A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Trick Shoulder Tricky Kick

While being aware (too aware) of having a trick shoulder, I don't know how much its lapsedness impairs or does not impair my ability within the complex structure of a tennis serve to get my elbow high.

Of first importance: At the end of downtogether-uptogether the racket must be perpendicular to rear fence or more.

Second, there needs to be space between one's elbow and one's bod. The farther back the elbow, the higher it already is.

Third, the more the elbow goes around the less it will go up. So plan not to let it go around at all. This will create something akin to a hook shot in basketball in which the elbow does go up.

Fourth, know exactly when you wish to lower left arm (not until beginning of triceptic extension) and when exactly you wish to drive the legs (simultaneous with triceptic extension). Fire the extensors baby!

What happens between the toss and the firing of the extensors is the prime time of loading without which nothing else matters.

The core elements for this are straightforward just as a somersault is straightforward.

The arm until now a mystery can hook the racket decisively forward from both shoulder and elbow joints.

As a believer in cues more than anything that actually happens, I choose a spot on the court a foot to the left of my left foot. If I drive the racket with full intention to murder that spot the elbow will go up. It has to.

And once arm is fully squeezed the upper arm twisting to load will take the racket head slightly to the right.

[bottle]

More Hop on Serve from Following the Path of Greatest Resistance

A friend, Gretchen Ruff, gave me the beautifully bound book full of blank pages in which I write at this moment.

The corners are rounded. The cover, black, displays my name, "Bot," in metallic paint.

The company that made this book, Shinola, has diverse products. It was brought to Detroit because somebody liked the saying associated with this company which existed elsewhere before.

I've written on the first page the famous words: "Can you tell shit from Shinola?" (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/know_shit_from_Shinola)

A black ribbon swings down from the book's spine to mark the present page.

At almost 80, despite my trick or lapsed shoulder, I'm getting more hop on my serve and will test it today, an early Sunday morning, against a group of enthusiasts not all of whom are seniors.

The kick serve, though not of the great veering kind, nevertheless bounces higher than it used to, high enough, one hopes, to be uncomfortable for any opponent.

Bod is turned around. Forward twist of bod is eschewed in favor of forward somersault. Elbow stays turned around even as it moves forward. It has no place to go but up so long as I maintain intent to murder an imaginary spot down on the court.

[bottle]

Should we Resist Ideas that may Interfere with our Beautiful Athleticism?

Yes before a match. No before a practice.

I'm thinking of Tomaz Mencinger's radical departure from conventional unit turn instruction, his idea of turning shoulders back more than hips.

I haven't heard or yet found Mencinger's explanation for this although he is fabulous at explaining anything.

So I offer the following experiment: A bit of resistance in legs as shoulders turn back. Legs then to relax to let the shoulders pull them. The hips thus turning reverse direction to create centrifugal force in a loose arm.

[bottle]

Yet Another Iterations March

The basic javelin-style serve recently put up by gzhpcu in the twist vs. forward rotation thread lines up toss arm with shoulders line and hitting elbow. The arm bends to a squeezed trophy position as knees and bod bend. A lot of action happens from there to contact.

But kick serve as taught to "almost anyone" by Chris Lewit appears quite different, with elbow way above the shoulders line. What's coming to mine right now is an interjection of bent arm elbow rise to substitute for bending of straight arm in same timing slot.

This is radical self-authorization.

The downtogether-and-uptogether will be with both arms straight for flat and certain slice serves.

The same rhythm may be carried out with ha (hitting arm) kept bent for kick (preparation).

Extremely flexible servers can hit good kick from straight arm preparation but I can't, at least so far.

And so I feel I most accomplish my kick purpose another way.

The immediate area for exploration thus emerging is less early bending of the arm than have been doing in the kick form.

The same compression of arm before triceptic extension may be able to occur in both forms.

The right angled or more squeezed arm shall get that way higher for kick (the experiment).

But if results prove negative there could be a return to bent arm squeezing to fully closed as elbow rises for kick.

Note to self: Don't even think about the serving of Novak Djokovic, a guy so flexible he can hit any serve he wants from bent arm construction all the way.

What may work however in the bending rather than bent arm serves is bending arm less while lifting elbow so that racket still points toward the sky.

