A New Year's Serve

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Student-o'-the-game vs. Ninja Turtle 1110999

That title promises more than I shall deliver on a morning when I'll instead present undramatic but curiosity-driven paragraphs on two different strokes.

Forehand: If Roger Federer has a power pocket, it goes up most of the time instead of out and once in a while goes backward. But what is a power pocket anyway? I used to think it was a depression in the body that flattened out as the body straightened. Then I came to believe that it was the front pocket in a pair of tennis shorts. In either case, in a majority of Federer forehands shown on the TP new issue page, November, the long arm solid with body swings around the rear foot. That's WAY BACK. So Roger doesn't hit out front. He hits out to the side.

Backhand: A John McEnroe drive backhand consists of a crucial rhythm-- the racket slowly goes back as he runs, which siting concludes as he steps across on a 45-degree angle. (Has he ever hit one of these shots from open stance, by the way? If so, I haven't seen the film.) The rhythm is of shoulder quickly leveling and both ends of the racket then going up together for a while. What happens between these two events is compressed and precise, I would suggest, but too complex to think about while attempting it.

To become a Ninja, one may learn to sum all backhand forces in the area of compressed precision and precise compression, but must ask first, "What exactly did Ninja McEnroe mean when he told Greg Rusedski to keep his elbow in?" Did he mean a miniscule whirl of the shoulders but a whirl nevertheless at the conclusion of which spell the shoulder-blades clench to passively whirl the humped wrist straight? Or should tension-loaded arm, independent, not stay shyly back but join in this fun? Or should aspiring Ninja delay his clench, an entirely different idea?

To become a student of the game, however, one may anti-load wrist in early, identical way for both modern retro Federfore and modern retro Ziegenfuss, the first to wipe the ball, the second to let ball work on the strings, i.e., to push the wrist down and back.

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Quasimodo Serve

Okay, if Mark Papas can form the archer's bow while hardly bending his front knee, I can do it by starting out with knees bent and then not go down on them any more.

The deal is a free hour of court time at Eastside Tennis Facility, Detroit, a Christmas present from the club.

I'll take my hour today since all the courts outside are covered in snow. This is like Congress in its final days with one chance to accomplish something.

So, knees bent and rear shoulder raised. That means front shoulder is low, good since it can then rise up to assist the toss powerfully enough to put the ball in orbit.

But if front shoulder is going up during the tossing action, then rear shoulder is going down, and how will that affect racket speed? If the racket's trying to drop down and pass under the shoulder before climbing up on the other side, and the shoulder itself suddenly lowers, the racket's going to be later than normal arriving at its zenith-- right?

One way or another I'll speed the sucker up then.

And I won't tell you how this experiment worked out, reader, so don't stay toon.

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Three Weeks Later

Okay, now three weeks have passed. You've mimed your toss-stretch everyplace you've gone. The other Christmas shoppers have decided, accurately no doubt, that you are crazy.

That couldn't matter less. Assuming you read chick lit, you remember what Theseus revealed he learned from other women before he met Helen according to THE MEMOIRS OF HELEN OF TROY by Amanda Elyot: "No matter how slow you want to go, go ten times slower."

But now could be the time to add a real toss. So you do, until you achieve desired height every time.

As ball starts down you bend your hip from baseline across the baseline. This rakes your vertical tossing arm, still straight, back a little. At the same time the hitting arm bends to a right angle. Result: Both hands move slightly toward one another. The trick is to make time for all this to happen and not be rushed.

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Shoulder Shoulder to Toss

Don't slow down anything, just speed up the toss. Toss with the front shoulder while you toss from the front shoulder (if that makes sense). How high can you go? The 7/8th weight shift will almost take care of itself because of the body's interconnectedness.

The test today is whether both straight arms can reach their zeniths at the same time. So perform this action without a ball: Call it "toss" while taking 7/8th of the weight transfer from back to front foot. Make sure that rising front shoulder adds to impetus of the imaginary toss.

This will be a hell of a replacement if you've always tossed before you transferred weight while bending under the ball. Why make such a change? There are a number of reasons, one of which is that the tennis bars of the United States are full of frustrated players who've never been able-- consistently-- to toss high enough.

I can't see the logic in adding real toss with a real ball before achieving this first goal.

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Private Terms and Why

Federfore: A Roger Federer type forehand

Roger Featherer: English translation of Roger Federer

Feathering in Rowing: Repeated adjustment of pitch

Ziegenfuss: A backward forehand as hit by Valerie Ziegenfuss in the pre-women's movement, lacy dress, old collector's item book TENNIS FOR WOMEN

Backward Forehand: A forehand in which arm swings at the ball before the shoulders do

Goat Foot: English translation of Ziegenfuss

Valerie Ziegenfuss (Wikipedia): Valerie Bradshaw, nee Ziegenfuss, who was one of The Original 9 rebelling against the USTA and helping to bring about the Virginia Slims Circuit and the WTA Tour. Fourth round French Open 1972; Fourth round US Open 1969 and 1975; Bronze Medal in Doubles 1968 Mexico City Olympics partnered with Jane Bartkowicz.

