A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Squeezy vs. Right-Angled Arm

To me this is a huge question contemplated without much help from anybody throughout the entirety of my tennis life.

By "squeezy" I mean serves in which, to use Ivan Lendl's words in the otherwise lousy book called HITTING HOT, "the two halves of the arm press together."

One can see that phenomenon in Lendl's own serves and that of Mark Phillippoussis and many others. Not however in the serves of Sampras and Roddick.

This is a seldom discussed topic that every tennis player in existence must deal with. And a very sad, lonely and uninformed decision it is if you ask me.

So that 50 per cent of all servers are better or worse than they ought to be. The decision whenever it is made is either lucky or unlucky. And certainly slows down a lot of servers, in fact screens out half of them from having the best serve they could have.

The argument for squeezy arm I guess is that it creates a longer runway up to the ball. The argument for right-angled arm that never squeezes the last bit is that it puts a cleaner focus on the ESR-ISR combo (upper arm rotations where the real thunder lies in any serve).

I've had a fully squeezy arm but now am willing to try the structure of right-angled maintenance once again.

This effort will obviously affect overall motion as in a baseball pitcher's motion, but I am unafraid. If the conversion isn't successful I'll simply return to squeezy mode.

Postulating a certain lack of shoulder flexibility, I add the extra motion I just subtracted by forcing palms down on the fly during the initial wind-up.

We'll see.

That is what I always say.

[bottle]

On Non-Response to Attempts at Technical Improvement in Tennis Strokes

I'm mostly amused, seeing this as lack of seriousness often in one's chosen profession.

[bottle]

More Temporary Distortion of Form Before and After Contact

Now we disguise our waterwheel even more by using ESR (external shoulder rotation) to lift the racket tip up having also lead with elbow up.

This move entails a terrible revelation for us, which is, "Although we learned from sport science and actual serving that ISR (internal shoulder rotation) is the quickest move in the physical sphere, faster than the dart of the eyes, we no longer shall use it in hitting a ground stroke, not at least during contact. We'll still use it before and after contact at a relatively slow and smooth speed in both cases."

"Speed but without force." That is the mantra for racket work before contact in the waterwheel ground strokes I now envision.

"Deceleration after contact": the corresponding mantra for the windshield wiper that occurs after double-ending in such forehands.

Unless of course one wants to continue waterwheel imagery after contact to create what is popularly known as a "reverse forehand."

[bottle]

Thanks.

[10splayer]

One Backhand in the Old Video Cassette TENNIS OUR WAY

It was Arthur Ashe demonstrating an easily topped backhand short angle that hit sideline and serviceline both with ball then hopping right at the camera. One could see, if one knew what to look for, that Arthur hit this shot with no muscle at all, just the down and up of a gravity-based wheel in which the double-ending racket picks up natural speed in bottom arc of its on-edge path. (On-edge like a coin that hasn't fallen over yet.)

Hey, I didn't know what to look for. Only in the last weeks of being 76 years old did I figure out the backward revolving waterwheel image that allows one to hit such easy topspin.

I could blame myself but choose to accuse tennis instruction in general instead.

I argue for keeping the same gravity driven feel and exact same timing at the center of all of one's topped ground strokes no matter how hard you can hit them.

Once you add bod rotation, dipping, rocking, squaring, straightening, these shots no longer look like a waterwheel but still are a waterwheel. Actually, they look more like tennis strokes. Try them. I predict you'll love them.

Happy birthday

[bottle]

To Build on #'s 3373 and 3375

So difficult ever to describe everything going on at any point in a serve, much less remember it all which one of course should never try to do-- not during a serve anyway. To build on # 3375, the arm coils out to form a tent but then coils more to put strings up on outside of the ball. This more prolonged arm coil, consisting of two sequential but blended parts, seems then like something one ought to try.

Unless one was born knowing how to perform this short acceleration serve along with how to walk and do calculus. Despite what you've heard, reader, humans even great athletes usually are not that good.

