A New Year's Serve

[tennis_chiro]

Where are you?

Are you OK, Bottle? Haven't seen you post for over a week?
don

[bottle]

Vacation

Thanks for asking. I'm fine and just got back from Chatham, Cape Cod, a place I went to when I was six years old, at which time my father somehow applied his Sneed-like upright golf swing to casting a metallic blue "atomic" plug far out into the Atlantic Ocean from the outer tip of Nausett Beach.

On one of his first casts, some of those black cluster hooks went into my big toe, but I recovered. Then he caught, in perfect sequence, a 12-pound striper, a 14-pound striper, an 18-pound striper, and a 26-pound striper.

In tennis this time my partner Hope's son-in-law didn't want a repeat of last August, so he took regular lessons and played in various leagues the entire year long to get ready.

He definitely had a new serve (as did I), and it took me a while to figure his out. Here we'd lugged all of our tennis stuff from Detroit just for one set since other exigencies caused us not to have time for more.

The score, Bottle first, was 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-3, 3-4, 4-4, 5-4, 6-4 .

So, thanks again for asking!

[tennis_chiro]

Welcome back

I'm trying to figure out the mindset of the head fish. First he sends out the little 12 lb guy, then he sends the 14 lb. guy. It's looking serious with those black thingies so he jumps a class up to the 18 lb guy. Man, what was he thinking when he finally went all in with the 26 lb head of the household?!

Sounds like it was a successful vacation!

don

[bottle]

Listening to THE TALENT CODE During a Long Car Trip

This is the book by the young man Daniel Coyle that deals better with the goop known as myelin than anything else written in the first decade since the millenium, duomillenium, duodenum or whatever it was called.

Myelin is very important to us tennis players, having replaced by improving upon an old expression we all used to love, viz., "muscle memory."

Muscles, it turns out, like tennis players, are quite stupid since they have no memory. And we, whoever we are, really were talking about neuronal pathways each time we discussed our muscle memory.

If you know how to set things up, brothers (and sisters if there still are any women subscribing to Tennis Player-- if so, they certainly don't speak up as much as they used to), your practice can be "deep practice" in Coyle's view, and this will cause your oligos to wrap your desired pathways with more goop than ever before.

The goop or myelin or insulation (which Coyle has seen with an electron microscope) increases the speed of your messages. You can get quick no matter what your age if you do deep-practice enough and know how to "ignite" each specific task.

The New York Times Magazine version of Coyle's book, with a big picture of Elena Dementieva on the cover, dwelt upon the rundown Spartak Club in Russia that produced both her and so many other top ten players.

Coyle, a polymath, frequently speaks to the educator inside himself, and this can get tedious when the professional reader delivering the audio book permits his voice to become too monochromatic.

THE TALENT CODE is in paper however and available in electronic version too as most books are nowadays.

Moreover, the subject matter seems startlingly important and relevant. Coyle makes little distinction among teachers, professors, artists and coaches. Whether he's quoting Robert Lansdorp or John Wooden-- who was an English teacher before he was a basketball coach-- he's deeply concerned with "hotbeds" of competitive excellence.

Just how did Spartak happen? Or Serbian tennis prowess? Or Brazilian soccer? Or the sudden South Korean plethora of women in the LPGA? Or all the great little leaguers coming out of Curacao but not Aruba, the next island over?

A lot of this book is concerned with the communication skills common to all great instructors and coaches. One has to be of a certain age, in Coyle's view, to have developed a sufficient matrix of experience for this role-- especially because of its requirement for adjustment of manner to the individual student.

Personally, I'm more interested in internal dialogue with the coaches who live inside of me, even though this may relegate me to a certain mediocrity (in Coyle's view).

A great novelist can be self-taught, he thinks, but not a great golfer, a great tennis player, or a great violinist.

[bottle]

Sparking Up Some Old Forehands

Man, I only know what I read in THE TALENT CODE (see # 754). My insulating myelin, forehand division, reached its peak accumulation circa age 50, then it broke down, probably got some cracks in it, a lot like overly old spark plug wires in an F-100 truck.

At nighttime, with the engine running, you could sprinkle some water on those wires. Sparks would dance all over the place in engine compartment testament to mechanical inefficiency.

But I liked my old Ziegenfuss, which won a bunch of matches for me. A Ziegenfuss is a forehand in which the arm swings first, thus saving body for a more elongated followthrough. I've moved away from it what with my adoption of my early leg driven Ferrerfore, but I'd like to have both of these shots available, just need to replace one set of sparkplug cables.

I'll have a conversation about this with my oligos. At 71, I only have about 5 per cent as many oligos as I had at the age of six, but they're still here, I tell you, and I'll use them now or never.

