A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Why At Kindle Store?

The reason I'm putting A NEW YEAR'S SERVE: PERSONALIZED TENNIS STROKE DESIGN in the Kindle Store before I even try to sell it in the literary marketplace is my long experience with agents and publishers. They promise a lot but never come through for me.

Also, I'm 71 years old. Given the state of American publishing, I estimate that I'll be 81 before I sell this book-- and circulating it is not how I plan to spend the next ten years. I'd rather play tennis.

This decision means a much lower price, $6, for anyone who wants to buy it, have it all, or give it to their buddy who doesn't subscribe to Tennis Player, etc.

[bottle]

Well, good luck, Bottle.

[stotty]

Sounds like a bargain!

[bottle]

Thanks so much.

[bottle]

One-Sided Scapular Adduction Off Of The Ball

A big first serve sometimes happens for me, and I try not to think about it too much.

Second serves are a bit more conscious and dependable. How good are they, though? Not very, if one suffers from rotordation in the shoulder.

Today I envision the racket on edge with tip held down as it comes up to the ball.

So what's going to hold the racket tip down? Well, one factor can be some delayed scapular retraction.

The big question relates to Jack Groppel's assertion in Post # 793, which we hypothesize is true. And we know that one-sided scapular adduction does add sling-shot-like force to any serve.

Applied in one direction it can add weight. Applied in another, it can add spin?

[bottle]

The Lady Who Couldn't Hit A Kick Serve

There was the withered arm baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax. There was the withered arm bowler who starred in a famous three-hour-long Bollywood film about cricket vs. the colonials in India.

In the olden days of the holdover sixties, there was a straight tennis player from Maryland, very good at the net, who could only hit flat serves or serves with slice.

Although she reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, she knew there was something missing, and that would be a good kick serve, so she went looking for it in the neighbor state.

This was a confusing time for everybody, with the Vietnam war hanging on and on, just hanging until it could become the Iraq war and then the Afghan war.

But this lady whose story bore a superficial resemblance to that of Pam Shriver, who also had a supinated shoulder and was from Maryland but reached the U.S. Open Final at sixteen, was growing stronger every day.

Pam had dark hair, Pym red hair, and I don't think they ever met. To call either a girl would be a mistake-- they were women. And when I say that Pym Morris was "straight," I don't mean in the sixties sense but refer instead to her posture and bearing. Pym was so straight and tall that her opponents would quail. The match was usually over the first time they met at the net.

Pam Shriver hired a hitting partner, Hank Harris, from Rappahannock, Virginia, I believe, but Pym Morris went down into Virginia looking for a tennis playing chiropractor she'd heard about, and everybody knows the story of what happened next.

As she drove along, she looked out from her car to see people lying prone or supine everywhere since Virginia was for lovers.

She found the chiropractor she was looking for in Front Royal, Virginia.

"You shouldn't develop hangups just because your shoulder is supinated," he told her. "You were born that way. Your shoulder socket hangs a bit low. It's the only thing about you that isn't straight. Look, can you move it? Does that hurt? No? When you pull it down and back like this, that's scapular retraction. When you lift it up and forward like this, that's scapular adduction. So let's go out on the court. I want to see if you can snap the shoulder up into the more traditionally correct position and beyond just as you hit the ball."

[tennis_chiro]

Okay, ... so go on...

There was the withered arm baseball pitcher Sandy Koufax. There was the withered arm bowler who starred in a famous three-hour-long Bollywood film about cricket vs. the colonials in India.

In the olden days of the holdover sixties, there was a straight tennis player from Maryland, very good at the net, who could only hit flat serves or serves with slice.

Although she reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, she knew there was something missing, and that would be a good kick serve, so she went looking for it in the neighbor state.

This was a confusing time for everybody, with the Vietnam war hanging on and on, just hanging until it could become the Iraq war and then the Afghan war.

But this lady whose story bore a superficial resemblance to that of Pam Shriver, who also had a supinated shoulder and was from Maryland but reached the U.S. Open Final at sixteen, was growing stronger every day.

Pam had dark hair, Pym red hair, and I don't think they ever met. To call either a girl would be a mistake-- they were women. And when I say that Pym Morris was "straight," I don't mean in the sixties sense but refer instead to her posture and bearing. Pym was so straight and tall that her opponents would quail. The match was usually over the first time they met at the net.

Pam Shriver hired a hitting partner, Hank Harris, from Rappahannock, Virginia, I believe, but Pym Morris went down into Virginia looking for a tennis playing chiropractor she'd heard about, and everybody knows the story of what happened next.

As she drove along, she looked out from her car to see people lying prone or supine everywhere since Virginia was for lovers.

She found the chiropractor she was looking for in Front Royal, Virginia.

"You shouldn't develop hangups just because your shoulder is supinated," he told her. "You were born that way. Your shoulder socket hangs a bit low. It's the only thing about you that isn't straight. Look, can you move it? Does that hurt? No? When you pull it down and back like this, that's scapular retraction. When you lift it up and forward like this, that's scapular adduction. So let's go out on the court. I want to see if you can snap the shoulder up into the more traditionally correct position and beyond just as you hit the ball."

Okay, Bottle, you have me on the edge of the chair...

don

[bottle]

~

No, no, you have to imagine the rest yourself. Also, I neglected to say that Pym's parents, from Baltimore, found her name in the pages of Edgar Allan Poe.

