A New Year's Serve

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The New Federfores: Car on Right Side Three-Quarters Upside Down

How sensationalist of me to suggest a grisly car accident in the rain. Actually, reader, I'd just like to see your windshield wiper go up from left to right.

My taking upper arm back an extra amount to counter beginning of forward shoulders rotation (only recently arrived at) occurs at the place where Roger does the exact same thing but with his HAND.

Both actions depend on setting up a decent distance from the ball (i.e., don't crowd it). And both actions contain the design purpose of converting a straight ahead or even crossing stroke (think of a miserably sliced drive in golf) into something that is nicely inside-out.

The inside-out element in golf so essential to a slight hook that makes the ball roll is not very great, i.e., it happens only in the area of the contact, and if exaggerated, spoils the smoothie you are trying to blend.

The shoulders don't start then stop then start again all during forward swing as I briefly thought.

The stroke is a big swipe, primarily horizontal, with all rotational elements combining in a roundhouse way generally thought of by teaching pros everywhere as unhealthy and ineffective.

That would be so if not for the inside-out micro-swipe encrusted on this motion and so clearly illustrated in every one of the new 250/500 fps Federer forehand clips just put up here at Tennis Player.

The shoulders turn forward but the hand takes the racket tip back farther...the two things don't cancel each other out-- they are not equal-- the hand takes racket tip farther back than shoulders take it forward.

The racket tip gets around backwards to where it can swipe the ball in the inside-out direction. Such action is deliberate, pro-active and willful-- not passive or reactive. Counter the two pro-active moves against each other for more racket head speed but above all else to establish the inside-out racket tip alignment.

The arm gets pretty straight-- more than I personally thought it ought to-- before upper body rotation starts.

The phases are left-hand-pointing-at-right-fence-to-turn-body-backward while closing racket; extension of arm with no body rotations going on; body turns forward including the vertical one with leading pocket of shorts prying forward; second body turn stoppage after contact for arm to continue backward by itself.

During extension of hitting arm upper bone COILS more, which also contributes to the possibility of a true inside-out swing.

In these Federfores there is more long arm in sync with rotating body than previously thought (at least by this observer).

One may also hit Federfores reasonably well by keeping or driving late bend into arm and throwing sidearm-- a different stroke within the same genre.

But Roger's "modern retro," whether he wins or loses (which goes for us imitators, too), is the best world model for a forehand right now, unless like most tennis players you prefer to play your tennis or your baseball with a choked up bat.

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Elbow Higher Sooner

Why not slowly swoop elbow in straightened arm up to exactly where you want it, before the toss, and leave it there in fixed relation to the body throughout the most intense part of any serve?

This seems easier than the alternatives. Sure, keeping elbow a bit lower and then letting it rise in response to gross body action works, but is this route 100 per cent consistent and foolproof? Maybe for you.

Once one has decided on the high road, one may notice some interesting things. First, hand then goes up on bending elbow as bending body brings rear shoulder down, so that the two actions conceivably cancel each other out. Does that matter? Probably, although I would agree with somebody not to spend too much grey matter on this whether those cells are in the head or in the spine.

Second, since elbow GOING UP is no longer part of the equation, the drop to right edge of body is simplified. One could then perhaps think about something idealistic yet almost impossible to nail down in hyper-speed, i.e., getting inverted racket aligned with edge of leftward leaning body for a second time (at contact).

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Central Adjustment in any Serve

A tennis serve is too fast for its adjustments; everything must have been thought through before.

How else except through slow concentration are you going to find the perfect time, in a serve that stays tall before release of ball, for racket to drop to the right edge of the body?

When you DON'T hit one of your best serves, it would be of extreme benefit to know whether your arm work was early or late.

But one may not have a good measuring device handy, so let's pluck something dramatic from the whole motion-- release of the ball.

Did arm already bend by this time? That was too soon? Did arm remain straight until just before the archer's bow released? That was too late?

