A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Aware Serves

More awareness is required than people will tell you. And if you are among the rotorded servers-- most people in the world-- then you need three times as much.

The question that has now arisen-- and I hope my readers won't find this too boring-- is, if, as you first take elbow up higher than a textbook serve dictates, should you still form a right angle in your arm in tandem with the body bend-- on the uptake?

Or, should you take the unique opportunity of such highness of elbow as an excuse to keep arm straight for very long ("barred" as geoffwilliams would say) in order to then form a thin Yosemite-type waterfall with a huge drop?

Me, I'll go with whichever works best after this Michigan rain.

And I know the body bend and controlled weight shift forward works with either option having done both a million times.

Less well known is how hand moving racket tip sideways (See Don's helpful comment on hand in Post # 720) can work best with either choice.

I see three movements of the hand combined in one, sort of like the mondo in a forehand.

They are: 1) straight hinging, 2) cockeyed hinging toward radius bone in forearm, 3) twist from forearm to take racket tip more to the outside.

1) and 3) are the same as for mondo but 2) is reversed. On a forehand the cockeyed hinging is toward the ulna bone, with everything turning toward the inside.

So, should hand motion be kept distinct from arm motions during the drop, be sequenced in other words? Or will everything blend in unconscious delight? Or is this more true of one option than the other?

[tennis_chiro]

Two things to remember on the high elbow

More awareness is required than people will tell you. And if you are among the rotorded servers-- most people in the world-- then you need three times as much.

The question that has now arisen-- and I hope my readers won't find this too boring-- is, if, as you first take elbow up higher than a textbook serve dictates, should you still form a right angle in your arm in tandem with the body bend-- on the uptake?

Or, should you take the unique opportunity of such highness of elbow as an excuse to keep arm straight for very long ("barred" as geoffwilliams would say) in order to then form a thin Yosemite-type waterfall with a huge drop?

Me, I'll go with whichever works best after this Michigan rain.

And I know the body bend and controlled weight shift forward works with either option having done both a million times.

Less well known is how hand moving racket tip sideways (See Don's helpful comment on hand in Post # 720) can work best with either choice.

I see three movements of the hand combined in one, sort of like the mondo in a forehand.

They are: 1) straight hinging, 2) cockeyed hinging toward radius bone in forearm, 3) twist from forearm to take racket tip more to the outside.

1) and 3) are the same as for mondo but 2) is reversed. On a forehand the cockeyed hinging is toward the ulna bone.

So, should hand motion be kept distinct from arm motions during the drop, be sequenced in other words? Or will everything blend in unconscious delight? Or is this more true of one option than the other?

1) The humerus is best/strongest in adduction when it does not rise above the line made by the spine of the scapula. In simpler terms, you should see a straight line from left clavicle to right clavicle to right elbow (or the opposite for a lefty like you, Bottle). As the angle between the humerus and the top of the shoulder blade (spine of scapula) reduces, the effectiveness of the gleno-humeral joint is compromised. As well as being weaker, the joint is more vulverable to injury.

See: http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...as1stServe.mov

2) In the simplest terms, once the elbow starts to move upwards, you would like the elbow to go continuously up and forward as it drags the racket behind it into a position where it snaps at the ball. Imagine pulling a rubber band or a slingshot back for power; you would not want to release the pull on the slingshot - it would be wasted energy to repull it.

If you take the elbow too high (relative to the spine of the scapula) in the initial backswing, you are unlikely to recapture the potential energy you have spent getting that elbow up. You may get some assistance (that you shouldn't have needed) to bend the lower arm at the elbow, but you will have lost the power available to you from the adduction of the humerus across the body (in the clip, imagine how Sampras would look if his humerus were above the line of his shoulder blade). That may not be the largest contributor to the overall speed of the action (check Brian's work for that), but it is significant. Remember that when Sampras has the line of his upper arm almost vertical (about 70 degrees), it is still right in line with the line of his clavicles and the spine of his right scapula. In fact, in looking at the full motion, I don't see his humerus ever getting above this line I am referring to.

don

[bottle]

I can do it. I can even hit an occasional ace against very good players. But my serves won't have the high quality upward spin which I still feel I can achieve in other (non-hurtful!) ways, especially for second serves. I believe in the power of individual experiment, trust my own experience more than ANYBODY else's, am sure this is the way to go for anyone in tennis, later at least if not at the outset.

[bottle]

Don, I really like the part about adduction, a term that maybe I'm beginning to comprehend better (with comprehension in this case meaning "being able to take it and use it").

Am involved in a big project but will get back to you on the other today.

[bottle]

Okay, "spine of scapula," I've seen drawings (Google: "What does the spine of the scapula look like?") It's all coming into focus.

[bottle]

Don't mess with your best bony lever, maybe longer than you thought.

[bottle]

Language to Increase Power and Balance

Life will be better for you, reader, if you get spine of scapula and humerus cocked elastic style and lined up with one another so they can form a single long bopping lever (including forearm) just at the right time.

This cocking and uncocking could be described as arching and unarching, if arching is primarily horizontal in the way that Chris Lewit, say, defines it. Sternum comes up. Shoulders go back. Helps lower racket tip, too.

When to do it is a good question. I'm arching as arm bends to zero gravity position, then am holding the arch till late (rather than arching late in the first place, although that's an option I did explore this morning).

