A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

No One is Asking how my Date with the Lovely Ukrainian Tennis Player Went

I guess nobody but me cares. But I set up my forum opponents to make wise-ass remarks.

I just don't understand it.

The first thing I learned is that Ukrainian grandmothers tend to be younger than American grandmothers.

Second, that Iryna is not a tennis player but just a beginner.

But someone with so much natural ability that she already looks like a tennis player when she hits the ball.

This is what threw me off. I did spy on her a couple days ago with one quick look.

Other surprises were that she showed up wearing a dress and brought along a small dog, Sonya.

Since the time was late Saturday just before dark we had our pick of the courts.

I chose the pair of courts that are independent of the others and best enclosed-- perfect for a small dog.

And Sonya, extremely well-behaved, stayed quietly to the side.

Iryna's forehand was classic. But shots to her backhand soon convinced me to fetch my basket from my car.

As the lesson went on, I decided not to overhaul Iryna's forehand but rather to instruct her on how to get a bit more topspin out of the one she has.

Gangbusters.

The more athletic the person, the quicker they can learn. If they are of a mind to. That's where the rub is, usually.

Earlier in the day Iryna provided sustenance for octo and nono genarians. And swam 75 laps at the Neighborhood Club across the street.

As I suspected, she is married to an American.

In a while her grandson arrived along with his rather comely mother.

I gifted the boy with a baseball from my basket.

A while more and I said to all, "Too much talk. Let's just hit."

There will be a repeat.

[bottle]

Keep watching her and don't be cynical (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...sue/2018/june/) just because you don't see as much arm roll as you would like for another shot.

I am convinced, largely from the crew coach certification program I matriculated through at Annapolis long ago, that some people are good at analyzing athletic movement from a single look, much like a dermatologist, while most are horrible and don't see anything.

There has to be virtue in this girl's stillness of racket just before she hits the ball.

The racket is going through all kind of changes but they are happening in one place.

The racket isn't going down, up, this way, that way. It was just coming down but got still when the body started up.

I could be speaking to someone other than myself or not.

[bottle]

Next

Okay, I think I'm ready to give up my position, to come out with both hands up, no both hands down, no one hand middling up and pointed across and the other down.

There will be no self-feed first and no forehands with backward bod rotation melding seamlessly into forward bod rotation as I begin to hit with my new Ukrainian friend Iryna.

That doesn't mean the dead time between the two rotations can't be minimized to the max.

I see arm extended out to side (half of back swing) and butt of racket already to have settled nicely (second half of backswing).

Dead time between the rotations will be reduced to the mondo (or flip).

It won't be easy. Iryna had a tall and also beautiful partner the other day. She was all covered in sweat and full of dire warning that Iryna is pretty good.

This was the woman who typed Iryna's number into my phone.

[bottle]

Not birthdays, for sure.

[stotty]

Stotty

I know you have a connection to Italy, and aren't you worried about Excommunication?

Strong continental forehands in which the wrist "pumps": blasphemy!

I'd always heard that continental players use more wrist than other players. But John McEnroe doesn't. Or does he?

Is that what the announcers on the Ploughshares Tour mean when they say that John has added a bit more topspin to his forehand arsenal?

Is that how he does it, or does he do it some other way?

Well, when you do it do you pump forward or upward or both?

I ask you because I'd like to try it although I understand you never would teach such a thing to one of your students.

Also, I heard you used to hang out with the werewolves I mean the Lloyds of London. Did John Lloyd do that thing too? Is that what happened to his marriage to Chrissie?

Like a lot of marriages that wrap up pretty quickly, John and Chrissie were just mismatched. Chrissie played just once at my club when they were married. God knows what she made of the place. I don't know John that well as he is eight years older than me and was on the tour by the time I surfaced at the club. I know his brother Tony quite well. Tony was the best player ever to watch. Maybe even better than Roger. More on this another time.

Yes, pump I do. Or at least that is what it feels like. But as we know from this myth-busting website we write in, what we feel is happening and what is happening can be two very different things. I think I must be pumping my wrist because my extension is poor and I have never followed through over my shoulder like Novak. I have a poor forehand whether measured by classic or modern standards.

The heel of the hand sits plumb on the top edge of the handle when I hit my forehand, so a bit further that the classic continental. And, yes, I make sure I get the racket right underneath the ball when I hit my topspin...and I get a lot of topspin, believe it or not.

I don't think McEnroe used much wrist at all, but then he hit very little topspin. He just caressed, timed, and steered the ball around. He's probably the most fascinating player the game has seen.

I have a strong connection to Italy and yes what is going on in Italy worries me somewhat, and my wife. If what is expected to happen comes about, you are going to see hundreds of thousands of immigrants shipped back to where they came from, and sometimes where they came from is downright terrible.

By the way, one of the best things about you is you remembers things.

[bottle]

Stotty

I know you have a connection to Italy, and aren't you worried about Excommunication?

Strong continental forehands in which the wrist "pumps": blasphemy!

I'd always heard that continental players use more wrist than other players. But John McEnroe doesn't. Or does he?

Is that what the announcers on the Ploughshares Tour mean when they say that John has added a bit more topspin to his forehand arsenal?

