A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Working with the Rotordation Nation

A Mr. C.M. Jones wanted to see serves come from farther back, i.e., hand well behind neck and not squeezed up against it.

But we rotorded servers, if determined enough, will try anything to get hand in lower relation to the toss, which frequently means a big clenching together of the two halves of the arm and probably too soon.

One can keep the halves glued together for a long time and finally throw arm straight from this completely bent, needle-like position but with what effectiveness? A flexible jock throws with a much healthier mix of arm power, i.e., more internal rotation from upper arm and less arm extension, from 80-degree bend say, which is only slightly more than half the availability.

Full bend, half bend-- is there a big difference? I've never heard or seen the subject sufficiently discussed but suspect there is. Half bend definitely puts hand farther back than full bend and achieves more of a pro drop parallel with body out to side.

Operating on my suspicion, I'm bending arm much less when it's behind my back, just forming a slight curlicue to start back there. And I'm finally coiling arm to 70 degrees as part of reflexive elbow lift transitioning into "shoulder abduction," which isn't a kidnapping but rather a lifting of the arm straight up.

If abduction is transition, as tennis minds G, M and Y agree, then why can't it be classified either with what lies ahead or with what came before?

How much can you keep hand back from delaying the bending of your arm?
The less you've already bent it, the more you'll need to bend it (and vice-versa) if you accept, say, my arbitrary, final figure of 70 degrees.

This is a very different looking serve, possibly awkward, maybe ugly-- I don't know and won't care if it works.

The feel is of a very late shrink-wrapping of the arm structure rather than simply inverting it while it remains set at a constant size. And such shrink-wrapping will, possibly, fool the oppositional muscles into allowing triceps to contribute to more unfettered racket head speed.

Should this experiment become preferred serve? Or should one return to completely squeezed together mode if that is most natural, through previous practice, for the server?

The result is to be determined, as ever, by upward RPM's generated and effectiveness of any serve against tough opponents.

[bottle]

1htsbh Trident

At least one impressive tennis mind advises paradox and irony as a way to realize tennis strokes. Not exactly the same as those who always cry, "Simplicity," is it? I just think that every TV tennis announcer should warn against under-thought exactly as much as over-thought.

What often happens if you are the rare tennis player on a prolonged journey of exploration is that you finally develop some principle or generality but later find the exception or maybe even an opposite view which now seems equally valid.

In my statements about "the wave trough of simultaneity," I've got to look now for the opposites if I genuinely believe in science. On the serve a wave through the body is at work. (Think of "longitudinal body release" if you must.) The same should be true of a driving ground stroke unless one wants to sacrifice half of the power possibility. And that much remains constant.

However, in a 1htsbh front hip can go out (like a hip check in hockey) followed by shoulders rotation followed by shoulder rotation-- a nifty sequence. That doesn't mean there can't be overlap.

And the shoulders rotation can still be simultaneous with spearing racket prong. I stick with my trident, a three-pronged fork.

[bottle]

John Should Change his Backhand

If John has a great backhand, he would have an even greater one if he could eliminate one needless component.

To see how to do it, if your name is John, read post # 453 .

In a test, new method beat old from the very first shot.

Since my name is John when it isn't Bottle (the old Detroit carpenter and head football coach I met the other day quickly re-named me "Bottie-John") I'm speaking here to myself but also to John McEnroe, him, too.

[bottle]

Cue

When further cueing the new backhand (for which one gathers arm, wrist and rear shoulder in a single, rising wave), I suggest working on shoulders rotation to shoulder-blades clench transition first. It all swings the front shoulder around, doesn't it? So maybe that's the way to think of it-- a continuity.

The clench adds muscular power but first and foremost stops rotation of both shoulders, which helps accelerate the arm (and front shoulder).

That's how it's supposed to work-- so let it!

After that, perhaps start thinking about the abrupt change of direction that occurs to the racket during this process.

I've spoken of "the trough of great simultaneity" in all of this wave analogy, along with compass points involving net post, fence post, and ideal position of the front hip while knees still are bent.

Too complicated? Then why not index this navigational information with a single image-- a trident or three-pronged fork.

As clench begins, one re-asserts essential big body, small body sequence-- no more simultaneity in other words.

Body goes marginally before arm and wrist.

[bottle]

Gathering Arm, Wrist and Rear Shoulder to Top of a Wave

In post # 451 I bent the arm a little more as wave went up. If that works better, why not bend the wrist in unison as well? Not what John McEnroe does but so what? It's one wrist motion going forward then instead of two.

Remember, however, that I'm using the JM grip with its hunched wrist to hit the ball, during which process the forearm rolls the wrist flat as in dealing a card.

An eastern grip player by contrast may start his forward stroke with wrist concave and end it with same side of wrist convex.

The continental grip player may start convex and have wrist straight by contact. Or, he can start concave and then use two different motions to get wrist hunched then straight while coming over the ball-- like McEnroe.

This doesn't require astounding genius (the standard cop-out for not doing anything interesting in tennis) but a clear and simple view.

If I can hit both single and double-wrist motion continental topspin backhands, I should then be better prepared to evaluate the advantages or disadvantages of either.

