A New Year's Serve

[stotty]

Interesting.

I am on an extensive coaching course at the moment that covers all aspects of coaching. On the business of coaching cues, the suggestion is that students should be encouraged, when learning something new, to find their own cues, which will usually be more accurate and better than the coach. Cues are considered important, but what might seem a great cue to the coach might be close to meaningless to the student. Hence students should be encouraged to find their own cues, using the coach's crude one's as a starting point. Kind of like charades.

I found that interesting as I had never even considered it before. I have often thought my cues were great and couldn't understand for the life of me why some fool couldn't get them. Turns out the fool was me.

[bottle]

No, no, you know exactly what you are talking about. And it all sounds like a kind of awakening. Teaching has got to be about interaction. But I never would completely abandon your own cues since cues engender other cues, in students too. When I was doing an article on rowing one time after having been a cue coach, I mean a crew coach, I went to a lot of different colleges and clubs just interviewing people about the cues they themselves had come up with or stolen and which were most effective. I made a list.

I'm trying to engineer an awakening of my own right now on the subject of elbow level in serving. Brent Abel, the current over 70's hardcourt champion in this country recently told his considerable online readership that he had a little time right now and if someone wanted some free advice to contact him because he will be busier later. He does longterm lessons and phone and video analysis and of course it is for a fee so I decided to jump at the generous offer. The first thing he asked for was a video of me serving without a ball and then about three actual serves, no more. Well, I'm presently cut off from a lot of computer-literate friends and kids, and with my android phone was unable to send my HUDL technique selfie photos, was doing emails with the HUDL technicians, who finally seemed to agree that if "Technique" had transformed me into a lefty I would probably have to remain a lefty forever since my Moto android wouldn't come up with the screen to allow me to shift back and forth the way an I-phone would.

Under the pressure of Brent's invitation, I started exploring the natural video capacity that came with the phone-- oh, rather good slow motion. Then Brent sent me a video with him talking to me from his living room in California. It just seemed so quick and easy, as fast as an email so I tried sending myself one of my own videos and succeeded for the first time despite previous tries. People assume that everybody knows everything about computers but it's wrong. Sometimes older persons like myself just need to be told "Click there and when you get the arrow then click there..." The solution could be that simple. But I did finally figure it out on my own, and I know that in certain areas my computer knowledge is better than that of other persons. I think of everybody with their own thicket of computer knowledge. How to send a video simply wasn't part of my thicket but now is.

So Brent and I have begun to discuss my serve. He thinks players in general are overly shy about seeking out expertise and relates this to fields other than tennis and thinks the reluctance disastrous. I must admit I'm finding the conversation invaluable.

So, there is six inches of snow on the court where I record and it's 6 degrees Farenheit and I went cross-country skiiing today twice-- the first time I've been able to do that this winter. But when I get the chance I will record and send you a video, because my serve is not up to the rest of my game and never has been. But I'm playing indoors all the time with what seems to me like neat competition, and so am in good position to notice any improvement or deterioration in my serve. In fact I'm a romantic and think that if I can ever straighten out my service motion just a little I will make out like a bandit. True or false? Don't tell me, I don't want to know.

I need some more thought from other persons on my serve. That's why I'll send you the video. The simplest observation might be the most valuable. I'm not interested in the public humiliation that would occur if I put my serve up on You Tube or in the your serves section here which I was once or twice invited to do. It is an old discussion. Actually, some people at TennisPlayer might be quite kind, but the feeling of humiliation would come from me. That is what I feel when I look at my own serve in film right now, and I wouldn't want to multiply the feeling through exposure to a wider audience.

So it's Brent and you if you don't mind. Thanks. Oh, but I'd better send one to TennisChiro, too. Where has he been?

Oh, by the way, the lousiness of my serve is the reason for the existence of this thread, which has gone on for years and years by now.

[stotty]

I'm sure Brent and me can sort most things out so have not fear.

I contacted tennis_chiro around a month or two ago to check all was well. He got back to me briefly by email before rushing out the door to give a tennis lesson. I haven't heard from him since but no doubt he will crop up out of the blue as he always does. I hope so. I love his strong, independent views on tennis.

[doctorhl]

I don't think Dennis Ralston intellectualized it as much as I would, just expressed the idea, but did mention firming up the bottom three fingers. So hit one down the line with fingers more relaxed? Tighten for a crosscourt? But then, just trying to follow the idea, I think I decided I wanted some fingers closing on almost all power volleys, combined with opening of the racket face, which comes from what? Forearm? But then, it just seemed to me, thinking this way with the fingers so much led naturally to loosening them some for stop volleys or just to take speed off the ball. I'd be perfectly happy with the notion that one shouldn't know too exactly what one is doing, at least to have a good day which just has to happen maybe when one isn't expecting it. But my wonkish mind also wanted to know what exactly it all meant. I revert here to my advice about using a bangboard with little dinks on one bounce and playing around with it. That's the application of the original idea that works best at least for me.

