A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Snow Day

Work for MORE TIME between the toss and the hit. To do that, 1) release higher and 2) at least toss the ball higher! The hands start down together, but that's the last time for a while that they'll move at the same speed. For, in the time it takes the racket to glide from separation to a point slightly behind right leg, the tossing arm, getting long, has gone down straight and retraced its path then straight up to release. Now both hands can go up together at the same speed. The body finishing its bow backward and the hitting arm bending toward a right angle briefly squeeze the two hands toward each other from opposite directions high above you.

Forehand 2 (Valerie Ziegenfuss off of Roger Federer type preparation): Just bend and unbend arm. I called this "a sidearm throw," I know, but slow it down and make it smooth. At beginning of the forward motion send the front hip out. The arm will be straightening and you'll have a huge amount of shoulders rotation available to chime in late and prolong extension. Arm then returns to body the same. This is the spring don't swing stroke where I want wrist mondoing backward during contact (very delayed!) and frankly, I think this will work better without a stupid windshield wiper attached to it.

Forehand 1 (Federfore): Instead of extending arm forward, extend it backward, then sweep it around in solid connection to the body. Mondo occurs as sweep starts. Wiper occurs on the ball.

Backhand, imitating John McEnroe, who almost seems to form a bubble out to the side between his arm and body on every drive: He and Arthur Ashe slung racket to the outside, then changed direction with their continental wrist. No wonder they had such arguments in Davis Cup. They both employed a similar use of wrist.

Hope I'm right about that bit of tennis history. Regardless, it's what I'm going to do, using both elbow gouge and blades clench before wrist changes direction of the whole stroke. I also want to experiment with blade clench in one direction from anchor of the trailing hand, like JM. And with prolonged bend in the arm only less of it than I've had.

[bottle]

Understanding One-Handed Topspin Backhands

I don't mean to beat up on myself, but I require a couple dramatic reconsiderations from myself if I'm going to continue successfully with my exploration of the JM backhand:

1) The first part of a significant COD (change of direction) includes body swing from the shoulders. The evidence is what the opposite hand does. It goes forward with the stroke before it goes back. Elbow gouge (simultaneous) still seems likely however.

2) An imaginary line through the shoulders at end of the stroke will not point to target but to right of it (for a right-hander).

First-hand experience on the court as well as observation of videos of John McEnroe hitting backhand drives has led to the conclusion that improved topspin becomes enabled if one can properly stop hitting hand for a micro-second during which humped wrist simultaneously straightens and rolls. This is "turning the corner," it seems to me. Only a micro-second, I say, but absolutely essential before both ends of the racket then go up at the same speed. Assume I'm right for the sake of argument.

How then to stop hand sufficiently for this to happen? Opposite hand has always been the best candidate for this task. And whether that hand suddenly stops or goes backward, the action is done by clenching one's shoulder-blades together, so where exactly should you do it?

There's no where there, Bud. What's the speed, direction, weight of the ball? The stopping happens before you hit the ball. You determine the where by feel; still, coming to a clear decision that the wrist whirls after hand stops seems large. At the very least, it establishes a whole genre of stroke.

More speculative is my belief that when clench flings one or both arms out, the stoppage occurs early, right then at the BEGINNING of this act. From there the clench produces force. (Right shoulder continuing to go around generates force.)

But where does the racket go? After the force? No. It goes up to the left of it. Maximum racket head speed would occur if you whipped around in a lousy, roundabout stroke. Instead, you siphon force up.

Extreme example:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterCourtLevelRear.mov

[bottle]

Private Terms and Why

Federfore: A Roger Federer type forehand

Roger Featherer: English translation of Roger Federer

Feathering in Rowing: Repeated adjustment of pitch

Ziegenfuss: A backward forehand as hit by Valerie Ziegenfuss in the pre-women's movement, lacy dress, old collector's item book TENNIS FOR WOMEN

Backward Forehand: A forehand in which arm swings at the ball before the shoulders do

Goat Foot: English translation of Ziegenfuss

Valerie Ziegenfuss (Wikipedia): Valerie Bradshaw, nee Ziegenfuss, who was one of The Original 9 rebelling against the USTA and helping to bring about the Virginia Slims Circuit and the WTA Tour. Fourth round French Open 1972; Fourth round US Open 1969 and 1975; Bronze Medal in Doubles 1968 Mexico City Olympics partnered with Jane Bartkowicz.

