A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Quit Scrimping on Alternatives?

A famous tennis instructor said, "Serve one way or the other but not both."

This statement rather blew me away with its assurance that there are just two main ways to serve.

But I go with it here.

First challenge then: To distinguish "THE OTHER WAY" from the modern big league serve with which we're all more familiar. I ask too, "Would this OTHER WAY be preferable for someone over 50, particularly if he'd messed with partial versions of it earlier in his life?"

And, "What's the relative availability of helpful information for these basic kinds of serve?"

To my mind, alternative 2 starts with Vic Braden and continues with Jack Broudy, who tried to deepen Braden's figure eights by turning them into Moebius Strips.

In a primarily rotational serve, e.g., in which leg drive has been subordinated, Broudy wanted hips to rotate in a second dimension a bit downward or upward rather than on a purely horizontal plane.

How to do this easily and well has never until now become perfectly clear to me. Perhaps I would have understood sooner had I driven from Winston-Salem to Chapel Hill as Broudy wanted me to do. He was giving a demonstration of his ideas at the University of North Carolina.

Lessons in Latin Dance provide an easy answer. One leg bends as the other straightens. This gives a basic blueprint for a platform stance version of this serve. Eventually of course-- as in any complex athletic move in ANY sport-- subtle distinctions may blur or meld or somewhat overlap.

[bottle]

FHV Concept: "Make Lever Longer"

That means you could move the broad U of arm and racket from the shoulder, then freeze into a solid unit, which you could call "a backboard" for a least effort block as first choice.

You just made the effective lever longer-- you took it from arm to arm-and-body.

To stick a volley more you could continue the original arm motion with a bit of shoulders rotation, with your head playing the hub.

To stick still more you could make left shoulder the hub and still see it from corner of your eye after the ball is gone.

Note: If I never articulate this stuff I never try it.

[bottle]

In Response to a Private Post Re # 990

No, I haven't been lucky enough to meet Gauri Nanda, the inventor, but we, or should I say I, own a red Clocky.

When I gave it to my friend Hope for her birthday she almost threw me out of the house. So it is I who leap out of bed to silence Clocky under a bureau somewhere.

Gauri Nanda, who seemed to answer to the name "Gori" in one of her filmed interviews, does not live in Michigan but perhaps once did since her parents used to own a newspaper in Rochester Hills not far from here.

The Clockies and Tockies and other products of the Nanda Home Corporation are manufactured in China, and if you carefully watch all available videos, you will see Gauri on the cover of Ink Magazine and know that she lives in California.

I think she would make a good older girlfriend for Ryan Harrison. She could transform him from a young Telemachus into a viral winner of major tennis tournaments and a real man.

[bottle]

Rolls for Breakfast

Some wake up when there's no light outside and write mystery fiction, romance novels and chicklit-- and make a lot of money.

Others wake up at the same hour and think about how the arm ought to roll in a one-hand topspin backhand.

The roll ought to be late, no? Perhaps a better word would be "delayed." Delayed roll was what John McEnroe was advising when he criticized Greg Rusedski for not keeping his elbow in, no?

Delayed roll is what the golf pro in Lakeville, Connecticut was teaching the 16-year-old Bot when he got me to hit 40 consecutive very nice six-irons, no?

Reader, you weren't there, so I apologize for subjecting you to that, but I know how all the sudden, extra power worked, and I think that Don Brosseau or Nick Bollettieri or Bill Smith is advising the same thing whenever he talks about temporarily transforming one's racket butt into a flashlight. The racket goes straight, delaying, then comes around fast.

Some of the most effective coaches of one hand backhands, I believe, are good at discerning whether stored energy is making it through the hand or not.

In golf "the forearms roll" is the way the last instant burst of energy usually is expressed if words are the medium. Whether this roll involves the elbows, too, I cannot say, but think not, although I don't play golf nowadays and life would be simpler if I didn't think about it at all.

Maybe don_budge, a golf-AND-tennis pro, would explain his ideas on roll.

One thing is for sure. don_budge's description of picking up the real Donald Budge's leatherless racket and discovering how heavy it was is probably the best potential insight anyone in this forum will ever receive as to how the famous Budge backhand actually worked.

Rackets that come open or closed to the ball is the first big distinction to make.

One would expect that John McEnroe must be in the open category what with the light continental grip (almost eastern forehand!) that he uses. In fact, however (if videos don't lie) he starts with a very flat wrist and then humps it as he straightens the whole arm, with all of this preceding elbow roll up to the actual hit, in my view.

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

Greg Rusedski: Two backhands from 0:19 . Yes, John McEnroe is right. Greg doesn't keep his elbow in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VEh5J9uMCc

Now Federer. We know he uses an eastern grip. How does he roll his arm? And are there two rolls or one? And where does the rolling stop?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/rogerfederer/rogerfederer_backhand/rogerfederer_bh_arm_action/rogerfederer_bh_arm_action.html?FedererBHArmActionFront.mov

Answers:

1) He rolls from the forearm as he straightens his arm as he swings his elbow.

2) Three.

3) From contact.

