A New Year's Serve

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I Want to Try...

Fill in the blank. Surely there's something you'd like to try but won't because you don't have time, and besides... Fill in the blank again.

I want to try a forehand with a feel of "winding up into a catch." I'm thinking of an abbreviated forehand. If it works, of course I'll apply it (or try to!) to my 360-degree version as well.

I'm thinking, "How utterly left-brained to vote for double-bend or straight arm while neglecting all the possibilities in between."

So, when you catch a ball your fingers tighten around it. You want to preserve that feel. This is the bridge between soft hands and thrust of body and arm or subdued driving of racket (up more than forward though both) including a controlled wiper to spin the ball vertically like a golfer's putter.

The racket is what throws things off. So make it disappear. Put the feeling back in hands and balls of feet.

And whom am I stealing from? And whom did he steal from? Does that matter? Do we want to play exciting tennis or get picayune about attribution?

Keep focus on the middle of a racket propeller. That would be a piper cub propeller formed by your holding two rackets together by their handles with the heads facing out. Or maybe a drum major's baton.

Whirl this contraption but not so fast that the ergs flow to the racket tips like water in a hose.

(And is tennis technique rumination one of the few places where a mixing of metaphors could be permitted?)

I'm thinking of an abbreviated forehand starting out with a lift past right shoulder as in a Federfore. As left arm goes out toward right fence to maximize body turn, however, the hitting arm just straightens a little, then re-bends a little to "wind up into the catch" and help make the racket disappear.

Can't wait to try this. Right now, though, I've got to get my cross-country skiis ready to go.

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1HTSBH: From 4.5 to 6-Foot Rounding of Corner

The front 4.5 feet of sharp curve are explained in Post # 536 . I try to tweak that foundation here, this morning, by suggesting a bit of sequence in all the simultaneity, i.e., that extension of arm from elbow be delayed until just before contact.

Here's the model. (In upper right part of page.) At one moment in the repeating video the player's elbow is slightly bent but is straight in the next.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/new_issue/2011/january/new_issue_january_2011.html

Just look at this repeating loop. You probably can't look at it enough. Does it contain 10 bits of useful information or 300? Is tennis better thought of as simple or complicated? It's a real question.

In either case, 10 or 300, we have to choose what to emphasize. Specifically, why does left hand release the racket throat from front part of high left thigh?

This situation folds while hips are going toward net and upper body is rotating to catch up so both are parallel to side fence. Conclusion: The racket is twisting backward as the shoulders twist it forward, producing a subtraction problem in which the answer is our usual convenient unit of 1.5 feet of forward progress around the corner.

So, applying this, we try for six feet of sharp curve in total. At that point the racket flies up to right side of body from two power sources: 1) clenching of shoulder-blades together and 2) upper arm continuing to open armpit to 90 degrees or more (Braden's "ATA").

Upward path of racket head-- starting from off back part of left thigh-- appears quite interesting in this scheme.

The left hand just went down on bent arm to front part of upper left thigh. From there the path is 30 degrees up to ball then about 70 degrees upward due to the two sources.

NOTE: Bent left arm, to invoke Don Budge's old cue, is "around the waist of the girl you brought to the dance" rather than straight and touching leg just above the left knee as in Braden's sit-and-hit. This is hitting through ball more.

Bring back, though modified, an even older image, too. In first part of the 6-foot corner-- the downward part-- swing sword and scabbard both. Twist racket tip in, building tension, then spring it.

If there's no sequence in this six feet of corner (best way of thinking perhaps), just be smooth. If there is sequence, however, it's most probably shoulders swing (1.5 feet measured at racket tip), arm roll (1.5 feet), then elbow travel and extension at once (3 feet).

Now, perhaps for the first time, you may be ready to defend your contact point.

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In one day things can and normally do look different.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/new_issue/2011/january/new_issue_january_2011.html

Of course, if you have a short attention span, you just go with what you saw the first day and don't worry, happy in your mediocrity.

About my feeling that racket head is held back and then sprung: It that's true, the holding back starts behind you.

