A New Year's Serve

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Well What Do You Know-- Here's the Picture of Lloyd Budge's High Left Hand in his Devastating Kick Serve

1-01-2013, 08:10 AM
Lloyd Budge Stories

Big brother syndrome has to be important in tennis, and here maybe is the greatest example.

But history screwed up. There aren't enough stories about Lloyd Budge, the man who goaded his much younger brother into giving up basketball, football and baseball for tennis. Fate had it that Don was supposed to outshine Lloyd but not overwhelm him.

Lloyd's 1945 book TENNIS MADE EASY is still considered one of the best classic tennis books ever. Lloyd himself had a distinguished career in both singles and doubles.

In an early round of the 1940 Southeastern Pro Championships, Flamingo Park, Miami, Lloyd Budge defeated Vincent Richards, who had first grown fat and then lost weight, according to Ray Bowers in FORGOTTEN VICTORIES: A HISTORY OF PRO TENNIS 1926-1945 .

Lloyd Budge must have served like this (see picture link):
Attached Files

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Lloyd Budge Appears Here in the Second Paragraph

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...Don_Budge.html

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Speculative Questions. Why Does Roger Federer Brake So High? Are There Other Examples of High Braking in Tennis?

The highest braking I know exists as a photograph in the "My Pictures" section of my computer.

I posted it before but very few people then clicked on it.

By and large, I speculate, the TennisPlayer members and guests are more apt to click on a video than a still photograph.

And would be more apt to value the cleverness of Don Budge than that of his older brother and first tennis teacher Lloyd Budge.

It's all in the left hand. Notice the height of Fed's hand when he uses it to brake a kick serve.

And the height of Lloyd Budge's left hand used by him for the same purpose.

The central idea here is that the heavy bod rotation of a serve suddenly transforms into light quick acceleration of the arm after which more lugubrious bod rotations take over again.

And if we can get basic in our thinking for a moment and thus view the most essential factor as a long stick rotating end over end through the air, we will do well to ask how best to slow or stop it.

Protrude something from the top (arm). Protrude something from the bottom (leg).

Note: Brian in a recent video places torso twist with abduction/adduction. That says to me that braking torso twist is an old bad idea. One wants torso twist to keep going to apply weight and position to all the super-speed generated by braking one's body length.

All very neat and nice. But why not just keep tossing arm (ta) straight and push it out front and delay the bending of it?

Note Two: Here is Roger braking high (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...2%20500fps.mp4). Here is Lloyd Budge braking high (NA). My new computer is not as successful at loading from "My Pictures" section as my old computer was. So I have gone to Amazon to look for the cover of TENNIS MADE EASY by Lloyd Budge.

Note Three: Who has patience for technology marching backward? And now, as opposed to a few years ago, all copies of TENNIS MADE EASY have a different cover than the one of Lloyd hitting his famous kick serve. Unless you find an old copy in a used book store. Here then is a verbal description. Lloyd whose kick serve was such that it got him and his partner to a U.S. Open Doubles Final is pictured hitting this shot with his bent left arm so high that it makes him look like a goalpost in football.

Note Four: My ex-wife, higher ranked than I, always would say after listening to one of my descriptions of some new tennis brainstorm, "Oh yes, I think that's what I've always done." Well, in viewing (for the first time) or re-viewing the above video of Federer, one can see him pushing his straight ta into the court before bending it and removing it to his side.

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Don Budge Rows his Backhand

He's really an oarsman.

The sequence is legs and back.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...l?DBBHRear.mov)

Now Bottle-- but who's Bottle?-- hammers his backhand.

He straighens arm at the elbow and rolls his wrist flat just before his arm got fully straight. Now why does he make that change to his wrist? Because he was once a beginner oarsman himself.

But if Bottle-- I-- can effectively roll my wrist straight that way while my stroke is "turning its corner" why can't I do the same thing earlier behind my back with arm still bent? While lifting my elbow a little so as next to hammer sideways? Or not lifting it. Or keeping it pointed down a little.

Try all three of these backhands, 1) The Don Budge, 2) The Bottle, 3) The Bottle Dreaming. The second already is ready to go.

Oh, here are some hammered backhands: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERBDJ9yvvKs).

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On Learning of the Death of One of Katharine Hepburn's Nephews at the Age of 59 from Heart Failure

He was a regular chess opponent of mine. We were absolutely even. Our final record was 50 per cent for him, 50 per cent for me.

Then the author Cleveland Amory came to town and beat us both by sacrificing his bishop to take out the pawn right in front of the king-- at the very beginning of each game.

It's the one way I can sometime beat a player who is stronger than I even now, works well in airplane chess too.

Toby died eight years ago. A first cousin of his, a medic back in the Vietnam War, has his name engraved on the black wall in Washington.

The fame of Katharine Hepburn, my one day doubles partner, greatly affected everybody around her but especially her nephews and nieces.

In the obit materials that Toby left behind, in the various biographical categories, appears one word over and over: "private."

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Self-Authorize to Hit Both Hesitation and Continuous Motion Serves

Not a wise course, I'm willing to argue along with anybody else, to mess with one's ritual this much. Do you want to end up with both types of serve breaking down under pressure?

