A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Re-Phrasing One's Topspin Forehand

One can't do this enough, in my view. My tennis enemies would never try such a thing. They learned their forehand by divine edict from Der Feuhrer himself, whomever at the moment that might be.

We go ahead, blocking these Tennis Nazis from our computers and from our consciousness once and for all since they are of no use to ourselves whatsoever.

So far I have blocked two persons from all future tennis discussion but am looking for a third.

It was Oscar Wegner's second tennis book (published by McGraw-Hill) in which he wiped his palm across a blackboard.

Later he stated that one almost feels as if one is drawing the racket backward into oneself.

His many enemies used all this to assert "poor extension," but then along came Brian Gordon, emphasizing sideways component to arm movement once the mondo or flip has occurred.

I go with the model advanced in # 3740, am adding nothing new to my forehand equation today.

Other than to remind readers of the Nazi intolerance that characterizes so much of what passes for tennis instruction in the United States.

[bottle]

A Note on Ongoing Computer Blockage

Blocking don_budge was easy. I don't read a word of what he writes, and have been a much happier person ever since I made that decision. To block all other tennis Nazis however may be more difficult in that there are so many of them. It's not just that they pattern themselves on the behavior of Donald Trump, whether they think he will be the greatest of all American presidents as don_budge and hockeyscout both declared pre-blockage, but they are not open to any ideas not their own. And they are not civil. And have no sense of humor.

Think "Orcs" in THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien.

[bottle]

To the Inside while Traveling toward the Outside

Seano, in another thread, rephrases Brian Gordon to John Yandell's satisfaction. Me, I'm big on rephrasing and reacting and "putting things in your own words." The personal reaction may reveal more than the substance that elicited it, slightly repackage it and make it come alive to someone for the first time.

Centripetal force from a passive wrist joint, similar to a boat turning and pulling a skier and wiping them around. After the "flip", the arm and racquet will move forward 2 ways. First, they move in a linear path to the ball. Secondly, the racquet moves in a rotational manner due to the hand pulling in closer to the body (because it's attached to the shoulder), causing centripetal force so the racquet face will square up to the ball. The force starts at the butt end of the racquet and pulls the top end around...Vertical racquet speed, caused by internal rotation of the shoulder (along with forward racquet speed) is what produces the true heavy ball (speed and spin).

And so, to put my own spin on this, I think everything is perfect except for the part about the arm and racket moving forward in two ways. I want to pare this down to one way.

And, building on Seano's statement that force starts at the butt of the racket and pulls the top end around, I want a kinesthetic cue to convey the same idea. For me, that's elbow pointed down and sliding sideways from outside to inside, a sensory image, something one can "feel."

At the same time the lagged racket is flying out to the ball. One can be looking down the slope of one's shoulder off to one's right at the ball.

This may be new or old thought-- doesn't matter. Good for a round of attempted improvement of topspin in self-feed today.

[bottle]

Taffy Shot: an Ellie-bam Emphasizing Smoothness over Crude Shove

Unit turn establishes the connected hands out to the right. The left hand then goes forward while the right arm goes down.

Well, HOW should the right-angled right arm go down? Go down while preserving the right angle at the elbow in order to create a more substantial arm and hip shove an instant later as one hits the ball? Does one want a bigger shove or bigger smoothness since smoothness equates with power.

Today's self-feed experiment will spread out the arm straightening. The arm will be straightening already as it forces the racket down. The principle of this extends all the way back to the Beasley-bam, a shot that was successful because it gradually straightened from the elbow starting to do this even during the backswing.

Now the structure is different. The arm action is out to the right rather than in close behind one's back.

The idea of protracted straightening need not change however. Unless the shot doesn't work in which case one can revert to a more abrupt arm shove.

But one shouldn't compromise before going wholeheartedly toward the smoothness ideal.

That would be a forehand in which left arm finishes straightening before the right. In which the gradual straightening leads to a more comfortable bent hitting arm at the end.

