A New Year's Serve

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Using Some New Stroke to Hone an Old One

If drills help with movement, I don't know why a "drill shot" wouldn't help my Ziegenfuss. The double feeler forehand I've discussed and used for a month sends both arms slowly extending on a 45-degree angle toward ball and the net. Body then springs and rotates slam-like to complete the shot, which travels to the left of where the arms just pointed.

This shot works and maybe even is extraordinary for an impossibly wide get. One had better hit a clean winner though since the recovery component is not as good as for some other shots, particularly if one's inside foot crossed over.

The main benefit may be what this stroke teaches about another. One learns where left arm can best be, and right arm then can revert to a compact, round, hydraulic loop that extends arm like a slow piston along the same track as before. The difference may be the small amount of momentum in the racket head. A second lesson may be, "Thou shalt not be overly reasonable." One is apt to define too much by saying, "These Ziegenfusses are strictly arm first, body second" without taking into account, thanks to the sudden change of direction, a slight bit of slinging overlap.

Similarly, in the great old book "Mastering Your Tennis Strokes," Charlito Pasarell tells how when one wants to restore edge to one's serve, one can shift knuckle to eastern forehand and serve that way for a while before returning to natural serving grip.

For more discussion of restoring edge, please see #525, the previous post.

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More Fun Studying a Single Backhand

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterFront.mov

One click takes butt cap from pointing at the viewer to being completely obscured, a turn of 100 degrees. This is "turning the corner." Is hand "stopped" while this happens? I'd say so. Racket then cuts up the outside of the ball.

Conclusion of the day: As JM golfs down, whole arm gets to front edge of trunk. As far as I'm concerned this is the only loose forward arm motion in this particular shot. (But I hope I don't change my mind tomorrow.)

Yes, there's one tenth the effort put out by anyone else.

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A New Interpretation of "Keeping the Elbow in"

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterFront.mov

In post # 527, we decided that "turn the corner" meant 100 degrees of racket tip arc.

To pre-load this motion then, we must point the racket tip inward and downward between the two knees either by making the stroke two hand one hand, or, like John McEnroe, by pronating the arm as it straightens and adjusts slightly forward toward the net.

In both cases there is the feel of "stubbing" the racket tip backward before you let it go.

If one accepts all this, the next logical step may be-- for controlling geometric regularity of the corner-- to actually reverse travel of the elbow and make it go backward a centimeter or an inch as it and every other part of the arm twist the racket in a perfectly tight circle around.

Will this temporize too much? Will it disrupt rhythm and crack the elbow into a thousand pieces?

Will a Mack truck flatten one? Will one incur heart disease, cancer and diabetes? Will one have stepped on another roadside bomb?

I don't know. And I can't get to the court today. So somebody else will have to try this experiment first.

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Rafa Expands his Talents

Somebody sent me this video. Hope and I are considering making our own version for Elderhostels.

http://lomastv.com/player_cdn.php?id=1318&tlang_id=en

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Pronation and Mirabelle

Pronation: twisting of lower arm
Mirabelle: twisting of upper arm
Supination and supranation: stupefaction
Apparent goal: a world in which everybody is either prostrate or supine.

I call eternal rotation of upper arm "Mirabelle" because the best tennis scientists wish to assign the word "pronation," which the most tennis players can relate to, to lower arm only. But these same scientists find that rotation of the upper arm is much more important. So I'm an English teacher and I give them an F for not putting best name on the more important item.

Has anyone tried the backhand experiment outlined in Post # 528? The way one would do it is to watch and hear Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers sing and dance The Continental and then hum it.

Then, to adopt the image of an inflating tent (think indoor tennis bubble), send hip out on planted front foot as arm adusts forward and Mirabelles and pronates and humps to point racket tip in between the legs.

I see this and what comes next as similar to Vic Braden's old sit-and-hit but occurring after step-out in a very brief interval of time.

The elbow then will retreat toward body core as you extend front leg while screwing the racket head upward. I said elbow could come a centimeter or inch backward but this amount could be as much as two inches.

What is the idea of this? Well, watch the racket head. Does it knife or does it flip? And when you drive a screw down-- a powerful motion-- what does your elbow do? Does the screwdriver flip off of the screw to the right? I hope not.

As racket knifes upward, shoulder-blades can clench to finish the stroke.

Again, has anyone tried this? Was the result promising or hopeless? I only know that I can't play tennis until tomorrow night, but that, like the tennis inventor Rosheem, I get tennis ideas when I'm doing something else.

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Take the Vision Train Downtown

Re # 530: Tent, a structure formed by arm, leg and rest of the body, inflates in a split-second after you step out. I guess I'm thinking of an inflated tent in an empty subway station.