Oh sure. That will happen on a certain day. But on another it won't!

Continuous is older and more deeply seated with me. But Hesitation produces a better-- more prolonged-- use of toss arm.

Besides, why not introduce a bit of recklessness into my old age?

I always remember what the Irish mother of the captain of my varsity eight-oared crew at Skidmore College told her daughter Katie. "If you continue to row so much you will develop big muscles and no man will want you."

What a lie. Women's muscles don't bulk up, they get taut. And though I'm not in contact with Katie and have no idea where she is, she was wise and attractive in every way possible and I'm sure has led a tremendous life.

A woman on High Knob Mountain in Virginia used to call me "The Server." She would drive past Senator Laxalt's one court up there where I would be. And the habit has continued. I'm not a great server but have my days, am probably both hotter and colder than servers who work on their serves much less.

It's a way of life for me. But I repeatedly encountered on an adjacent court a woman in one era who worked on her serve more than she played and didn't respect her very much. "Why does she keep repeating the same mistakes?" I thought. Well, I could apply the same criticism to myself.

But won't. I like the enabling idea better. And the serve is pure aspiration, so I'm going to continue in my respect for it and try this new thing.

What I've noticed, however, is that other persons-- inadvertent witnesses-- have become increasingly interested when they see me out alone on a court. My self-feed has always elicited inane comments so maybe for some not wholly understood reason I'm oversensitive to them just at the moment.

But what does a person passing by think? Why do they feel they have the right to jump in with some platitudinous statement, usually very uninformed? Of course working on one's serve is difficult. But do I need to dwell on the difficulty of it right now? Before you spoke up, Mr. Stranger, I was just thinking about Hesitation vs. Continuous, and that was quite enough, more than enough to be the substance of my practice session.

The Buttinskis are out to interrupt one's concentration, that's what. They don't want anybody to have a great serve or great anything else. Would they go to a driving range and criticize some duffer's swing? I know I wouldn't do that. I guess I need to pick up my effort to find lonely courts.

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I have long since thought that Don Budge's racket is very slightly open at contact. I though that about Connors' backhand but a clip in the archive proved me wrong. The Budge archives are less clear.

Anyway, we had a guy a our club who had a very slightly open racket face yet managed to get a gentle roll of topspin. I could never work out how that happened.

I reckon Don Budge's drive backhand was dead flat.

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Don Budge Backhand: 66th Try to Master with Weeks Long Attempt Each Time

Not complicated. "Just swing at the ball." Who's speaking? Don Budge.

Okay. Thumb is behind the racket. And there is a lot of arm swing. There always is a lot of arm swing in a one hand backhand although Vic Braden resisted that view. In any case you don't want your core twisting very much.

But hips rotation is important. Everybody agrees on that. (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...l?DBBHRear.mov) One can see it here. But it's slow. And blended with leg extension, in fact with a smooth leap.

Oh oh, what if you thought hips rotation comes first, straightening arm before arm takes off?

You will have to shake up your head and anything that might be inside of it. For that is not what happens.

No, this famous stroke comes from a time when ballroom dancers like Budge and Ellsworth Vines and Mercer Beasley thought the function of the hips was smoothly to transfer weight from one leg to the other.

Well then, if hips rotation is that slow and late why doesn't it twist the shoulders like Stan Wawrinka?

Because hips can twist the body a lot or not. Example of not: A grounded ground stroke or serve in which front leg holds steady while rear knee twists into it. Or here, where everything is in the air, why don't the feet pivot fast long before end of the stroke which is the landing?

Because they don't, they just don't. But there is some turn of the shoulders. The shot is not a "hammer" backhand.

Can it be that the extending knees slow down the hips? I think so.

Well, how about the wrist? Straight.

How about the arm swing? Rising or level? Very level. The body rises. The arm swings almost level.

How about an inside out swing? Almost everybody would like one of those. More likely to happen with a horizontal swing out to the ball-- the racket can rise more steeply from ball I suppose.

How much separation? Big. Four and one-half feet? The bigger the separation the more the racket tip gets naturally around.

Finally, how is it that Don Budge got confused on his backhand side at Wimbledon one year over whether he was hitting topspin or slice?

I have no answer other than to say a level swing is close to slice and topspin both.

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Left Hand in Roger's Serve Compared to Left Hand in Charlie's Serve

That would be the late Charlie Pasarell, who favored a big X on the left hip at the end of one's service motion with ha wrapped over ta.

Is there braking motion available from ta after ta has tossed in the serve of anyone? Vic Braden and Dave Smith certainly thought so.

But the Fed's left hand braking act, in his serves, is succinct and high enough to be a signature.

First, his left arm goes beyond vertical. Many servers to their detriment don't even reach vertical. Then, on left side of vertical, Fed slightly bends arm. And lifts it! Well, some brief lift occurs from what is happening down below.

How does this compare with the prescription that left arm drops to initiate a throw?