Satchel Paige: The greatest, most colorful baseball pitcher ever. Three of his infinite number of pitches: "Two-Hump Blooper," "Little Tom," and "Long Tom."

Elbow Gouge: A special 1HBH move in which bent arm is swung around

Hip Mastery (related to hip mystery) on John McEnroe type 1HTSBH: How can hip going out create tension in upper arm in such an economical backhand? Answer: Stretch the upper arm backward a little as bent arm and racket go down (thanks to shoulders tilting to level then).

Well, lots of times just defining terms forms sufficient essay, which in this case leads back to the orginal question: Why use colorful terms in tennis or anyplace else?

1) So as not to be a bore

2) They're easier to remember

3) They're briefer than their descriptions.

[bottle]

Shoulder Shoulder to Toss

Don't slow down anything, just speed up the toss. Toss with the front shoulder while you toss from the front shoulder (if that makes sense). How high can you go? The 7/8th weight shift will almost take care of itself because of the body's interconnectedness.

The test today is whether both straight arms can reach their zeniths at the same time. So perform this action without a ball: Call it "toss" while taking 7/8th of the weight transfer from back to front foot. Make sure that rising front shoulder adds to impetus of the imaginary toss.

This will be a hell of a replacement if you've always tossed before you transferred weight while bending under the ball. Why make such a change? There are a number of reasons, one of which is that the tennis bars of the United States are full of frustrated players who've never been able-- consistently-- to toss high enough.

I can't see the logic in adding real toss with a real ball before achieving this first goal.

[bottle]

Three Weeks Later

Okay, now three weeks have passed. You've mimed your toss-stretch everyplace you've gone. The other Christmas shoppers have decided, accurately no doubt, that you are crazy.

That couldn't matter less. Assuming you read chick lit, you remember what Theseus revealed he learned from other women before he met Helen according to THE MEMOIRS OF HELEN OF TROY by Amanda Elyot: "No matter how slow you want to go, go ten times slower."

But now could be the time to add a real toss. So you do, until you achieve desired height every time.

As ball starts down you bend your hip from baseline across the baseline. This rakes your vertical tossing arm, still straight, back a little. At the same time the hitting arm bends to a right angle. Result: Both hands move slightly toward one another. The trick is to make time for all this to happen and not be rushed.

[bottle]

Quasimodo Serve

Okay, if Mark Papas can form the archer's bow while hardly bending his front knee, I can do it by starting out with knees bent and then not go down on them any more.

The deal is a free hour of court time at Eastside Tennis Facility, Detroit, a Christmas present from the club.

I'll take my hour today since all the courts outside are covered in snow. This is like Congress in its final days with one chance to accomplish something.

So, knees bent and rear shoulder raised. That means front shoulder is low, good since it can then rise up to assist the toss powerfully enough to put the ball in orbit.

But if front shoulder is going up during the tossing action, then rear shoulder is going down, and how will that affect racket speed? If the racket's trying to drop down and pass under the shoulder before climbing up on the other side, and the shoulder itself suddenly lowers, the racket's going to be later than normal arriving at its zenith-- right?

One way or another I'll speed the sucker up then.

And I won't tell you how this experiment worked out, reader, so don't stay toon.

[bottle]

Student-o'-the-game vs. Ninja Turtle 1110999

That title promises more than I shall deliver on a morning when I'll instead present undramatic but curiosity-driven paragraphs on two different strokes.

Forehand: If Roger Federer has a power pocket, it goes up most of the time instead of out and once in a while goes backward. But what is a power pocket anyway? I used to think it was a depression in the body that flattened out as the body straightened. Then I came to believe that it was the front pocket in a pair of tennis shorts. In either case, in a majority of Federer forehands shown on the TP new issue page, November, the long arm solid with body swings around the rear foot. That's WAY BACK. So Roger doesn't hit out front. He hits out to the side.