On ground strokes, I'm also finding the phrases "half-sitting" or "semi-sitting" to be quite magical just at the moment.

These words, like a good ear doctor, can improve balance, which greatly improves everything.

[bottle]

From Wikipedia

Scapular Movements

The upper portion of the trapezius can be developed by elevating the shoulders. Common exercises for this movement are shoulder shrugs and upright rows. Middle fibers are developed by pulling shoulder blades together. The lower part can be developed by drawing the shoulder blades downward while keeping the arms almost straight and stiff. It is mainly used in throwing, with the deltoid muscles.

The upper and lower trapezius fibers also work in tandem with the serratus anterior to upwardly rotate the scapulae, such as during an overhead press. When activating together, the upper and lower fibers also assist the middle fibers (along with other muscles such as the rhomboids) with scapular retraction/adduction.

"It is mainly used in throwing..." Hmmmm.

[bottle]

Federer to Ferrer

1 2 whap snap.

That's my Ferrer based forehand.

The 1 2 is the inversion in this reverse action forehand.

The whap is a single continued beat of extremely fast body whirl with elbow glued against side at a separation of one ball.

The snap is a combination of wiper and elbow throwing out through the ball.

So the stroke, to repeat, is 1-2-WHAP-SNAP.

I'm not including the subsequent five or so frame beats of finish since the acceleration, i.e., the stroke, is over.

This stroke is simpler both to hit and to describe than the Federfore I explored for many years.

Both Federfore and Ferrerfore have three syllables along with quite similar backswing, but Ferrerfore retains the bent arm that both started out with.

Ferrerfore is easier to understand and hit well, especially for a person getting older who would like to simplify.

So it's one-two-whip-snap hit open or closed.

Oh yeah-- grip. Well, I hit my Ferrerfore with the Federer 3.5-3 strong eastern grip.

[bottle]

Arch

"I arch throughout the serve." -- Mark Anthony Philippoussis

What does this charmingly imprecise statement mean? It's sort of like the Wikipedian vague reference in post # 728: "It's usually used to throw."

WHAT is usually used to throw? Trapezius or the lower third fibers of trapezius? Conducting one's own experiment on such questions is usually easier and more productive than contacting the statement's source.

One simply-- perhaps arbitrarily-- chooses a possible answer and then runs it through an experiment.

"I arch throughout..." But no one arches throughout, which would be from the very first to last moments of serve. Or does one? Try it?

Or did Mark Anthony mean that he arches throughout the storage of energy part of his serve?

Mark Anthonies are always very eloquent-- "Lend me your ears!"-- so does the verb "arches" mean that the arching happens as it goes along or is the player rather maintaining an arch like the one in Paris or St. Louis?

Think I'll try arching anywhere, specifically during first gravity drop today. And the type of arching I'll try will emphasize lower fibers of the trapezius as described in sentence four of the first paragraph of the Wikipedian entry.

For if one holds out both arms straight and then lowers the scapulae, one feels as if he could throw a rock or a tennis racket over the top of a huge barn.

A third vague reference is the idea of arching and unarching, which sounds great, but does that mean, specifically, scapular "retraction/adduction" as in the last two words of the Wikipedian entry? Let's assume that it does.

Now let's put all of our hypotheses together in a gravity dominant serve.

As racket first drops down, so will the two scapulae countering the sternum, which if not rising will at least remain stationary.

How was it?

****************
My first book, THE LAST WORDS OF RICHARD HOLBROOKE, is now up at Amazon in the Kindle store. I myself don't have a Kindle yet. If someone had a Kindle and wanted to review it, they could. I've also heard of people reading Kindle books on ordinary computers.

[bottle]

Note

All this talk about arching, like that in the articles of Chris Lewit, is intended, among other things, to counter the extremely stupid ready made notion shared by too many novice tennis players that arching is something you do in your lower back.

Boris Becker's words, "I kept my nose up in the sky," are extremely useful, but no one wants to injure their lower back.

Anyone still confused on this point should carefully read or re-read post # 728 .

NONE of the Wikipedian wisdom seen there concerns the lumbar region of one's back.

[bottle]

~

If one is particularly susceptible in the lower back, one could keep it ramrod straight, at least in one dimension, and still have a good serve.

[bottle]

Racket Just Went Through an Autoclave and Melted

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/david_ferrer/df_forehand/df_fh_arm_action/df_fh_arm_action.html?DFFHCenterArmActionRear4.mov

See what I mean? Maybe the frame in question is a painting by Salvadore Dali. The racket frame in that frame has melted ahead of the handle.

That ought to tell you something, reader, about acceleration just at that
racket-clinging-to-side-of-body-but-just-a-bit-out stage of a Ferrerfore.

This photographic phenomenon can be seen as well in other videos, which are, I would argue, equally instructive.

[tennis_chiro]

33 clicks in?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ctionRear4.mov

See what I mean? Maybe the frame in question is a painting by Salvadore Dali. The racket frame in that frame has melted ahead of the handle.

That ought to tell you something, reader, about acceleration just at that
racket-clinging-to-side-of-body-but-just-a-bit-out stage of a Ferrerfore.

This photographic phenomenon can be seen as well in other videos, which are, I would argue, equally instructive.

Are you talking about the shot of the frame 33 clicks in?
don
PS They have a Kindle reader on Amazon for Macs. You don't need a Kindle.

[bottle]

Guess I'll have to count the clicks from now on.