A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Thanks!

Wow, I didn't realize that these two serves of Don Budge had been placed in the archive! But I'll still put up the Ed Vebell drawings-- soon. The first video certainly does answer my questions: No, there is thrusting out of front hip and yes, there is thrusting from both legs, and no, the shoulders aren't bashing through contact-- in other words the leaning tower of Pisa isn't crashing yet, but is still, and that's why rear foot holds on its toes for so long. And if someone wants to try this basic pattern, they'd better establish their leaning tower soon enough for this stuff to happen.

As far as this serve lengthening one's runway, I guess not, that's an internal matter. Might be true if the shoulders ARE permitted to bash through-- clearly an all wet idea however. But the different vector adds speed for me, and speed is what I need. I thought I needed better spin, but that was wrong, I had the spin but not the necessary speed to go with it. EVERYBODY was crushing their service returns. Conclusion: Serving more out front for a tall person can never be too inadvisable.

One thing I haven't changed my mind about is that this is a serve much easier on somebody's legs. Because of the different rule, the servers back then didn't jump off of the court. And Pat Dougherty has suggested that when the big change occurred something may have been gained but something was lost. (Chest more open to the sky perhaps.)

The rhythm certainly is different. WHEN the hips rotate forward is certainly different. And WHEN the legs push on the court. The ideas of hips rotating forward while shoulders are rotating backward seems cool. The action is pretty quick:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSFront.mov

The above front view of this serve shows with how much economy and physical ease it can be hit. But one can serve hard, too. I know because I've done it (though I still have a few more things to work out/in). Thanks again.

I'm going to put the rear view here, too, just so I have them together:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

Note: Haven't succeeded in opening the lesson you sent but hope to today and will comment.

[bottle]

Biggest Change to a Federfore in a Long Time

Who says that hands must make the calculation of ball trajectory, height and ultimate location of contact? Outfielders from baseball. Here is a case, however, where with a small amount of imagination one can embed a spectrometer, barometer, chronometer and radar dish in front edge of one's leading forearm.

That way one can push hands back a little farther during the initial unit turn, prepared to run while holding high arm position, and this will enable the slightest of racket tip drops to initiate the actual "backswing" when one is ready to hit the ball.

Example: In a Federfore, perhaps like me, one used to have a two-part backswing consisting of a lifting of the racket tip and then extension or lengthening of the arm. The proposed change substitutes A) a slight drop of the racket tip and simultaneous pulling of elbow into the body for A) lift of the racket tip, which already will be accomplished (or maybe not) and put behind.

Feel not logic is supposed to determine one's strokes. Well, the two may come together here. If one leads just a bit with elbow during the unit turn, one can perhaps achieve best, more closed waiting position for oneself-- a place from which elbow can retreat a bit toward body to achieve a characteristically Federian position without being as complicated as Roger Federer.

Unless there is some implicit advantage to pivoting the racket tip up above elbow the way Roger does, one simply needs to design backward from elbow working in most comfortably toward the bod. Maybe we've improved on a good thing, maybe not. Depends on what works best.

Immediate forehand position from the Chris Lewit Holy Book has both arms fully extended toward right fence all as part of the unit turn.

My new comparable position has left arm almost fully extended but right arm significantly bent (which is about to change).

Racket tip starts lower and more to the outside than Roger. The different preparations next become identical.

Perhaps a choice as big as this has only to do with the inborn construction of one's arms.

[bottle]

A Good Old-Fashioned Notion

Old-fashioned serves may have some good old-fashioned notions built into them, e.g., writer John M. Barnaby's assertion that the biggest effective push anyone can ever put on a tennis ball comes from jackknifing the hips backward and the shoulders forward right while doing everything else one does at contact.

In the following clip of a Don Budge first serve, one can see exactly that.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

By working through the video with keyboard arrows one click at a time, one sees a leaning tower of Pisa get established, but toward the end of that establishment the hips going out toward the net, the shoulders retreating toward the recently departed back fence as if longing for it.

The jackknife is getting cocked, in other words, the stick bending one way before it snaps the other. Between this cock and release the legs fully extend without leaving the ground.

Slow clicking reveals upper body bowed forward even approaching parallelism to court before Donald Budge stands up no doubt to regain his customary aplomb and relaxed balance-- in this particular sequence. (In at least one other available sequence-- the Ed Vebell drawings-- he continues to bend over and only comes up later.)

[bottle]

Good Old-Fashioned Notion Number Two

Number One was creating a club sandwich in which the two pieces of bread were body segmentation one way and then the other. The filling is the double leg drive in between.

Number Two, going into more detail about the filling, says to form one straight line up front leg and extended hitting arm-- the classic tip about firmness, strength and structure.