We've gone into the detail of this plenty enough. Now it's time for one or two mental connections to make everything simple and do-able and a single unit. That was the brilliance of sit-and-hit even though no top pro ever adopted it.

Sit-and-hit was 1) an educational tool and 2) Vic Braden's own topspin backhand, the huge effectiveness of which I almost couldn't believe when I witnessed it at Stonebrook Racquet Club in Winchester, Virginia. In the time of TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE, Vic with his co-author Bill Bruns was writing that he'd modeled his sit-and-hit contraption on Donald Budge's backhand.

But how could this be true? Don Budge took racket way back, stepped, then wound it down like Evonne Goolagong. Both of them leaned into the shot a bit to remove all slack from the arm. Contact was far away from the body-- the baseball swing of Ted Williams, Budge said.

Many people through the decades have admired and even advocated this basic form. But if you can form something so solid behind your back you can do it with left hand touching top of left knee or even with butt cap very close to pricking low part of right thigh. Vic Braden allowed for sits-and-hit within this range.

The tent idea now-- my daydream of the night, if you prefer-- is a tension-building structure with the prow of it a bit forward of front knee. The old winding down of racket tip now concludes in this forward position rather than behind one's back like Budge or Goolagong Cawley.

Where are legs in all of this? A bit ahead of full inflation of the tent. Legs were bent before you stepped out. The hips went out on still bent front knee. The front knee began to straighten as arm wound down (so that racket tip would point inward between the legs). The front leg straightens more as you screw the racket up. Then you clench your shoulder-blades together.

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Turn the Corner Twice

If I admit frustration while mastering my new backhand, people will take that as repudiation of continental grip, i.e., another demonstration that c.g. doesn't work and is a relic of the past whether charming or not.

I don't buy this. I think that John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova and Arthur Ashe all made continental grip work very well, and I believe Navratilova over the majority of tennis instructors in the world when she says, as she did on Tennis Channel during the French Open, "You can hit a backhand with any grip you want."

Actually, there is one serious drawback to continental grip on the backhand side. There isn't as much information available about it. So, if you don't know something, i.e., there's a piece missing from your puzzle, you may have to go to the eastern gripophiles and then attempt to translate from their language to your own.

Chris Lewit, page 299, THE TENNIS TECHNIQUE BIBLE: VOLUME ONE, "The arm and racquet should extend straight through the contact point and continue out and to the left (from the player's perspective), arcing higher until the arms reach a full extension and stretch on the right side of the body. For players who do not extend in this way naturally, it must be extensively practiced and trained."

Extension to the outside after contact appears to be what JM does even with his continental grip.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_backhand/mac_backhand.html?MacBHCenterRear2.mov

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Fearlessness of Evolution Using 360 Degrees as the Guide

A new shot with a larger power base comes from viewing the extraordinary film strips in new issue's BUILDING THE SPANISH FOREHAND: STROKE SHAPING AND HAND FEEDING, by Chris Lewit.

By "power base" I don't mean something static like "width of stance" but rather the whole movement from balance on outside foot to balance on both feet in this shot.

Additionally, if one ever imitated the Pat Rafter neutral stance shot where front foot becomes back foot during the course of the stroke, one started then to get the idea of those new possibilities that come with a total pivot.

One can think of kinetic chain as much or as little as one wants. Whatever now happens, however, all body rotation, not mystical but measurable, is twice that of the classic stroke.

These shots, for me, are Federfores except with a lower follow-through. When Roger Federfore hits a forehand, the racket tip usually finishes around his upper left arm, having described an arc of 360 degrees.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_forehand/rf_fh_center/rf_fh_center.html?RFFHCenterOpenStanceCourtLevelFront1.mov

In the Chris Lewit filmstrips here there's 360 degrees plus, and when the balletic tennis player Lia Kiam does it, the appearance is that she tied the two ends of the racket trajectory together with a ribbon.

In terms of my personal development now, guided only by what I see as natural drift if not selection, I'm ready to re-orchestrate, combining my Federfore and my Dr. Spain.

Hit flat, this shot goes faster. Hit with topspin, it produces more topspin.

But how much sidespin gets mixed in? If arm clench goes first, as in the second, third and sixth Lewit filmstrips, one gets more straight-up on a low ball. But one could keep arm straight and lift the elbow instead. All variations should be fun to fool around with once you put the basic full circle construction to work for you.

On medium to high balls, better to keep the arm straight for a flatter version though still with controlling spin. "Keeping the arm straight" in this case means only until after contact. Because one kept elbow relatively low, one can perhaps now raise it to full extension like Lia Kiam in Lewit filmstrip number five.