Or, pushing the same idea still further, go directly to the higher elbow position on the downtogether-uptogether then bend the arm less.

[bottle]

So Embarrassing

It is so embarrassing to have to say you are good at something. But that is what all the kids in the Betsy DeVos charter schools of Detroit seem to be asked to do.

As a guest teacher, I decided to do their written exercise myself. And so I wrote:

I'm really good at the stroke known as "volley" in tennis. I hit it in a special way-- a combination of increasing finger pressure and opening of the racket face. This blended move works best when done from out in the hand. The whole arm doesn't rotate but only the tip of the arm. The wrist can be straight.

To work on this shot I use a verbal cue and hit a ball against a bangboard off of one bounce even though that seems counter-intuitive. Volleys are hit in the air not off of a bounce. But the practice bounce gives one extra time to get the finger pressure correct not only for smoothness but direction of outgoing shot. The verbal cue I use is "Twist the racket simultaneous with finger pressure application as if you are undoing a stuck lid on a peanut butter jar."

[bottle]

Serve in which the ta (toss arm) , shoulders and he (hitting elbow) are in line: How many Experiments?

Well, the difference between starting with arm straight and arm fully bent is a racket range of about 180 degrees. Answer then: 180 experiments.

[bottle]

Using Mule to Invigorate one's Mulch Pie

How are new tendrils going to push through the leaves if you haven't built your pile with proper detritus in the first place?

When my ex-wife and I were farmers for the Jay Hambidge Foundation in Rabun Gap in the steep mountains of northern Georgia, we worked with a famous Southern gardener named Marie Mellinger.

Her name, which to me suggests the Slovenian teaching pro Tomaz Mencinger, was in retrospect appropriate to somebody with a green thumb.

Marie knew of a barn on the Hambidge premises (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Hambidge) (https://www.moma.org/artists/62438) that was full of mule droppings from top to bottom, and no one had made use of them in sixty years.

Susan and I used the farm's ancient red Ford pickup truck to carry all that mulch load by load the half mile to Marie's famous garden.

Having studied four years worth of Latin, all I could think of was that we were cleaning the Augean Stables, a not nice job (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/stables.html).

But mule droppings, not the same as other manure, loved a nice clean shovel and had the slightest of sweet odors if any.

This is how one improves one's tennis strokes. There may not be a better way.

[bottle]

How to Cut a Tennis Ball

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...hrome&ie=UTF-8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjdD6nXekhI

[bottle]

The Arco Riffle-Book

How can I steal my boyhood friend Steve's serve when he's dead and I can't ask him about it? Was it really patterned on Jack Kramer? I think so. I remember a low takeback. It was so much better than my serve patterned on John Newcomb from the Arco riffle-book, which I still have and just riffled.

The Wesleyan University tennis courts were up a ridge in Steve's back yard, and Stanley Plagenhoef was the Wesleyan coach. Steve's father was the Wesleyan physician. Did Steve learn his serve from Stanley Plagenhoef?

First doubts crept in from my own assertion that Steve hit lots of topspin. Did Jack Kramer hit lots of topspin? I have heard he hit slice or flat and wished to keep the ball low so his opponents would have to hit up.

But do I have to know everything? Can't I, for my own purposes, combine the elements of Kramer and Newcomb that I like?

Yes Bottle you can do whatever you want. People won't care or even be curious. They'll be impressed however by Bottle-success, in which case those other side returners of serve will weep.

A lack of shoulders tilt is what I notice now as I riffle my Arco book. Newcomb's shoulders are practically level for most of the slow motion Arco serve. There is leftward lean. There is a huge vertical rotation. But where is all the stuff about stringing an archer's bow that creates upward tilt in the shoulders? Gone!

Given the imperative of my trick shoulder, the fact that I must get elbow high early or never get it high at all, along with the wish now to make my shoulders riffle level like those of John Newcomb, the way seems clear.

Don't film. The elbow will still be low which will only lead to discouragement. Instead, go down together and up together to place both upper arms close to head. Close but not touching the ears! An even distance from both sides of the head.

This sculptural pose will produce its own imperatives-- no opening out of the racket as in Kramer's serve which creates such comfortable distance behind the back.

Imperative one: Palm down lift of racket. Imperative two: A realization (riffle-riffle) that racket lifts to one's right side. It does not lift behind one's back as with Kramer.