To rephrase, just as hips screw front foot down, the body wriggles as upper body continues to wind back (in two different ways). Then the legs drive. Then the triceps fires. The second wriggle gets shoulders out of the way and the body to form the classic straight line.

Well, if we call the two connected wriggles one system and "fire the extensors" a second, then there's powerful turn of the shoulders from the gut muscles as a third, and scapular retraction and adduction a fourth (late arching and releasing of the back).

One through four happen all at once, you could say. Or you could say anything. The question is how well you'll do this.

One complication is that legs coil and fire in two different directions. The hips press out toward the target and the parallel knees press off to the right.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

Steve: Would this serve bound high? What did the ball do on his second serve? Kick like his brother's? Katharine Hepburn's was a solid slice, I think (a long time ago, I realize). All I know for sure is that I was at the net and the ball came to me a lot for easy put-a-ways-- she held serve every time.

[bottle]

Steve-- this should be nothing but fun, not "duty" or forced recollection or dancing with the stars. (That's something I didn't succeed at: I did get Katharine Hepburn to feed me once, but dance with her? I think she would have bitten me in two first.) I just wonder what J. Donald's service ball did from bounce.

Katharine Hepburn was always afraid of what I might write about her or her family (very positive things actually). Well, there was the one bad inset feature (twas a fold-in newspaper supplement) in The Middletown (Connecticut) Press in which the substitute editor, who was jealous, changed my every second "a" in Katharine to an "e". One of his lungs collapsed a short while afterward.

Katharine Hepburn said she wanted to come back as a professional tennis player. That's why I always wonder when I see somebody like Laura Robson or Ana Ivanovic.

[don_budge]

The Donald's Serve...

Steve-- this should be nothing but fun, not "duty" or forced recollection or dancing with the stars.

That's funny John...now that you mention it and thanks for asking. Very cool of you to ask. What I really remember was that it was really a solid ball. A heavy ball. No surprise there considering the blunderbuss he used as a racquet. But the most impressive thing about it was the placement. Sure he hit it good...at 58 years old with a huge wood racquet. But it was the placement that was so impressive. He put it in the corners or wherever he felt like putting it. His service games usually were won at love. Very methodically. He backed his serve up really well as you can imagine if you were lucky enough to get a return back. The backhand was what it was...reputedly the best shot in tennis in some reputable circles. His partner was the best female counselor at the camp at the time...her name was Connie something or other. They beat me and my partner Andy Berliner rather easily. I remember that too...way back in 1973.

[bottle]

Personal History Often Is The Best History

Thanks for this tremendous bit of history. And for basic intelligence that will help me in the present series of my experiments. Right now, my goal is a heavy ball focussing on placement and the two serves (first and second) not appreciably different. When that tactic fails I've got soft stuff for surprise.

Every time I look at the great clip

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

I see something different and know this essential feature of life will continue. Right now I see the front heel not coming all the way down the way it does in my Talbert and Old book. It stays on the toes and pivots near to or at contact. It may not pivot much but it pivots.

I found an old yellow paste it note of mine in the margins of the T&O book: "Don't shift any weight until ball changes direction." (Tom Stow, Don Budge in 1988 interviews)

Also, I've been starting low with both knees bent. A healthful and good learning device, I think, but now I'm ready for a higher start.

[bottle]

Staying Light on Front Toes

Post rule change service theory seems, if one believes those who actually talk about it, to admire early generation of a maximal ground force.

This ground force, like fast-moving sap, spreads then through successively smaller tree limbs as it converts from slow brute force to maximal racket head velocity.

So where in the body does this brute force come from? Quads, mostly. It's just dumb muscular push.

The old serves whether fully understood or not don't work like this. While the quads, a part of the subsidiary kinetic system, are intricately involved in extension and cocking the scapula for ten per cent more racket head speed, they don't push down as hard as they could.

If they did, Don Budge's front foot wouldn't pivot on its toes the way it does in the following video, but rather would be rooted and stuck-- non-twisting-- in place.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

Note: I now would like to contradict all earlier exposition whether from me or anyone else in history on the subject of a straight line up left leg and right arm in these serves.

The left leg and the right arm sure are straight, but there's a big jog of upper body (toward the net) in between them.

[stotty]

Post rule change service theory seems, if one believes those who actually talk about it, to admire early generation of a maximal ground force.

This ground force, like fast-moving sap, spreads then through successively smaller tree limbs as it converts from slow brute force to maximal racket head velocity.

So where in the body does this brute force come from? Quads, mostly. It's just dumb muscular push.

The old serves whether fully understood or not don't work like this. While the quads, a part of the subsidiary kinetic system, are intricately involved in extension and cocking the scapula for ten per cent more racket head speed, they don't push down as hard as they could.