Satchel Paige: The greatest, most colorful baseball pitcher ever. Three of his infinite number of pitches: "Two-Hump Blooper," "Little Tom," and "Long Tom."

Elbow Gouge: A special 1HBH move in which bent arm is swung around

Hip Mastery (related to hip mystery) on John McEnroe type 1HTSBH: How can hip going out create tension in upper arm in such an economical backhand? Answer: Stretch the upper arm backward a little as bent arm and racket go down (thanks to shoulders tilting to level then).

Well, lots of times just defining terms forms sufficient essay, which in this case leads back to the orginal question: Why use colorful terms in tennis or anyplace else?

1) So as not to be a bore

2) They're easier to remember

3) They're briefer than their descriptions.

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Understanding One-Handed Topspin Backhands

I don't mean to beat up on myself, but I require a couple dramatic reconsiderations from myself if I'm going to continue successfully with my exploration of the JM backhand:

1) The first part of a significant COD (change of direction) includes body swing from the shoulders. The evidence is what the opposite hand does. It goes forward with the stroke before it goes back. Elbow gouge (simultaneous) still seems likely however.

2) An imaginary line through the shoulders at end of the stroke will not point to target but to right of it (for a right-hander).

First-hand experience on the court as well as observation of videos of John McEnroe hitting backhand drives has led to the conclusion that improved topspin becomes enabled if one can properly stop hitting hand for a micro-second during which humped wrist simultaneously straightens and rolls. This is "turning the corner," it seems to me. Only a micro-second, I say, but absolutely essential before both ends of the racket then go up at the same speed. Assume I'm right for the sake of argument.

How then to stop hand sufficiently for this to happen? Opposite hand has always been the best candidate for this task. And whether that hand suddenly stops or goes backward, the action is done by clenching one's shoulder-blades together, so where exactly should you do it?

There's no where there, Bud. What's the speed, direction, weight of the ball? The stopping happens before you hit the ball. You determine the where by feel; still, coming to a clear decision that the wrist whirls after hand stops seems large. At the very least, it establishes a whole genre of stroke.

More speculative is my belief that when clench flings one or both arms out, the stoppage occurs early, right then at the BEGINNING of this act. From there the clench produces force. (Right shoulder continuing to go around generates force.)

But where does the racket go? After the force? No. It goes up to the left of it. Maximum racket head speed would occur if you whipped around in a lousy, roundabout stroke. Instead, you siphon force up.

Extreme example:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterCourtLevelRear.mov

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Snow Day

Work for MORE TIME between the toss and the hit. To do that, 1) release higher and 2) at least toss the ball higher! The hands start down together, but that's the last time for a while that they'll move at the same speed. For, in the time it takes the racket to glide from separation to a point slightly behind right leg, the tossing arm, getting long, has gone down straight and retraced its path then straight up to release. Now both hands can go up together at the same speed. The body finishing its bow backward and the hitting arm bending toward a right angle briefly squeeze the two hands toward each other from opposite directions high above you.

Forehand 2 (Valerie Ziegenfuss off of Roger Federer type preparation): Just bend and unbend arm. I called this "a sidearm throw," I know, but slow it down and make it smooth. At beginning of the forward motion send the front hip out. The arm will be straightening and you'll have a huge amount of shoulders rotation available to chime in late and prolong extension. Arm then returns to body the same. This is the spring don't swing stroke where I want wrist mondoing backward during contact (very delayed!) and frankly, I think this will work better without a stupid windshield wiper attached to it.

Forehand 1 (Federfore): Instead of extending arm forward, extend it backward, then sweep it around in solid connection to the body. Mondo occurs as sweep starts. Wiper occurs on the ball.

Backhand, imitating John McEnroe, who almost seems to form a bubble out to the side between his arm and body on every drive: He and Arthur Ashe slung racket to the outside, then changed direction with their continental wrist. No wonder they had such arguments in Davis Cup. They both employed a similar use of wrist.

Hope I'm right about that bit of tennis history. Regardless, it's what I'm going to do, using both elbow gouge and blades clench before wrist changes direction of the whole stroke. I also want to experiment with blade clench in one direction from anchor of the trailing hand, like JM. And with prolonged bend in the arm only less of it than I've had.