The easiest formula is toss with right arm straight, then bend it to a right angle in unison with compressing knees, which might work terrifically well despite being overly schematic.

Regardless, it's a good place to start one's thinking, but if one's best serves are not then forthcoming, one must have the personal gumption to move the precise beginning of arm bend either forward or backward, probably just a little bit, and maybe even different amounts on different days.

WHEN arm starts bending can affect the slowness of this motion very much, particularly if you're achieving right angle at same point as before.

Slower seems the way to go with its opportunity for feel and better timing.

Just slightly bending the arm before release of the ball is something to try.

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Toward Better Orchestration of 1HTSBH

I was getting too complicated. I admit it. Here's my new three-backhands-only scheme.

1) Turn shoulders; decide; lift rear shoulder and turn hand inward; stroke

2) Turn shoulders; decide; lift rear shoulder and turn hand inward and bend elbow more; stroke

3) Turn shoulders; decide; lift rear shoulder and turn hand inward and bend elbow more while lifting it an extra amount. The racket is now above shoulders in the middle of a bigger loop. But rhythm is the same.

The most exciting additive in this option 3) will be now to have upper arm twist back more on a horizontal plane as hips go out toward net while staying parallel to sideline. Did you absorb that reader? I hope so but wouldn't be surprised if you didn't. The elbow goes UP first but then goes BACK in opposition to hips going FORWARD to generate a long power backhand with increased racket head speed. Stroke.

If this one-hander were a bicycle, it would be a three-speed, meaning that I am going to choose one of three gears every time. Somebody else might choose one of ten. And somebody else might have an infinite number of sizes from which to choose-- a genius!

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1HTSBH Tweaks

The act of stating any complex thought frequently startles one with repercussions. On backhand I've been playing with uncertainty over whether, on a large version of the stroke, squeezing arm ought to carry racket up even more from top of the rear shoulder wave before it drops down into the slot or furrow between waves.

Instead, following Ralph W. Emerson's dictum "Simplify, simplify, simplify," I'm trying to A) squeeze arm along with wrist as shoulder wave goes up; or B) for an even bigger backhand, squeeze everything up and back at this time including the setting of the elbow. (In option "A" I'm keeping elbow still relative to body for more control.)

In following either route, one may or may not bend arm even more as it and rear shoulder suck down. Either choice may lead to the classic backhand "sword-in-its-scabbard" image, with one difference being that one can hold on to racket throat for longer than in "remove the slack from the arm" backhands, thus building tension as racket butt spears out toward the left corner post of a secluded mountaintop court.

One can make a sartorial and theatrical change for higher contacts by pulling the sword girdle up toward one's chest-- that or imagine oneself having done the same-- and one can then comfortably bend arm more, too.

The new ideas here are not tried yet.

Note 2: Shoulders can be level or slanted very slightly upward after the front hip or power pocket thrusts out. Some players then keep tilting front shoulder up more and more. Better for pace and control, I think, is to keep one setting as arm flies way out on a relatively low path with terrific extension led slightly by the wrist.

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Tweaks to Strokes

SERVE

Someone else can try serving with both feet together like Gael Monfils. That he does it so well, however, demonstrates what? Some of the big, mind-clouding weight transfer from-back-to-front foot issues that tended to occupy us may not be as important, reader, as we thought.

For several decades I've assumed that when the great tennis writer John M. Barnaby recommended opening out the racket at bottom of its drop, he meant either to change pitch or take the racket around body in level fashion sort of the way Marian Bartoli used to do. But now I'm bringing right shoulder-blade toward left as racket naturally drops. That doesn't interfere with toss but aligns rising hit elbow with bending of arm up to a right angle. (But sequential or simultaneous for this-- which is best?)

1HTSBH

One can keep things simple by turning left to go left, and then raise rear shoulder like a wave initiating the stroke. I choose to bend wrist inward as wave goes up, but then of course I have a continental grip. My point is that nothing else need alter in the arm-- neither its setting at elbow nor upper arm from shoulder joint. Shoulder surge is enough.