So, it's invention time. The loop for Ferrerfore and Ziegenfuss-- at least my Ziegenfuss-- is quite similar, so I don't have to re-invent the wheel there: a moderate loop then that doesn't take the racket back too far or too high.

Mondo can happen early. And I'm favoring neutral or closed stance with inchworm footwork like Stan Smith. As part of the slow arm swing forward, though, I'll add some easy straightening of the wrist.

Then, as body finally takes over, I'll let the wrist give backward once again in conjunction with prolonged contact.

A few of these fine points, hopefully, are just different enough to wrap on new goop and thus give me a new lease for my forehand life.

[bottle]

Backward Wrist in Ferrerfore

If you were paying attention in # 755, perhaps you could see this proposal coming next. A Ferrerfore, through reverse action, swoops the arm in close to one's side.

In my version, I've been mondoeing the wrist right then as well. A person would be a nut to give this option up thanks to the chance it provides for almost immediate roll, like the right arm in a Ben Hogan type golf swing. (Elbow in to hip, palm soon to face down. A sidearm throw in other words).

Well, one can either, right then, mondo the wrist or swoop arm in close in response to beginning forward driving shoulders or do both.

For the oligos requested change here I'll simply keep wrist straight and only flop the arm in and only mondo on the ball.

Should work fine, but I'll pro-actively scotch any errors discovered along the way.

[bottle]

In Response to Hysterical Fear of Imitating a Mannerism Rather than Something Basic

Doing that would simply be poor scholarship. The mistake shouldn't affect one's own game in any way once one has made one's enlightened correction based only on how things went.

A great or even just aspiring athlete should feel free to imitate anything.

It's more than coincidence that the world's best player is also best at displaying considerable mimetic skills.

[bottle]

Adduction in a Serve is Scapular Only

I could phrase that as a question, but I'm sure, by now, that if I'm either wrong or should remain agnostic, someone will set me straight.

[bottle]

Arching in a Serve Remains Sequential

1) Legs compress with knees going out toward side fence

2) Scapular retraction combined with inhalation of breath completes the arch.

Note: Spare the lumbar region. Just don't let it get involved. Keep sciatica out of your life for as long as possible.

Observation: I have to say, that, if I've settled on inhalation as helpmeet to a good arch, I'm going to at least try as an experiment exhalation as helpmeet to "scapular adduction" to use terminology in this case from Wikipedia.

[bottle]

Hitting Up On The Ball

Here's a good one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQSd3lYxvak&feature=related

[stotty]

Nice clip

Nice find!

The part that interests me most with the kick serve is the follow through. Years ago I bought a book called TENNIS STROKES AND STRATEGIES. I think it was published in the 70s. I self-taught myself tennis thru this particular book and another one which I cannot remember the name. It used the leading players of the day as examples: Arthur Ashe for backhand volley, Tom Okker for forehands, John Newcombe for serves, etc. I remember the book (or maybe it was the other book, not sure) advocating the follow through remain on the hitting side of the body after the strike and throughout the swing as a learning option. It virtually guarantees reverse kick if the other mechanics of the serve are sound. To this day I follow through entirely down the right side (hitting side) of my body...and yes my shoulder is fine...no injuries despite the sudden and abrupt end this type of follow through creates. Don't know why more players don't use it to produce even greater topspin.

I'm off to Majorca again tomorrow....c u guys when i get back

[bottle]

Tom Allsopp

Thanks, Stotty. I can't take too much credit for the find since a good friend was the one who sent this video to me. But I'm glad as hell that I can generate meaningful exchange, and that I still retain some of the reportorial skill necessary for doing that.

"I just want to make a quick video on how to hit a topspin serve," Tom Allsopp begins, and his "quickness," I believe, is key to his success here. Not quickness of racket head, though that too is essential component, but shortness of the video and verbal expression almost like a single exhalation of breath.

Not that he's tossing off information, i.e., being affectedly casual-- he isn't.
He's being straightforward and helpful. But do you notice, reader, there's none of the Joel Chandler Harris chapter ending cliche that used to pervade media tennis instruction even worse than nowadays?

Harris is the author of kid stories. At the end of each chapter there'd be something about "If the clock doesn't fall off the table, then we'll find out next time about Uncle Wiggily and the hornet's nest." Actually, that sounds pretty good. But in tennis, the next chapter usually promises some fantastic improvement for the player who has taken time to absorb the tip.

My main tennis teacher, Jim Kacian, e.g., once published a tennis tip on making body glide through a volley like a speed skater. The editor then tacked on a funky statement that went something like, "And if you do this you'll soon be slicing up your most fearsome opponent as if he's wiener schnitzel." Again, that doesn't sound as bad as it should.

