A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Barred vs. Gradually Straightening Arm

Where? What are you talking about, bottle? On one hand backhands where you come over and those where you go under (slice). On backhand volleys too, to realize inside out ideal.

What do you think, reader, about the barred vs. gradually straightening question? Advocates of barred are quite passionate and set in their ways, I have noticed. Their definiteness of declaration has occasionally caused me to go in that direction.

But early on I developed a backhand slice in which arm straightened just before contact. Then I discovered a tennis book, the German "Barron's book" with a picture of Steffi Graf on its cover.

This book advocated some arm straightening on all backhands (if not volleys). So this is at least one perfectly acceptable way to go.

However I no longer favor, other than as a trick shot, barrel toward the net slice backhand in which the suddenly clenching shoulderblades passively accelerate arm at the elbow. That indeed is a whipping action that can generate huge rpm's of spin. It is especially useful for sidespun service returns from the right-hander's right court in doubles. The buzzing ball goes slow and sharp and bounces away from one's opponent.

Another use for this trick or "special" shot is a very low ball straight in front of you. As body charge provides all necessary weight, the strings can whip sideways to make ball clear the net or even form a deep sidespun lob.

Gradual and secondary extension of the arm seems muscular through subordinate to scapular action for an entirely different feel.

Excuse me for saying this, but I feel that this feel has application to topspin, slice and volleys, all on the backhand side depending on whether one adores inside out shots for prolonged and effective coincision as in golf.

[bottle]

Speed Phase in Arm Work in Any Serve

Doug King, I know, believes that anyone should be free to use anyone's tennis idea without attribution. I agree, believing as I do that attribution is a heavy ball and chain if one is actually going to be inventive and create.

Still, I find Doug's idea a wowser that the curveball phase of a curveball-screwball serve is the speed phase and immediately subsequent screwball phase is the push phase.

I'm also impressed by Chris Lewit's idea that long runway is essential to sufficient racket head speed.

To combine these ideas in a single experiment, I wish to abandon my pre-conception of 50-50 or 75-25 curveball to screwball. (These terms by the way are mine not Doug's so don't blame him blame me.)

The experiment: 0-100 curveball to screwball. Delayed fly-up of elbow from bod side to shoulder level to leave arm compressed. Have been having some success with arm opening to about a right angle in curveball phase but now want to keep arm compressed or compressing then instead.

[bottle]

Facing the Rear Fence

It's never the information itself but rather how the tennis student interprets it. I who am both teacher and student have to admit I find some of my discoveries more amusing than others.

I really love the idea of facing the rear fence when I step up to the line to serve. It happened perhaps three times-- naturally-- early yesterday morning while playing doubles against old foxes.

Racket and bod were turned pretty far around. I just was tired of the strain to twist in order to watch my receiving opponent. Can't remember whether I then won the point so let's say I did two out of three times.

Regardless, the serves were pretty good and open the question of just how far around any player can be turned and still be successful.

Can't wait for snow on the courts to melt so I can pursue this exploration. (The snow was gone for one day and I tried this. Prescription: No turning completely around for the time being except on occasion.)

[bottle]

A Few Words in the Head about Keeping Serve behind the Head

I go to play right now. And maybe am unhappy with the way I started serving last time when I had absolutely no words in my head.

A rotorded server wants to put more of the serve behind his head. Any server should want to put more serve behind his head, it seems to me.

Now I have returned home and can use more words in telling how the first words worked out.

Well and good. Held three times, didn't hold one time. Pretty good for a green serve. And count four is where the future lies in playing doubles on indoor Har-Tru against crafty old foxes.

The challenge now may be to detach count four and work on it by itself, just as one can isolate and repeat some especially difficult phrase when one is learning a new language.

Count four is the curveball part of the serve. Ingredients: Relaxation, pre-load of triceps, leading with elbow before arm partially opens with fingers loosening before ESR.