Backhand: A John McEnroe drive backhand consists of a crucial rhythm-- the racket slowly goes back as he runs, which siting concludes as he steps across on a 45-degree angle. (Has he ever hit one of these shots from open stance, by the way? If so, I haven't seen the film.) The rhythm is of shoulder quickly leveling and both ends of the racket then going up together for a while. What happens between these two events is compressed and precise, I would suggest, but too complex to think about while attempting it.

To become a Ninja, one may learn to sum all backhand forces in the area of compressed precision and precise compression, but must ask first, "What exactly did Ninja McEnroe mean when he told Greg Rusedski to keep his elbow in?" Did he mean a miniscule whirl of the shoulders but a whirl nevertheless at the conclusion of which spell the shoulder-blades clench to passively whirl the humped wrist straight? Or should tension-loaded arm, independent, not stay shyly back but join in this fun? Or should aspiring Ninja delay his clench, an entirely different idea?

To become a student of the game, however, one may anti-load wrist in early, identical way for both modern retro Federfore and modern retro Ziegenfuss, the first to wipe the ball, the second to let ball work on the strings, i.e., to push the wrist down and back.

[bottle]

Possibilities not Answers

The ticket here is possibilities rather than answers, with a good chance that if you come up with anything resembling John McEnroe, you'll have a better one-hand backhand than you currently do. Over and over I've posed the question, "What did JM mean when, on television, he criticized Greg Rudeski for not keeping his elbow in?" In other words, how could little u-i utilize the implied answer. And what is the answer? How can one re-structure one's backhand to employ that answer?

Not one person other than myself has ever ventured a reply to these questions. Do I blame anybody though? Why should I-- they with their non-continental grips.

So I now venture another guess, this one most interesting-- possibly-- of all.

Starting from the premise that one can soup up any backhand through making sure that the upper limb stretches backward as hip slides frontward, I question even this motion, I challenge it as I steal from it.

You were creating tension in upper arm-- right? So just relax as hip goes out and add the arm tension later, i.e., now.

The key to what McEnroe's core is doing is a little motion of opposite hand forward quickly ended by stoppage of that hand from clenching shoulder-blades together.

That's a powerful and underestimated motion, that clench, illegal in boxing since it can kill a person. It can add to the catch in rowing. In tennis, I just want to use it to stop arm to passively straighten previously humped wrist and at the same time help with the force on either side of an abrupt change of direction ("turning the corner," in Arthur Ashe's words).

Now, at a certain point in my stroke, my arm is farther back than ever before, but I'm ready to take both ends of the racket toward the target.

So will racket go level then up? Either that or down then up. Will I be conscious of perfect parallelism in hand and racket tip? Probably not since even when you lift both ends of the racket the tip comes around a little-- something to do with human construction.

But I still call the little motion "both ends of the racket moving together"-- a useful phrase.

Limit it, however. Let the follow-through go round naturally after "the straight section." Perhaps u-i can fly then like McEnroe.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHWideSide.mov

Note how long he keeps the elbow in. If you start counting from sudden lowering of back shoulder-- the actual start of the forward stroke-- this phenomenon is four clicks in. But if you're going to keep your elbow back/in like that, why not load it at the same time?

[bottle]

Win Wimbledon and Kirsten

The movie WIMBLEDON shows very clearly how to win the Wimbledon singles championship and the love of Kirsten Dunst even before Toby Maguire or Spiderman.

This is all you have to do: Keep your tossing arm up a bit longer. Well, how much longer? As Theseus says in THE MEMOIRS OF HELEN OF TROY, by Amanda Elyot, “However slow you want to go, go ten times slower than that.” So keep your arm up ten times longer than before.

But what if, like 95 per cent of servers in the world, you are rotorded, viz., you possess rotor cuff inflexibility which keeps you from rotating the upper limb axle-like far enough back.

