A New Year's Serve

[10splayer]

And I am eternally grateful for your guidance.

10splayers' Grammar

Many 10splayers have atrocious grammar. Others have very good grammar. A third group of 10splayers is distinctly careless in their use of grammar but perhaps can compensate with a German, Latvian or Uruguayan accent which animates their every utterance.

The subject is important since verbal transmission of ideas is the most potent means of tennis instruction there is. When you come right down to it, words combined with imagery are more potent than photos or videos taken alone. But first hand physical demonstration and verbal description are a wash-- pretty even in value in other words.

I saw a master class instructor for the New York City Ballet simultaneously perform both means for the same dance steps.

As an English teacher (and a suprising number of senior tennis players are or were English teachers, I have discovered), I am most interested in the third group of 10splayers, the ones who either intentionally or carelessly are careless.

They didn't grow up in ungrammatical homes. But they struggled in freshman English ending up with red ink all over their college essays.

But sometimes, just sometimes, all they need is some curmudgeon to scream at them and maybe only once.

When I was teaching community college extension building composition in Winston-Salem between visits to Davis Cup, I found that lack of a curmudgeon in some student's background was her greatest complaint.

Someone in fifth or eighth grade never bothered with sufficient vehemence to tell her or him what not to do.

If you are the teacher you have to have a high expectation and be strict. Same thing in tennis instruction, no? The student/player may thank you or kill you, but if they got better they were lucky one way or the other and will enjoy the next win.

An alternate might be to work for a small town newspaper that assigns by-lines the first day.

John Pekkanen, the reporter next to me, was throughly ungrammatical the first day, perfectly grammatical by the fourth day. Because he didn't want to be shamed by his front page stories as he walked through the streets of Middletown, Connecticut.

Later, for WASHINGTONIAN MAGAZINE and elsewhere, he won two National Journalism Awards, one for creating "Washington's best doctors," "Detroit's best doctors," etc.; the other for first hand description of all the medical efforts made to save Ronald Reagan's life after Reagan was shot.
John wrote from first-hand observation in the emergency room.

If this post is longer than anyone wants to read, I apologize. Recently however I criticized what I felt were three grammatical errors in five consecutive words written by the real tennis pro who calls himself 10splayer.

Two were inarguable mistakes. The third-- whether to put a closings quote mark outside a period or not-- is optional but with clear modern American custom the dictator.

Doesn't matter if 10splayer likes me, my tennis or my writing or not. (Not, he has expressly stipulated.)

That "not" is fine, but if 10splayer's grammar has recently improved (and it has) through change of an attitude that was the only thing wrong with it, he lucked out.

[bottle]

Waterwheel Backhand

It had to come. This was inevitable. Besides, it is raining. Days have passed
since I made it to a tennis court.

The early plunging racket tip melds into a second plunge of arm, shoulder and
racket tip beneath left pocket toward the center of the earth.

Here begins one's waterwheel, a lower beginning place than image for one's
waterwheel forehand, but none of this should interfere with continuity.

As on the forehand, the backhand waterwheel is set on an axle that spins it
slightly to the outside.

One only then needs to zero in on all the various motions that square the racket
up. Double-ending will occur from the ball without conscious effort if one simply
adopts the hitting arm kata established in that exercise where you bend over clasping
opposite hips with whole body then to spring both hands up.

See where hitting arm comes to rest? Higher and closer than you thought-- no?

The arm meanwhile has rolled to create upward speed just before contact. The
wrist has straightened a smidge, too. That was one small factor in the squaring
up, no?

[bottle]

Deck Stacked Against One Or Good Stacked Hands?

The 12-year-old I'm hitting with won't be off from school until next week.
I hope we can go up to our very fast bumpy court on top of a mountain a lot.
He: a natural athlete with mucho tennis lessons behind him, I: a basically
self-taught wonk continuously reworking strokes, playing Gallway's hated
"perfecto," something I really love despite what any best-selling author
might think.

This week, with me too preoccupied with other stuff to dig up another
hitting partner, I'm over-filling my hopper of self-invention, will ultimately
have far too much material in it for proper assimilation.

I don't care. My method is to plunge ahead. On serve I'm now about to
stack hands the way I do on the new forehand. The big difference will
be left hand higher than right rather than vice-versa.

A toss from such a high position ought to be interesting. And if this
doesn't work I'll return to something earlier.

[bottle]

Backhand on the Road

Easier to find someone to hit with than do self-feed since my basket of balls is back in Michigan.

Still I'd like to complete my backhand revelation, which I simply may not have taken far enough.

If one continues backward arm roll out to the side at end of one's flying grip change, one can find
oneself with thumb pointing down very soon in the overall stroke cycle.

This will reduce arc within the working cave one has established for oneself out to the side. For
timing purpose, to compensate, one may wish to have taken racket up higher.

These changes will drain racket momentum and help make racket "disappear" as rear shoulder and
arm both drop down.

The racket having twisted under won't have to twist under any more.

Will this imagined transformation prove as beneficial as completion of the waterwheel image was
on forehand side?

I can't know but am eager to find out.

