A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Hysterian Serve

On the double-barreled kicker we have been discussing, we are now starting our cantilevered body bend very early as part of a gravity drop.

As the arms fall down, in other words, the knees begin their compression on flat feet.

As the arms go up (one at 4 mph, the other at 2 mph), the knees continue their compression on flat feet.

As the hooked toss descends over the body, the knees continue this cantilevering with the help of one's ankles. The heels rise up on both sets of toes, and the shoulders appear to be frightened of the dropping ball, hence they descend even more to try to get away.

The rear shoulder, in fact, is a hysterian and a security guard whose entire existence is predicated on avoiding the next 9/11-- a shoulder of limited interests and understanding, as well as a scaredy-cat and fear-biting dog, and so it turns itself even farther down toward the ground at this time, as well, and can go even farther in this direction if you add some scapular retraction on the hitting side of the body.

The hitting hand can have turned inward as part of the initial racket drop. Can I say and can I mean. Or wrist can have stayed straight and relaxed, ready to bend outward pretty much the way servers everywhere do it.

If hand does choose a contrarian's turn inside, however, the way the arm bends up will be affected, and so will the way the racket approaches the ball, and another option will suddenly occur-- preserve inwardness or turn wrist out just from a more extreme position.

The inward wrist option can produce edge on look or even more, with back side of strings coming briefly at ball. Edginess may now be possible from a same stance that contributed to opening of the racket too soon before.

Inside out release will take immediate follow-through off of ball farther to the right.

[bottle]

Three-Slice Review

Send barrel slowly toward net as oncoming ball passes over it toward strings.
Change direction of the movement (a right turn) by clenching shoulder-blades hard. Loose arm can straighten passively. If ball is going too high, is not skimming net, is not therefore ready to skid, you can lower elbow a little during the rip to close upper edge, with upper edge the part of the racket from which you want ball to depart. Another good cue is to set racket initially in such a way that if you had a ring on your middle finger you would just see it (Oscar Wegner).

Marinate/myelinize this stroke for seven years. Then try preparing farther back so that the right-angled change of direction ends up hitting through the ball rather than crossing it so much. The concept is different but the performance and structure of the stroke are the same! You'll get more underspin than the sidespin you've grown to like. But the clenching shoulder-blades may whack the ball too much when you'd prefer, that, instead of racket head zinging around, it slice past the ball like a butter knife. Just pull racket butt rim out toward net a bit so as to compensate for the clench. You get power from the clench in other words without letting racket fully follow the direction of that clench.

So, now we're using the same stroke in two different ways. Add a third, chop,
by watching video of what everybody calls "Roger Federer's slice." That's okay since chop is primarily a downward form of slice (rather than across or through or partially across and through).

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand_Slice/RF_BH_Slice_Arm_Action/RF_BH_Slice_Arm_Action.html?RF%20BHSlice%20ArmAction%20Side3%20250fps%20.mov

[bottle]

More on Roger-Chop (See # 782)

See how the ball is hit way out front. So the strings fly downward only a little to put themselves on the ball. The chop part is in how the strings come off of the ball-- down and sideways and backward! Contact then is at the prow of the shot.

Does anything else happen at the prow? Some wrist action perhaps? Backward for absorption? Forward to generate extra spin? Is there a pulled punch effect? Are these questions bad?

Only if you believe in the loftiness of Roger's genius over the hard work he put in, work which is available to anyone.

[don_budge]

bottle? 1975?

So what were you up to in 1975...just curious? Seeing that it is a rain delay and all of that.

[bottle]

I was just finishing my incarnation as an art colony bum and was teaching advanced composition for the University of Massachusetts Higher Education in Prisons Program at Norfolk and Walpole. My real miss-behavior, however, didn't begin until 1997, when I ran away from my marriage in the United States to live with a beautiful Hungarian in Budapest.

Although that didn't work out, partly because I was straight and she was a priestess of psychedelics, I would not change anything. Mistakes are how we learn-- if we do learn.

[bottle]

Scapular Retraction on One Side Only

The more rotorded the server, the more important that he or she obtain a good leftward lean, especially when a high-kicking serve is the goal.