[bottle]

One Backhand in the Old Video Cassette TENNIS OUR WAY

It was Arthur Ashe demonstrating an easily topped backhand short angle that hit sideline and serviceline both with ball then hopping right at the camera. One could see, if one knew what to look for, that Arthur hit this shot with no muscle at all, just the down and up of a gravity-based wheel in which the double-ending racket picks up natural speed in bottom arc of its on-edge path. (On-edge like a coin that hasn't fallen over yet.)

Hey, I didn't know what to look for. Only in the last weeks of being 76 years old did I figure out the backward revolving waterwheel image that allows one to hit such easy topspin.

I could blame myself but choose to accuse tennis instruction in general instead.

I argue for keeping the same gravity driven feel and exact same timing at the center of all of one's topped ground strokes no matter how hard you can hit them.

Once you add bod rotation, dipping, rocking, squaring, straightening, these shots no longer look like a waterwheel but still are a waterwheel. Actually, they look more like tennis strokes. Try them. I predict you'll love them.

[bottle]

Noticed a Tent

Should one write down what one noticed during a self-feed session? I think so. Write down your ideas as you have them, said the filmmaker David Lynch "or else you'll want to kill yourself."

Today while following my new service development path, I noticed,

that,

if

one forces the palms down as hips turn back,

the racket then gets more of a swirl in it,

and the strings want to come down closer to the back.

So why not keep them in that close position while moving hand away from it to pitch a little tent.

This tent creation is definitely an example of late coil of arm. And hips can rotate forward into fixed front foot as arm does its loading extension or coil, i.e., there will be backward and forward movement going on at the same time (can you hiss?).

The total coil pattern then becomes quite interesting. Hips coil, then shoulders, then arm as hips rotate forward without moving the bod.

[bottle]

Remembrance

I remember a tennis-obsessed faculty member of some southern university, perhaps Tulane or Vanderbilt. He wrote both in this forum and in the letter section of TennisOne. He argued here that the whipcrack that everyone aspires to on their serve is a myth.

Not so. Vic Braden, often stupidly maligned (even I wanted to get in that number), made a strong video where one of the instructors he employed demonstrated hi-5 .

Without a racket this guy would toss a ball, come up to it with edge of his hand then bop it over the net.

That is whipcrack. It all worked from pronounced build-up in the arm just before last instant turn of the strings (or in this case the guy's hand).

I now want to transfer image of that move to a point that is earlier in the service tract.

With absolute confidence that whipcrack does exist I next shall effect it through improving my late arm coil and even rearranging earlier parts of the serve if I have to. The idea then will be to make ISR (internal shoulder rotation) maintain or even increase the supersonic speed just attained.

Will whipcrack happen on the ball however? Not. Just before. Will be delayed, yes. Will be delayed more than seems possible, yes. Still, just before.

Will speed of the whipcrack truly be supersonic like that of a wet towel?

One can hope.

[bottle]

Crack Service Whip then Apply Big Fast Push

All I'm trying to do is work out King's triple kata for top of a serve (speed, push, turn) and make it personal.

Tennis instruction in my view must use logic. But logic can only go so far. The logic has to be good and better than good so that when the student finally takes over he or she can find miracle, i.e., magic.

So the inflexible students who are all students when measured against Roddick and Sampras commit to spaghettiness of arm once and for all.

Could turning both palms under on the fly help achieve racket crack, i.e., hi-5 slap?

Perhaps.

Turning one's hitting palm down in this way adds speed without force, i.e., reduces racket head momentum so apt to destroy bod balance and pull the service out of form.

Confession: I don't understand the serves that start with open face that one sees on TV so often. Nor have ever found anyone able or inclined to explain this open-facedness very well. So I start with palm down serving since that's what I learned to begin with and have continued.

If you crack whip a bit low you leave yourself upward tract for ISR (internal shoulder rotation which sport scientists tell us is the fastest move available to any human) combined with cartwheel of bod.

Service crack involves whole bod but is transmitted from late coil in arm.

