A New Year's Serve

[stotty]

https://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/tennis-and-writers

[bottle]

Careful vs. Carefree Cast Net Forehand

The careful forehand starts to lift the racket tip with opposite hand then continues this small tip rise as opposite hand slides across for more bod turn.

The carefree forehand separates the hands as early as in a John McEnroe forehand only the racket tip goes up not down (and the grip of course is different).

In carefree the full bod turn is accomplished entirely by opposite hand pointing across.

Is backward bod turn then faster in carefree? Absolutely. Which is essential to the wipered version which separates 1-2 rhythm at a more forward place after shoulders have reversed their direction.

Most likely the first distinction between careful and carefree will disappear as the training wheels fall off.

If power then declines one can return to the training wheel of left hand staying on racket.

Eventually however one will graduate to total bod turn from point across in both the crushed and wipered versions of this shot.

Essential to your acceptance, reader, may be prior understanding that the forehand a player usually learns is 1-2-3 rhythm, viz., 1) bod turn, 2) arm work, 3) bod turn.

Cast net forehands dispense with 2) (arm work) altogether.

The arm does reconfigure into longer length while performing a mondo but this opening up or cast net feature is driven by the reversing bod turns.

New attention then must be paid to nature of the bod turn. Unitary turn concept can still be applied to backward turn but in forward turn I believe at least for the moment that the hips ought to follow the shoulders.

This leads to more confidence in arm re-configuration and better balance at end of the stroke.

(Fire stomach muscles first.)

An irony of this is that hips chime in just as ball gets scraped.

You're really trying for less power but get more.

[bottle]

Report, Including an Uncomfortable Truth

I try to tell the truth even when it doesn't uphold the neatness of some concept of mine. A scientist is supposed to do this so I try to do it too.

In the enumeration of 4128 see see is 3) and reverse see see 4).

I argue in both cases that if one has firmly anchored weight on front foot, a lift of the arm is the best way to administer contact.

But the key idea here is firm and complete anchoring of weight on the front foot.

If one has done that, one can either lift or roll. Some would say both.

One has more reasonable options than I first indicated in other words.

I just discovered this in self-feed. I know that lift works well in actual play, am not so sure about roll although like anyone I surely have done this for an occasional winner.

Repeatability is the goal here.

If rolling, the wrist must be laid back to the extreme; otherwise, constant orientation of roll toward target cannot be maintained and pitch of the strings will alter in an unwanted way.

If lifting the arm I have found a very straight wrist to be best. Also, recently, I've practiced this shot more and therefore am more apt to use it.

[bottle]

Breathe the Toss

I'm not saying to correlate parts of the breathing cycle with specific parts of the serve-- although somebody may successfully do that.

I'm thinking rather of toss as whole bod phenomenon rather than mere arm.

Forward hips glide, which used to come after the toss, is now intrinsic to the toss.

Final change in shoulders tilt is more extreme and accomplished through a longer range.

So allow time for these improvements. Toss slow to toss high.

[bottle]

In Search of New Cues for Serve, Forehand, See See and Reverse See See

1) To make toss more unconscious focus on opposite shoulder. When rear shoulder goes up the toss shoulder goes down which is all the downswing for toss one will ever need.

2) Crushed version of cast net forehand divides the forehand into two parts, backswing and foreswing. The wipered version divides at a more forward place. First you backswing and cast. Then you wipe.

3) Cues come from theater where one should fear too much rationality. For see see, a difficult shot to pull off, I can only afford one cue per day. The cue yesterday was to fire hips to lower racket deeper from where you (I) already placed it. The cue today is to lift racket tip toward right front fence post and not through the ball.

4) Reverse see see is a backhand in which forward hips turn concludes weight on front foot. Racket corners at same time. Next one lifts both ends of the racket toward the target. I ask why anyone would want to roll arm just then when they can achieve the desired sharp angle more consistently in the way just described. Conclude weight on front foot before contacting the ball.

[bottle]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...s-its-meaning/

I don't click on anything that has the name "breitbart" in it or gives other indication of being a computer virus. Still, I point out that sein Donald is huge government, a tyrant, anti-democratic, an authoritarian thug.