[bottle]

A Wonkish Question about Straight Up Ground Stroke Topspin

Extending body seems pretty longitudinal in effect. Body turns seem naturally to pull racket to inside similar to hacker's slice in golf. Until one learns to push hips in such a way as to create inside out path. Then one catches more of the ball.

This whole process could occur on outer edge instead of rear edge of ball. I theorize that one can then "pinch" the ball for more of everything while maintaining inside out stroke path ("stroke path" not "swing path"-- an important difference).

Would not straight up topspin be abetted by a slight lead of hand ahead of racket tip before double-ending takes over?

In evolutionary terms O so personal I now invoke that term "double-ending," something I once used in my ground strokes, then didn't, now do again.

I invoke the following images as well: A volleyball, a beach ball, a medicine ball, a 19th century waterwheel or 20th century Ferriss Wheel, a Tai Chi pose in which left hand encircles and activates the trunk while right hand rises high, inverting palm down.

"Volleyball" is the distance between the two hands while both are on racket (occurs in wait position only-- separation will be immediate).

"Beachball" is the distance between the two hands once they have separated and stacked themselves so that strings are parallel to surface of the court.

"Medicine ball" is the larger arc that now will be formed by arm lowering from shoulder combined with lowering of the shoulder itself.

But I am beginning to get bored with all of these visionary balls other than a tennis ball, so I shift image here to waterwheel or Ferriss Wheel or perhaps a circular pave-digger only seen at rare construction sites with cruel buckets cutting and scooping shards of pavement and dumping them overhead into a trailing bin.

The feel of a big and super-comfortable backward turning wheel is enabled only, in my view, by straight off adoption of the earlier described Tai Chi pose that inverted one's strings to form a roof.

Now the racket on the perimeter of the great wheel one has created can go down as smoothly as one would like.

Yes gravity is involved but racket descends on a curved path. This is a loop to beat all loops and a perfect example of speed without force.

The force comes late at contact where it belongs.

Pace and spin both depend on double-ending arm push combined with rotation and straightening of the bod.

[bottle]

THE DOUBLE-ENDERS VS. THE WIPER-GRIPERS

The wipers wipe the ball. And gripe because of unforced errors.

The Double-Enders wipe too, but only after the ball is gone. The thing they do is put a
big push on the ball using both ends of the racket plus kinetic chain and aeronautical
banking and variations of Alexandrian Technique (more upper bod less lower bod or vice-
versa, more staying on the ground, more leaping into the air without fully extending legs,
etc., etc.) with all of this whatever coming together at contact.

[bottle]

TAKING SPEED OFF THE BALL

We in rowing (crew) know there is more than one way to roll the forearm. I refer to the term "feather," which occurs at the beginning and end of every stroke.

Let's go for immediate application to tennis. In most volleys one takes speed off the ball, in a few adds speed to it.

The taking off involves two elements: 1) strings open, 2) tip goes back.

You can accomplish both objectives at once by rolling hand from pinkie edge.

This would be a disaster in crew. The oar would sky. When you brought it back down it would plunge. You would "catch a crab." Eight big guys plus the momentum of the boat would work against you. The handle would catch you in the gut and throw you into the water where most likely you would drown.

On a volley however rolling from edge of the hand can both open strings and take the racket tip slightly back.

[bottle]

What's your Best Shot? Would you Ever Consider Changing it?

I would. I'd need a reason-- perhaps the thought that the change would
make my whole game more cohesive.

Of course the notion that I could always reverse the change would stay
at the back of my mind, although going back is harder than getting some
new shot right in the first place.

But if I had Andy Roddick's serve-- perhaps the best example of teenaged
invention in world history-- I guess I wouldn't change it.

Dispassionately speaking, my best shot according to my opponents is my
backhand slice.

At least one version of this bag of shots consists of a double roll.

The change I made yesterday-- in self-feed-- was to put more time,
i.e., distance, between the first and second rolls, in a one hand topspin
backhand.

It seems to work. So should I apply it to backhand slice as well? Why not?
Isn't tennis supposed to be a game?

[bottle]

From Waterwheel Forehands to Refined 1HBH Racket Drop

Some of my discovered strokes have converted nicely to doubles
competition. And these waterwheel forehands are the smoothest
forehands I've ever hit in my life at least in self-feed. So will they
come across? I think so. May take a few weeks since we are about
to go on a possibly disrupting trip although I'll bring one racket.

Now, on backhand side, I'd like to look for similar improvement. First
experiment will be not to turn racket as it drops-- that would be logical
simplification. But logic often doesn't work in tennis-- we know that.
Sometimes however it does work and this again may be one of those
times.

I fully accept Doug King's teaching premise that racket should not rise
immediately-- better that it start out to the side first to keep various
athletic elements together as dancer's one.

So I want to feel hand out toward left fence to lead my forward travel
at least partially in that direction.

The hand can lead toward side fence, the racket tip doesn't have
to do it.

Grip change to the right-hander's left can therefore put a tail on itself
in which racket butt turns a bit toward side fence.

Now racket tip can slide into one's bod without turning so much.