Here is your fate: You need to toss high, really high—only in this way will you ever have the chance to hit effective kick. You need to toss so high that the ball can curl over and down to a still very high contact point, with enough descent first to allow you time to do interesting, entirely relaxed, unhurried things.

But suppose this isn’t working, that you can’t break your engrained habit of taking the just-having-tossed hand down too soon.

What are the options? 1) Toss even higher; 2) Toss later so that whatever time you are actually spending with your tossing hand up in the sky will seem magnified.

Let’s go with option 1, which is preferable: To toss higher – assuming that you are a chronic low tosser with tosses even lower than Vic Braden advocates—you need to do something radical. Not enough to say, “I’m going to toss higher now.” You can say that all you want but will you actually do it on a consistent basis? Why not toss overly high for a while? Later, you may or may not quiet your toss down—an easier proposition. For now go all out for heighth. I don’t know about you, but as for me, I don’t want to strain the rotator cuff in one shoulder any more than the other, so I’m not talking here about more expenditure from small muscles. Instead, get tossing shoulder way down low and upper body bent way over, with both arms and both legs bent. Do this first before you even start the serve. Exhale then drop hands (not much distance for tossing hand now, the feel is almost like a low dribble in basketball). The hitting hand can naturally separate and start on its long, scything path back and up toward the sky—a path possibly made even longer by shoulders reversing their tilt for the first time. If a pool player can hesitate between backward and forward cue stroke—called “dead stick”—and still be perfectly accurate, you can let your racket hand start out on its path an arbitrary amount before up-together-toss and body bend start. The idea—and the only idea that really matters—is that the two straight arms reach their respective zeniths at the exact same moment, with time to spare.

Just then the ball starts down. The toss will have risen high enough if you thrusted up with your shoulder and straightened your back sideways—a tripling of previous energy.

[bottle]

After two hours of doubles, I'm not so enamored of the "dead stick" idea.
Tossing higher is the answer. The racket can skim the court as the upward
toss begins. There's a more unified feeling that involves both hands.

For transition to this kind of serving, if you have been doing something else,
I'd say get the archer's bow working first. Then and only then adopt a more
turned around stance and add a big dollop of body rotation to release of the
bow.

But I can see that starting with an entirely rotational serve (the "cylinder serve" that Pat Dougherty talks about) and then later adding the longbow idea also might work.

[bottle]

No Ball Sitting up at Medium Height and Saying, "Hit me!"

Regretfully, I change back to pronounced wave rise in my 1HTSBH preparation.

Positively, I refuse to tell my legs what to do.

Schema for revised backhand:

1) Turn
2) Wave up
3) Explode
4) Turning of the Corner
5) Lift

Simultaneous elements of 2) wave up: rear shoulder rises, upper limb stretches, wrist curls.

Simultaneous elements of 3) explode: Right hip slams forward as if delivering a body check in hockey, shoulders crash to level, shoulders rotate to perpendicular to net post, hitting arm fires and straightens (muscular), shoulder-blades clench together, forearm stops.

Simultaneous elements of 4) turn the corner: The humped wrist straightens and rolls as if dealing a card in a single, unencumbered timing element of its own.

Simultaneous elements of 5) lift: The arm squeezes out beneath fixed level shoulder. Both ends of the racket travel together for a short while before permitting natural swing of arm about body to resume. Legs may have straightened, be straightening, stay bent.

[bottle]

Three Forehands du Jour

1) Federfore. Very fast in the hands of an amateur and therefore good for hitting through holes, but easy to return for a good player in position since the topspin-sidespin mix causes the ball to sit up at medium height.

2) Ziegenfuss. Arm unfolds in force-less loop down and around toward ball while setting up to catch it. Power pocket squeezes toward contact thus changing tilt of the body. Wrist stays closed but opens and rolls backward while actually on the ball. Player springs rather than swings with very late shoulders following what was started by the arm. The shot feels like pushing a beachball forward and straight upward with body behind the palm of one's hand. My version, hit off of first half of Federfore preparation, is best hit closed with maximum body glide (linear) to right of the ball, which then flies off to the left. Depth control is good. The medium topspin sits up somewhat but this is a good moderating shot.