Shoulders rotate forward-- that's true-- but left hand rotates around at same time at a faster speed.

So there's no subtraction problem but rather an addition problem. Think I'll put length of the racket tip turn (before racket goes up at about 70 degrees) at 7.5 feet.

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The hand is not as far toward the camera as I thought. Hips, shoulders and racket length all get parallel to side fence at same time.

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But hips went out first. Then shoulders and racket-going-twice-as-fast-as-shoulders caught up.

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Best, there's only one rounding of the body by the arm. No need to think of that as a separate entity any more. Rolling of the arm and extension of the arm (from the elbow just before contact) do remain quite separate animals, however.

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Progress Report

The new backhand was too intellectual, needs to simmer for a while. But the forehand innovation worked right away. That was about "winding up to the ball" for an abbreviated, topspun shot. The making the racket disappear idea seemed promising. I'm only reporting on my own experience, not that of a hundred promising kids or 500 depressingly overweight adults or any other sociological group. There's group wisdom in tennis but there's individual wisdom, too, and this is the area more apt to be neglected.

On serve, I think I'm open-minded about whirling elbow more forward-- in conjunction with whirling shoulders-- than some very good players. One of the very best players I ever competed against advised against this after our match was over.

He might have been wrong, for me. He was a different person, with a different physique. I think the principle of knifing toward ball enough-- on any serve-- is very important, and this can be done in different ways.

Has anyone ever seen a picture of the player Chuck McKinley serving? Eventually, he wrecked his arm, and that always has to be at the back of one's mind when considering the McKinley way.

But I don't know WHAT wrecked his arm and it would be presumptuous of
me to say. What I do know was that he delivered incredible spin serves and
his racket, in the photographs, came at the ball backside first.

My thinking, surely not original to me, is that on a pushed, mediocre serve,
the fault is often that racket opened up too much at contact. We all need to
knife past the ball in one way or another.

The hardest, spinniest serves I can deliver right now involve a lot of simultaneous rotation of shoulders and elbow helicoptering toward net. Since DIRECTION of the elbow is the crucial factor, not how close you get it to the net, perhaps some of the same magic can be generated from farther back but in a more upward direction. Toss to left obviously is crucial, too. Always, we rotorded servers must be on the lookout for possible compensation for our handicap. The Colin Firth movie about the King George who became a great public speaker proves once again that a simple story of handicap overcome will always be powerful and give pleasure to everybody whether audience or participant.

From reading Pat Blaskower and Helle Sparre Viragh together, I've been generating a whole new outlook on doubles positioning and poaches for myself. An immediate improvement I noticed today was ceasing to spectate when my partner serves. The instant you hear the partner's contact you can be going forward, before a split-step, before you even have any idea where the serve's going. Most simply, you build energy sooner. The chance of driving your opponents nuts is better, too. They only know that you're about to cut in some radical direction, anywhere, perhaps even BACK.

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Backhand: One Swish

For backhand with J. McEnroe type brevity of backswing, use one swoop of hand down, through and up to end of followthrough on opposite side of the body.

To re-phrase: Mentally divide shot into backswing and foreswing and always be doing one or the other but not both.

This simple advice will help somebody, i.e., me.

But all discussion of racket path and body mechanics, wave imagery, etc., will prove equally crucial, in my view-- before one has mastered a masterful version of this shot.

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How Far from Body at Low Point?

Re post # 544, which stated, "The hand is not as close to the camera as I thought," the hand is not as close to the body as I have thought, at times, either.

Here's the clip being discussed in this thread by me and by other players elsewhere. (See "Federes backhand," stickman.) One will be able to retrieve this repeating clip in the future, but now is an especially good time to think about it while it is on header page display.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/new_issue/2011/january/new_issue_january_2011.html

If one wants to know how far hand is out-- at shake hands distance?-- one needs to look at other clips of Roger Federer's backhand from a different camera angle:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand/RF_BH_Center/RF_BH_Center.html?RF%20BH%20Center%20NeutralStance%20Rear1%20500fps.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand/RF_BH_Center/RF_BH_Center.html?RF%20BH%20Center%20NeutralStance%20Rear2%20250fps.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand/RF_BH_Center/RF_BH_Center.html?RF%20BH%20Center%20ClosedStance%20Front1%20250fps.mov

Corresponding distance in John McEnroe:

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

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

Lastly, why is this question so important? BECAUSE IT IS!