Is that how he does it, or does he do it some other way?

Well, when you do it do you pump forward or upward or both?

I ask you because I'd like to try it although I understand you never would teach such a thing to one of your students.

Also, I heard you used to hang out with the werewolves I mean the Lloyds of London. Did John Lloyd do that thing too? Is that what happened to his marriage to Chrissie?

I'm kind of wondering if this shot wasn't the reason I could never take a set off of Senator Paul Laxalt on High Knob Mountain in Virginia. It was so hard to read. Paul said that he was 15 when Helen Wills taught it to him while removing the Moody from the end of her name in Reno.

[bottle]

Yesterday

A lot of the guys wanted to talk about a shot I made. I was close to the net in a volley exchange. One of the volleys I hit was soft and right to the other guy. I went into protective mode as Walt Malinowski, USPTR , taught me, turned tail you might say. And couldn't see the ball though I knew it was coming fast. Made contact down low and behind me right on the sweet spot. For a clean winner.

A once in a lifetime occurrence for me, methinks.

[bottle]

On Editors

I had an editor who purposely made all his notes to his reporters very ungrammatical.

But I'm not sure that approach worked for him unless he was trying to leave an historical artifact.

For when the time came for the biggest post deadline headline of his life: "Kennedy Assassinated," one of the s's in "assassinated" got left out.

[bottle]

Stotty

I know you have a connection to Italy, and aren't you worried about Excommunication?

Strong continental forehands in which the wrist "pumps": blasphemy!

I'd always heard that continental players use more wrist than other players. But John McEnroe doesn't. Or does he?

Is that what the announcers on the Ploughshares Tour mean when they say that John has added a bit more topspin to his forehand arsenal?

Is that how he does it, or does he do it some other way?

Well, when you do it do you pump forward or upward or both?

I ask you because I'd like to try it although I understand you never would teach such a thing to one of your students.

Also, I heard you used to hang out with the werewolves I mean the Lloyds of London. Did John Lloyd do that thing too? Is that what happened to his marriage to Chrissie?

[bottle]

All the Way Over: 1/2 of Backswing

Almost straight arm down to B.G. recommended position: second half of backswing.

The shoulders still are turning backward during second half of backswing in my case.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...sue/2018/june/)

[bottle]

Mondo is Earlier Now

And faster, happening as other arm points across.

Mondo is pro (pre) active.

Mondo is conscious decision, no longer passive.

Mondo, though quicker, is also milder, since accomplished before the sudden change of direction.

But I wrote that before even trying it or watching the Gordon video in the present issue. The next challenge will be integrating the freeze position to outside that Gordon says he pretty much insists upon with his students. Because, I, unlike them and most playing pros, don't have dead time between bod turning back and bod turning forward.

That's not criticism. It's just a choice I long ago decided to explore thanks to the encouragement of a U.S.P.T.A. pro who was watching me do self-feed one day. He watched with a curiosity similar to what I felt. And he was knowledgeable. He knew a lot.

[bottle]

Clear Head at Lift-Off

Combine dogpat with mondo. Start forward rotations of bod before arm chimes in (connects).

Dogpat/mondo is toward right fence. Pull hand sideways not forward.

Which pulls racket head (slingshots it) forward as well as sideways because of the bend already created at the end of one's arm.

Feel as if hand is coming back toward you even before hand does come back at you.

Straighten wrist, bend arm, roll arm (SIM) after contact.

Unweight while thrusting out legs to derive more power from gut.

Try for fun some neutral stance forehands where feet replicate each other though a bit farther out (Rafter).

Patrick Rafter demonstrates that somewhere in photographs.

[bottle]

To Prove: That the sideways pull of Gordon and the sideways hand wipe of Wegner are one and the same thing.

The goal is not to imitate but to create. From high two handed lift the arm can dogpat toward right fence. What if arm coujld stay disengaged from the whirling bod until it were in perfect position for pinky embedded against butt rim driven windshield wipe?

Would not the smooth almost slow advance of the hand abrruptly turn into a sideways yank as arm became linked to already whirling bod?

What if the dogpat and mondo could slow enough that bod whirl, catching it violently propelled hand sideways?

Would not the mondo be mild for having delibrately happened before the abrupt change of direction?

[bottle]

David's Slingshot was not a Wham-O

He whirled the thing around his bod first forward then sideward.

It was during the sideward that the rock flew out and brained Goliath.

You (I mean I) should try the same thing on our topspin forehand.

Pinky to pull rim of racket butt forward (with good extension). Pinky then to abruptly change direction to pull rim of racket butt SIDEWAYS.

With no pause or slowing down of racket near top of one's loop. That was for the olden days.

Could the forward and the sideward be at different speeds? Sure.

[bottle]

Ulnar Deflection

Sorry I ever mentioned it. But it best happens, I believe, as one of three ingredients that make the culinary dish known as "flip" or "mondo." Before, I thought there were two ingredients, wrist layback (though it's the hand that actually lays back) and forearm roll-down (though upper arm could also be involved in the rolling act).

To these two we now add ulnar deflection although it was there all the time.