3) Spanish. This shot, hit off of full, Federfore preparation, hops in a challenging way but doesn't move particularly fast, at least right now. The arm scissors upward followed by elbow. Contact is further to the left than in the other two shots. The racket goes high up right side of the body and finishes by left upper arm, with elbow having rolled over once the ball was gone. Racket goes up and down in a skinny parabola. Like a straight-armed window-wipered Federfore, this shot is most commonly struck from open stance.

[bottle]

"Mad Men" Meets Tennis Instruction

For more of my life than not I've gone without television-- a deliberate choice. Lately, though, we've been watching "Mad Men," Season One, on DVD, which offers one implicit take on what's wrong with both American society and American tennis instruction. I don't want to make too much out of this since Madison Avenue is everywhere and everybody knows it and the idea is nothing new and certainly not profound. I'll only say that when an advertising man, i.e., a politician, speaks of "narrative," he or she means something entirely different than would an English major, who knows that narrative slowly and naturally emerges rather than being imposed from the beginning. Heimat Security is imposed, American hysteria and over-reaction becomes apparent-- or maybe was apparent ever since the first day of 9-11's thirty-year run.

In tennis, there are brands similar to Heimat Security or 9-11 or Metamucil or
a triple combination weight loss girdle-vibrator. Certain teaching pros become known for certain "strengths" which they then try to market. I wouldn't want to pick on the women's coach at my alma mater-- especially since one wants to hit some low fast ground strokes with neutralizing rather than offensive or defensive volleys-- it's imperative. But teaching pros come up with special ideas sometimes (though not nearly often enough) and then try to market them through great promises.

My name is Bottle, and what I'd like to bottle is more of the self-discovery approach. I'm very inclined to believe the teacher Stotty when he writes most intelligently in these forums that the teaching pro provides 20 per cent input to the player's 80 per cent. In my case it's 10 and 90 where I'm player-- close enough. I just think marketing is very apt to hurt substance-- always-- and that foreign coaches have the advantage of not having been exposed to quite as much advertising. For coaches and players alike, good tennis including the underestimated field of tennis invention just has to happen.

[bottle]

Goat-foot Step-out

The tennis adjectives "open," "neutral" and "closed" can be usefully applied to forehands but don't cover every option.

I expect an email any day from Valerie Bradshaw requesting that I not play with her maiden name so much-- "Ziegenfuss"-- which translates as "goat-foot."

Back in pre-Columbian times when Valerie Ziegenfuss along with her partner Peaches captured bronze in Mexico City, Valerie contributed the forehand chapter to the collector's book TENNIS FOR WOMEN. Valerie told how, while on the tennis road, she met an amateur male player in Texas who advised moving arm toward ball before chiming in with shoulders to give a forehand follow-through "some place to go" rather than sharply across the body.

Me, I tried it and then played the best tournament match of my life even though I lost at the very end of three tight sets for not knowing how to handle belated kick serves.

Ever since, I've called any forehand constructed like this whether short-armed, middle-armed or long-armed a "Ziegenfuss." But, though Valerie, according to the book, liked to hit this shot either open or while stepping with left foot toward the net, it only really worked for me when stepping toward the net.

So, here's the question. Does neutral stance mean stepping with left foot toward the net? Does closed stance mean stepping with left foot toward right fence? I don't really care, but if so, then I want something in between, and I'll call it "goat-foot."

Any time I choose to hit a Ziegenfuss, in other words, I'll step with inside foot on a 45 degree angle toward net and to right of ball. Arm then along with power pocket will follow the same path. Then front leg will extend as shoulder turn and body weight take ball, hit on the outside, in a slightly different direction off to the left.

[bottle]

Idea: Hit Federfore at End of Wiper not Middle

If all questions are good, then, most certainly, all ideas are good until they prove to be one-way, dead-end alleys out on the court.