This advice applies to most of the servers in the world, since very few of them are as flexible as Sampras, Isner, or Roddick.

So tell me, Dr. Bottle, just where in my body, after your examination, have you decided that I am most inflexible?

"I term your specific type of inflexibility 'rotordedness,' which refers to the axle-like properties of your upper arm, which simply won't twist backward far enough. So I'm recommending parallel feet, a big cantilever, a sideways orientation for this serve. But you must be careful not to exacerbate your sciatica, which improperly applied leftward lean inflicted in the first place, after all, years ago, when through a combination of ignorance and foolhardiness, you failed to maintain proper muscular support to your lower lumbar region.

"You need the longest possible runway up to the leftward placed ball, and if, as your hips go out toward the right fence, your shoulders go out toward the left fence and your knees go down down down, you turn your hitting shoulder gradually backward, it, too, will go down because of the increasing body tilt. You can do this in two different ways, sir: First, as I said, turn your shoulders but not from too far down in your body; second, perform scapular retraction on the right side of your body.

"This latter revolutionary idea comes from Mark Papas at the Revolutionary Tennis website, and is attractive in that it allows left arm to remain relaxed as it points upward."

[tpatennis]

Serving Blind

What are your thoughts about learning to serve with your eyes closed? It seems pointless to many, but I feel it helps quite a lot; you can't just throw it up and smack it, you must know your own motion and understand where the ball will be. Therefore your serve must stay consistent and not change your technique every 5 minutes.

To have a great serve, unless you are massive and strong, you need rhythm and I think if you are able to serve with your eyes closed you definitely need rhythm.

My attempt... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1UcTnwLSdI

Tom Allsopp

https://www.tpatennis.net

[bottle]

Serving Blindfolded at 27,000 Hits

Yes, Boss, this is a great idea. Even in rowing, I used to blindfold my college kids, but if there were ice skirts on the Monongahela River or on Fish Creek running out of Saratoga Lake ten miles into the Hudson River, I'd wait for the warm phase of global warming since if someone caught a crab they might go hypothermic and die.

I'll be sure to try my version today, now that you've re-invoked the exercise, while remembering that I have the old VHS film of Vic Braden's assistant pros serving blindfolded, too, but while jumping on a trampoline, and I agree absolutely that rhythm is the most important thing. That's why I'm so taken with figure eights. Before a major study is conducted on every tennis student that Don Brosseau (chirotennis) ever taught, I'm going to estimate a saving of 5000 from the usual 10000 hours because of Don's rhythmic eights.

Every time one makes one's continuous, never ending moebius strip through the air, with or without a racket that is weighted or not, a little more goop accrues on some neuronal pathway.

This can be done blindfolded or not, but if someone really likes to be blindfolded, she can...no, he can remain that way while we play a singles match.

In post # 781, "Hysterian Serve," I recommended that one arm go up at 4 mph, the other at 2 mph-- an idea I stole from somebody else and not too bad. But now I'm thinking,

Both hands can drop straight down from a point where racket is at eye level. Using the 32 feet per second per second rule for determining acceleration, one should be able to figure out a single speed before the two hands separate. But don’t do that.

Instead, say that tossing arm does go up at four mph. And that it may have gone down at four mph—who cares? The difference now will be in supposing speed rate of the racket arm. Aim for four mph, then three mph, two mph, one mph, and no mph as arm finally bends to a right angle.

Don Brosseau’s figure eight exercises, available at Global Tennis, YouTube in the form of videos, will prove especially good for doing this. And play with the numbers mentioned here until one obtains good serves?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some people think that I am "very, very personal," especially a certain New York literary agent. But if I weren't that, I'd be nothing.

There's a certain number in my life that for five or six years I swore I would acknowledge today, and now I'm going to do it. Like any number, it starts with another number, and that would be the 27 different jobs I've had in my lifetime.

From that we go to the 27,000 hits I obtained at Talk Tennis before elephantiasis burned me in effigy, and we both were banned from there, me lifetime.

