A New Year's Serve

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Ulnar Deviation Sounds Far Less Perverted than Radial Deviation and Can Help your Topspin Serve

One of the many YouTube videos on kick serves identifies the author's favorite among the dozen items he has identified.

I suggest we go with that one and ignore the other eleven.

The particular measure he has in mind (as his favorite) involves rolling a ball along one's hand with one's strings.

Not only does the ball roll along one's hand but it rolls down the strings, too.

When the ball reaches the bottom frame it bumps.

That is the time for ISR!

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"Too Much"

I told before, I think, without going into the detail, of my self-feed adventure where two very good looking women, one Ukrainian and the other American, came over to my court to give me a telephone number.

The American, in fact, typed all necessary information into my phone. "Tennis/Iryna," the entry reads and it's still there. I called and we did "hits" together three times. Iryna's daughter and grandson attended the second half of the first session. At the next session Iryna was very complimentary of my teaching ability. Okay Iryna whatever and my sincere gratitude. Mostly however we hit. A teaching pro, observing our third and final session, said, "Wow, you guys were out there a long time."

Who was Iryna? A woman from Kiev and former bouncer in an Irish nightclub. Online, she met a local artisan in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and married him. How many years they have been together I don't know. But Iryna was having trouble. She put on a huge party for the dude and took care of every detail. Her mother back in Kiev meanwhile was very sick. Of what Iryna didn't say. "Radiation exposure" I with my hyperactive ruminations about Chernobyl thought. The daughter was furious with her mom for not playing with the little boy enough. The boy, who had every toy known to mankind and now a baseball I gave him was interested in none of them. What Iryna really wanted was swim and play tennis.

The words "too much" came from Iryna. She flew back to the Ukraine. It seems likely the daughter and grandson were on the same plane. The husband, the artisan, is swamped with work here in Grosse Pointe at least for the summer months. The daughter might help with the care of her grandmom although she, the daughter, lives two hours distance from Kiev out in the Ukraine.

Well, the words "too much" can apply to YouTube tennis teaching videos also. There are millions of them, right? So many that they can't ALL be bad?

"Feel Tennis" videos now keep coming up on my screen whether I request them or not. "Too much" Tomaz Mencinger? I don't even know your nationality, Tomaz. Slovenian like Melania? That said, if anyone is interested in a truly great video, find the one where Tomaz wants any tennis student to ask after every stroke whether the racket was a tool or a weight.

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Too Much Enthusiasm

There are no quick fixes. Everything is evolution. You're either getting slowly better or slowly worse.

Now it's back to the manufacture of a higher bounce, for which purpose here is some more Brent Abel:

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

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Today I get to try something it has taken me four decades to understand.

My teacher in Virginia, Jim Kacian, had a beautiful serve. In the 70 lessons he gave me, we covered a lot of topics. But beyond his ability as coach Jim was a fine player, and I never could quite understand the smoothness and economy of his follow through. It was a look, a strangeness, a signature just like a great follow through in golf. (And I was a very busy caddy some decades before that in Granville, Ohio when I was 14 . And none of my clients had as good a follow through as that of my father, whose swing I also wished to understand.)

Well, in tennis I've operated from the misconception that good serves result from racket edge coming straight at the ball and veering off to the right.

It's just the opposite. The edge comes to the ball on an angle to the right. The other edge then comes off the ball straight toward the net.

Which leaves the racket with a short smooth path to a balanced finish on one's left side.

Should we give Tomaz Mencinger the credit for this breakthrough in understanding? Why not!? But can't this just be pertinent-- dare I say this-- to the denseness of myself as a person?

But if I am the only one who has trouble understanding this point, then why has Tomaz Mencinger lined up a series of balls from his feet to form a line that slants to the right then jogs to the left? With the balls just sitting there through a whole video lesson?

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Edge Und Edge Und Edge-Edge

Although I worked on a German ship once where no one ever gave an order to anyone, I still like German as a language for commands.

So I prefer "und" to "and" for my discussion here of a basic serve.

First edge: the racket goes down. First und: the racket goes up and quite far back.

Second edge: the racket comes from arm bend to top back of head. Second und: the hips whirl as right foot comes up on toes and slightly replaces to right as racket lowers and tocks right from humeral twist and wrist opening up (a small combined movement in relaxed but essential conflict with bod turn).

Third edge thus pulled by bod springs on an angle toward the ball.

Twisting humerus takes racket beyond ball and to left of it and natural left side follow through on balance (fourth edge).

Edge und edge und edge-edge.

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Mencinger Throwing Exercise

I opined before that one could alter palm and ball in hand by 135 degrees in a good circular throw.

If one has taken hand back far enough, however, and mercifully lost the handy reference points of right fence and left fence, the figure can be 180 degrees.

Then when one replicates with the racket the leading edge can still come at desired angle to the toss lined up with netpost in the background.

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Report

These videos caused me to hold serve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8n_VUx8fbA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKeSQHjm4gM

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...TF-8#kpvalbx=1
And another one featuring the same fellow, Tomaz Mencinger, in which he says, "Edge edge edge edge!" and in showing one how to throw has palm and ball facing right fence and then left fence-- a difference of about 135 degrees since front edge is going to start toward the net post.