For me, loosening the bottom 3 fingers ever so slightly allows one to manipulate the hand for a little more topspin and tightening bottom three fingers changes racket face slightly for crosscourt(same principle as squeezing bottom 3 fingers of the upper hand on the golf driver to close club face a little quicker).With some drop volleys I like to slightly loosen all of the fingers to dampen the ball, especially when receiving a hard hit ball. On cut drop volleys, I like to tighten the grip to hit extreme underspin.( shots especially effective on Senior clay tournaments).I think there is something to be said for finding the optimal hand/finger pressure as pronation/wrist flexion occurs at contact in the serve. I have observed some kids with death grips on their racket, which had a tendency to translate into unproductive tension in the rest of their arm on certain strokes.

[bottle]

For me, loosening the bottom 3 fingers ever so slightly allows one to manipulate the hand for a little more topspin and tightening bottom three fingers changes racket face slightly for crosscourt(same principle as squeezing bottom 3 fingers of the upper hand on the golf driver to close club face a little quicker).With some drop volleys I like to slightly loosen all of the fingers to dampen the ball, especially when receiving a hard hit ball. On cut drop volleys, I like to tighten the grip to hit extreme underspin.( shots especially effective on Senior clay tournaments).I think there is something to be said for finding the optimal hand/finger pressure as pronation/wrist flexion occurs at contact in the serve. I have observed some kids with death grips on their racket, which had a tendency to translate into unproductive tension in the rest of their arm on certain strokes.

This is terrific. Thanks so much.

[bottle]

Bottle Goes Negative, oh Yes he Does

Sorry to deliver a judgment here that will make me unpopular with certain folks if I wasn't already.

The judgment is about Jeff Saltzenstein. He embarrasses me through tooting his own horn too much.

Also, I'm still waiting for someone to reconcile the turning inward of racket face at the end of his dirty diaper drill with the turning out of racket face in other models for the modern serve.

[bottle]

Rehearsal

I looked up "brandishment." It is a perfectly good word with a meaning different from "blandishment," having to do with waving a sword. It becomes the second frame in my four-frame study of the Pancho Segura serve.

Why Segura? And why bother to learn different forms of serve in the first place?

Segura because he was little. If a serve works well for a little guy it should work even better for a big guy. (I am a moderately big guy-- big enough so that I should have a better serve than the one I currently have.)

And one learns different forms of serve in the hope-- at any age-- that one of them will work better than the others.

The second move can be quick, the brandishment thus preparing one for the quickness of abduction/adduction although there is a slow smooth section interspersed first...

And now to lay out the first four parts or beginning sequence to the Segura-modeled serve as drawn in the 12 frames of PANCHO SEGURA'S CHAMPIONSHIP STRATEGY: HOW TO PLAY WINNING TENNIS by Pancho Segura/with Gladys Heldman.

A natural question: "Why not address all 12 frames at once?" Because that is too big a challenge. Better to concentrate on the first third of the serve and rely on inspiration for the rest, at least for now.

Rehearsal 1234:

1) Racket goes down as ta goes up

2) Shoulder continues up as ha goes back fast far away from bod but with arm bent (the brandishment). Knees started bent but they bend more.

3) Shoulder continues up as ha bends to place racket lid close over your head as knees bend and press even more as the ball starts down

4) Legs fire up past racket on its way down to LP.

Again: Rehearse.

Three things happen before the legs fire:

1) Toss
2) Separate
3) Bend.

Toss, separate, bend = MANTRA.

Rehearse:

1) Slow
2) Fast
3) Bend
4) Fire.

MANTRA: slowfastbendfire.

A full service motion means full separation. But this does not happen until frame two (brandishment).

Rehearse. Stay on the back foot until the ball starts to drop at which time so does ta.

A final question: Why not just stick with your regular serve and believe in it? Won't this lead to the best perfection you can achieve?

Of course not. Get real.

(https://wyntonmarsalis.org/videos/vi...play-the-blues)

[bottle]

Toss, Brandish, Bend, Fire

~

(Or Toss, Branford, Bend, Fire.)

[bottle]

A Lesson Gained: People are Terrified of Innovation

Why wouldn't they be? The innovation may challenge their most sentimentalized (heartfelt) assumptions.