To hit a larger backhand, however, one can add more coil in the arm as hips go out (staying parallel to sideline). Instructors have often spoken of body going one way as racket goes the other-- sometimes they've even said that one wants to press with shoulder to remove slack from arm.

The very generous Geoffrey Williams, however, has offered an opposite idea in this forum. Yes, racket goes back in opposition to body but the hitting arm action is COIL not EXTENSION.

FEDERFORE

If late coil works on the backhand, why not on the forehand? My oppositional debaters have always been eager to explain to me that I am not Roger Federer (though we both have Swiss blood), and they are correct. Since I'm not Roger, however, I now wish to extend arm later than he for more of a sidearm throw. Shoulders can start forward while arm is still compressing in opposite direction. Arm throw can lengthen inside out tract, and shoulders chiming in again to follow arm thrust can lengthen this crucial inside-out tract still more before arm then starts to cross the body in a backward direction.

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Not Covering the Waterfront

Insisting on one's self-interest has got to make common sense in the complicated subject of service motion. I may love the idea of turning shoulders both ways in rapid succession with palm down to activate a natural loop, but that's not what I'm doing at the moment nor am likely to resume except maybe for a trick serve here or there.

My present iterations have to do with the consistency that comes from an easily repeated down and up motion. As Don Brosseau recently wrote in the Tilden thread:

"My argument is that if you use the assistance of gravity, it can be a great help to your rhythm and therefore your consistency. I don't think it makes that much difference to the speed of the serve, but I feel not enough emphasis is placed on developing a motion that is repeatable and has a consistent rhythm...Now if you can synchronize the movement of the left hand with the right and gravity is determining the speed of the right hand, then gravity is determining the speed of the toss. That would be a pretty comfortable and consistent toss with a very consistent rhythm.

"If someone has no problem making a consistent toss and their motion is working for them, but needs a little tweaking, I will leave their motion alone, but if they are having trouble getting a consistent toss, I know gravity works for everyone although it can be difficult to change a habit at first. I think too much emphasis is spent on trying to get that last ounce of explosion out of the leg drive, when it would be a whole lot more effective to serve 10 mph slower and get in 70% of first serves instead of 55% or 60% at the higher speed. Worse, the numbers are more like 40% to 50% for anyone below world class. And sometimes even world class players."

Applied to me, that helps me self-authorize an extreme stance, i.e., with body and feet turned way around, and to start with a still racket pointing to right of net post so that there need be little or no backward body rotation.

The hands drop and then go up. They drop together separating but there's sequence in a horse race from then on. Racket arm seems to be getting out ahead, next the tossing arm passes it, next the straight racket arm continues on its fifty-fifty path up and around during the upraised tossing-hand-to-tennis-shoe-body-bow, and here comes Beedlebom.

Beedlebom could be one's bending of a conscious right angle into the arm at last just as weight settles nicely on the front foot. On the other hand, Roger Federer gets his arm bent earlier than that in more relaxed fashion, which leads to something resembling the slow top of a great golfer's backswing.

The fast part of the serve then is not so much blast-off as release of archer's bow-- though that's only half of the muscle (am talking about myself here, don't know about Federer).

The other half is hip-shoulder combo in which shoulders start behind the rotating hips but end up ahead of them-- a new horse race crossing the finish line.

The wrist, forearm, elbow and upper arm children are to receive no tennis instruction in the hope that they will behave.

Watching Gael Monfils defeat Andy Murray and Roger Federer back to back could make one ask, "In a serve where body doesn't rotate until the very end, could one be well advised to start with both feet together?"

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Questioning Eastern One-Handed Topspin Backhands Again

The wrist action on continental backhands is simple; it's complicated on eastern backhands. Hand starts high relative to wrist on eastern but low on continental. Eastern is perhaps better for absorption, i.e., hand can roll backward a little during contact. Continental is better for altering a deep crosscourt into a short crosscourt with nothing other for the change than a bit more smooth closing roll from forearm and wrist.