Also, left arm gets to be more comfortable. It simply straightens then bends coincident with weight-shifting pivot of the bod. There is no moving the arm sideways in between to smooth the waters as in other forehands. Straighten and bend-- that's it.

[bottle]

Arm to Bod, Bod to Arm: No Time to Quit Now

Most players are content to employ one of these patterns but not the other. Use both, I say, and you'll have more fun.

But there still are details to nail down especially on the topspin side.

The two forehands will look the same till top of the loop.

Forward hips turn will start things in the case of topspin. Bod, not arm, will lower the racket. During the lowering however the left arm plying in straightened form will "smooth the waters" in crossing to one's left side.

And fixed hitting arm will have lowered while remaining BENT.

Lift of elbow comes next followed by roll of the arm.

Questions: Mondo works well for flat shot. How about for this pared down topspin shot? Nope. Does not. I therefore propose to manipulatively (actively) lay back wrist and turn forearm under during the hips rotation produced lowering of the racket.

Post Self-Feed Observations

Correct was the assertion that mondo can work well in an Ellie-bam (the best flat forehand known to man or at least to this man). Ellsworth Vines edited his teacher's forehand to point that his 45 degree outside loop replaced all the arm work of the Beasley-bam that occurs close in and around and behind one's back. The editing created this new improved sequence: 1) outside loop, 2) body pivot. It is body pivot plus gradual extension of the arm that hits the ball. Well, what then is the time interval necessary for success in this weight-transferring sweep? Enough to include a mondo at its beginning with hips turn more than powerful enough to trigger the hot dog passiveness that the mondo fashion statement requires.

In early hips topspin version of this shot, however, there is nothing left to trigger a mondo other than arm work. If one then plans on elbow lift followed by high windshield wiping arm over the shoulder, the stroke already includes two elements or brain commands. Adding a third is likely to be one too many. One can make three elements work if one has time to spare but who does?

Simply adding the mondo elements to hip rotation in an active and less showy way (wrist layback and twisting the forearm under) seemed best choice therefore in self-feed today.

But one wants to use inside out swing philosophy in any good forehand. And since hips rotation no longer can do this (since it is already spent), one may wish to lift elbow slightly to outside before continuing with it up and over the opposite shoulder.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cS3eIob78o)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8CcCQyj4fc#t=58.043776)

(I wouldn't want to play Katherine Harris in ping-pong.)

[don_budge]

Here's the Memo that Blew Up the NSC

"Fired White House staffer argued "deep state" attacked Trump administration because the president represents a threat to cultural Marxist memes, globalists, and bankers."

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/10/...ew-up-the-nsc/

bottle...question: Are you in fact a Marxist? Please read the memo within the article...if you can make it through it. You have inadvertently or not aligned yourself with the precise agenda of this "memo" and I wonder if you will admit to it or at least say that it does resemble your political paradigm. You know what a paradigm is of course:

paradigm |ˈperəˌdīm| noun

1 technical a typical example or pattern of something; a model: there is a new paradigm for public art in this country.

• a worldview underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject: the discovery of universal gravitation became the paradigm of successful science.

2 a set of linguistic items that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles: English determiners form a paradigm: we can say “a book” or “his book” but not “a his book.” Often contrasted with syntagm.

• (in the traditional grammar of Latin, Greek, and other inflected languages) a table of all the inflected forms of a particular verb, noun, or adjective, serving as a model for other words of the same conjugation or declension.

Here's the memo in another file just in case you are unable to access it.

https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...ml#document/p5

You really should read it and answer the question...are you a Marxist Communist?

[bottle]

Unexpected Result

One can use the 45-degree outside loop for topspin shots as well as for Ellie-bams.

One merely will need to keep arm bent from bottom of loop.

The topspin might not be as great as that produced by a larger loop but for seniors to the third doubles will suffice.

Now one won't tip off which stroke one is about to hit.

Lifting elbow sharply to administer the spin before arm rolls-- like Johanna Konta-- seems one avenue of possibility to explore.

