A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

I'm writing reviews of all three of your strokes. And a French teaching pro and his girlfriend are coming for dinner tonight, so I'll show him the vedios, ask
him what he thinks, report back.

[stickman]

ok bottle i like your depth and analisis... i just uploaded a couple vedios and would like you to critique them for me. Im not interested in what i do well... just what SUCKS and needs to be FIXED.

[bottle]

Think I'll cut the grass.

[bottle]

Too many unforced errors.

[bottle]

The Unworkable Joke

"Unworkable joke" from last line of post # 407 was the verdict. Twisting the racket out from an extreme backhand grip, however, led to the thought that twisting the arm is twisting the arm.

"Not too profound," one might say.

"Nay, by my troth, I know not," says the drunken knight Sir Andrew Aguecheek, "but I know to be up late is to be up late."

If you twist your arm at address, before you start any service motion, or you twist your arm as racket passes your right foot, or you twist it as it rises toward the back fence, or you twist it as you roll over a one-hand backhand, or you twist it to counter body thrust in a serve, the twisting is the twisting, and once one realizes that, the rest may be personal preference as to when.

A neurotic worry immediately asserts itself. "You don't want much time between the cocking and uncocking of some muscle." True. But if you've been speeding up your wind-up, you may have more latitude to put things in between than you thought.

I didn't like opening racket at address even though this gave the racket less to do through the whole wind-up-- felt a bit uncomfortable. And I didn't even try the opening (the twist at the shoulder joint I'm talking about) as racket went down. The hands are connected then (worrisome) and besides, the knees are starting their bend-- complicated enough, so keep the simplicity of that, I told myself.

Twist by rear foot could create sequence that was needless (remembering Navratilaw I), but slowly rolling arm during its slanting upward path felt very good no doubt because of all the one-hand backhands I recently practiced. The racket tip went a lot farther than the hand and ended up pointing at left fence post behind oneself.

Now, with the upper arm cocked, i.e., twisted, the elbow was ready to bend to its right angle. After that the two halves of the arm would clench in response to lift-off, but would the racket get parallel to right side of the body just then? Not unless I helicoptered the elbow forward a significant amount as it rose, considering the extreme stance I chose to use.

Another worry: Shoulders aren't broad enough for this! By whirling the elbow forward so much you reduce lever length from neck out to elbow.

True no doubt but part of a trade-off: Getting the elbow more forward gets the racket farther back toward rear fence, which means that more of the arm action can take place behind one's neck.

Most important, no matter how you do it, the racket needs to come edge on very close to the ball before it veers off to side. Otherwise, contact is too square and spin is compromised.

[bottle]

The Perils of Bottle and Elena

It's not that we're an item. It's just that neither of us can attain the serve we want.

Navratilaw I: If one uses sequence, one's timing must be perfect. In other words, "Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself!" Navratilaw II: "The serve already is complicated-- so make it as simple as possible."

This brings me, if not Elena, to a new headline, title, proverb, bumper sticker,
prescription or question:

Complicated in and out or Simplified out?

This is a seldom discussed serving choice that everyone must make whether they discuss it or not. Rephrased, it's palm down or palm turning out.

Big advocate of palm down: Vic Braden. Big advocate of palm turning out:
John M. Barnaby. A tennis writer who advocates both-- palm down for more "niftiness" and control, palm turning out perhaps as racket goes back by rear
foot for more uninhibited power-- is Paul Metzler of Australia, but is this distinction he makes still valid, given overall service evolution and change of fashion (one essential, the other extraneous)?

Most servers unlike Metzler probably wouldn't do both in the same match. Does one want more movement of the racket or less to get it parallel to hitting edge of the body?

Today's on-court search shall begin with a turning out of palm but with palm turned so far over on handle (extreme serving grip) that even after one turns the arm out, palm still will face down. But if that experiment proves to be unworkable joke, it won't last for long.

[bottle]

Theory vs. Practice in the Serve

Must re-try what produced an effect years ago-- a backward turn of the hips angulated the body in such a way that the racket tip pointed farther down toward the court.

This premise can be tested by anybody. One puts a racket in one's hand and, with elbow in generally agreed upon high position, simulates the lowest point of one's racket drop. The rotorded server, i.e., thousands of servers, won't be able to produce verticality toward the court. But if he, she, you, I then rotates the hips slightly backward, the racket tip may glide down seven more inches in unison with the backward hips stretch regardless of stance, count, service method or anything else.

Granted, backward stretch of the upper body and hips takes place early in most good serves and therefore should create the desired slot for the extra amount of drop which then should actually happen during energy release from front toes on up.

But DOES final lowering of racket tip happen this way for the rotorded server? If it does, fine, he need not think about the problem any further. But if it doesn't...if he somehow gives away the extra seven inches, he might consider transplanting this little demonstration maneuver into the serve, and late.

Of course one might have to restructure serve to accomodate the late turn, which might have deleterious effect on other aspects of the serve-- there's the challenge.

Here's one way this approach might work. In a rapid coil 2-count serve the knees bend while the racket goes down, they bend more while the racket and toss go up with weight also shifting forward, they bend more as hips turn an extra bit to establish the 7-inch maneuver very late.

But this last instant extra backward turn of the hips also takes the racket AROUND more, which may threaten therefore the edge-on component necessary for properly spun serves, i.e., produce too flat a contact. So I'll try this experiment from an open or semi-open stance.

[bottle]

Release the Tension

One has to ask whether, in a given hour, one is achieving simplicity or is becoming a simpleton, a male version of the Dementedieva described in post # 401 by Martina Navratilova (I used to call her "Martina Navrattleova" when she was beating someone I liked long before I came to admire her so much).