[don_budge]

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/03/31/christians-celebrate-the-resurrection-of-jesus-christ-on-easter-as-the-world-debates-its-meaning/

[bottle]

Report

The most promising avenue, which I now write down so as not to forget it: Lower the tossing arm a small amount but do it by actively angling shoulders down from rear fence toward net.

The rear shoulder goes up at end of the hitting arm take back. Which lowers the front shoulder and hence the tossing arm.

Toss then in sync with hit arm breaking into a whirligig.

And with front shoulder pushing the toss upward from underneath for extra spring.

This is an example of unexpected discovery during self-feed.

One needs to bring a plate full of seemingly solid ideas to the task.

Then and probably only then comes a new idea better than the rest.

[bottle]

Whirligig Serving: Remember, there are People in the World who are Eager that you Not Succeed

Think of them as ordinary louts on the other side of the net. You can forgive them for not wanting to be aced.

Then ask thyself: Am I too worried about the result of this serve? Is it crazy enough? That should not be my sole goal but should be the first.

With second that I don't care whether tossing hand goes down before it goes up. That gives me an option to try either in self-feed today or in the next match or both (one option hah-- many).

Beginners who put racket down behind their back before they try anything do fine-- so long as they don't hold on to this design for too many months.

The exception is Jay Berger but so what.

Why eschew the fun of a full baseball pitcher's motion?

From the top then: Only one arm goes down and up. The toss arm stays where it is. If you haven't made any effort to toss you can do anything you want. Again, ask only, "Is this crazy enough?" Wait until later to find out if the lunacy works.

Keep the hitting arm a-going. Let it fall and proceed way back. You always sort of wanted an unhurried straight arm set way around and way back with palm facing the surface of the court, right?

Well here now is your chance since you haven't even yet contemplated lofting of the toss into the whirligig's mechanism.

Try now the option hinted at: 1) Lower toss arm as hit arm rises from elbow into the forward part of its curlicue. 2) Just toss upward from the high wait position but at that same exact time.

Options 3) 4) 5) 6) 7): Lower toss arm one centimeter, two centimeters, three centimeters, four centimeters, no centimeters.

Haven't tried these serves yet. But notice that the huge unhurried arm take back invites one to lower rear shoulder thus raising front shoulder right then.

If doing that, explore simultaneous downswing of toss arm to give subsequent toss a bit of extra spring.

[bottle]

"Compress your Fingers"

If this phrase is not present in your tennis vocabulary you may be condemned to blocked volleys only, volleys in which both ends of the racket move at the same speed.

The idea is that the fingers move the racket tip around a little or a lot when you are out to stick a volley.

[bottle]

Vocabulary and Whirligig

Betty Grimm, Civil Rights activist and former school teacher living in this 52-person Detroit building complex escapes from the right brain chauvinism that says "words are no good."

In fact Betty points to bookless households with only a television set and now perhaps a device or two as a source of the conceptual dysfunction that characterizes our age.

Vocabulary in Betty's view is not just words but complex thought. And lack of vocabulary equals inability to make distinction and express oneself.

At which point one lives by stereotype and ready made or half-baked notion.

This line of thought extends not just to the social realm but such mundane topics as how to hit a golf ball or serve in tennis.

One needs to expand one's definition of "vocabulary" (https://www.google.com/search?q=voca...hrome&ie=UTF-8) beyond "fancy words" to the essential lingo of any specialized subject.

Phrases such as "toss higher" and "keep palm down" thus become essential vocabulary which once mastered could lead you to "accelerate the whole arm mechanism into a whirligig" (https://www.google.com/search?q=whir...hrome&ie=UTF-8).

Which then could lead to this idea: "Don't confuse your whirligig with your effort to achieve lowness of racket tip. They are two distinct efforts which you must blend through willpower-- nothing else will do it. This is your job."

A ray of hope for people who read books and use smartphones without the one excluding the other is the ease now of looking any word up, of even looking up words one thought one knew.

Thus the words "vocabulary" and "whirligig" give hope today for a serve on track.

Arm Speed

Is arm speed important? Of course. So speed it up or slow it down until you find what you want.

If there aren't enough variables in your serve you end up doing the same old stupid thing.

[bottle]

Racket to Rise at End of a Volley-- Braden (V.), Jensen (L.)