The Becker-Edberg backhand, say, is a stripped down version of a Don Budge backhand that makes more sense.

Similarly, the Novak Djokovic bent-arm serve is the result of a good edit.

Rafa Nadal's serve used to be platform but now is pinpoint-- terrifying.

Over at Reader Supported News where under the name John Escher I am currently engaged in pitched battles as vehement and abusive as any we used to have here, the current debate is whether NATO is any good.

The people who hate NATO hate the UN too. They hate anything with an "N" in it, and for this peccadillo will happily destroy the world.

Finding that NATO serves a useful purpose would be innovation for them especially when they realize that word has three n's in it.

We come now to the "Rock 'n Roll" serve of Pancho (Segura) and Gladys (Heldman).

Its basic form like any serve offers infinite variation, a number too large for a small or any kind of mind to embrace.

The open-ended TennisPlayer articles by Doug Eng, with their division of serves into abbreviated, classic and staggered, are great but purposefully limited.

It is almost as if Doug Eng WANTS people to surpass the characteristics of each category outlined by him.

The Rock 'n Roll Serve of Gladys and Pancho, even though the currency of its not very good name has become inflated is at first glance a staggered serve, uses platform (uncharacteristic) and quickly bends the arm (abbreviates) rather than straightening it out (classic) like Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

Trying the Gladys-Pancho for the first time last night, I used the half hour before the Friday mixer to serve five balls over and over walking from one end of court number three to the other.

Several of these serves were huge button-hooks of a caliber I was unable to duplicate for the rest of the night.

Held for Heldman the first time I served, didn't the second, mostly held during the four or five sets thereafter.

Already I'm asking myself: Why bother to straighten the arm on the staggered toss (ta goes up while ha goes down)?

Why not just keep ha bent from the beginning whether that looks like Djokovic or not?

P.S. A very small straightening of ha may be necessary to effect clean hand separation during the staggered toss.

[bottle]

Dunno. I looked up "button hooks."

A button hook is definitely not the right shape for the serve I had in mind. (https://www.google.com/search?q=butt...hrome&ie=UTF-8). I just should have said "hook." Or "swerve," the word my ex-wife, a player higher-ranked than I used to describe my serve.

On firmer ground, let me assert (please, please!), we persons in the western hemisphere all too often fall into either/or syndrome.

So, say, one wants to brandish more efficiently in one's Segura semblance rock and roll serve.

This serve, if you have been curious enough to follow my disquisition, starts out with staggered rhythm. That means that ta goes up while ha goes down.

Well, how far down? Why does ha have to completely extend when it's about to bend up into an image of sword brandishment anyhow?

Why not just brandish with no extra straightening or bending worked in?

Because that might be stiff. Consider Djokovic's bent-arm-behind-the-back racket work in his present and very effective serve. The right angled arm is so stiff and mechanical it could be a key in a plastic Djokovic doll's back. But stiffness goes away through the ministration of a noodle wrist.

That might be too far for me with my limited back and shoulder flexibility to go. But slightly straightening arm during the stagger toss and slightly bending it during the brandishment might enhance feel and rhythm in the whole serve. Just a little of both, I say, and not a lot as before.

Anything in which one has less to do is worth a try.

[bottle]

The Doctors' Group

Like Lajos Kossuth, the 19th century advocate of Hungarian democracy and independence from Austria, I have suffered my whole life from financial embarrassment.

A good thing too. There is an art to being poor. One needs lots of experience to draw upon in old age.

One time, improbably, I found myself next to a beautiful babe in Bath, England. We were part of a larger group inhabiting one corner of a fancy restaurant.

As the check was being circulated, an architect loudly proclaimed to the whole group, "John doesn't have any money!"

In skiing, one needs to do cross-country rather than downhill.

In tennis, one needs to find the doctors' group in one's town.

The doctors always provide full refreshments after they play, obviating the need for dinner that night.

While the doctors are apt to play at the more expensive club, they hate to see their substitutes have to pay court fees once they the doctors have already made arrangement with the club.

When the club tries to double-charge, a doctors' representative may talk to them, saying, "If you want to have our group, you need to accept our substitutes. You may see some different faces each week but we get to choose them."

The doctors tend to be intense which makes for good competition. Sometimes however they want an upgrade of slightly better players.

My only fear is that the time is coming around for me to provide the refreshments. It happened to my friend Ron.

[stotty]

The Doctors' Group

Like Lajos Kossuth, the 19th century advocate of Hungarian democracy and independence from Austria, I have suffered my whole life from financial embarrassment.