So, I arrived at the courts seemingly overloaded with new serve ideas but with all of them focused on the basic of flow and therefore perhaps graspable at once.

Also came with two new forehands. One worked immediately, the other proved too fanciful probably ever to work although it led to something else perhaps more interesting.

The new forehand that works uses a long pencil-thin and rather linear loop that straightens arm and then assumes a double-bend as described in # 4363 .

The cochleates were already interesting as soft shots and maybe didn't need embellishment. Too fanciful: the notion that arm would bend in tandem with knees that also were bending.

But tennis ought to be fun, and a really fun shot to try is a Tom Okker imitation forehand with the hugest roundest loop possible behind you, a big mondo (flip) and a sinking of the huge hoop thus created into the ground. Arm stays straight, rolling to scrape the ball. If it's true from golf that overly bent knees catch the inside of an old bourbon cask, then good, the knees stopped all by themselves without further meddling by you and preserved fine balance. A shot to be used sparingly by me although I plan to keep it always in trim.

As for the cochleates (Nautilus shell spirals), the most interesting though least spectacular is the 243 described earlier-- the version of a Ziegenfuss in which the racket arm straightens and bends right up to the ball at which time one's bod gives it a nifty push.

To this I have added (and now accepted) a pair of variations. One a 243 in which the loop ends a foot-and-a-half before the ball thus starting weight transfer earlier, the other a 252 in which one gets the racket lower for extra scissoring with the addition of a bit of radial deviation which sounds like sociopathic perversion so must be good.

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Why Did Tiny Tom Okker Stay Down So Much?

And if a tiny guy determined to stay down once made it to the final of the U.S. Open, shouldn't old big guys playing recreational tennis and trying not to hurt themselves also decide to stay down?

In a neutral stance forehand both knees rotate forward as the hips turn 90 degrees to transfer one's body weight from rear foot to front foot, right?

But the front foot is the axis, and one knee (the rear knee) rotates faster than the other one, right?

And both knees can bend throughout to put easy pressure on the ball, right?

And airborne tennis, despite its obvious advantages, is pretty insular when you consider all the players in the world who do well every day by maintaining the best connection with the ground they can think of.

I see further excitement in a cochleate swing that lets the arm gradually straighten and then gradually bends just a little to provide a modicum of extra mild topspin.

Excitement? Yes because the bend of arm and knees can be in tandem. Think of the commitment in this. "An arm and a leg." No, an arm and two legs!

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Effortless Power Added on to the Other Things you do

If, like me, you believe that old men should not jump up in the air, and you either are an old man or planning to become one, now might be the perfect time to review the following basic of weight transfer as described in the book called SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER: WELBY VAN HORN AND HIS TENNIS TEACHING SYSTEM.

In a neutral stance forehand then, "The step of the front anchor foot starts the weight transfer." And,

"After the front/anchor foot has completed the step towards the net, the hips and shoulders start to rotate forward. The body is rotating around the front foot (in other words, the axis around which the body rotates is a line perpendicular to the court which runs through the front foot."

A pretty nifty and provocative thought eh? Almost as if the rear knee is screwing inward throughout the rotation to get closer to the front knee so both knees can press together toward the net for effortless added power just as you hit the ball and the front leg can stiffen for balance after that to finish things off.

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Hip for Flip or Flip for Hip?

This seditious question begins with mastery of the careful, soft forehand which I call The Ziegenfuss, the goat's foot, the arm first bod second shot, that, in seeming to defy The Kinetic Chain and all other modern religions takes a loose tooth player and converts him to an overly consistent bore.

Well, I hit it exclusively a couple years when I was young, won some singles matches, produced one three-set epic in which my opponent's two sons, shortly to graduate from tennis college on Hilton Head and become teaching pros, hugged the sideline and coached their dad on to nip me in the final game with surprise kick serves.

A sad story but negligible when compared to the educational value of The Ziegenfuss.

Just how late can one's hips pivot through in tennis? Just when is one massaging the ball instead of hitting the hell out of it?

Mercer Beasley, Ellsworth Vines and even Don Budge could speak of using one's hips to dance onto one's front foot thus completing one's weight transfer and aim.

Narrow the frame, some modern coaches say. Give your shots a more vertical orientation.

No, broaden the frame, others say, which I will try today if the rain outside decides to stop after I vote.

A long pencil-thin loop, a 343 on Welby Van Horn's giant clock.

Wrist in neutral position, with arm straightening (first 3), bending and flipping and laying back the wrist but all from arm loop consolidating weight on the rear foot (level 2).

Now hips can do something instead of wasting themselves in the formation of some loop.

The hips-driven racket will move decisively forward rather than firing from rest (stupid physics-- another way I used to hit the ball when I was young and didn't know better).

Now one shall be balanced for what comes next. And will be balanced after one crosses the sagging bridge with arm again at level 3 or perhaps higher.

And the strings will have tick-tocked from right fence to left.

The hips first arm second sequence will have enough overall space to cooperate in sending the hand down the rails like Gerard Kitchen O'Neill's mass driver.

