than men.

So far, neither of these extremely useful books goes into stroke production but rather dwells on body position in the court.

Everybody needs a full set of tennis skills and knowledge of course.

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How to Think when There's too Much to be Thought

The French Open approaches. For whom is its stadium named and why?

The following idea comes from WIND, SAND AND STARS by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a wonderful book in which the postal aviator Roland Garros, downed in the high peaks and cold snows of Patagonia, learns to count a first step.

This pertains to entry #'s 534 and 535 here: Because the three main tricks of racket work we've identified each move tip a foot and a half around the corner to the ball while knee lifts one's nose a half foot upward, take a first step, i.e., practice each trick alone.

First trick: Slowly extend arm at elbow as leg slowly extends at knee.

Second trick: Slowly roll bent arm as leg slowly extends at knee.

Third trick: Slowly move bent arm forward from body as leg slowly extends at knee.

These tricks add up to a structured fourth in which the racket moves four and one half feet around a corner while leg slowly extends at knee. This is core of the stroke.

Building backward, if using a continental rather than eastern grip, one can straighten wrist out of left hand to accompany rear shoulder sinking and both hips and shoulders becoming parallel to side fence. Or, use rear hand on racket throat to straighten passive and totally relaxed front wrist.

Building forward, one can demonstrate the perfect balance made possible by clenching shoulder-blades while countering rear foot slightly toward side fence like a happy flamingo.

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Adapting # 534 to Continental

Mentally but not physically divide motion to ball in two parts: 1) Hips go out as wound back shoulders also get parallel to side fence and hump straightens out of wrist with arm still held back; and, 2) Stroke the ball way out front in same manner except with two pinches more arm roll (this is a cook book).

Federer, in repeating clip, doesn't continue with arm more than a little past contact on left side of his body before clench transfers racket up to right side.

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A Rage to Escape Backhand Mediocrity

All big league one-hand backhands involve a tight circle of the tip before both ends of the racket cross to opposite side of body.

Today's crapshoot speculation is inspired by repeating movement in January 2011 New Issue in top right corner of the page, where Roger Federer's hand has clearly flattened into alignment with his arm before the strip begins.

Obviously, this video was filmed at a humongous number of frames per second. What's slow is fast; however, what's slow and simultaneous is all much, much slower than the racket tip, which in the same time travels a longer path.

By "longer" I mean that when Roger's knee extends, it only moves his nose upward about six inches. The knee movement by any standard is slow and very spread out.

Taken alone then, rolling arm and forearm move the racket tip around maybe a foot-and-a-half. Taken alone, extension of the arm moves the racket tip around an identical amount. Add these movements together, forming a shallow "U," and one achieves three feet of corner.

Sharpness of the corner is lessened by whatever travel of elbow away from the body occurs before contact-- quite a lot, yet no more or less than the two movements just identified, increasing the grand total for racket travel up to about 4.5 feet from the arbitrarily but wisely picked start of the film.

Numbers of course are useless and perhaps counterproductive in conveying the sensuousness of any tennis stroke-- unfortunate since sensory awareness is our best chance to learn.

So look at what's slow and simultaneous in the alternate reality of this film.

The first thing one might notice is that the arm and the leg are extending at the exact same rate. A case might be argued that arm is turning the racket over at the exact same rate, too. And elbow is going out from body at the same rate. So hooray! Four things to do, but all in tandem.

Added to this is countering with left leg, presumably to provide balance while tamping down excess rotation of the hips. Call that a foot!

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Fearlessness of Evolution Using 360 Degrees as the Guide

A new shot with a larger power base comes from viewing the extraordinary film strips in new issue's BUILDING THE SPANISH FOREHAND: STROKE SHAPING AND HAND FEEDING, by Chris Lewit.

By "power base" I don't mean something static like "width of stance" but rather the whole movement from balance on outside foot to balance on both feet in this shot.

Additionally, if one ever imitated the Pat Rafter neutral stance shot where front foot becomes back foot during the course of the stroke, one started then to get the idea of those new possibilities that come with a total pivot.

One can think of kinetic chain as much or as little as one wants. Whatever now happens, however, all body rotation, not mystical but measurable, is twice that of the classic stroke.

These shots, for me, are Federfores except with a lower follow-through. When Roger Federfore hits a forehand, the racket tip usually finishes around his upper left arm, having described an arc of 360 degrees.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_center/rf_fh_center.html?RFFHCenterOpenStanceCourtLevelFront1.mov

In the Chris Lewit filmstrips here there's 360 degrees plus, and when the balletic tennis player Lia Kiam does it, the appearance is that she tied the two ends of the racket trajectory together with a ribbon.

In terms of my personal development now, guided only by what I see as natural drift if not selection, I'm ready to re-orchestrate, combining my Federfore and my Dr. Spain.

Hit flat, this shot goes faster. Hit with topspin, it produces more topspin.

But how much sidespin gets mixed in? If arm clench goes first, as in the second, third and sixth Lewit filmstrips, one gets more straight-up on a low ball. But one could keep arm straight and lift the elbow instead. All variations should be fun to fool around with once you put the basic full circle construction to work for you.

On medium to high balls, better to keep the arm straight for a flatter version though still with controlling spin. "Keeping the arm straight" in this case means only until after contact. Because one kept elbow relatively low, one can perhaps now raise it to full extension like Lia Kiam in Lewit filmstrip number five.

At 71, paying a lot of arthritic doubles, this often will look like too much of a shot, something too hard, too fast and cumbersome which some old coot will reflex or lob back. So I now pick from the most minimalist of other inventions which I've come up with in this thread, to balance it out.

That would be the double proboscis of Post # 513, to which one would perhaps add the feeling of catch followed by a hold-the-ball elbow lift.