When I was a beginning tennis student, a USPTA pro taught me a simple, straight back preparation and then left me alone to work out any fine detail. The best topspin backhands occurred when I used a step press hit formula with the racket starting three inches out from leg. But the pro later noticed that my simple, slow, elegant lift broke down against hard hitters. Clearly, I needed more backswing, and that's the limbo where I've dwelt ever since.

More backswing, yes, but less than Gustavo Kuerten, where racket gets up way high and back and then both ends come down parallel to begin. And less than Federer, where racket head alone seems to be what comes down most to begin. And not as extreme as Richard Gasquet or former NCAA singles champ Bea Bielik either.

Just golfing the ball from medium height a tad lower than the following big guy seems attractive to me once again.

http://www.coachkyriltennis.com/wordpress/how-roger-federer-hits-those-wicked-one-handed-backhands-and-how-you-can-do-it-too/

I'd keep elbow in more however during upward part of the "U" so as to make sure to brush outside edge of ball and kill the ball feeder every time.

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Three Different Players Have Let this Shot Go Only to See it Drop in

These backhands, expressed in # 548, went enticingly high and therefore were good for theater. But, slow down all of the elbow travel before the ball. The pre-ball roll of the arm then can close the racket face more. "Swing the racket head," one might say. Won't this help to STOP the hand? I've heard some aficionados use that word "STOP" and more than once.

What did they mean? They weren't being literal. They were suggesting that ordinary players have trouble making a clean transition from one racket head trajectory to another, i.e., aren't good with abrupt change of direction.

What should the two rises of the racket be-- if there are two rises? Should racket come around level and then go up? I've seen that idea demonstrated by a teaching professional in another country (in an indoor bubble).

I stick for now with some numbers arrived at earlier in this thread. Thirty degrees from low point up to ball, seventy degrees from contact to end of follow-through on opposite side of the body.

In an ideal situation, of course.

Note: I don't see how any player comes up with an interesting, repeatable departure in his racket work without some concept that is very clear in his mind first. Doesn't often work but is total joy when it does.

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Neanderthals

One person can backhand a Frisbee the length of a football field and another will never be able to do that no matter how extensive his studies of the topic.

Standard Neanderthal instruction for a one hand backhand is to form a figure eight which begins somewhere and ends somewhere-- no one knows exactly where in either case.

(I apologize right now to the Neanderthals among us since scientific research shows they were much nicer and smarter than we thought.)

Is there something to their figure eight idea? Perhaps. But free swish idea (# 548) somehow seems different. I can remember thinking how golfy Virginia Wade's backhand looked on an instructional video made by one of her students on Hilton Head island. Then she added some topspin, and I was horrified to see her racket head keying down behind her as if she were Evonne Goolagong.

And yet, and yet, doesn't a good golfer do that too? So, how to combine the Neanderthal's figure eight with the free-form swish-- especially since we're now sure how far out-- from body-- the low point of every 1htsbh ought to be (shake hands distance).

Think I'll go cross-country skiing. But when I return I'll address the topic some more.

Should the figure eight consist of eyelets, eyes, or great big beaver ponds? Should the two ponds whether large or small be same or different size? How about a rustic path between them? If so, how short or long? Better that they be contiguous?

And should one pond be set inside or outside of the other or directly behind?

Right now I'm lifting my racket from a bed which is safely distant from any tennis court.

And I'm ready for a return to Coach Kyril (last clip in # 549). Because of what he said and demonstrated about continental grip, I'm too angry with him to reproduce here his clip for a third or more time, but there it is at # 549 . Doesn't he know he hit the continental ball through the roof because he used HIS SWING?