This is all I can do. The torso will have to have taken care of itself.

Summary: arm hips arm.

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Serve a Strand of Broccoli

It's good for you and should make a fine splat.

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More Animal in the Arm Work

For serving, using ISR to bounce the ball from your side of the net to your opponent between points now makes more sense.

It's not how I return a ball to my opponent, but I can better understand those who do it that way.

And I need to do it as a simple but vigorous exercise using my entire formula of ESR+arm extension+ISR+arm extension+arm shortening = a single fluid move.

Except maybe for the high speed 1) boyhood stone throw windup and 2) ESR which come first before the rest of the unified animal move.

From your-side bounces hit off of a waist or chest high toss one can gradually move one's release higher and higher, not worrying about where the ball goes but enjoying the racket head speed and likely depth of shot.

At some point one should see slice. This may or may not be the exact way one wants to produce one's slice serves in a match.

A little higher or rather farther to left or probably just farther back one should start to see some topspin.

Note: I've started to notice, out on the internet, a few recent jeremiads directed at anyone's detailed focus on stroke technique. "Less talk," the thrust is. "Get out on the court and get bloodied."

I do, I do! Three times a week to be exact during the summer months. But maybe these critics have someone other than bottle in mind. (The doubles are on MWF. I do self-feed on TTHSat&Sun.)

What most helped my game this winter were weekly cardio sessions in which there was no time to think. But I noticed the same sessions didn't help the younger players, the big boppers, as much as they did me. That's because these young strong persons don't study enough. And as one of the teaching pros, a very nice person, pointed out, I, bottle, was winning most of the points.

Well, in a few sessions where I was feeling good that was true.

But listen, my old guy inventions are more apt to pare something useless away from a stroke rather than try to add any new element to it.

Finally, I think the various Jeremiahs ought to watch themselves. The last thing they want to do, if they are responsible teachers, is dampen anyone's enthusiasm.

And enthusiasm in tennis or any highly specialized subject, in my view, presupposes a lively interest and even fascination in every single aspect of it. I used to be a crew coach. So I can discuss the calipers used now to establish rigger elevation.

You don't believe me? Okay, here goes. "They're terrible. The old method where you popped in a shim or subtracted one from the bolt that connected the rigger to the hull was much simpler and better."

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Forever

These experiments should continue forever. Something new every day.

I'm interested right now in a serve warning by Sidney Plagenhoef of too much straightening of arm.

Which could lead to this formula: ESR + arm straightening + ISR + arm straightening + arm shortening = a single, trainable moment.

On cue level you throw racket length to right then racket head to right.

"A sidearm throw is a sidearm throw even if it goes almost straight up."

But take these thoughts together and you may realize, that, because of second half or ISR-blended arm extension, the racket head will whirl to left of the ball before it whirls to the right.

And your deep set assumption that radius of whirligig during contact should be as short as possible may be wrong. Was Plagenhoef's enigmatic, non-detailed warning getting at this? That one might gain some topspin component with a slightly longer though shrinking radius?

"Mummy, I want to be a geometer when I grow up." (https://www.google.com/search?q=geom...hrome&ie=UTF-8)

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Here was a tennis player who knew something about strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIE3CFNpZ5Y

And he was a lot nicer in this interview than generally cracked up to be, and in the 60 Minutes in the Catskills one as well that probably follows for you, reader, if you go with the links. During the 60 Minutes episode he thanks the producers for removing the birthday cake they brought in for him (Easy to imagine them talking among themselves: "Let's see how he reacts").

Who are the other persons at the table besides Fischer and Dick Cavett: Ralph Nader and who is the lady? Note the noise that each chess piece makes as Fischer sets it down.

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The Giant Clock of Welby Van Horn Gives One a Fighting Chance of Understanding any Forehand

The way to use it, I believe, is deliberately to reject all other use of clock faces in tennis thought.

We won't put flat clock faces on round balls, we won't put round clock faces there either, we won't use ground clocks for the purpose of arranging the feet, we won't even wear a watch.

But we will come up with triple digit numbers for each forehand, with first integer indicating height of backswing, second integer the shot's low point, third integer the contact point.

The shots we started out to identify were waist high 243's in which we then realized, once we agreed to think this way, the containment of scissoring preceded by arm extension just as in the powerful forehand of Tomas Berdych even though seen here in demure form.

The giant clock is a flat clock, something one draws or imagines on a flat bangboard directly in front of one.

Thus a failing Federfore or Nadalburger, among the very most difficult forehands to master, can immediately be taken to a veterinarian who specializes in tennis animals.

Dr. Chowski of Detroit's Chowski Animal Hospital, in evaluating a sick Federfore, may therefore recommend that it drink more water followed by the employment of more hip power to flow flat along the court before arm throw containing a windshield wipe continues to do the same thing.

Here, in numerical representation, we get a 343 instead of Roger Federer's 143-- with a chance then at least to save the animal.

To even go this far-- small progress indeed-- we will have to reject the tennis cliche that a Grigor Dimitrov forehand is a perfect replica of a Roger Federer forehand. There is a huge difference up top.