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Superstition in American Tennis

When Paul Annacone says that Pete Sampras' serve was "one in a million," does that mean that nobody in the rotordation nation should ever try to learn anything from it?

One can draw a similar conclusion when somebody else says that trying to learn John McEnroe's serve is the ultimate act of tennis masochism.

Such statements, always postulating the inimitableness of some tennis genius, may be just as true as the clear inference I mentioned is untrue.

Basic ideas such as leftward lean, high arching toss, landing on inside foot, accentuated body stance, accentuated body turn largely come to us through McEnroe and Sampras.

Is the criterion well worked out for what we should steal and what never from the tennis geniuses of the world? I think not.

Every man and woman is pretty much on his/her own in this, especially Elena Dementieva. By far the easiest thing to do is shun genius altogether. In this, the rotordation nation can take its cue from the retardation nation.

"Simplify, simplify, simplify," said Ralph W. Emerson but not George W. Bush.

Service works best when arm whips about the body, Bill Tilden suggested, not when one groans and moans and lurches this way and that.

So now I'm going to eliminate the first two of my hip-shoulder combos but keep the third.

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Fiddling with the Possible Types of Backward Arm Movement

What are they?
.Down and up
.Around from shoulder-ball or "shoulder-ball"
.Around from middle of back or "middle of back"
.Bending arm
.Twisting arm

If there are more, I don't want to think about them just now. And if somebody wants to substitute "supination" for "twisting," it's their privilege, but I'll take English over Latin at least for today. Also, "abduction" has been kidnapped. Abduction does not exist in the present iteration. The elbow does rise slightly upward in a reflexive way but only once, because I have no more desire to pinch upper arm and head together like two stupid pincers.

Why even think about such confusing details? Because I worked a long time on service and want the pay-off. I seek the specific structure that allows the racket hand to go quickly down and up without whirling sideways out of alignment.

So, how best to fiddle or play? This usually comes down to sequencing which later it's best to forget. The down and up combined with arm motion around are going to lift hand at 45 degrees to start. Let's try shoulder-ball only this time and bend the arm at top of the ramp so even this bend can feel gravity-assisted.

So far so good. But what else has happened in this time? Quite a lot, e.g., toss and weight shift and cocking of the longbow.

Well then, where are we? It's time for second hip-shoulder combo. As hips go counter-clockwise slightly ahead of shoulders then, the two halves of the arm can squeeze easily together as whole arm comes clockwise slightly around toward the net from middle of the back.

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Oh-oh

A new idea. Perhaps first hip-shoulder combo can overlap hands going down and tossing hand rising up. Since nobody's shoulders can ever go perfectly over one another in any direction as if a vertical wheel, comfort results from using diagonals-- about three times in this case. During the toss, shoulders can be turning slightly backward to catch up with hips-- that is my point.

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Result

I hoped to report the first broken string in 30 years. Still, this seems like a pretty good serve.

Now for the caveat. It seems like a pretty good serve if one starts compressing knees and performs the first hip-shoulder combo as hands go down. And if one blends the following motions during the toss and cock of the longbow: the two high, horizontal arm motions previously discussed and bending of arm to about 90 degrees. But arm is swinging up from shoulder at the same time having received a gravity assist from the drop. The various moves combine to a rise of the hand at about 45 degrees. These moves are more simultaneous (a good right brain word) than not, but there's some sequence in when the arm starts to bend-- halfway or maybe two thirds up.

Vic Braden seemed to describe an inspection for cooties with a mirror held in the palm. Regardless of the cue that may work, the cootie move needs to be practiced all by itself and imbued with great feel. Look hard for those lice.

I think that if arm is still going back a little as second hip-shoulder combo begins, the arm will be more likely to stay on a single, controllable track down and up behind one's back to the ball.

Another crucial factor may be willpower not to lift elbow overly high. It should be high but not overly high even among servers in the rotordation nation. Too high creates a "pinch" sapping leverage out of the serve.