One is more simple and the other trickier. Hoorah for simplicity but hoorah for trickiness, too. The jury is out.

[bottle]

In the Wave Trough of Great Simultaneity

Since I haven't heard anyone speak much about hips on the one handed topspin backhand in the past week, I might do it. I was thinking that some pretty cool reference points are available for shoulders and racket butt during that part of the stroke I call "racket trough of the great simultaneity" but maybe the hips information in my head is not quite so well focused.

So here's a full recipe or prescription, and since we're mixing metaphors already by taking both Julia Child and Dr. Spock out surfin', let's try for a real blend or smoothie with half a banana to take us down one wave and up the other, or is it all one wave-- who knows?

Forward shoulders turn (and stop) perpendicular to left net post. Racket going down and forward cocks to where its barrel points to left fence post, which is inside the net post. Hips carry power pocket toward...where?

Instead of trying to gain the answer by observing players or films of players this time, let's deduce it from another fine reference point. If one holds out both arms in a maximum stretch caused by clenching shoulder-blades together and then observes where the arms point, it should be directly at the target.

So, point at target in this way and then run the stroke backward until shoulders are getting perpendicular to net post and racket butt is easily slinging at fence post. Where are the hips and what are they doing?

Joker factor might be, "Did you step out, and if so, on what angle toward the net?" The 45 degrees specified by Arthur Ashe is good.

To my reckoning the front hip is now pointing as much to the right of the racket butt as the racket butt is to the right of the net post.

But how did the front hip get there? As if delivering a hip check in hockey, i.e., the hips were going out and lowering the back shoulder behind them but didn't turn much and didn't do this timed action with more than controllable force.

So, since this great simultaneity is leading to a shoulder-blades clench, is there more hips turn available for a ground-up supplement?

Yes and no. Front hip won't now pivot freely (it can't while leg presses muscularly against the court!) but will come back toward right fence slightly as leg-and-body extends to make you tall.

But where were right toes pointing? That will make a difference in direction of any final hip turn.

[bottle]

Toward a Better Wave Trough

Once one has decided on the 1htsbh not to swing stiff arm like a board but rather do something more sensuous, interesting and organic, one can apply wave metaphor in greater detail.

This iteration has the player (I or perhaps you) turning shoulders as essential part of movement to the left. But this horizontal rotation turns into vertical rotation (a wave rising) as rear shoulder goes up to initiate hitting step with right foot.

So what is the bent arm doing through this? Well, one could, like Richard Gasquet or former NCAA tennis champion Bea Bielik, get elbow way up high. More moderate thinking might leave elbow where it is for a more moderate stroke but with less to do.

The self-suggestion I want to try is bending arm a little more as wave goes up.

[bottle]

Stealing from USPTA 990770809

I'd like to steal from USPTA 990770809 today. In his post # 85 at "Nadal's 130 plus MPH serve" he goes looking for something specific on the web but finds two U-Tube videos that are far superior. This is in fact the way to use the web. Either that or steal videos identified by other persons.

The first video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLf_M...eature=related , is an interesting contrast to Martina Navratilova's admonition to go more for simultaneity than elaborate sequence when hitting a serve. Of course one can always try to be a real intellectual and do both things at once. Most provocative, I find, is the video's section on hips with its contention that tennis players don't use hips nearly enough. The hips turn visually portrayed is what I'd call both internal and external. Since I haven't been doing this, it will be nothing, after coffee, to go to the court and try it out. It's Sunday after all, and my girlfriend Hope is at church.

Perhaps I've been keeping one foot or the other flat for too long. I'm going to get on both sets of toes when I start dropping the racket with both hands. I'll be ready for a bigger pivot then-- internal and external both and simultaneous and in both directions. Will tell you readers how it worked out.

It worked out great. I concluded with getting on all toes. Might be perfect for a young man. Me, I've got a reduced backswing from the way I now line up, so can keep a foot flat for control till pretty late. Think I just want the big pivot going forward not backward and once you're in the air there's no more concern about foot connecton to the court anyway.

I must say however that the most discouraging aspect of this Somax video is the part about how Sharapova only gets her forearm down 40 degrees compared to Roddick's 127, suggesting a difference of 87 mph just from that. So what's left for me in life with my 30 degrees? Well, I can use a lot more hips-- a body part where people haven't yet quantified the contributing mph.

While I was at the court, I also used USPTA 99077089's second video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPLmCqGIotM in which poor ole Roger is reduced to the mere skeleton of what he was. I wanted to make sure I was using the swimming scissor kick with the left leg, so clearly portrayed, to decelerate lower body just as left arm decelerates upper body. Voila, a good practice! Thanks, Don.

[bottle]

Progression

Building on # 447, one can either bend the arm during the toss like Virginia Wade or keep it straight for longer.

If A) bend arm and body during the toss the elbow can compress the hand upward the same amount it just extended it downward before fin-like round-a-bout-- make a perfect U in other words.

If B) keep arm straight one can lift from shoulder during first rotational pair, activate a longer reflex loop from second rotational pair ("pair" = hips and shoulders sequence.)

If C) "don't know, don't care," one can probably have more fun, especially if the serve goes in.