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Papas and Archer's Bow

This is about service, obviously, and listening carefully whenever someone is kind enough to lay out a scenario for you. I'm convinced that the process works best in a bar, but sometimes it's good in a grocery store line or on the web, too. Does it ever happen during a formal tennis lesson? That's possible if the teaching pro wasn't overly allusive or over-detailed and you didn't get confused. As Mark Papas writes about his approach at his website, what does anybody have to lose-- nothing, but gain-- everything, i.e., improvement. Everybody should learn the subtle art of robbing other peoples' brains having chosen those people carefully and pay particular attention to their asides, is what I say, but then have a brain of one's own.

You shift toward front foot, taking most of the bow, then complete it as arm bends. The tossing arm (up straight) and the racket tip squeeze toward one another. The ratio of "most" to "complete" is maybe 8 to 1 . All information in this paragraph comes from a repeating visual in Mark Papas' website, Revolutionary Tennis.

I'll put the link here. Then look for the sentence where Mark advises clicking three times on a special picture, which then shows him doing the cocking-the-bow sequence three times. There are a lot of pictures of other servers, too. But the "three-click" one really does express a new idea for me, to then be combined with Mark's thought on acquiring gracefulness. The presentation of this communicator is very great but the substance is even better, I'm pretty sure.

http://www.revolutionarytennis.com/step12_2.html

If you successfully navigated to the visual I mean (Mark Papas also gives you other direction about how to get there), you may notice Mark staying strong in front leg without bending it very much. But others pictured bend it more. That should give you, me or anybody more options to fool around with. Has leg bend/push dynamic become over-emphasized? Mark puts it in perspective as a subset of archer's bow. He thinks too much leg bend is one of a couple of factors that kept Tim Henman's serve from reaching its potential. Personally, I'm grateful to Mark for giving a new take on a subject I have thought and written about a lot.

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Dreadful New Revelations about Five Strokes

Serve: From Mark Papas, my favorite tennis writer other than John M. Barnaby: "To say 'up together' does not occur is to say one arm hangs down at 6 o'clock motionless while the other rises. Poppycock."

Forehand: I timed Roger Federer's forehand and found he takes longer to produce it than his backhand. If one has Federer's footwork, timing and youth, this won't be a problem. Those of us who occasionally get rushed, however, might consider a shortcut. From top of backswing where bent arm is just closing racket as left arm points across body at right fence, one can throw sidearm down and around. Ingredients of this scaling motion: a bit of body rotation to start combined with backward/downward mondo of wrist and extension of the arm while shoulders are still. Then, late, second rotation of the shoulders can take straight or straightening arm still farther out toward the target before arm does a solo to return racket to body. When one has more time on a slower ball, then, one can extend arm way back toward rear fence and whirl it around in a great, solid, long-levered sweep like Roger.

Backhand: It's time to return to JMBH with a vengeance. The whole time I was thinking about the John McEnroe topspin backhand, I never looked at his slice-- what a mistake!

The JM slice employs a great COD (change of direction). But backswing takes racket farther behind the head than mine. Do shoulders rotate forward much during the stroke? I'd say not. Is arm bent a lot? I'd say not. Is it bent? Definitely. Does McEnroe hold the bend until he clenches? Yes. Does all this mean that elbow gouge is in effect to initiate things? Yes.

To translate from these apparent truths to topspin drive: Combine body turn with lowering of front shoulder (saves time and Virginia Wade was a pro at this). If one doesn't rush, one has time to change grip and then flatten wrist a bit. I have in mind more humping of the wrist later on. Use ocean wave theory to tilt shoulders to level with the court. Use elbow gouge with some body rotation to initiate stroke. One always has the option to perform one's clench then, too. But following McEnroe's example seems a common sense idea: Clench shoulder-blades on this particular shot not in two directions but in one. Point straight down with non-hitting hand as anchor from which clench moves away and around.

Backhand volley and half-volley along with slice show back hand jumping up more.

His backhand volleys are simplified slices shortened at both ends, hit only with the back clench. Same thing for half volley: http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...HalfVFront.mov

On any backhand, does JM take upper arm back farther as hips go out? No.
Smoothly, he stretches upper arm back early.

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Rejection of Everything on Wind-up except for Longbow

Why should anyone change their serve as much as I do? Maybe because they got in a doubles match, and one person couldn't return their serve but the other could-- because the racket wasn't accelerating properly off of the ball.

The major difference I can see between my longbow serve and that of Mark Papas at Revolutionary Tennis.com is that I am using a more turned around stance, which therefore requires a greater use of horizontally rotational elements at least on a first serve.

In common: Rejection of tallness to start idea with body beginning bend only after the toss.

No, these longbow serves start forward travel and sink from the first instant when hands start dropping down together. The "longbow" image is from left foot all the way up to sky-pointing tossing arm. You cock the bow and that's all you do to prepare. In between comes a conventional down and up toss. So what does the hitting arm do during this period? It uses gravity to establish its speed down and up, bending near the top with elbow in desired, high position.