The teaching pro who helped me, Sebastien Foka, noted a lot of body motion in my serve. Well, I just took some out by making first hip-shoulder combo happen early. Rotationally speaking, the body then becomes still for a while. Although it is shifting and bending right then, that's entirely different.

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Phoenix Serve (though I've only been through on a Greyhound bus)

Note: The following serve has not yet been tried.

Whatever the central idea of my last serve, it wasn't good enough. But there'll be no quitting like Elena. Out of the ashes comes a flaming phoenix bird going "Caw, caw!"

The terms that describe it are:

."wave theory simplissimus" in which one shoulder rises higher than the other, which then rises higher than the first one all in linked sequence like the ocean

."rear door hinge," which limits the phenomenon of shoulder-blades clench we talk so much about to one half of itself-- the half that can occur during one's toss-to-release without spoiling overall toss in any way

."long bow propulsion," which relegates leg compression and extension to a mere subset of bending then releasing an archer's bow

."three hip-shoulder combos" lifted from hula hoop and kinetic chain fads. "The hips turn marginally ahead of the shoulders," as Ted Williams used to say. And then the shoulders catch up to those hips, at least in the first two of the three combos, which we will keep minor and almost inconsequential.

."the big enchilada," which refers to the third of the combos, where shoulders not only catch up to the rotating hips but turn right past them

."independent, horizontal motion of arm in its socket backward around the body." That description seems self-explanatory but offers a subtle distinction. We refer here to arm motion that doesn't ease the right shoulder-blade in toward body median and is best learned by immobilizing said shoulder-blade against the back of a chair.

The design:

1) The hands drop together, separating. One can start bending knees then too but I think not this time.

2) Right arm goes up first in a shoulder wave and rather out to the right side.

3) Left arm goes up second using a shoulder wave combined with back door hinge.

4) First hip-shoulder combo along with pulling back of bow and weight shift toward front foot and independent motion of arm in its socket horizontal and backward around the body and gradual bending of the arm as well.

5) Second hip-shoulder combo, in which the shoulder catching up section is coincident with release of the bow.

6) The big enchilada which may or may not include braking from left arm and makes a subset of all final arm movements.

Done properly, back door hinge won't compromise toss. That means you can proceed far along the path of desired motion even by the time the ball is released from your hand. The other time-making move is a very high toss (remember, you got some shoulder-wave into your old toss as an additive). Beginning stance is way around to minimize backward body rotation.

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New Year's Serve has a Complete Nervous Breakdown

It was just my serve that had it, though, gratefully not me. The breakdown occurred during a free initiation or "ignition" or complimentary first lesson before one joins at Eastside Tennis Facility, Detroit. The teaching pro, Sebastien Foka, wanted to see a much higher toss and full arm bend, with action down and up behind the back rather than around right side and with elbow getting high sooner and some other things.

Before long, I couldn't even put the ball in-- a new problem.

But by end of lesson the balls were starting to go in again. I think my serve will recover partly because the advice was good and partly because I've taught myself the language of serving in these on-line posts.

By "language" I don't just mean words or useful terms but the movement or dance of the thing. If I want to take racket up sooner I can do it since I've done that many times before. Same thing if I want to prolong high sideways movement across the back like former NCAA singles champ Bea Bielik, maybe the neatest looking serve I've ever seen.

"Have you ever watched film of your own serve?" Sebastien asked. "Never," I said. "We have a camera here, you know."

If I remain in the doldrums, I'll let you know that, too, readers. I think this computer crash or service breakdown was mystically but closely related to the final double fault from Elena Dementieva's new serve in her retirement match at Doha, Qatar.

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Stick BHV, Simple

Coil upper body a lot while coiling arm a lot out front and pointing the racket butt at oncoming ball a lot. The elbow's high a lot, too, it seems to me.

The power for this shot comes (or "can come" if you prefer) from clenching shoulder-blades together, which straightens arm in a delightfully passive way.