Should this total action be snappy? I think so. Could one practice throwing tennis balls in this short-armed but curveball producing way?

We want to call count four "kata four," an athletic movement to be perfected for later assembly in the larger design.

Note: Once one authorizes oneself to have ideas, new ones may proliferate. I no longer see the need to look at my opponent during the address of my serve. One can stare at Braden's imaginary friend standing by the rear fence instead and say, "Hi, how are ya?" This person could even be a beautiful woman named Patricia Muse.

The point is that with the new design of this serve, one doesn't have to waste energy turning backward like the famous old baseball pitcher Luis Tiant. One is already turned back, but this doesn't mean one won't turn more. One can start by turning back right-angled arm held close like a farm gate and go as slow as one wants.

One next can turn hips, again as slowly as one wants but make sure to let the hips raise front heel.

Then comes the toss and squeeze of the hitting arm and turn of the shoulders backward to switch racket from one side of the body to the other while holding everything together.

Then comes count four, the short-arm curveball. And count five the screwball.

For hard slice serves ISR to occur after contact; for soft slice serves ISR not to occur at all meaning that you will carve to a paveloader's finish.

[bottle]

In the Mind but not on the Snow

There is too much snow on the court the park attendants keep in operation for me right next to Lake St. Clair. They are great guys who watch my service attempts and give me support.

The trend lately is toward initial set-up quite far around, with tossing elbow connected to bent forearm like a rudder pointing at or rather away from the target.

Or maybe a little less than that so one can still watch one's opponent.

How much relevance my new serve has for other players I do not know. The literary agent Susan Schulman has explained that the reason I don't write best-sellers is that everything for me is "too personal."

Fine. I can accept that and even think it is the way to go. But Pam Shriver and I are the only two tennis players I know who have a lapsed right shoulder. Which is another way of saying that the whole shoulder housing somehow dropped down due to a sudden lurch as we came out of the womb.

Can the shoulder housing move up to natural position? Sure. Does this movement hurt? Not at all. But is it athletic? Not very.

Should Pam and I have learned to serve with the left arm? Probably. Did Pam ever master a good kick serve? No. Flat and slice, yes.

I've been looking for best correlation between shoulder housing rise and thrust from the rear leg. All of this pertains to count four (or should I say "kata four") in my proposed serve.

Kata four is incredibly complex, containing many sub-katas. One could almost think of a drop-dead beautiful drop-down menu or sub-nuclear particles.

I mean, the elbow leads. Then the arm starts to straighten as the fingers relax. Then the arm does ESR (external shoulder rotation) as if hurling a short arm curve ball. With all of this occurring in a split-second before ISR (internal shoulder rotation) plus continued arm extension and stiffening of front bod edge.

[bottle]

Still Heel to Cock Better at Transverse Stomach Muscles

The serve is evolving. So let it evolve. That sounds obvious but isn't. A bit of human arrogance generates itself with each new discovery. You think everything is ticketyboo before it is.

Okay, so we called the first two counts of our five-count serve "preamble" with the idea in mind of forgetting them at the end of one week.

We also suggested that these two counts were so very simple that one should never make a mistake in either one.

That degree of simplicity could indicate that one ought to subtract something from count three, known for its complexity, and put it in count two.

As hips turn back therefore let front heel rise on its toes. Stomach wind coincident with toss will no longer be diluted by rising heel since that move will be out of the way.

[bottle]

Mental Breakdown

Sounds awful, but what is the choice when you are committed to an innovative design?

Okay, so you can produce good serves on your own but not yet in a match.

The design, as I have outlined it, has five counts, with three of them simple.

If count five goes wrong, simply use it (i.e., ISR or internal shoulder rotation) to slam balls on one bounce over the net.

And if counts one and two don't work, then simply slow them down. And bring elbow close to where it touches your side as a crutch. And slow down more. Why not? You haven't tossed the ball yet so you can go as slow as you want.