[bottle]

Just Remember, Roger is the Living Poof

If you remember that, reader, you will have a happy tennis life even though you can't hit a successful Federfore.

Discovery is what I am about, and I plan to discover my best of all Ellie-bams this very day.

Such discovery may take a lot of words, but should I apologize for that? It's not the words but the discovery that matters, i.e., whether the discovery happens. Let the rest of the dense-heads continue with their advertisements for Donald Trump.

They are copywriters not writers. Writers care about discovery and truth, at least some do. There are story-tellers and teachers and enchanters, as Vladimir Nabokov tells us, of which enchanters are the most interesting. And a great writer combines elements from all three categories. I wouldn't know about that.

At last self-feed I was about to implement straight back racket preparation in my Ellie-bam forever.

The swim nature of forehand breaststroke, I thought, is slow enough not to upset equilibrium of the whole shot.

But I cannot take that chance, and at sometime during the self-feed, I tried a loop farther out to my right side.

And changed grip to strong eastern. And added full mondo.

Roundabout arm acceleration keeping parallel to late and simultaneous hips rotation can create what any tennis coach would call "great extension" depending on where the arm was to begin.

And the loop will have distorted balance less because of some verticality.

Don't forget, though, that in the midst of all the acceleration, the arm is straightening to point at target as if racket would fly out at the target if you didn't hold on.

Will the opponent read the difference between hunched and erect posture, between a push-down-a-concrete-wall shot and an elegant topspin shot, between an Ellie-bam and an ATP3?

Probably. But so what?

[bottle]

Basic Choice: Hips in the Beginning, Hips in the Middle, Hips in the End

Sorry if that shakes up your ideas about your forehand, reader, but on the other hand most tennis players need some shaking up.

We groove a stroke, don't you know, until we become complacent-- then our game goes downhill.

Better, I suppose, to blame the deterioration on the advancement of old age.

No, think about the above choice. One will have new strokes to play with in no time.

[bottle]

Four Nameless Forehands

1) Strong eastern grip. Whirl connected and level for the ball. Arms then separate equally, i.e., breaststroke in opposite direction. Hit the ball.

2) Composite grip and straight wrist. Same shot as 1) but without the mondo ("flip").

3) Strong eastern grip. Prepare high in slot to outside with hands already separated. This separation continues however with straight downward drop of hitting arm balanced by left arm's "smoothing the waters."

4) Composite grip. Use down and up backswing combined with unit turn. The hands separation is immediate. Both arms should do the down and up. Very rhythmic.

1), 2) and 4) are short forehands used from within the court in doubles. 3) is for full forehands hit from baseline area.

Further Development of 1)

Loops do nothing but diminish the potential of strokes. They provide loose motion to the ball but do so while messing with racket pitch. The same loose motion can more sensibly be applied with long old-fashioned and level takeback.

That is my premise, but maybe I just suffer from a mood of the day.

To follow the premise, in 1) we combine unit turn and breaststroke into a single count. But should both arms move the same amount? That is a good idea for any breaststroke. On the other hand we are playing tennis rather than going for a swim.

So we only point with left hand at right net post. While taking racket as far as we need for maximum feel-- perhaps a distance twice as great.

Count 2 of 2-3 now becomes an elbow swing with arm meanwhile pushing gently toward straightness.

Count 3 of 2-3 becomes the hips pivot that provides smooth weight transfer while determining direction of the shot.

You don't like this, reader? You believe, with Peter Burwash, that wrist and arm, not hips pivot, should determine one's aim?

Then reverse order of everything. Let hips go first, then shoulders, then arm-- at the least you will have a new shot.

But don't like that one either? Then eliminate the shoulders turn. Just go from hips turn to arm work. You will have a new shot again.

[bottle]

GREAT EXTENSION

Less push in all forehands, back to the example of The Beasley-bam to spark up the Ellie-bam, more sideways pull of hand in all forehands.

Most analysts seem happy with the expression "great extension." Not I.