At 71, paying a lot of arthritic doubles, this often will look like too much of a shot, something too hard, too fast and cumbersome which some old coot will reflex or lob back. So I now pick from the most minimalist of other inventions which I've come up with in this thread, to balance it out.

That would be the double proboscis of Post # 513, to which one would perhaps add the feeling of catch followed by a hold-the-ball elbow lift.

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A Rage to Escape Backhand Mediocrity

All big league one-hand backhands involve a tight circle of the tip before both ends of the racket cross to opposite side of body.

Today's crapshoot speculation is inspired by repeating movement in January 2011 New Issue in top right corner of the page, where Roger Federer's hand has clearly flattened into alignment with his arm before the strip begins.

Obviously, this video was filmed at a humongous number of frames per second. What's slow is fast; however, what's slow and simultaneous is all much, much slower than the racket tip, which in the same time travels a longer path.

By "longer" I mean that when Roger's knee extends, it only moves his nose upward about six inches. The knee movement by any standard is slow and very spread out.

Taken alone then, rolling arm and forearm move the racket tip around maybe a foot-and-a-half. Taken alone, extension of the arm moves the racket tip around an identical amount. Add these movements together, forming a shallow "U," and one achieves three feet of corner.

Sharpness of the corner is lessened by whatever travel of elbow away from the body occurs before contact-- quite a lot, yet no more or less than the two movements just identified, increasing the grand total for racket travel up to about 4.5 feet from the arbitrarily but wisely picked start of the film.

Numbers of course are useless and perhaps counterproductive in conveying the sensuousness of any tennis stroke-- unfortunate since sensory awareness is our best chance to learn.

So look at what's slow and simultaneous in the alternate reality of this film.

The first thing one might notice is that the arm and the leg are extending at the exact same rate. A case might be argued that arm is turning the racket over at the exact same rate, too. And elbow is going out from body at the same rate. So hooray! Four things to do, but all in tandem.

Added to this is countering with left leg, presumably to provide balance while tamping down excess rotation of the hips. Call that a foot!

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Adapting # 534 to Continental

Mentally but not physically divide motion to ball in two parts: 1) Hips go out as wound back shoulders also get parallel to side fence and hump straightens out of wrist with arm still held back; and, 2) Stroke the ball way out front in same manner except with two pinches more arm roll (this is a cook book).

Federer, in repeating clip, doesn't continue with arm more than a little past contact on left side of his body before clench transfers racket up to right side.

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How to Think when There's too Much to be Thought

The French Open approaches. For whom is its stadium named and why?

The following idea comes from WIND, SAND AND STARS by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a wonderful book in which the postal aviator Roland Garros, downed in the high peaks and cold snows of Patagonia, learns to count a first step.

This pertains to entry #'s 534 and 535 here: Because the three main tricks of racket work we've identified each move tip a foot and a half around the corner to the ball while knee lifts one's nose a half foot upward, take a first step, i.e., practice each trick alone.

First trick: Slowly extend arm at elbow as leg slowly extends at knee.

Second trick: Slowly roll bent arm as leg slowly extends at knee.

Third trick: Slowly move bent arm forward from body as leg slowly extends at knee.

These tricks add up to a structured fourth in which the racket moves four and one half feet around a corner while leg slowly extends at knee. This is core of the stroke.

Building backward, if using a continental rather than eastern grip, one can straighten wrist out of left hand to accompany rear shoulder sinking and both hips and shoulders becoming parallel to side fence. Or, use rear hand on racket throat to straighten passive and totally relaxed front wrist.

Building forward, one can demonstrate the perfect balance made possible by clenching shoulder-blades while countering rear foot slightly toward side fence like a happy flamingo.

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Straight Wrist Early?

Reader, I don't know about you, but when I change to any backhand grip, there's a valley between my hand and forearm. The valley persists when I hit slice or a volley, and I don't plan to give this up.

The question is, what should wrist look like at contact point of a one hand topspin drive? Straight or fairly straight, I think.

My experiment will be to get wrist perfectly straight as part of backswing, with less to do therefore than in the wrist description of post # 536 .

I'm reading two great tennis books right now, both by women, THE ART OF DOUBLES by Pat Blaskower and DYNAMITE DOUBLES by Helle Sparre Viragh since women are well known to be in closer touch with their own feelings than men.

So far, neither of these extremely useful books goes into stroke production but rather dwells on body position in the court.

Everybody needs a full set of tennis skills and knowledge of course.

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From Tennis Racket to Snow Shovel and Back

Mostly I've lived in the country, so this is my first experience of suburbia, where the paved driveways of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan are level and the lawns perfect except for the one I take care of.

