A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

At Play-- Two-Birds

How ta and ha get there doesn't matter so long as they do get there with time to spare.

ta points up. So does ha but with arm bent in perfect position to key your bod into dramatic reconfiguration.

Variable backswings?

Repetitive motion is supposed to be good.

So don't do it.

League players, Big and Little, would argue with you.

But what do they know? They're not even in the same sport.

Could somebody authorize themself to use four different service backswings in one match and yet get away with this crime against humanity?

1) Down together up together but ta starts high and only drops two inches.

2) Don't lower ta at all but keep her bent. ha goes back slow and level while getting straight. ha then bends as ta goes up straightening.

3) Extend both arms toward right end of net but keep them disconnected. Drop ta two inches as ha flies downward in a shallow arc. Now ta flies 40 feet straight up like a wild turkey (think Mitch McConnell) while ha bends in gentle second half of its arc, the part of the arc that goes up.

4) From same start point toss sooner with no downswing. As ta goes up, ha goes down at same speed, a pendulum, but then accelerates bending to chosen spot of brandishment.

Verdict: Not enough backswings. Work up more.

One lesson: Downswing on toss is a psychological aid and not physical necessity. In just presented variation 2) ha can carry all psychological load.

[bottle]

Report: Doctors Make One a Bit Nervous

So when I actually get out there I'll only want to try Variation 2).

[bottle]

Fragility of Serve Mirrors Fragility of Life

"Members of the ski patrol had detonated explosives near Kachina Peak (Taos, N.M.) early Thursday morning in an effort to reduce the risk of avalanche," Stagg said. "The measure is meant to trigger a potential slide before skiers take to the slopes."

But...

[bottle]

Footwork Plus Slight Austrian Accent

The footwork here of either Ginger or Fred will work well against the doctors later today.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwMA9H69qVc)

[bottle]

Main Criticism of Tennis Instruction

The same as so often of instruction of anything, it

1) does not encourage the student to take hold of his own fate and be his own coach

and

2) does not encourage him to invent.

[stotty]

Footwork Plus Slight Austrian Accent

The footwork here of either Ginger or Fred will work well against the doctors later today.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwMA9H69qVc)

Amazing....just love Fred...he floats.

Fred Astaire's life has never been portrayed on film. He left a clause in his will requesting his life never be portrayed in film stating, "It is there because I have no particular desire to have my life misinterpreted, which it would be."

[bottle]

Report

Is 50-50 on holds for a serve you've never practiced in your life sufficient encouragement?

Perhaps, but today I'll try this one (http://www.hi-techtennis.com/serve/martin_serve.php) and stick with it through a whole doubles session just as I did with the other one last night.

As for 1), 3), and 4) in # 4726, I'll wait for a snow melt and practice outside.

The Todd Martin serve should have the advantage of starting with a bent arm and keeping it at same bend while setting it in place.

The commentary to the left of the repeating serve is very good and helpful, too.

This serve is a "probation" serve but with just a little rhythm added to replace the flop take-back.

The racket head appears to come up and then settle barely down but the elbow just comes up and holds alignment.

[bottle]

Amazing....just love Fred...he floats.

Fred Astaire's life has never been portrayed on film. He left a clause in his will requesting his life never be portrayed in film stating, "It is there because I have no particular desire to have my life misinterpreted, which it would be."

So interesting. I didn't know this. Katharine Hepburn, meanwhile, misinterpreted Ginger Rogers.

[bottle]

In Search of a Cue or Two

My shoulder is built differently from that of Todd Martin. And so, to try and perfect a good serve from the example of this video (http://www.hi-techtennis.com/serve/martin_serve.php), my initial arm movement shall be a sequence of both ends of the racket traveling at identical speed followed by an imaginary elbowing of somebody standing directly behind me.

The toss next shall start from collarbone level and descend about two feet toward the inner edge of the left thigh. Whether the upswing of it with ice cream cone structure of hand and ball will put the ball exactly where I want it I can't predict but don't see why not.

[bottle]

Backhand Aha Moment

We were playing with and against an Oriental gentleman who had exquisite control of all touch shots last Friday night.

Just watching and winning with him set up some osmosis whereby I started hitting more effective touch shots myself-- sure to be fun while it lasted.

Then, playing against the gentleman, it was my turn to receive his partner's serve in the ad court.

One of the many things I enjoy about the Gold Ball Hunting conversations of Abel and Jacklin (https://www.youtube.com/goldballhunt...=EmailCampaign) is the distinction they make between aha moments and tennis tips, asserting that a certain kind of person has no idea of what to do with a peak moment other than ignore it and hence lose its benefit forever.

I had no desire to hit my return anywhere near the gentleman, who was at net, but casting a sidelong glance at him tried to absorb his clear power of concentration for my own use.

The serve came down the middle and was conveniently short.

I had decided to hit one of my full Edberg-Becker modeled backhands, but rather than continue from forward roll with upward rise of racket ends at identical speed, I would continue to roll from contact.

The ball zinged off the court before the service line for a clean winner.

Now I check the Tennis Player archive for Boris Becker backhands.

On most of them he continues his roll.

Think I'll try more of that too and not just on short angles.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...tanceFront.mov)

[bottle]

Which Flourish to Add to an Edberg-Becker Backhand-- a Debate

A supposedly wise person might say don't add any flourish; in fact, eliminate all flourishes from one's game.

Me, I don't want to be that wise but will allow two needless variations instead of three.