Admire these guys and think their advice has to be good.

To make the wisdom my own, however, there has to be some further interpretation-- by me-- and here it is.

The volley is hit level and short with strings that open out.

The Braden-Jensen advice therefore applies only to the lower edge of the racket.

Ultimate determinant of the direction and excellence of the volley is finger pressure.

Is this subject a basic or a fine point?

Both.

To block a volley, finger pressure stays constant, well, isn't much but stiffens a bit. To take speed off a volley, fingers loosen. To stick a volley, fingers compress even on a backhand volley down the line. John M. Barnaby's analogy: Opening a stuck peanut butter jar.

[bottle]

1HBH Depth Control and Reverse See See

Post # 4119, while seeming high liability, shouldn't.

The palaver and drills of many coaches are determined from their natural areas of fascination as well as from their philosophy of tennis and orientation toward basics rather than fine points or both.

A player practicing one handers in a simple hit with another player may notice occasional unwanted variation in his depth of shot.

This should be an alert.

Great shots are hit with body weight coming through the contact, but what about the obverse of this idea?

Peter Burwash, like Vic Braden, really wrote just one great book.

In it (TENNIS FOR LIFE) Burwash advocated getting weight on front foot BEFORE one hits the ball-- to foster more consistency.

The formula I derived from this was "step press hit." But is this something I want to do all the time? Definitely not although it took me a while to arrive at that view. I do want to do it some of the time.

One example where a step press hit backhand can make sense: a reverse see see.

In the past I may have dwelt too much on modification of forehand for this shot when an ordinary forehand deep to center or deep to opponent's backhand would be smart.

The percentage reverse see see is a backhand not a forehand.

Reverse see see like see see then can be a variation of sit and hit, a Braden and Burwash combination for short angles hit from side of body opposite to the target.

And if going nevertheless for similar placement from same side use sidespin-underspin blend.

So, in reverse see see from backhand side do step press hit with hips turn in the press and then lift both ends of the racket sharply.

It's no time for the romance of the windshield wipe (as many as possible RPS-- revolutions per second-- no, don't want).

Just a few thoughts.

[bottle]

Report

Hit shots where level-shouldered lean started during straightening of arm and continued to end of shot, where that lean didn't start till racket cornered, where lean started early and finished early thus establishing the double end racket push on a steeper path.

Don't know nuthin, which is another way of saying that I didn't conclude anything.

Also used hips rotation at various times in the stroke-- same story.

Concluded nothing and probably will use everything.

[bottle]

Elbows out BHD: What it is, What it isn't.

This backhand drive is characterized by its short backswing. The racket is pulled directly behind one which results in an elbows out look.

An extreme version could keep both hands brushing the bod at this point-- as short as one could get although the racket might wrap around more.

That might prove awkward in what comes next but possibly also provide extra deception in direction of shot.

I'm recommending (to myself) hands out a small bit from the body for a comfortable shot. With racket on a 45-degree angle to rear fence rather than being parallel with it.

Next comes straightening of the arm and roll of the racket-- the famous "turning of the corner" which builds racket head speed and direction.

Some think one should use hips to straighten the arm. Me, I prefer to save hips for controlled weight shift from rear to front foot as both ends of the racket go out.

Such preference creates independence in the straighten-and-roll. I believe the roll starts when arm is almost straight same as on a serve though the roll there is in the opposite direction.

What this shot is not: A building of tension between the two hands. The arm straightening takes one hand out of the other in an easy way that facilitates the roll.

What of the old fashioned idea of "removing slack from the arm?" Is it compatible? Perhaps.

Save hips but still have lean from the shoulders available.

Such lean is what I plan to explore today (Sunday) in self-feed.

If the experiment is positive one will develop a compromise between total independence of the arm and racket unit and some use of the bod pulling in different direction.

Arthur Ashe was the master of this. One should sling the racket, he would say. One should "lift the racket over the net," he would say another time. Try slinging the racket into a double-ended lifting of the ball over the net?

Does leaning with the shoulder mean pressing down with it? No, one can keep shoulders level while shoving everything a mild amount toward the net.

I'm wondering if one could do away with forward hips rotation altogether for cleanest contact ever.