[bottle]

Eye of Innocence

In the Meltzer-Nadal quarter-final in Shanghai, the Chinese showed they can be different from tennis enthusiasts elsewhere in the world.

On one point, which was extraordinary both for its length and the quality of its ground strokes, the crowd started to roar at each strike of the ball and then kept right on doing it louder every time.

The excitement and suspense this built lifted both players, the referees, ball
persons, announcers and even the television audience watching through Tennis Channel, so that everybody seemed to applaud neither Meltzer nor Nadal but both-- on every shot.

[bottle]

Not My Choice

"Why do you keep changing your strokes, Jack?" "I've done that my whole life." -- Cliff Drysdale and Jack Nicklaus

The latest change is to my serve but not what I had in mind. The change works better than non-change.

In post # 446, I argued for down-and-up rather than bringing the racket around on a horizontal plane. Since either happens before the point where I've decided the rhythmic serve actually begins, I can spend any time with it I want.

In using horizontal plane, I've got racket on edge and slowly easing along. A strong temptation exists to experiment with different lengths of this motion.

But what I'd like to see this time is the arm traveling to a point where all it has to do is raise a little as tossing arm raises a lot.

To get over-detailed perhaps, I still can rationalize some of the down-and-up idea into these moves since I start my address with both arms slightly bent. Technically, that leads to "down, around and up" as verbal description, with the "down" meant to indicate both hands descending very slightly while linked from simple straightening of the elbows.

Pancho Gonzalez wrote that one doesn't necessarily have to lower the tossing hand before sending it up.

[bottle]

Paradox, Irony and the Toss

If one obtains cleaner hits with racket travel before the serve even begins, then WHAT KIND of racket travel would be easiest? Horizontal with racket circling like a fin? No, down-and-up that provides a gravity boost.

So where should racket and linked tossing hand point if you remember that both hands like at least to start down together? The pointing should put the tossing hand on the line that will produce, most simply, the best toss.

For me that's somewhat to the right of the net post, further forward than I may have pointed for a while. Both upper and lower body remain parallel to right fence.

The two hands go down and separate with racket still falling down. The tossing hand can stay down for a beat-- no problem there. The racket hand however uses the gravity boost to continue up toward fences, just as toss at beginning of the serve chimes in.

If toss and drawing of the longbow and first hip-shoulder sequence now are coincident (and I'm sure that in anyone's serving history, they've tossed first, then bent under the toss probably for years or decades) you get some added body into the toss and perhaps heighten it. Nothing seems wrong with this other than that hips and shoulders rotating backward are going to affect toss, too, which phenomenon one was trying to avoid by not pointing racket at opponent.

You're back to what you were trying to avoid but in lesser amount. So adjust original point place to allow for the inches of deflection that backward hip and shoulder sequence will produce by the time of ball release.

I'll start exploration by dropping hands on a line with net post. The subsequent deflection should mean that toss goes more sideways than backward over my head.

Even someone refuting my approach to serve-- one new iteration along with a baby aspirin every day-- might admit that such mental exercise can lead to deep respect for any hellacious serve. Some good invention whether from the player's grandfather, his great aunt, his teaching pro or himself went into that thing.

[bottle]

Upward Spin

is enhanced if one lifts front heel during windup and uses mild forward hips turn and mild straightening of body before the more vigorous turning of the hips and shoulders.

In fact, the mildness generates time in which to implement the vigorous sequence, which now can happen on the way up rather than from highest body position.

A surprise to me is how soon the vigorous hips crank works in serves of best result.

This truly is a serve structured on three hip turns now, the first two like little trial balloons and then the big enchilada occurring a half-beat later.

In first trials I found cleaner hits if I performed a bit of racket arm travel before initiating the body sequence, including toss.

[bottle]

Thriple Serve III

Hips go back, you make the shoulders catch up; hips go forward, you release the archer's bow; hips go forward again, powerfully, to initiate final throw from the gut.

The first of these turns is horizontal, the second vertical (primarily), the third both.

The toss can be-- though it needn't be-- one of the lowest in history.

The biggest change over previous description is that one says to oneself, "I'm not going to worry about the shoulders catching up during release of the bow any more-- that part will take care of itself-- it just involves vertical cartwheel over horizontal twist of the body."

In fact, limiting focus creates dynamism. The light rotation of hips forward ratchets more tension into the bow which therefore may be more of a crossbow than a longbow.

Put another way, this whole central image (the longbow) is falling apart. Which doesn't matter at all if one gets a great serve out of it.

I hope that anybody reading this understands that as shoulders catch up to hips for the first time, those hips have already bulged toward the net (drawing of the bow).

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

The ultimate reason that longbow image should now fade away is that "longbow" implies too much force too early. I'm all for maximum efficiency in body straightening but wish to save major power for what comes next.

[bottle]

The Truth: Somewhere Among #'s 438, 440, and 442

Despite what I may have thought, one needs a vigorous throw from the hips started from release of archer's bow. Knowing exactly what to accelerate seems indispensable to any serve. Relatedly, Ted Williams, the batting expert, always preached hips cranking marginally ahead of shoulders and all done with awesome power.