Both Edberg and Becker from all the video one can find like to bowl backward for their backswing much like John McEnroe on his forehand.

Right now I don't do that since I want the preparation for backhand slice-- my best shot in tennis-- to be as close as possible to that for drive topspin.

This philosophy has worked well. I am sure I shall retreat to it when under severe pressure.

Right now however I had to pay for a new crown (the kind in your teeth) and so am looking for extra fun.

I'll take on pendulum backswings in the hope that such infusion of balance will lead to great shots and movement on both sides. If nothing else, this decision will bring my McEnrueful out of hibernation as an adjunct shot.

But I should eliminate something too. That shall be the early arm straightening and bellying out of racket behind one that one sees in one hand backhands from Don Budge to Cageman as one opens the Tennis Player website.

No, I am wedded to the Becker-Edberg method of hitting this shot. The choice shall be between a high direct backswing and bowling the racket up to the same place.

[bottle]

Ripple Effect

If you don't have a roller coaster built in you go to a Gulag in Siberia.

That's one way of looking at this service backswing thing.

As alternative I propose the addition of some ripple effect to the abbreviated backswing of Todd Martin (http://www.hi-techtennis.com/serve/martin_serve.php).

Racket tip can start up with elbow continuing up to follow.

Most often in a strict probation serve one flops the racket to where one wants it, chills and then starts the down of a down and up toss. Pretty mechanical if you ask me which you don't have to do.

The proposed serve here coordinates ta's downswing with elbow gouging an imaginary person behind one.

A bit of rhythm replaces the starkness of a crude flop.

[bottle]

Straight Arm Twists Mightily but Doesn't Fly to Right of Ball

It flies through the ball.

[bottle]

Exp. # 3 Ought to be the Best. Will That Happen?

Just as Brian Gordon gives his students their choice, I give myself the choice as to how I will reach my chosen position of brandishment.

None of it matters so long as the position is good and I get there.

I accept this Brian dictum along with something else he said-- that the structure of one's wind-up doesn't help one but can hinder one.

The process starts with probation serves. I must confess that mine were not as good as I would have liked. That means a Manafort sentence of probation for the rest of my life, right?

On the other hand I am 79 years old, have fiddled incessantly with my serve for 37 years and have a congenital trick shoulder and from being a crew coach bring across a fixed idea that the rowing stroke or any complete athletic motion is a cycle in which any one item affects all the others.

Affect thirty other items with positivity or just negativity-- what is the difference?

The rowing cycle must be mastered.

The service cycle must be mastered.

To that end I have recently tried straightening ha while taking it around level then re-bending it in coordination with rising ta.

But why should I want to straighten and bend ha when I can just keep it bent through this part of the cycle?

So I tried to serve like Todd Martin. First experiment: 50 per cent hold rate. Second experiment (with Todd as model): 50 per cent hold rate.

Not good enough.

In the third experiment I shall return to something closer to the first-- no downstroke for the toss, and a gliding backward of ha while keeping it level and bent.

Then I do a classic up-together. ta straightens and forms desired leftward arc while the elbow of ha (and nothing else!) lifts racket to brandishment.

I must talk here about my trick shoulder. Its housing lifts.

Next the humerus will twist/key racket to vertical to furl body onto rear foot.

Notes: 1) Think how far one has lifted ha in the past. I now allow myself to do only part of that. 2) Because of the lifting straight up of shoulder housing and elbow, one can glide ha backward at a slightly lower level. 3) Just think how much more doable Exp. # 3 is compared to the wriggle in my adaptation of the Todd Martin model. 4) Seano's question and Brian's answer regarding when ESR should occur is essential information for a rotorded server who needs to save his ESR for racket sweep outward.

To be very technical, some ESR happens to twist racket up to vertical. No ESR happens as legs drive up, not in the case of a severely rotorded server. The arm folds down to the max instead. The speed or rather slowness of the folding could be crucial. More ESR then happens as motion-dependent racket tip sweeps to the right.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sci-u6KtsLo)

[bottle]

Embarrassment is what I feel when I see this cramped little action out to right in this serve thanks to a bad toss.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud7ynR44H-I&t=136s)

I nevertheless think I am on the right track. Next thought is to slow down the takeback and replace the pathway from level to 45 degrees up while keeping hands connected for longer.

Toss can include a downstroke from somewhere up the slope.

The "takeup," changed from "takeback," will remain first step in the three-part sequence (45-degree elbow rise, 90-degree elbow rise, pre-arm fold ESR).

I've been trying to break the look of the wimpy serve in this video for a long time. Stotty has suggested that I recruit somebody to physically hold my elbow up where I want it.

A sound idea for sure, but perversely I want to make the change by myself and through design, so that after I have filmed tomorrow, I will play the video and see more serve behind my back.

Yes, tomorrow if there isn't a blizzard I want to see that long-awaited improvement. Tomorrow. An improvement long past due and more difficult than I ever could imagine.

Stotty's view: No one knows what they do, and it is always different from what they have in their head,

But I'm ready to bet everything on willpower and the tweaked design.

Verbal mistake in the video here: One "ESR" instead of an "ISR" referring to right after the arm has passively snapped straight.

Self-instruction for if get to court tomorrow: Be completely open-minded about when in the upward travels of the ha-elbow one should start the down and up motion of ta. The starting place of the toss will affect both its shape and height. Above all make it twice as high. You did not do that today.