I also recommend all 164 comments under the video. From them-- but not from all of them-- a USTA study in the ignorance that holds back American tennis could be undertaken.

My favorite reply to one of these comments-- by Tom Allsopp himself: "You can't give constructive criticism when you don't know anything."

We Americans are likely to underestimate Brits when it comes to something as macho as a great kick serve. Maybe this derives from the movie WIMBLEDON where the British fop pointed at his toss for longer and longer in order to win the affections of Kirsten Dunst. We think it's okay for Brad Gilbert to go over to Great Britain and tell the nation what to do, but not okay for somebody like Allsopp to come over here and do the same.

Anyone who thinks Allsopp is a bad coach needs to watch the following video with the sound turned up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEyyXV5o9oA&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_630357

[stotty]

Another nice clip!

There are some good coaches over here....just too few of them.

Money dominates the coaching scene over here. Coaching provides a good living. Coaches are not so interested in coaching good players as earning lots of cash. A lot of the better coaches are happy teaching 40 hours to beginners and club players because it's far less hassle, and less work in a certain sense, than coaching a performance players. The riches are at the bottom, not the top.

Me, I prefer to teach good players if I can...it makes the job much more tenable and stops the brain turning to mush.

I must look this Allsopp fellow up...

[bottle]

Elmira and Tom

EMIRA and Tom-- sorry!

I'll have to keep this idyll going, I guess:

http://tpatennis.net/how-to-improve-your-touch-feel/

[tpatennis]

Tom Alsopp

Thanks, Stotty. I can't take too much credit for the find since a good friend was the one who sent this video to me. But I'm glad as hell that I can generate meaningful exchange, and that I still retain some of the reportorial skill necessary for doing that.

"I just want to make a quick video on how to hit a topspin serve," Tom Allsopp begins, and his "quickness," I believe, is key to his success here. Not quickness of racket head, though that too is essential component, but shortness of the video and verbal expression almost like a single exhalation of breath.

Not that he's tossing off information, i.e., being affectedly casual-- he isn't.
He's being straightforward and helpful. But do you notice, reader, there's none of the Joel Chandler Harris chapter ending cliche that used to pervade media tennis instruction even worse than nowadays?

Harris is the author of kid stories. At the end of each chapter there'd be something about "If the clock doesn't fall off the table, then we'll find out next time about Uncle Wiggily and the hornet's nest." Actually, that sounds pretty good. But in tennis, the next chapter usually promises some fantastic improvement for the player who has taken time to absorb the tip.

My main tennis teacher, Jim Kacian, e.g., once published a tennis tip on making body glide through a volley like a speed skater. The editor then tacked on a funky statement that went something like, "And if you do this you'll soon be slicing up your most fearsome opponent as if he's wiener schnitzel." Again, that doesn't sound as bad as it should.

I also recommend all 164 comments under the video. From them-- but not from all of them-- a USTA study in the ignorance that holds back American tennis could be undertaken.

My favorite reply to one of these comments-- by Tom Allsopp himself: "You can't give constructive criticism when you don't know anything."

We Americans are likely to underestimate Brits when it comes to something as macho as a great kick serve. Maybe this derives from the movie WIMBLEDON where the British fop pointed at his toss for longer and longer in order to win the affections of Kirsten Dunst. We think it's okay for Brad Gilbert to go over to Great Britain and tell the nation what to do, but not okay for somebody like Allsopp to come over here and do the same.

Anyone who thinks Allsopp is a bad coach needs to watch the following video with the sound turned up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEyyX...otation_630357

Hi,

I was looking at my website stats for http://tpatennis.net/ and I saw some people had gone there from here and also written some things about me. It's nice to see people talking about real tennis topics with a brain rather than the youtube idiots I deal with. I didn't realize how messed up people are until I started posting videos on youtube.

I also liked your review on the talent code, I would love to used the review on my site and maybe contact you to talk about other things you could write.

Thanks for the kind words and if you are interested in talking or writing more please contact me via my website, it's pretty easy.

You seem like a real tennis enthusiast with good tennis knowledge, maybe you would find these articles interesting.... even if your point of view differs from mine:

A video from myself: http://tpatennis.net/why-tennis-pare...e-coach-coach/

http://tpatennis.net/how-fc-barcelonas-youth-academy-can-help-junior-tennis/

http://tpatennis.net/analyzing-the-10000-hours-rule-in-tennis/

http://tpatennis.net/the-tennis-virus-of-the-mind/

Thanks

Tom Allsopp