A good thing too. There is an art to being poor. One needs lots of experience to draw upon in old age.

One time, improbably, I found myself next to a beautiful babe in Bath, England. We were part of a larger group inhabiting one corner of a fancy restaurant.

An architect loudly proclaimed to the whole group, "John doesn't have any money!"

In skiing, one needs to do cross-country rather than downhill.

In tennis, one needs to find the doctors' group in one's town.

The doctors always provide full refreshments after they play, obviating the need for dinner that night.

While the doctors are apt to play at the more expensive club, they hate to see their substitutes have to pay court fees once they the doctors have already made arrangement with the club.

When the club tries to double-charge, a doctors' representative may talk to them, saying, "If you want to have our group, you need to accept our substitutes. You may see some different faces each week but we get to choose them."

The doctors tend to be intense which makes for good competition. Sometimes however they want an upgrade of slightly better players.

My only fear is that the time is coming around for me to provide the refreshments. It happened to my friend Ron.

I remember reading about a writer (can't remember who) who said that 'writing annihilates time'. It's true. When I write time just flies. There is something extremely engrossing about it.

When I write money doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. I guess a creative writer could be happy living off very little yet have a fulfilling life. I reckon the odds on making millions out of writing are about the same as making a fortune on the tennis tour...small. What do you think?

[bottle]

i remember reading about a writer (can't remember who) who said that 'writing annihilates time'. It's true. When i write time just flies. There is something extremely engrossing about it.

When i write money doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. I guess a creative writer could be happy living off very little yet have a fulfilling life. I reckon the odds on making millions out of writing are about the same as making a fortune on the tennis tour...small. What do you think?

That!

[doctorhl]

Interesting.

I am on an extensive coaching course at the moment that covers all aspects of coaching. On the business of coaching cues, the suggestion is that students should be encouraged, when learning something new, to find their own cues, which will usually be more accurate and better than the coach. Cues are considered important, but what might seem a great cue to the coach might be close to meaningless to the student. Hence students should be encouraged to find their own cues, using the coach's crude one's as a starting point. Kind of like charades.

I found that interesting as I had never even considered it before. I have often thought my cues were great and couldn't understand for the life of me why some fool couldn't get them. Turns out the fool was me.

Spot on! I am interested In how players filter the coach’s cues, whether technique or strategy. Beginners through intermediates soak up and self-filter the cues easily, probably because they don’t have yet have an investment to protect. As players approach the elite level, it seems to be vey tricky to know which and what cues a coach should release. Many players resent having to filter cues that they perceive might cause harm. Self discovery of cues becomes the preferred method. Never having personally experienced an elite level of play, I struggle to understand superstitious ritual and resistance to change. I had a practice partner who became unhinged when one of his 6 tournament rackets lost 5 lbs. of string tension. I told him he needed to go play the guy that clobbered everyone with one 10 year old racket.

[bottle]

Spot on! I am interested In how players filter the coach’s cues, whether technique or strategy. Beginners through intermediates soak up and self-filter the cues easily, probably because they don’t have yet have an investment to protect. As players approach the elite level, it seems to be vey tricky to know which and what cues a coach should release. Many players resent having to filter cues that they perceive might cause harm. Self discovery of cues becomes the preferred method. Never having personally experienced an elite level of play, I struggle to understand superstitious ritual and resistance to change. I had a practice partner who became unhinged when one of his 6 tournament rackets lost 5 lbs. of string tension. I told him he needed to go play the guy that clobbered everyone with one 10 year old racket.

Right-- too many players are caught in the fringes and don't know what is more important.

If you, Stotty and I are all dwelling on the same subject here-- how best information in tennis is received and processed, we may be coming close to some secrets of self-empowerment.

One filters certain stuff out even though it may come from a great mind in the game. We do this if we are our own man. The alternative is apprenticeship to a single source, warts and all, an approach which the current seventies champion, Brent Abel, recommends.

Me, I'm not that innocent. I'm going to take from multiple sources. But I certainly agree with Brent when he suggests that players don't rehearse enough, and that they don't sit down in a chair and close their eyes enough first before they rehearse.

For years maybe decades I did a similar thing only while lying on my back in bed.

Is the venue for such introspection significant? Not in most cases. One shuts one's eyes about the same in the chair or in bed.

When it comes to serve, however, if one moves from dream stage to mime stage, one's rehearsed arm work may direct too much to the side when one finally stands up.

Sitting in the chair is closer to being upright.

A good part of the service action needs to be rehearsed behind the back.