In the backhand evolving here, one would like of course to replicate it, i.e., merchandise the best backhand one ever hit since that is the American way.

If however the backhand is living rather than a thing, then something about it is always changing even if only at a cellular, neuronal level.

No, I want more change in it than that, specifically at the very top, after the rolling arm has lifted.

I was thinking of having the arm roll stop and the arm and right knee bend and the upper body turn and the weight gather on the pivoting right foot while the racket still was high-- not my idea but so what.

My ways of recovering from a topspin backhand, it seems to me, are: 1)
retreat on the same footwork and side-skip, 2) plant outside foot wide and drive off of it back toward center (desperate), 3) plant the back foot up closer to front one and moonwalk off of right foot toward the center.

Perhaps one of these three methods will eventually prevail over the others or something different will emerge.

One should never take the moonwalk too seriously-- at least that's my view. One should not always try to look like the late Michael Jackson in other words. If feet were far apart the inside one may slide back toward the other. If feet were closer together the wide foot should stay where it is to compress your weight to continue starter block energy.

[bottle]

O gee.

[spacediver]

wow... just spent the last 15 minutes exploring some of this thread, and I must thank you John for allowing it to survive.

This is a truly fascinating piece of work.

[bottle]

On Coiling

You don't think the word "coil" in tennis refers to a Tessla coil, do you? No, it refers to SNAKE and STRIKE or am I wrong?

When people use terms like "core values" or "core strength" they're already
diluting their tennis through the imbibing of too many of the phrases that everybody else uses all the time. Better to get back to snake.

[bottle]

SIM not SEQ on a 2-COUNT

SIM=simultaneous

SEQ=sequential

MN=Martina Navratilova

SIM="Better to have your body parts all going in the same direction at the same time...If you're using sequence your timing has to be perfect."--MN

2-COUNT="Most serves are two or three count but hers is four."--MN criticizing Elena Dementieva's new serve as having too many small parts going in every which direction.

MN="Elena went to Holland and worked with Richard Krajicek on a very full motion a few years ago. She'd serve beautifully in practice but not in matches. But she practiced the new serve too much. She didn't need to do that. She had it! She hurt her shoulder and had to withdraw from Wimbledon."

2-COUNT=PROVOCATIVE! Perhaps one shouldn't be so eager to try anything to improve one's serve before simplifying it all the way down to two or three counts.

This experiment means in my case winding up with full compression on front foot with arm cocked into a right angle all in a single count.

A snake will sometimes coil smoothly but quickly. And the snake generates good power-- perhaps the best reason to compare yourself to him.

For some reason this improves my stare at the bottom of the tossed ball.
It concentrates lower arm folding and upper arm twist-loading as small part of a single big hitting action to be called "count # two."

"We had some luck with speeding up the entire motion."--Vic Braden

"Fire the extensors, baby!"--Vic Braden

MN="The service motion already is complicated. That's why you want to make yours as simple as possible."

[bottle]

Reality Check

Subtract one or two wrist positions. I myself became interested in going
directly from concave wrist to straight wrist with no convex wrist in between.
When should this happen? Probably with racket high and with upper body
rotating forward a natural bit. You can see Steffi's racket tip suddenly lower a bit about at that time. But when you see anybody's racket tip lower, if you're like me you seldom know what in the body is making that happen. So I either watch some good local players or talk to somebody or study some videos or go ahead and make the action up.

It's interesting to see an instructional slice video in the midst of a bunch of
u-tube videos of Steffi's slice. The instruction only has a very loose connection to what Steffi is doing.

I'm about ready to return to right brain image of a writhing sea-serpent
rather than dwell on individual parts of the slice action-- maybe because I've just been whale-watching and saw a pod of nine hunchbacks up close.

It seems to me that Steffi gets shoulders sloped down right away. That's
one element to close racket face. A second would be to straighten wrist
from concave to straight. A third is roll of the arm.

So all three of these actions being employed close the racket face! But one wants it open. So to compensate one sends the arm way ahead and "really knifes under the ball" as Tracycakes said in describing Steffi's slice.

[bottle]

Writhing Sea-serpent Slice

Just as TSBH now goes straight up in a brief lift, a similar three wrist positioned shot can go straight down in a brief, shallow drop.

The word "shallow" is important. You're chopping the ball but sending the racket out for good extension right at the same time.

The arm travel in this slice design is linear not circular and is enabled by a gradual roll that administers a controlled amount of support to the shot from the racket's upper edge.

So what are the three wrist positions? 1) concave 2) convex 3) straight.
The transition 123 offers, in the topspin shot, a little wrist loop very good for taking the racket tip down and immediately starting it up in very intuitive fashion along a linear arm lift path.

In writhing sea-serpent slice, however, the same little loop becomes bizarre since it happens high. Wrist going from concave to convex takes racket down. Wrist going from convex to straight takes the racket up.

If you are like me you will become acutely aware of a "half again" feeling. The racket goes up half as far as it went down, with all this occurring within a very small loop.

What is the advantage of this? A sense of aiming high then low then right on perhaps.

Both of these shots have in common relaxed arm travel from the shoulder straight toward a target-- combined with controlled rolling from both halves of the arm.

A path not taken in both cases is change of tilt in the front shoulder just while one hits the ball. That's possible but inadvisable. Shoulder becomes level in TS version; shoulder stays slanted down in slice version-- one less thing to worry about.

Mastery of the writhing sea-serpent may affect the orchestration of other, more sidespun shots perhaps hit with the simplicity of a fixed, concave wrist, and of course one will want to apply a big shoulderblades clench to the hitting end of the new shot as well just to see what will happen.

[bottle]

Second Drawing

Here should appear a second drawing.