I'd say that she either became very famous for her serve that now rivaled that of Brenda Schultz McCarthy, or that there was no strength whatsoever available in her little move from supinated to normal shoulder, and that she soon was playing in satellites, finally, tennis socials.

As for me, I find that the extra push from such special case scapular adduction works best combined with inside out wrist movement, finally giving this backward design the chance to generate awesome, upward spin.

[bottle]

Wide Slice mph's-- No Camera or Measurement Allowed

Re #'s and : Instead of 4 4 4 4 4 20, I tried 4 5 6 7 8 20 resulting in a few good serves, then 4 4.25 4.50 4.75 5 20, which seemed the estimate of the future.

Actual numbers aren't important; the idea of gradual or abrupt acceleration is.

One can quickly chunk a set of numbers, once chosen, down to cue or verbal principle only, i.e., "gradual acceleration" or "abrupt acceleration"; however, presenting a pillow without its stuffing is inadvisable, too general and just the case.

Note: I'm coming to appreciate corporate jargon's term "chunking" more and more. The term "indexing" is too secretarial, the term "metaphor" too literary, but meaning in all three instances is the same, so why quibble?

My just-at-the-moment first serve is 4 3 2 1 0 20 which certainly does contain its own wide slice possibility as well.

[bottle]

Roger Federer's Slice-- Best in History?

Celebrity worshippers and people stuck in the past and people who value enormously expensive loaded numerically based educational studies over actual education tend to adulate Ken Rosewall's slice too much. It was a great shot, and Jimmy Connors' sidespin was good, too, but neither is as good as Roger Federer's long, flat chop or chip hit with huge separation.

How can a chop be long and flat? Well, observe the following video:

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%20Side2%20250fps.mov

Roger's intelligent rather than muscular power begins with a small hydraulic timing move behind his neck.

From there the powered up racket chops like an axe in every which direction-- sideways both ways, frontward and down (though not in that or any sequence-- we're speaking of a blend) all the way to the baseline, and all in the exact same downward, spiraling plane-- which also could be compared to a coarse screw thread...a very effective lever, in other words.

Does the racket go frontward to hit the ball? Yes, the whole way to the baseline. Only then does it retreat backward. Does frontward motion continue after contact? Yes again.

Contact is not by Roger's left ear or navel-- for those who argue that Roger hits to the side. Contact is in front of the front thigh toward the convenient reference point provided by the baseline present in this video.

This would be a great shot for any kid to learn, even an American.

[bottle]

Moral

The trouble with arrogance is that it doesn't allow you to see very much.

[bottle]

Now Let's Do It

A really good question: How far toward left fence-- typically-- is Roger Federer's hand at contact when he hits his backhand slice?

Figure that out and you might begin to master this beautiful stroke since
separation in tennis is all confidence rather than something in your genes.
What I see in this video, stopped at contact, is hand out a foot or more.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand_Slice/RF_BH_Slice_Wide/RF_BH_Slice_Wide.html?RF%20BHSlice%20Wide%20Front%20250fps%20.mov

In this video, hand is out a foot-and-a-half.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/Backhand_Slice/RF_BH_Slice_Wide/RF_BH_Slice_Wide.html?RF%20BHSlice%20Wide%20Rear3%20500fps%20.mov

Imagine then the racket tip sliding all the way to baseline in THIS VIDEO before it stops following the ball (sort of) and goes sideways/backward/upward. Memorize the baseline image for future reference until you can chunk the whole stroke.

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%20Side2%20250fps.mov

Also, how far is Roger from the baseline to start, in this video which we have decided is more important than all the others?

This is like formatting a computer. Later, you won't worry about such stuff. For now, you're formatting a slice backhand, so again, how far is Roger standing behind the baseline: 3.5 feet? If that's what you think, stand exactly there and drop some balls and hit them.

You want awareness now of the racket tip just reaching the baseline as it stops going forward and downward and to the right, and starts going backward and upward and to the right.

Get some bearings, in other words, and see what a difference this makes in the way the ball flies!

[bottle]

Who Has A Stronger Grip for Backhand Slice?

We go now to Trey Waltke in classic lessons to see who has a stronger grip for backhand slice-- Roger Federer or Ken Rosewall. Both have big knuckle on panel two so they're not that different.

Here's the article. Note the pictures of Rosewall's grip. Pictures of Federer's grip are everywhere, including in the same article, or in the post just above this one, which contains three samples. Decide for yourself.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/classiclessons/trey_waltke/the_slice_backhand/the_slice_backhand.html

Again, I think that Federer's slice is flatter than most people think. I also think that Rosewall's slice is steeper than most people think. I love this article, especially for its motion sequences demonstrating the separation (confidence) in all first-rate versions of this stroke. All in all, I see more similarities than differences among the three backhand slices (Federer, Rosewall and Waltke) and don't think Waltke needed to disparage Federer's version quite so much.

[bottle]

Vertigo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lxp8gz_QN0&feature=related

[bottle]

Re VERTIGO

This film, which rivals the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock, reveals more about Andre Agassi and Roger Federer than either has been able to do in all their great interviews.

To give one example only, Roger serves. Is his serve a normal Federer serve?

No, he keeps his left foot down and brings his right foot forward like Taylor Dent or any old-fashioned server.

He knows that if he leaves the court and kicks his right foot backward, he will fly over the rim and hit the boat below.