[bottle]

Oh yeah. You can see that by 2009 he'd already dropped the third roll. Why not? It's just a useless flourish.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_backhand/rf_bh_center/rf_bh_center.html?RFBHCenterNeutralStanceCourtLevelFront1.mov

[bottle]

Lookee, lookee, he's apt to do something different with his rear foot on closed stance shots.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_backhand/rf_bh_center/rf_bh_center.html?RFBHCenterClosedStanceCourtLevelFront1.mov

[tennis_chiro]

With respect to 995 & 996

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_backhand/rf_bh_center/rf_bh_center.html?RFBHCenterNeutralStanceCourtLevelFront1.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_backhand/rf_bh_center/rf_bh_center.html?RFBHCenterClosedStanceCourtLevelFront1.mov

In both of these clips look carefully at the frames from contact to 2 clicks after contact (in the closed stance clip, we start with just after contact and the frame seen partly above and partly below the net strap; in the square stance moving away, we start with the frame seen completely below the net strap to it being completely above on the next two frames, or even three).

First, run the clip back and forth with the arrow keys and notice how little the shoulders move as the racket face moves through the critical hitting zone and just beyond. Of course, Federer keeps his head still and his eyes at the contact point more than anyone, but the stationary nature of the left shoulder is striking.

Second, observe the static nature of the position of the wrist relative to the forearm. The shaft of a the racket is laid back from the line created by the extended upper arm and forearm as the face of the knuckles of the hitting hand point towards the target. Federer holds this angle and the static nature of the left shoulder until he can just barely see outgoing ball under the racket head (or he could see it if he let his eyes up from the contact point). To exaggerate, I ask my students to put a halo over my head, but it's really just necessary until they can see the ball under the racket head as it goes out.

NOW, go back and run the arrows a couple of clicks further back and further forward and you will see the shoulders turning prior to the contact and after the racket gets past that third click position. But they were completely stationary, at least in terms of rotation, during those three clicks beginning at contact and maybe just barely before. But after that brief contact zone, the static position of the wrist and the shoulders is relaxed. This is a fundamental characteristic of the classic Eastern topspin backhand and I'm sure you would see the same elements in Korda's backhand or Edberg's backhand. It would perhaps be slightly different in someone with more extreme grips like Henin or Mauresmo. If you could find the clip, I think you would see it in Ashe who was famous for his backhand drive as well as his serve and volley. Laver had similar mechanics although he had a little more topspin. It would be interesting to check some Rosewall backhands for the movement of the left shoulder, although the movement up on his sliced backhand would have been slightly less.

Bottle, this is the position and configuration you should be trying to emulate to get your one-handed backhand to work! Not as much spin, but very stable.

don

[bottle]

Great grist for the mill. Thanks.

[bottle]

I see it and I'm doing it. Meanwhile, down below...

[bottle]

The hips rotate once and they get still, too (see stripe on pants). And don't rotate any more though they still push. Was it hips that turned the shoulders several clicks before contact? Seems that way. Is it shoulders that carry the racket away several clicks after contact? Seems that way, too. And is it all compatible with good dancing? A little different, but, generally, I think so.

[bottle]

The wrist often gets straight. That certainly helps Roger get the racket length angled down in the 30-60 degree range at LP (low point).

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/roger_federer_09/rf_backhand/rf_bh_center/rf_bh_center.html?RFBHCenterClosedStanceFront2.mov

The racket tip is still cocked past perpendicular to the rear fence when he finally lets it go.

The wrist then appears to curl a little in many videos as the strings come off of the ball. This is the same phenomenon as in a John McEnroe backhand, in my view (advise me, reader, if I'm wrong).

John's wrist starts straight and then curls, which helps close the racket face.
Roger's wrist starts concave or locked up and then straightens, which helps close the racket face. Some further curling is then apparent in some of the videos as Roger comes off of the ball.

The two players use different grips, but wrist movement (thinking of the wrist itself and nothing else!) is in the same direction, i.e., is the same idea, methinks.

To me the most crucial challenge in a 1hbh right now is getting racket tip to a proper low point. Ivan Lendl did it through his ability to guide with the very tips of extraordinarily long fingers on his left hand.

Roger rolls the racket closed while straightening his hitting arm while swinging his arm. (The whole arm is not going terribly fast but the elbow does move.) The action taken together in correct proportion achieves the illusion of a still flashlight and the reality of an ideal low point.

[bottle]

So, if ALL the analysis in the last 10 posts is 100 per cent correct, and even if it isn't, which player rolls the elbow more between flashlight and contact-- Roger Federer or John McEnroe? I just ask.

[bottle]

Uncle Vic Braden was right. One should hit one-handers from the gut. In the present scenario, that means keeping a fantastically solid connection between upper and lower bodies while hips turn the shoulders just before everything stops and arm most goes. Is this the true meaning of "core values?"

[stotty]

Guts

Uncle Vic Braden was right. One should hit one-handers from the gut. In the present scenario, that means keeping a fantastically solid connection between upper and lower bodies while hips turn the shoulders just before everything stops and arm most goes. Is this the true meaning of "core values?"

Vic was right. If you hit a really good one hander, you can feel your gut is at the core of the shot. If you hit a powerful and perfect one hander, you can feel the energy go right up thru your legs up to your gut.

This is what I like about this thread...it pursues weird and wonderful details.

[bottle]

For More Pop Since Old Guys Do Need a Little Shock and Awe

Thanks. I got result today when I stiffened the stomach muscles (sucked it in, as it were) and hit some high line drives which only dove at the last moment to stay in the court.

I liked that. But now, as I go through the Federer 2009 one hander clips again, I'm seeing hips move the shoulders alright, but shoulders gaining on the hips at the same time to get parallel to the sideline a bit quicker.

It's the stripe down the side of his pants. It really tells what his hips are doing.
If you concentrate on that, you may see (or realize) all kinds of other stuff.

For better or worse, true experiments never hold still, do they?