Racket coming up both toward and away from side fence will create a continuation of direction when arm finally starts to bend.

As for footwork I choose Kramer's although his and Newcomb's are somewhat similar.

Only one of the tennis writers I have read has ever advocated palm in and palm out serves for the same player. In for more control, Paul Metzler wrote, out for more power. Whether or not I accept this and want to try it (which I have done before), I have always found this an interesting thought.

[bottle]

Idea

Once elbows and shoulders are lined up, bend those elbows without moving them to preserve the alignment for a moment longer.

[bottle]

Many thanks to Dr. Brian Gordon for the following two attempted serves that won't be attempted until after school.

The first is Jack Kramer. The second is J. Donald Budge. A premise is that the names of those two great players may be assigned to different species within the same phylum of grounded decrepit guy serve.

In both species the hips will sling the upper body toward the net before the upper body turns on its new diagonal axis.

In the Kramer the right foot will lift and skate a small distance as a result of the spiraling hips.

In the Budge the right foot will lift and turn in place 90 degrees as a result of the same spiraling hips.

In both instances the upper body, finely firing from the transverse stomach muscles, will help the racket fly up and then down.

At worst this method of serving won't work. At best, it will.

[bottle]

The Same Decrepitude that Slows down the Quest for Kick of Many Average Players by Keeping Them on the Ground Should Become a Prime Ingredient in their Development of Slice.

The gold standard of grounded slice serving in the age of TennisPlayer membership should be this article, which though not perfect is perfectly great (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...ice_serve.html).

The terrific slice of Dennis Ralston at any age (and now he plays with a prosthesis) is characterized by its toss way out front and consequent extreme lean toward the net.

As far as I can see, Dennis Ralston never in his wonderful playing and teaching career got the racket particularly low behind his back. This indicates the reversing mathematical formula derived from articles and book by Chris Lewit: Less runway to the ball = less spin.

Well, Ralston's runway is truncated in one direction but extended in the other.

The pen drawings of Ralston's serve on page 83 of FUNDAMENTALS OF TENNIS by Stanley Plagenhoef show Ralston's leg action as well as that of his upper bod. Frame one shows his left leg connected with the court with his right leg way up in the air. Frame two shows extreme lean and straight arm long before his strings arrive at the ball. Frame three shows contact about eight inches in front of his forehead but with his forehead way forward of the baseline. Frame four: Huge ISR after contact and even more lean.

[bottle]

First Tennis Social of the Indoor Season

One of my doubles partners last night had been an elected member of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Board of Education. "It was the unhappiest four years of my life."

Clifton also had been a baseball pitcher, something I guessed without ever seeing his serve (just the ball he served) and which he corroborated.

A substitute teacher in the public schools of Harrisburg makes twice as much money as I do in the charter schools of Detroit.

As a team, out on the court, we did well.

[bottle]

Speaking to my Fondness for Trying Different Things when I Work on my Serve

I understand that tennis thought moves on, and that Vic Braden was among the first to admit that some of his ideas became outdated.

Frequently however he engaged in an argument about leg drive early and leg drive late.

If you are an imitator of the Federer jetplane there can't be much of a discussion. Something has to put Roger up in the sky and it is clearly early legs.

If however you serve for any reason in the old-fashioned way of the other half of the tennis world, it still would make sense to check out the two options.

Percy Boomer, David Ledbetter and Tom Okker all felt at some time that hips turn is most effective when knees are neither too bent or too straight.

Reader, if you are interested, you will have to carry the experiment forward from here since I haven't done it and my back says, "Not today."

[bottle]

But

Edward Weiss and Welby Van Horn in SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER speak of three unusual servers-- without judgment other than to classify them as great serve and volleyers-- John Newcombe, Boris Becker and Michael Stich. These three get off the ground like all the more recent top pros. Unlike them, they kick the back leg forward toward the front fence rather than backward toward the rear fence. This style of serving, it seems to me, could theoretically apply to a recreational player with a knee replacement in a leg he didn't want to land on. He could land on his other leg if he thought that was wise. But only if he still wanted to become airborne.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...1stSAdSide.mov)

There still is a kick back but it is from the other leg. That wouldn't hurt a knee replacement in that leg.

Moral: You don't have to boil the whole artichoke, just the bottom of it.