[bottle]

Exciting Evolution (and I am up Early in the Morning)

Okay okay, reader, the evolution of my forehand is exciting
to me and not to you, but on the other hand we both want
good forehands, no?

I started out this time with three different forehands along with
my McEnrueful, and managed to exclude one of them yesterday,
the one where from high perch on a narrow wave I let the point
of my elbow determine the initial direction of a spiraling fall that
took the racket briefly out of the slot before returning to said slot
with accelerative vengeance preparatory to blocking movement
of both ends of my racket moving together followed by windshield
wipe home.

This sounds good on paper, is good on paper, is one of the essential
sequences outlined by Ray and Becky Brown back in the pre-TennisPlayer
days when John Yandell was editor of TennisOne just as he is again.

While the full stroke works well in self-feed, it doesn't work as well as
two others in actual competition at least for me.

And now I'm wondering if I can't eliminate one of the two others so that
my two big forehands, McEnrueful and Simple Curved Fall, both
characterized by Doug King's "dynamic wobble," will take sole possession
of any dynamic concentration left over in my 77-year-old soul.

The choice is between racket pressing straight down and racket curving
straight down roughly parallel to side fence in both cases.

Probably I will save straight down for return of very fast serves and other
emergencies, but would love to make curve down my default of all
forehands.

Evolution from breaking wave in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans to 19th century
Connecticut water wheel turning in opposite direction is its main characteristic.

The curved drop of arm, shockingly deep, is lengthened even more by hips
easing toward ball to lower hitting shoulder at the same time thus making
racket seem to disappear.

As the buckets on the front of the water wheel start to rise, relaxed
contact with the ball is made just as all major muscle groups chime in.

The McEnrueful on the other hand is saved for special events when sheer
speed with little spin is desired.

[bottle]

The Wish to be Different in Tennis

You want to be different when you write a resume for yourself, no?
Similarly, you'd like to sound original if you write an essay or anything
else. Because you are in competition. And if you do not stand out,
you will be buried. No one will want to read you. Your document
may lie at the bottom of a wastebasket, not even at the top. ("Write
your resume in moose blood," my late mentor Richard K. Irish used
to say. He was the author of the Anchor Book good seller GO HIRE
YOURSELF AN EMPLOYER.)

You are not going for presentation however when you hit a forehand,
which is more like doing the job. While I cannot imagine a forehand
much better looking than that of Doug King, a man who believes in
dance and twenty other spheres of knowledge when it comes to tennis
for himself and his successful students, Doug's forehand-- in every
minute detail or kata-- may not be exactly right for the arthritic me
at 76 (and 77 next month).

Edit, urges another guru, John M. Barnaby, tennis coach of Tim Gallway
and everybody else at Harvard University for fifty years.

If in other words you can subtract some kata from your forehand, do so.
How many moving parts do you want?

So, I've written here about forehands in which I try to employ most of
Doug's principles and imagery but won't come open-faced to the ball.
If I continue with the briefly open-faced route I may find superior result
in time, but at 77...?

Proposed forehand starts with the inverted hoop of the two hands stacked
one above the other. The hoop inverts from ready position to the stack.
The hands both don't stay on the racket but rather separate from volleyball
to small beachball width. The opposite hand turns body as if still on racket
or your dance partner's back by retaining severe bend at elbow and circling
sharply around. (Let's call this a controlled whirl.)

From its closed position even parallel to court, the racket drops rather close
to the bod. It may start slowly from gravity but then proceed with pressing
down. It may fall all the way in a straight line or curve-- either one. I have
eliminated my previously explored in and out falling options. Simple up and
down is enough to handle. The racket mondoes at bottom of the drop in
transition to both ends of the racket moving together.

Followed by wipe home.

A last question: Does originality translate into points? Answer: Surely by
confusing people especially cookie-cutter dullards.

[bottle]

Powerpocket

1) tennisone.com

2) Doug King: Keys to Modern Tennis Technique

3) Topspin Forehand

4) Slow Motion Analysis

Initial turn finds hands above rather than below elbows.

The body then continues back and rear shoulder dips
as racket falls.

Continuation of bod rotation creates the top of a wave
but then the wave goes down as arm goes down
independently too.

Moreover, the racket butt changed from orientation toward
rear fence to 45 degrees to right fence.

Racket is upward at crest of wave.

Racket disappears.

Hips shift out to ball in drop.

"Elbow tucked into the hips."

[bottle]

Speed but not Force in the Way Racket Comes to the Ball

Explore this notion in groundies before applying it to the
other strokes.

[bottle]

TSFH: Pursuing the Possible Aeronautical Banking
and Power Cord Difference

In aeronautical banking, the hitting shoulder sinks then
rises as one hits the ball to give the arm some added push.

In power pocket to power cord application, the middle of
the bod springs forward thus giving arm some added push.

Which method is going to leave a player in better balance?

Is there any reason, whatever it might be, that one method
is better than the other?

And how does each method co-exist with straightening of
whole body from foot up?

To me, if such straightening occurs, the two methods are
one and the same.

If body is lower and more loosey-goosey, however, the different
body parts may wag in opposite direction thus indicating an
area for further exploration.