Across the street, a man right now is removing the last speck of snow from his driveway as if it's pigeon poop.

My approach is the opposite. Since you're not supposed to shovel snow once you're 70, 65, 60 or 10 (ask your physician), I want a system that minimizes lifts and throws.

One needs a good shovel with double-bend structure in the handle whether that's the way one hits a forehand or not. I start by making two stripes, one down each side of the driveway. This is traditional shoveling where you push and deposit in a single motion and always the shortest distance possible. I'm grateful that as a teenager I worked for the Haddam, Connecticut road crew.

Once the two stripes are cleared, however, everything is one arm, alternating right and left. You push hard into one snowbank, use internal rotation of the whole arm to free up the shovel, pivot and thrust the opposite way.

The pushing is across the driveway if somebody didn't understand that. It's rhythmic, vicious, very fast. I've heard of an anger management technique where a person goes down in their basement and beats a mattress as hard as they can with an old tennis racket. This could be something like that, but why be angry?

I'm back in the house when all the neighbors are still at work with their snowblowers. The cleaning man, who comes once a month to remove every mote of dust, said, "I'm not impressed."

The cars can get out however and I'm ready to play tennis.

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Perfect Balance at End of a One Hander

Re last paragraph of # 536, here are eight or nine possible endings for one hand topspin backhand drives.

Federer: Happy flamingo-- raise rear foot to counter with it

Wawrinka: Leap, throw out left foot and stick landing with both feet parallel to net

Henin: Slide back foot up to front foot even laying down rubber (if going forward)

J. McEnroe: A little pogo stick hop with front foot into court with back foot then coming up in the mildest of save steps

B. Becker: Leaves court and sticks like Wawrinka sometimes but more commonly re-plants back foot partway up and then ships front leg off toward center

Sabatini: With racket still high, she re-plants left foot then pushes toward center

Edberg: Like most of these players, does different things. Saw some though where he kept rear foot back, re-planting it but only a very small distance from where it was

Lendl: Different endings, the most unique of which is where he threads his left knee through his right forming something that resembles a camera tripod.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVvv7OV7xIM

http://tennisopolis.com/video/backhand-demo-of-mcenroe

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Use Rafter's Switch-foot to Develop Feel for Dr. Spain

Videos of Patrick Rafter's forehand don't usually reveal his Switch-foot, a rare shot he especially invented who knows for what reason.

To hit it, one thinks of one's most classical, neutral stance forehand except without a hitting step. One can inch forward using nothing but stutter-steps until the front foot is in normal hitting position.

At that point one moves into the air, stroking the ball as both feet switch position. It's fun and it's powerful and each foot flies 180 degrees-- you then stick the landing on balance, like a gymnast.

Recovering to the side might be a problem but one could go forward or backward.

Going open and using Lia Kiam as the model (see Chris Lewit's new, provocative article), both feet re-plant but not nearly as much as in Rafter's switch-foot.

I'm just one person, not a committee, but let me tell you what happened.

The first shot almost de-eared the net-man. His partner, directly behind him, missed the ball too. This was by no means where I aimed, but the result was nevertheless interesting.

Which raises such questions as: Depending on shot purpose, should arm add to power in a summing of forces or hold the ball with delicacy while body administers the real power. (Put another way, the racket "disappears.")

If going for a flat, fast shot, one can extend arm far back. For more topspin, straight arm division, one can extend arm closer to ankle and farther down.
For straight arm lifting, body then will spin faster (skater's effect). For straight arm hinging on ball, the same? No?

Or, should arm come level to ball before rising to full extension? What's true of another form might not be true of this one.

Usually, I'm open to input from other people, solicit it, steal it, etc. On these questions however I'm happy to try and derive the answers from myself.

The spring don't swing forehands many of us have read about and emulated seem defied by Okker-Federer-Nadal type whirligigs where the shoulders really get going long before contact.

On the other hand, one could preserve the delicate wipe of the spring-don't-swingers thus possibly combining advantages of different methods.

Where's the point of greatest arm extension? Can hand or maybe elbow come slowly up to ball with loose grip before tightening of hand and mild arm acceleration?

If, however, high extension is a bit more to left, cannot front deltoid get into the act? Wouldn't we be summing forces then for a sharp crosscourt?

These should be the subjects of personal experiment.

Note: An anatomical chart reveals that every person has a bumpy, bony part in the middle top of their shoulder. Just in front of it is a small muscle, the front deltoid. Just behind it is another small muscle, close in resemblance, the
rear deltoid. A person could live for more than 70 years and not know this.
He might think a deltoid was the web of flesh in front of the armpit since it looks like a river delta.