This is a good serve to practice with one's eyes closed, and with mind concentrating on slowness of the total bend.

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In Tennis, Point at Right Fence a Lot

One simple but possibly non-respected source of inspiration is to say, "I'm going to stay open to new ideas, I'm not going to be too bullheaded about what I already know."

The little discovery about service I made yesterday on the court, that I can take speed of racket lift from gravity drop and apply same speed to different arm rising in unison in a different direction, leads immediately to new conclusions:

1) The best reason for doing this is that it feels great

2) A short toss from right to left may work well if it accelerates from slow speed already started

3) A tossing arm that goes straight down and up may produce an overly straight toss, not the desired, curved one

4) Path of hand during actual toss can prefigure toss trajectory

5) Even though tossing arm is now to start toward right fence, that is rough direction, not prescription of a perfect right angle-- experiment with slightly different directions, in other words, e.g., more toward net post or less

6) A person who's learned to point left hand across body to generate the bulk of forehand body turn will immediately feel like doing a similar thing on a serve such as this. And one should not resist this "feel." Although I've reduced backward body rotation through the use of radical stance, I've still felt the need of some turn for reason of rhythm. And taking a little backward rotation as left hand is in the process of pointing toward right fence seems wiser than doing it during the actual right to left toss.

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Court Report

As I tried new backhand # 490, I discovered it was no better or worse than my others, some of which are easier to hit.

UNTIL I started spearing a bit more to the outside, which activated the wrist. If you think about it, where's the racket going to go except around the end of your arm if your wrist is like a card dealer's and the arm has just stopped and got straight?

So I had luck simultaneously accelerating elbow gouge and blades clench. The harder I did this, the more pronounced "turning the corner" became, another key phrase from Arthur Ashe's backhand vocabulary.

For flat backhand with enough topspin: Take elbow straight back as hips go out. Put elbow gouge and blades clench on opposite sides of the COD (change of direction).

For topspin backhand, which goes high, bounces high, but still has a lot of pace: Put elbow gouge and blades clench on same side of the COD, highly possible with continental wrist, which bends a whole different way from eastern wrist.

xxxxx

For Federfore: Keep working on more arm extension behind the back, but still in slot, with mondo (on-the-fly wrist layback and forarm supination done at same instant) countering 1) hips going out or 2) hips rotating. Try every possible combination of hips and shoulders rotation, always honoring, however, the premise that long arm and rotating body are firmly connected (no solo by arm, normally, except as racket returns from contact).

xxxxx

For serve: Letting left hand sit idly while hitting arm goes up seems a waste. So send it toward right fence in unison but don't call this slow motion anything but preparation for the J-toss.

Actual toss can then occur as hitting arm and body start to bend and hitting elbow continues up to a single desired level for business part of the serve.

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More Scythe

Hands go around.

Hands go up.

Hips go out as elbow twists in.
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That's the 1HTSBH preparation for today. Let's take a minute to think about it. More must be said. First, although hips went out, rear shoulder did not sink down as much as it could. Second, elbow is high and inside, with racket up in the air and rather closed. Third, elbow is pointed down and to outside. Fourth, racket kept twisting up-- and back-- as hips went out. Fifth the elbow is pressed so far in to body that it has more scope to gouge in an essentially level path outward.

The term "gouge" in this case means one didn't like somebody, and one decided to hit them with one's elbow. But one is also deathly afraid of hurting one's elbow. So one decides to make contact with the fleshy part on the outside.
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Now, to hit the ball, there can't be time for elaborate sequence. So we'll put elbow gouge and blades clench together, i.e., make them simultaneous. Things which before comprised the separate halves of a change of direction are now going the same way and at the same time. We return to Arthur Ashe's advice to sling the racket at the ball. So, is there still a change of direction? Yes. The arm will lift from the fairly low front shoulder straight toward the target with both ends of the racket going up together.
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If two counts, there's the preparation and the hit. If three counts, there's the preparation, the sling outward, the lift toward the target. If five counts, there's the three steps of the preparation and the two steps of the hit.

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Smooth Serve with a Late Toss

Hands drop down together but right hand continues up by itself. Before right elbow reaches its desired height relative to shoulder it starts to bend. But whenever arm bends the shoulders tilt. And whenever the shoulders tilt, they do so as part of total body bend including compression of legs.

Using this logic, one can toss when front shoulder starts up, when it is going up or when it is already up-- more toys to play with!

As body and hitting arm are bending, hitting elbow should continue up to desired position relative to shoulder.

Shoulders can be level and body tall as part of original stance for this serve.

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Serbia and Viktor Troicki deserved to win the 2010 Davis Cup, and they did.