[bottle]

Demented Tosses

Nearly everybody knows that Elena Dementieva could have gone right to the top and stayed there a long time if only she had a more reasonable toss that consistently placed the ball more over the head.

So why do gazillions of tennis players persist in down and up placements far too far to the right? Because of the down of down and up.

Perhaps:

One should fiddle with different positioning of both hands to begin the serve.

And once having found nice position one should leave toss hand there and let initial body turn backward-- from the hips-- be the only element that takes toss hand back. The racket hand meanwhile does whatever it is going to do.

Now upper body coil starts. Right shoulder goes around and down and back thus shifting racket path from one side of bod to the other in a double-helix serve.

If right shoulder went around and down and back, then left shoulder went around and up and back to toss the ball.

Many players who try this will consequently find themselves getting a better upward strike on the ball.

Me, I use ice cream cone hold. Could one toss a scoop of ice cream kind of upward and sideways out of the cone? I think so. Should one turn in both hands slightly palm down while making initial turn of the hips?

Perhaps.

I hope to experiment with this notion out on the court today.

You know, I like this stuff for itself. That helps.

[bottle]

Ouch, this from a man whose had 30 jobs.

And proud of every one of them. And I didn't get fired 30 times, incidentally, if that is the Trump-influenced insinuation here. Only got fired twice-- once for getting lost while chauffeur to the ambassador of Sri Lanka in West Germany. Every time I drove around a corner there was the Berlin Wall. The other time I got fired from my job as secretary in accounts payable in an electrical construction firm-- for writing my novel at work once my work load diminished. (I was following Garrison Keillor's advice to write one's novel at work and wouldn't be baby-sat!)

Leaving the other 28 jobs was pro-active moving on. Sorry if any of this is boring or off-topic. I was not the one to bring up my resume here and am sure I should now demand an equal accounting from my every antagonist. If taking me up on this (wimps won't), please include the expression on each boss's face as he or she fires you.

[bottle]

Waterwheels

Here they are (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...%20waterwheels).

Man, do they make nice ground strokes. But I don't know why I had to wait to the age of 77 to find out. Poor tennis instruction in the land, water and air.

Like a convert to any new religion, I am now ready to become obnoxious with all the new information I have recently acquired. I am happy to advise anyone, just name the person, to throw out everything and make waterwheels on both sides of the bod.

Try it even with a hitting partner having skipped self-feed-- I don't care. But make sure to get the racket high enough so that gravity becomes your friend. The racket picks up natural speed down around the bottom of the wheel, right, you notice? You don't need to use any muscle at all, in fact you do need not to use any muscle at all except maybe to get the racket high. On forehand side I advise an immediate stacking of both hands about a beachball's distance from one another. Opposite hand is down by waist, but don't worry, it will easily come up to a healthier position. Everything points to that.

In matches, try using your water wheels to take speed off of the oncoming ball. This will drive your opponents nuts, at which time you can finish them off with powerful drives.

For powerful drives, just maintain the excellence, the purity of such gravity-accelerated toppings. And keep the same double-ending on the ball. Remember, the double-ending starts before contact and continues toward the target, at which point you can wipe home (forehand) or keep double-ending up behind your head (forehand).

Easy shots, easy toppings of the ball.

That's the kernel. So keep it. Don't mess with the kernel, the waterwheel in great ground strokes. Grip is light but contact firm.

To add power, as I started to say, use body rotations in both direction, dip, rock, straighten, do aeronautical banking or power cord-- all the stuff you should have learned by now. Add bod, in other words, so that your power strokes no longer look like waterwheels although they still are. Remember, friends: my words here don't matter. My new ground strokes do. The reading, listening, watching of the new videos along with my own words were just one good means toward progress.

[10splayer]

O 10splayer, so Comfortable in his Own Skin

And a very thin skin it is. But he needn't worry. He has lots of company.

Ouch, this from a man whose had 30 jobs.

[bottle]

O 10splayer, so Comfortable in his Own Skin

And a very thin skin it is. But he needn't worry. He has lots of company.