No, Fed has got left arm thrusting upward before it drops to brake which it does very high. Yes, ta finishes high, next slides off to Fed's left side for comfort and balance.

So what has braked? Cartwheel? But not torso twist? And what about similar and hopefully simultaneous braking from a leg kicking back, Federer's right leg, Becker's left? One way or another we want the body to chill so arm can snap faster.

The forward bod rotation can resume after that.

Note: In this first serve video, both body rotations (cartwheel and torso twist), though started in sequence conclude early enough at same moment for arm to take over before resumption of those two things. Or so it seems today.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...r%20500fps.mp4

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Rotorded Serving Reconsidered

Nobody is fond of this subject. The tennis teaching establishment is geared to hunky boys and girls whose favorite question is, "Which way to the beach?"

A teaching pro, detecting or being informed of the stiffness in your shoulder, will occasionally say, "Well there are ways of dealing with that."

Ah yes, for a price. First question: How much does this teaching pro geared to hunky boys and girls really know about this?

My solution to all things when I'm not getting much back in the way of conversation: Take on the subject yourself (myself).

A continuous serve I propose today, starting with palm down. Arm to get straight behind you but racket frame not getting as far back as when you opened out to square.

Arm now can fold and wind like Federer's, and strings can open once they pass your head. This combination of closed and opened racket creates a larger loop behind your back.

Rick Macci is just the latest to assert the real dynamite in a serve comes from opposition between your legs and bod going one way and the racket the other-- down.

But how far down?

Here is where I suspect a typical rotorded server makes a fatal mistake. So obsessed is he with getting racket tip low that he tries to combine this desired lowness with pro racket drop.

All wrong. Low point comes in the traditional "scratch your back" position so universally deemed awful.

Pro drop is higher, and you can go through it fast.

Start abduction from the old "scratch" which is really out from the bod a bit whether reaching small of your back or your butt (doubtful).

This position, if captured on film, will not be pretty. The racket tip will be diagonal not pointed straight down. But the huge stretch in every serve between racket going down and legs going up and some cartwheel too needs to be maximized right then and no place else, rotorded server.

Now you can throw the elbow sideways and up-- the good abduction we all want for purpose of passive straightening of the arm.

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Disappointment

This worked. Then it didn't.

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Replicate or Abdicate. Wobble in Tandem the Bearings of all Four Cartwheels.

It was a grand game, held at love, so why not figure it out?

Instead of turning oneself into a cartwheel all the time, why not take the more conservative view that one is a cart. With wheels? A cart whose loose bearings can cause it suddenly to sway to the left.

So, the cart proceeds toward the net. This is the part of the serve where toss occurs, thus forming a Maypole with one's straight left arm.

The base of the Maypole however is set neither in concrete nor in the ground but rather on one's body so that one's hips can slide underneath.

The knees and hitting arm love to bend just then with hips pressing toward front fence, shoulders toward rear fence. Which helps one's body weight clearly heading for the front foot to redistribute to both feet.

Now comes the wobble, as both arms, one straight, the other bent, hold steady while they sway slightly to the left. How? Not because of anything they themselves do. But because the whole body sways a bit to turn one's nose and mouth up to the sun.

Has the cart ever stopped? I think not. It's still on its journey only with all four wheels skewed left.

Enough of niceties! You are a cart no more but rather a human cartwheel.

And so, with nose, mouth and eyes still pointed up, you roll your rear shoulder over your front shoulder. Do it by 5 degrees at first, some say, 20 degrees later, but never more than 20 degrees no matter what.

But when you've cartwheeled the desired amount twist your shoulders upward on their tilted axis. This move will lift whatever else you are doing with your arm.

Note: Do not be carried away by the romantic notion that your rear leg can do all the pushing. Both legs must push upward to maintain the purity of spin of your human cartwheel just before your human twist. A ferris wheel followed by an uppercutting tilt-a-whirl?

P.S. I really didn't know where I picked up the part about 5 degrees and 20 degrees until I looked over some recent posts.

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Roethke, Wilbur and Pound

It is my belief that Theodore Roethke, Richard Wilbur and Ezra Pound all were terrific tennis players although Pound was reputed to be a cut-shot artist. Roethke didn't look like a typical player, seemed a bit dumpy until he started to move according to the late Wilbur. And had been assistant to the head coach at Penn State. The second U.S. Poet Laureate Wilbur (the first was Robert Penn Warren) did look like an athlete, which is my personal observation. One of his grandchildren, former assistant attorney general of Massachusetts Gabriel O'Malley certainly revealed some athletic chops as a high school basketball standout around Boston.

What am I getting at in these last three posts? That one doesn't have to be an anti-intellectual to succeed in tennis although conceivably that might help. I think I'd rather go with Allen Fox and Chet Murphy both publishing books advising their tennis readerships to use more rather than less thought.

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Amos Niven Wilder, Tennis Champion

http://www.twildersociety.org/biogra...fe-and-family/

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Research Project

How did tennis students of Vladimir Nabokov fare in the game? Quite well I would guess.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...1%20500fps.mp4

Can't see how Federer could have taken any lessons from Nabokov but they both were/are smart guys.