If they did, Don Budge's front foot wouldn't pivot on its toes the way it does in the following video, but rather would be rooted and stuck-- non-twisting-- in place.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

Note: I now would like to contradict all earlier exposition whether from me or anyone else in history on the subject of a straight line up left leg and right arm in these serves.

The left leg and the right arm sure are straight, but there's a big jog of upper body (toward the net) in between them.

Seems to me energy cannot be fully released if a player has to keep one foot on the ground. So where does that unused energy go...back down to the waist...double over...out through the arse? (or ass where you come from). Or does some energy stop at the waist and go out through the arse before it can get any higher up? Those guys must have conceded a lot of energy/power by having to keep one foot on the ground...

[bottle]

Putting Weight on the Serve

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

Slant is completed by ball release.

This doesn't qualify as weight shift, in the quoted views of Donald Budge and his service coach Tom Stow.

Not that they explicitly make the distinction. But they both agreed that weight shift only begins as ball has reached its apogee and changes direction.

The only way we can watch the above video and believe them is to say that leaning of the Tower of Pisa doesn't qualify as shifting of any weight.

In learning serves, people focus on every possible power source. Here it makes more sense to contemplate Donald Budge's perfect stillness of head from ball release to apogee.

[bottle]

Release, Apogee, Contact

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

Release, apogee and contact are the benchmarks.

When does the small wind-back of hips take place? During the lean and toss.

When does shoulders' wind-back countered by small wind-forward of hips take place? From release to apogee.

When do hips cock toward net? As ball begins to descend.

After that, reader, you (and I) are on our own.

[bottle]

I Just Saw Stotty's Post (#1299)

I can be just as facetious about people who've spent all of their energy getting up into space. Now they're recalling their experiences on waterbeds as they try to figure out how to have best sex in weightlessness.

There doesn't seem to be anything to push against and Anais Nin wouldn't like it. She used to get both fists under the small of her back, she wrote.

Of course, some people do figure out how to serve well in Air Jordan mode. But complete release of energy? One person in a thousand succeeds at that.

I don't think any energy is lost when hips bump one way, shoulders the other and some poor hockey player goes crashing into the boards. Not if one has learned to ride ground force properly. And if one has the good sense to play shoulders against hips for heaviest ball. If there's too much looseness in hips-- no, you've lost. But if shoulders are thrusting toward net from the almost braced hips, which sway backward only a bit and that for counterbalance?-- no, that would be different.

Does energy just go up? I thought it went down first. Jack Broudy is interesting on this. He thinks it starts from the rotating tire in the middle and goes both down and up. I wonder if the half that goes down then comes back up and joins the other that already went up or would that be "leading from behind" or next trolley car?

If you saw me limping around Chicago for the past three days, you'd know why I'm serving the way I presently am.

Which is all about putting a big emphasis on rotational elements while staying close to earth. Also, the Detroit Tigers made it to post-season baseball, and all of their pitchers send their energy along the ground rather than up into the weightlessness of present textbook serving instruction.

[bottle]

On Two Trips to the Court

Don Budge's serve got him two separate grand slams, so it couldn't have been too bad. And he certainly encountered plenty of politics when you consider his match against Gottfried von Cramm, which really was against Adolf Hitler, it turned out, with von Cramm, after his defeat, getting consigned to the eastern front and a miserable life. To commemorate miserable politics in general and tonight's debate before it happens, I'll inject some politics into this post.

Before I do that, however, consider this change to your imitation Don Budge serve if you combine it with a full rock forward and back before the real action starts-- a habit you probably picked up somewhere else.

It's not appropriate for this serve since you need lots of body time to establish the "leaning tower of Pisa" and controlled toss. Just starting from back foot like Don Budge or Charlie Pasarell easily solves the problem, and in fact, if you serve a basket of balls this way you'll feel as if you've cut the usual energy you would expend in half.

The well deserved politics now:

http://isearch.avg.com/images?s=sideNav&cid=%7b9964ABE8-B9E4-4049-AC8C-B45AE2D3B933%7d&mid=c320ad2a679d47d1abe2d14acce4e9e6-365535d64004f1a67909292933bdd755870c53b3&lang=en&ds=ins10&pr=&d=2011-12-28+14%3a03%3a17&v=11.1.0.12&sap=dsp&q=i+screwed+you+all

[bottle]

Mistake

Rod Laver's the guy who won two Grand Slams. But Don Budge was first person to win a Grand Slam.

[bottle]

Exploration

A leaning toss while keeping weight on close back foot per Donald Budge is one of the greatest feelings in the world. You're tall!

Up until now I've believed that the slight body angulation that occurs and reverses in these serves ought to be accomplished at end of wind-back of shoulders.

That will be no less true if one assigns this whole double-wriggle to the weight shift scheduled to happen only as ball starts to descend.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov