A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Once Again, a Crazy Idea Leads to a Sobering One

Woe to those who don't know how to have fun.

The arms and arm, as in the immediately preceding clip, can rise more slowly until the racket head is its own width above the human head.

I stick to my prescription for the arms then arm-- straight up straight down, with bod to do the take-around.

But it's the footwork here-- the smooth rhythm of it-- that has to be seen to be believed.

Perfectly duplicatable, my basketball coaching friend Mr. Tuomi would say, or, "It's easy, so do it!"

[bottle]

To Beware or Not

One could, to simulate J. Donald Budge's seniors' loop, put a little mountain in it by both raising arms/arm straight up and lowering them/it straight down during the Budge-bam's duration.

This could add to the efficiency and amount of downward racket drop in a hips first stroke.

And make a similar though milder contribution to racket lowness in the shoulders first version.

This is a crazy idea threatening to undo recent progress.

But I am in favor of getting all new ideas out on the table over turning one's soul over to some tennis guru as Brent Abel recommends.

His way, you never will become your own coach.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...DBFHFront2.mov)

[bottle]

Reaction to Two of the David Bailey Videos

I love the way there is no leg straightening in these two shots, just the opposite.

Okay, okay, wot I say is true of the double foot pivot and HALF TRUE of the single foot pivot, where rear leg last second cocks and fully thrusts to drive the hips.

[bottle]

What is the Ratio of Bad to Good New Ideas in Tennis?

About nine out of ten. A high number, that one, of which I am proud.

[bottle]

Reaction to Two of the David Bailey Videos

Better, once having zoned out on one of the above discussed combinations while using some wrist, not to use any wrist once one is out of the zone and back in one's natural state.

I am especially interested right now in exploring Budge-bams that utilize David Bailey's eighth and ninth moves, two-foot pivot for shots hit in crosscourt direction; one foot pivot for shots hit down the line or flared wide from ad court.

To me personally, more than three golden moves is too many to remember, so I will just go with these two for now and check back later for the other ten or whatever the number is.

I love the way there is no leg straightening in these two shots, just the opposite.

[bottle]

From Two Brain Impulses to One is a Mega-improvement in Forehand Backswing

First impulse: Take shoulders and hips around with both hands.

Second impulse: Continue winding body back through separation of hands and pointing across.

No need ever have the second impulse, i.e., to think about it.

Through momentum from the first impulse the second part will happen by itself if only you will let it.

The key as discovered before is to lift a desired amount with both arms as body turns. The lift is straight up. It is the body turn that takes the racket around.

The solid momentum of the connected body and arm produces the unification.

You never think about the extra turn again.

Once you lift the arms you are ready to hit.

*************************

This however is the engineer in me coming out. When one studies clips of the older J. Donald Budge, one sees that the loop he uses is improvisational rather than schematic, e.g., has concentrated apogee or mountaintop in it rather than a high plateau or plain.

One of these two methods, improv or schematic, will work better for different temperaments.

Was disappointed with down and up backswing borrowed from my McEnrueful.

The shots, great in self-feed, worked in competition but sadly were mediocre at the present time.

[bottle]

Spitting out Gristle

Boswell and Johnson disparage a peasant by suggesting he is happiest with a big piece of meat sort of like a dog.

Doesn't bother me. Especially if I'm dining alone. In that case I buy a lesser cut of meat, which compared to something else is really cheap. So you can buy much more of it and then spit out half chewed mouthfuls, right on the same plate. In this way you can get plenty of taste and whatever nutrients the meat offers and eat more of it.

But I am biased. After we negotiated a training table for our eight-oared crew, back in college, we ate a lot more red meat. And loved it. This was back in the days before carb overload. And was, I think, a reason we went so fast.

Charlie Butt Sr., coach of numerous national champion Henley-bound high school crews, was not our only mentor but was one of them. And never could understand exactly why we went so fast.

Because we felt well-fed? Just one theory. In any case, we didn't spit out any food back then. Once you have become a solitary spitter, the following article will seem nothing but ludicrous to you.

https://cnneatocracy.wordpress.com/2...eak-etiquette/

[bottle]

Celery

https://draxe.com/benefits-of-celery/

[bottle]

Coincision

What does coincision in a Segura type rock and roll serve really mean?

It should mean, in a world where every concept is pure, the beginning and end of a circle where one's racket, seen in time, disappears into its earlier image.

This, in fact, does not happen.

The circling racket gets to a place where it was with tip of racket tilted toward rear fence as it was before.

But it was tilting upward before and now tilts down.

Forms an X in other words. I suppose we could tie a bow at the crux of the X.

Do that, reader, and you then have an exhortative image, your "Do Now" as appears on every classroom board of every charter school in Detroit.

SWBAT! Student will be able to tie a bow at the crux of the full circle in a Pancho Segura type serve.

Of every tennis player I've ever observed, I don't believe more than two or three were apt to conduct provocative experiments on their own strokes.

And those several people, all guys, never did it for long enough.

This experiment, supposing positive outcome (the only attitude one should have), replaces the straight arm to slightly bent arm transition that occurs in so many serves.

Too cumbersome. One needs the same time for completion of the full circle. So at the top of the down and up motion that starts the Segura type serve the hitting arm must already be bent.

[bottle]

To Maximize one's Self-Authorization, be Aware of all Technical Possibility

Isn't this obvious? No it is not. If one has a choice of two forehands, one may delay applying some feature of the one to the other for an overly long time.

Me, I've got bowled backswings on hips first and shoulders first forward shots.

On the shoulders first shot I have "skip a stone" downward wrist action that in no way disrupts the solid connection between one's bod and one's strings.

Currently, I have not done the same on the hips first version followed by aeronautical or uppercut banking of the shoulders.

I don't envision a slavish imitation in bringing this element across but rather will embellish it with occasional early wrist lay-back (cocking) during the up of the down and up backswing.

This means that one can actively close wrist as one fires it down-- as an option.

Such a no-no will happen so far before contact that the error potential will seem irrelevant.

[bottle]

Effective Exhortative Image?

The full circle that Pancho Segura advises on a serve is measured from obtusely angled trophy to exact same position with ends of the racket inverted and with arm out to right angle.

Coincision of racket therefore might be effective exhortative image. The racket tilt is comparable. Tip slants same way slightly out toward rear fence.

The circle, I say, is to coincision of an image of the racket itself.

The arm has completely bent and then opened to a right angle like that of Charlie Pasarell and many others.

Segura, the marvelous explainer, suggests that he never would achieve his characteristically extreme vertical body and arm extension without the fullness of this circle.

So go with it as an experiment to try and improve one's own serve.

Controlling emphasis on long straight runway has now been replaced by more circularity behind the back.

Because of the unique positioning of all this, the opening of arm from completely squeezed to right angle puts hand farther behind the back for what happens next, viz., player uses everything to hurtle upward.

Me, I see a body and arm tomahawking toward the sky.

[bottle]

Basketball-type Sidesteps (small but with motoring quality and big frequency)

I don't see why one could not gently tread from foot to foot then accelerate the frequency and pressure of one's feet as one gets ready to poach, fake-poach or simply rearrange or stay.

Too much pre-point activity could exhaust one. But this constant but subdued movement appears superior to the sphinx-like stillness of most senior players and too many others as well.

A primary goal in doubles tennis must always be to avoid becoming a mushroom.

One could similarly do the alternation in a forward and backward direction.

Now let's see if I (you he she it) actually does it.

I know I've articulated plans for a better system of poaches before but then gotten out on the court and thought, "Eh, that would make me too tired," and reverted to my usual sphinx.

So this may be my last best hope for quicker reaction. Because the preliminary movement is so subdued that it's barely more than a series of self-relaxing wags that won't drain any energy at all. Then, as everything picks up, I plan to concentrate only on the left foot. It will lead to the left or push to the right or stay where it is. (The male dancer leads with his left foot.)

[bottle]

Spin-off

A spin-off from my recent experiments with down and up backswung forehands is a slice forehand that naturally combines backspin and sidespin.

Think how good this would be for an approach shot down the line in singles if one could enhance the sidespin even more.

First body basis for the shot is forward hips turn to lower the arm while keeping it solid or connected.

Followed by divebombing aeronautical banking that brings right shoulder inward as it comes around.

If one straightened arm out to right during the initial hips rotation one could then put a vigorous long-armed cross on the ball, with shoulders and arm working independently in the same direction as one.

The question remaining in my mind is exactly when to get one's hips away from the ball. During the initial forward rotation of them I guess. That would make sense and produce a cantilevered effect of hips going one way while shoulders go the other.

Now both arm and bod's capacity to do harm have been enhanced.

As Billie Jean King says to conclude her introduction to the McGraw-Hill book PANCHO SEGURA'S CHAMPIONSHIP STRATEGY, "Good luck, and hit lots of sidespin forehands down the line."

[bottle]

You are very kind, not to mention endlessly interesting. And although I have heard about The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner for most of my life, I have never read it and now will. The title Billy Liar intrigues me and I'm going to read that too.

[stotty]

Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas

I think it was my Hollins teacher, the Nobel Prize winning William Golding, author of LORD OF THE FLIES, who pointed out in class one day that a certain amount of vanity is present in the work of any writer.

Lord of the Flies is an excellent book. We had to read it in school around the age of 15 along with another book which contained two stories: Billy Liar / The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner was a very powerful book for me. The character in the book might well have been Kern Gunning, a classmate of mine. Kern was from a poor background. He was very bright but had no interest in school work and was consequently a low-achiever. He was always smoking in the toilets, truanting, continually in trouble, and always hung around with other bad types. Despite being a problematic character, there was nothing threatening about Kern, which is why I guess most other kids liked him. He was cool.

Kern had a scrawny yet durable physique and every year he would win the cross country race by a 200 yards at least. Kern refused to read books but I convinced him to read The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner by virtue of the fact the story was short and that it was about running.

In the final cross country race before we all left school, Kern stopped just yards from the finish line and let the rest of us trailing behind finish in front of him. Like the character in the original story (Smith), Kern loved the idea of free will....up yours, I'll do what I like. Anyone who has read the book will know what I mean.

I often wonder what happened to Kern. I haven't seen him since we both left school aged 16. Neither of us went on to further education, opting to go out to work instead.

You write really well, bottle. You have a style all of your own. I find your style acrobatic.