Forget that in favor of his ball-less mime with racket tip twirling severely around at last instant to contact.

All good one handed drives have that in common. So what are us ordinary people supposed to do? How can we get around last instant like that with maximum feel to outer edge of the ball?

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Small Ponds

And a next step thought. Keeping both ponds small, with back one outside of the other, and a diagonal rather than hammer grip, with fingers spread along the handle, pretend, reader, that, while keeping arm bent, you will twirl a baton first one way and then the other, not doing anything too fast so as to keep everything "in hand" or under control.

If you allow the two ponds to be very small, you will at the very least attain the sharpness of last instant turn that you so intensely want, in fact, should be able to direct the ball to any spot on the opposite court.

The next step is not anything I've seen in a film; but, the pattern of it works in backhand slice if the player glides barrel slowly toward net then suddenly clenches shoulder-blades together while keeping elbow relaxed. The result is fast slice either sidespun or backspun or both. The elbow straightens passively, increasing venom of spin and pace.

There may be videos that show this-- I'm not denying that. What I'm suggesting however is rare in my view: The same phenomenon applied to a drive.

The baton can set the strings anywhere on outer edge of the ball. That means total control if one over-aims a bit. Bent, passive elbow will direct ball slightly to left of point of over-aim-- if allowed to relax itself straight in response to muscular clench.

Theoretically, for an extremely short-angled crosscourt one could do everything exactly the same but keep the arm bent. Along with everything else, I'll have to check that out.

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Should a Person Imitate Mikhail Youzhny's Backhand?

Internal voices speak.

"Yes, definitely. That backhand gives Robin Soderling fits."

"Too idiosyncratic. Could only work for him."

"It's beautiful."

"Why even bring up the question?"

Well, because of one moment on Tennis Channel during warmups in Rotterdam, Holland. Youzhny mimed his backhand once to put it in tune. Since he performed this action with racket in hand, one could maybe see something of what he does.

From a high point, far back, he slowly swings the racket down and when arm is straight gives it a twisting whirl upward precisely at imagined contact.

His wrist is concave throughout, with a lot of hand behind his handle.

A unique shot, Wikipedia says. One can see it in slow motion at YouTube.

But should one ever, ever imitate something just because a player mimed it once in warmups? Absolutely. Try anything!

I'm thinking, when I finally get to a court on Wednesday night, I'll try the shot first with constant racket head speed. The strings will swing down and around setting my speed limit. The arm then will twirl the head like one end of a baton as shoulderblades clench and elbow continues to go out.

Worth a try. Every idea deserves respect. Perhaps I'll adjust respective speeds after one stroke. Perhaps after three strokes I'll return to my continental grip.

Tennis is supposed to be a game, after all. If you're (I'm) playing croquet, which you don't do very often, don't you mess with different hand positions on the handle, etc.?

http://wn.com/mikhail_youzhny__slow_motion

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Should a Person Try to Imitate Fred Perry?

Not unless he is a passionate pursuer of uni-strokes that will enable him to capture the world championships of tennis and ping-pong.

Not unless he has the loot to start a new clothing line.

So, should a person try to imitate anyone? Of course, unless he plans to re-invent the wheel.

http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/files/morethanthegames/perrydietrich2.jpg

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So as Not to be too Yankee

http://wn.com/mikhail_youzhny__slow_motion

What's this, in every backhand, where Mikhail Youzhny rearranges his right hand on the racket? Is it his grip change, part of his grip change, a way to relax, a way to adjust, a checking that one's hand has purchase on the slats exactly the way one wants it?

The most sensible ever, i.e., most economical way to change grips, I think, is to relax right fingers and pull back with left hand, a motion that can blend seamlessly into whatever backhand one's cooking.

It's great, it's fast, it's easy, and it's nifty. Now I'm wondering though if it isn't too mechanical, too out of nineteenth century New England mill towns at least when one has time to spare (almost never).

Whatever Youzhny is doing, he's demonstrating which hand is bringing the racket back at that point of the stroke, but that this motion is far from being a violent YANK.