Tennis Player, as you know, is a smaller site than Tennis Warehouse, and as you also know, reader, you pay outright for Tennis Player.

So I am proud, very proud, and my pride comes from listening to nobody.
Here it is: 27,007 hits today, and thanks.

[don_budge]

Thanks bottle...

Dear Professor bottle...

From those 27,007 hits, a number of them have been mine...I made it a point to be the 22,000th just so I could introduce myself. I'm glad I did. I thank you for your efforts and your messages and the inspiration that you generously spread among us...your readers. I read every word...Big Brother!

don_budge

PS...after trying to serve blind...try it with your "Eyes Wide Shut"!

[tennis_chiro]

Thanks from me, too, Bottle

My copy of The Talent Code just arrived today. I just got done reading the first chapter. Fascinating. Inspiring. Motivating. I feel a little bit like Edwin Link with my Global Tennis Teaching System. Especially the way everyone ignores us.

How do you practice for the kind of play the top 4 players in the world were demanding of one another this weekend. No one else has been able to make Rafa go where he had to go against Nole this weekend. Only a few guys in the world can even get close. He needs to practice hitting away from the source and there has to be someone on the other side who runs that ball down and is able to hit it away from him. Two on one's work to a certain extent, but even one hitter is too expensive for most lessons. As a young teaching pro, I was glad to try to be a foil for Paul Annacone and while I was a pretty good player, I was no match for Paul. And it ruined me for the rest of my teaching day, so I had to schedule it accordingly.

But with my GTTS system, I can push even a Nadal or a Federer to levels no one else can. I can give them patterns to practice (up to 9 balls) and I can create shots that actually simulate spin on the order of a full Nadal forehand (true we top out at 80 or 90 mph, but we can make it really heavy). That is what Coyle is talking about: "deep practice". But so far, I haven't been able to convince anyone that we have something special. It's a little frustrating.

And the futsal story is very hopeful when thinking about under-10 tennis. It also tells me we are going to be way behind in the US or at least in CA for another 10 years because we are still not adopting Quickstart in a big way as they are in Europe and I am sure the rest of the world. Kids can't develop the myelin circuits they will need with rackets they can't swing in the way they will swing them when they are bigger and stronger. The kids that go through extensive competition(a couple of years) in Quickstart are going to have a big lead on kids in the US who are developing incorrect circuits with equipment that is too big for them. And this has to happen when they are 6, 7, 8 and 9. So our kids won't make it until they are entering a comparable system at age 6 or 7. So we are at least 10 or 12 years away from catching up with where the rest of the world is going!!

don

[westcoast777]

The Futsal of Tennis

Any ideas of an activity that could be compared to Futsal/Soccer for tennis? The only idea I could think of would be a smaller court, full sized rackets swung at full speed, but with a slower moving ball that is especially receptive to spin. Almost like a whiffle ball used for pick up baseball that someone has cut ridges into, curveballs that start eye level and drop to the shoe laces of batters.
Perhaps a higher net by a few inches, even?
Long rallies, spin emphasis, side-to-side movement, exciting play.
Drop shots that stop on a dime, kick-serves jumping over opponents heads, etc.

The more I think about it, it sounds like clay on amphetamines. And the clay court players have come to dominate the sport.

[tennis_chiro]

Try the orange ball

Any ideas of an activity that could be compared to Futsal/Soccer for tennis? The only idea I could think of would be a smaller court, full sized rackets swung at full speed, but with a slower moving ball that is especially receptive to spin. Almost like a whiffle ball used for pick up baseball that someone has cut ridges into, curveballs that start eye level and drop to the shoe laces of batters.
Perhaps a higher net by a few inches, even?
Long rallies, spin emphasis, side-to-side movement, exciting play.
Drop shots that stop on a dime, kick-serves jumping over opponents heads, etc.

The more I think about it, it sounds like clay on amphetamines. And the clay court players have come to dominate the sport.

