One Hander Thought Progresses Two Steps
As I walked out on the tennis court this morning, I felt a bit "müde," which is German for tired, I believe, and recalled a conversation I had over the weekend with a blonde lady I met in the Cafe Prada, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "How do you get emphysema? Not that I want to. And why did you then decide to take up the sax?" Her Southern accent was so thick I couldn't understand either one of her answers.
Use constant slow hand speed to touch ball, I was thinking, but...
There may not be any reason to avoid putting a little oomph in straightening of arm so long as you keep subsequent straight-arm easement swing slow enough to touch rather than slug the ball.
Which thought leads to the possibility of a completely passive easement swing.
Forearm swing then would be faster than whole arm swing, in fact would spring it?
This thinking relates to slice methods in which one extends arm actively or passively as integral part of forward swing, with muscular extension the "safe" version, e.g., for a shot into the open court and passive extension driven by rabbit punch the most blistering version of sidespun slice, a very aggressive, slashing, low and skidding shot.
Should one ever separate one shot from the others? For purposes of discussion, I suppose, but only with temporarily submerged awareness of the arbitrariness of this.
All subjects are related, Michel de Montaigne, Ralph Waldo Emerson's hero, said. Since Montaigne really believed this, he could, unlike Emerson, pick any subject for an essay, start anywhere and be completely personal about it-- things that Emerson four centuries later with a bit of Puritan in him despite the likelihood of his being the greatest American philosopher, never would do or even consider.
If you're accustomed to using a little muscle to extend arm in some of your shots, doing so now will be easier, but the practice need not necessarily exclude players who straighten their arm BEFORE they start forward slice or hit slice in any other way.
So, for this one handed topspin drive, there now will be triceps muscle in straightening the arm but no muscle whatsoever in then easing strings around to outside of ball.
Two counts to get arm parallel to sideline; one count to turn ignition and fire the forearm; one count to feel the slow passive combined weight of racket and straight arm more than ten times heavier; a final count to hit ball with sudden change of direction rabbit punch.
One hopes that step-out and leg extension, if they occur, will take care of themselves, although step-out would probably come in count two and leg extension in count four.
This seems my ultimate interpretation of Arthur Ashe's reply to Vic Braden's probing as to the secret of Ashe's backhand: "I sling the racket head at the ball."
As I walked out on the tennis court this morning, I felt a bit "müde," which is German for tired, I believe, and recalled a conversation I had over the weekend with a blonde lady I met in the Cafe Prada, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "How do you get emphysema? Not that I want to. And why did you then decide to take up the sax?" Her Southern accent was so thick I couldn't understand either one of her answers.
Use constant slow hand speed to touch ball, I was thinking, but...
There may not be any reason to avoid putting a little oomph in straightening of arm so long as you keep subsequent straight-arm easement swing slow enough to touch rather than slug the ball.
Which thought leads to the possibility of a completely passive easement swing.
Forearm swing then would be faster than whole arm swing, in fact would spring it?
This thinking relates to slice methods in which one extends arm actively or passively as integral part of forward swing, with muscular extension the "safe" version, e.g., for a shot into the open court and passive extension driven by rabbit punch the most blistering version of sidespun slice, a very aggressive, slashing, low and skidding shot.
Should one ever separate one shot from the others? For purposes of discussion, I suppose, but only with temporarily submerged awareness of the arbitrariness of this.
All subjects are related, Michel de Montaigne, Ralph Waldo Emerson's hero, said. Since Montaigne really believed this, he could, unlike Emerson, pick any subject for an essay, start anywhere and be completely personal about it-- things that Emerson four centuries later with a bit of Puritan in him despite the likelihood of his being the greatest American philosopher, never would do or even consider.
If you're accustomed to using a little muscle to extend arm in some of your shots, doing so now will be easier, but the practice need not necessarily exclude players who straighten their arm BEFORE they start forward slice or hit slice in any other way.
So, for this one handed topspin drive, there now will be triceps muscle in straightening the arm but no muscle whatsoever in then easing strings around to outside of ball.
Two counts to get arm parallel to sideline; one count to turn ignition and fire the forearm; one count to feel the slow passive combined weight of racket and straight arm more than ten times heavier; a final count to hit ball with sudden change of direction rabbit punch.
One hopes that step-out and leg extension, if they occur, will take care of themselves, although step-out would probably come in count two and leg extension in count four.
This seems my ultimate interpretation of Arthur Ashe's reply to Vic Braden's probing as to the secret of Ashe's backhand: "I sling the racket head at the ball."
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