An abundance of ways to achieve extension makes the two words vague. Are you going to push the arm gradually throughout the stroke from elbow and shoulder? That would be "extension." So would be pushing from shoulder but not elbow.

Are you not going to push at all but rather swing with big separation of racket from bod? Great extension for sure.

And, while we are asking difficult questions, are arm and bod going to be a solid unit at contact?

We know that practice provides power. But could we add to it by doing something with arm? Not pushing arm straight ahead-- a good way to REDUCE racket head speed. But if we accelerated arm ahead of bod on a circular path outside of that provided by hips and parallel to it, would we not then multiply the racket head speed?

We could even call this "great extension" depending on where the arm was when it took off.

The Beasley-bam, a shot that Ellsworth Vines presumably grew up on before he edited it, is based on a circular swing behind the back with arm gradually extending all the way through the pivot at end of the stroke.

To edit it, Vines put a middle-size loop out in the slot to replace all the behind-the-back arm work. I know I've said "a pencil-thin loop" in the past but now change my perception. An important feature of this loop is that it is performed with elbow way out from bod in the slot.

This big separation says to me to try pulling hand sideways on both the Ellie-bam and other forehands.

Just to consider the Ellie-bam for now, this elusive shot is seen as not much more than a loop and a pivot. But the power of the pivot should be enhanced by the arm accelerating sideways.

[bottle]

Did You Notice? Well, Did You?

As John Newcomb might say, "Didn't think so."

I refer to the difference between Cageman's forehand, as TennisPlayer opens up, and the forehand in furniture 9 of this article, at the end (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members..._lag_and_snap/).

Just a little change, one might argue, but wait a minute, a little change in tennis may be huge.

The new forehand is similar to that taught by Chris Lewit in THE TENNIS TECHNIQUE BIBLE with the difference that high wait position (the place where you wait if you have time to spare-- which happens sometime though rarely) occurs with the two hands already separated.

But the two arms are similarly straight, not completely but almost.

And that is the real difference between furniture 9 and the ATP3 as it has been taught. Straightening of the arm occurred as part of count one not count two in 1 2-3 rhythm.

This is logical improvement over Cageman and for that matter Roger Federer too.

WHAT!? AN IMPROVEMENT ON FED! THAT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE! FOR HE IS ALREADY PERF, I MEAN PERFECT!

"Don't look for logic in tennis," Jim Courier famously said.

Okay, I won't. I'll look for logic in logic. And a tennis stroke is easier to get off when there is one less thing to do thanks to already having gotten it out of the way.

Left hand on racket helps turn the bod and continues to do so as left hand separates and points at the right fence.

The two hands separate and hover on long arms like a pair of gently released birds.

[bottle]

My Cue for the ATP3 Forehand

If John Yandell's forehand (furniture 9 in https://www.tennisplayer.net/members..._lag_and_snap/ ) is ATP3, there is a down and up to it. But on the down the elbow comes in. On the up the elbow goes out. A little. A little.

So that is the cue I now choose, maybe just for today. In and out with the elbow.

The in will take the elbow down. The out will take it up. The bod will drive the stroke.

[bottle]

All Scientists are Mad Scientists

This seems a horrid statement, a reinforcement of the Sivana stereotype in Captain Marvel comic books.

Actually, though, this assertion of madness carries respect for the scientist's belief in his present experiment even though he most probably will change his mind about it later.

I'm back to my 15-year-old's forehand, the one I taught myself with help from no one.

The elbow is out a bit to allow for more sensible shots. But here comes the crazy command. The racket whirls around and down. This presses elbow into one's side.

That is count 1 in 1 2-3 . Always the rhythm is 1 2-3 no matter which the forehand.

[bottle]

Practice the Block

Don't let it be a conceptual thing. The next time you have a hit, especially with a hard hitter, block all of his shots, every single one. This will arouse much attention but that is the price. How else are you going to make your block committed and automatic?

Present strings to ball. Squeeze bottom three fingers. BANG!

1 2-3 .