You should try playing with an orange QuickStart ball or even the red one on two facing service boxes. Have you ever seen video of the 10andunder championship matches in Europe? Awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQLwaRBj8Y&feature=related

If a 60 foot court is available, use it. But just working the ball in the service boxes will serve the purpose. Playing "dinkem" is effective in building feel around the net. And the simplest answer of them all is simply hit on a backboard, either with an "green" ball on a quick backboard or on a GTTS "The Wall" type backboard. I forgot to mention that there is a cheaper, smaller alternative to "The Wall" at GTTS. You can pick up the Strokemaster backboard for $500.

http://www.tennisbackboard.com/buy_now.asp?product=2

I am an advocate of The Wall and I haven't seen the Strokemaster in person, but it looks like a great alternative for limited funds and/or space.

The way Coyle talks about the little girl doing "deep practice" phrase by phrase; I believe in building tennis strokes and then tennis games and tennis players with those kinds of building blocks. So I've become known as too much of a technician. I agree, but not until you get past the part where you have to be a technician. So I like all my little drills and using the machines and the walls. GBA sounds great, but I think I can enhance it. But that's also why I told you not to forget to play!

don

[bottle]

Rope Trick (Lariat) Artistry: Applying Figure Eights To An Old Post

Well, here is an old Tennis Player post with a new response to it for A NEW YEAR'S SERVE: PERSONALIZED TENNIS STROKE DESIGN, my forthcoming book about to go up at the Kindle Store.

A Septuagenarian's Response to a Tip from "Dr. Jack"

The tip: “When trying to spin the second serve, let your wrist snap. Don't try to pronate excessively. Your elbow and shoulder rely on the pronating action as a follow-through mechanism to decelerate after impact. If you try to force the pronation, there is no follow-through and tendinitis could result (Page 171, HIGH TECH TENNIS by Jack L. Groppel, Ph.D).

The response: When I first read this, I mocked “Groppel’s WMD warning” as needlessly manipulative fear-mongering and dowdiness, but now, some years later, want to steal any good idea I can. For totally opposite viewpoint on the technique here, see the YouTube videos of “Coach Kyril,” who recommends very early internal rotation of upper arm on spin serves. Reader, run your own experiments on this one and reach your own conclusion.

Since I haven't yet reached my own conclusion, I'll go to court today (but what kind of a court, Bottle) and apply this older action to see if Jack is wise, that I'll get a longer follow-through out to the right and presumably with racket still high, and whether this improves upward spin still more.

It's an old action. Like everybody, probably, I used it for years, then changed, then changed back, etc. The difference is that I'll work it in to my presentation through the use of figure eights, i.e., down and up rhythmic motion forming a moebius strip, actually, through the addition of an arbitrary curlicue at the end which enables one to stay continuous for as long as one wants.

Continuous motion, I believe, is the reason that the most eager people are able to master the incredibly complex motion of the rowing cycle in crew in a relatively brief time, i.e., in less than the 10,000 hours everybody talks about and far less than ten years. The best college crews achieve mastery in less time than their four-year academic program.

Figure eights, windmills, too, are great. They relax a person, loosen him up, grease the neuronal pathways. And if you want to perform any little experiments like this present one, your figure eights will give you an advantage by providing more of the norm you need for comparison.

Just relax and get your service action the way you want it before you try it with a ball or two, and then stop the eights and hit normal serves. Wrist this way? That way? No problem.

[bottle]

Wide Slice As Big Ziegenfuss Upside Down

A Ziegenfuss is a forehand in which the arm swings at the ball first and then the body chimes in.

A Ziegenfuss is hardly an example of kinetic chain, is it? KC would be DRY BONES with arm bones pretty near the end connected to the hand bone, no? With hand bone connected to the...racket bone.

So let's take our Ziegenfuss and windmill it toward the net and up over our head.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/famouscoach/denn_ralston/developing_the_slice_serve/developing_the_slice_serve.html

Watch how Dennis Ralston, in the first video, swings his arm first (and then the body chimes in).

You can see it in the buckle at the rear of his cap. That buckle doesn't move and then it does.

[bottle]

Note To Self In Which Numbers Are Estimated mph

Instead of 4 3 2 1 0 for a normal serve, keep the arm at 4 4 4 4 4 for wide slice. Worth the experiment anyway.