Furthermore, stop considering these first two counts as counts at all but rather as preamble so simple that within a week you can forget it altogether.

This turns five counts into a three-count serve. And you can forget count five too simply through the repetition of the one-bounce slams.

Now you are free to concentrate on counts three and four, the only complex counts in the serve. Anything goes. Call them counts one and two or porridge and spinach.

I see this as mental breakdown-- not the one that turns you into a gibbering idiot but rather the one that puts focus where it belongs.

[bottle]

Trial

I tried these five-count compact serves though not in a match yet, discovered that address should occur with both hands behind the baseline, i.e., very far around.

Racket can be close as it goes around bod since elbow will get up to shoulder level in count four.

My mixed race friend Sebastien Foka, winningest singles player ever at Wayne State University, grew up in France hitting with his mixed race friend Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. He teaches his Grosse Pointe students to get elbow immediately up to shoulder level, arguing that if they don't do it early they most likely won't do it at all.

But the late elbow rise here is such a structural part of the new design that it should be easy to remember.

Rear leg after all kicks elbow out on same straight path that hand follows which also can be aided by the countering kick.

The racket squeezes toward bod on turned down elbow then flies out from bod on same path. There is no roll between the oncoming and outgoing traffic.

Another court discovery on a sunny but freezing Sunday morning was that if one is going to use the flourish of loosening then tightening fingers, second half of count four is the best time to loosen them right after elbow has thrust out.

Elbow will go out/up; then arm will start to extend (from elbow) as fingers loosen; then one will work one's bent-arm curve ball.

It's a lot to remember all in the count called four but worth the effort.

Other discoveries may be on the way if one pursues this particular design.

[bottle]

Five-Count Serve Complete with Trick Shoulder and Knee Replacement

We've recently had three-count and two-count serves. But a five-count serve might be the most fun of all.

It has to work with figure eights.

And has to work with both long and short throws of a tennis ball and maybe of an old racket in a field.

1) Elbow slides back level but somewhat low.

2) Hips chime in so that racket points at left fence post.

3) Shoulders chime in producing forward travel and left heel rising on toes, also the toss as hit arm squeezes racket tip to middle of back.

4) Rear leg thrusts as front heel comes down and elbow lifts on straight path toward left fence post as arm straightens on same path and wrist concludes by twisting out as if administering a curve pitch in baseball. Does thrusting rear leg cock elbow up a bit before arm starts to straighten? I think so.

5) The arm now completes its straightening as ISR occurs (screwball action in baseball) and front leg thrusts and limited stomach turn puts pressure on ball followed by scarecrow finish.

Counts one, two and five are simple. Five e.g. can be practiced alone by bouncing balls over the net.

Counts three and four are extremely complicated like certain parts of life. Count three combines the toss and wind that are separate entities in any conventional serve. Count four, which elsewhere I have attempted to call "the speed kata" is also "a wind kata" in that arm continues the body wind and is last part of it.

Also, I think, if elbow goes back and up as described in count four and arm straightens to a right angle or a bit flatter at same time, and racket was open to begin, one may create an interesting new launch place for the ISR (internal shoulder rotation) that comes next.

The real departure here is in sending hand on a straight path back toward left fence post, an important if perhaps imaginary lighthouse used for navigation at various points in the serve.

The elbow doesn't twist yet. The racket has squeezed toward bod from one joint then tomahawked away from bod thanks to two joints.

Curveball action at the end of this kata is all that pre-loads the arm for its ISR.

Great willpower will be needed to overcome the old habits that always try to recur when you stand at the line to serve in an actual match.

[bottle]

Experiment

I've always liked the notion that backhand slice is a constellation if not galaxy of different possibilities. And perhaps I should be happy with the backhand slices I have, but I'm always up for trying to learn and master a new one. It derives from the change I recently made to my 1htsbh. While I have crossed slices along with chops, and double roll slices in which the final roll happens on the ball, I'd like to do the second roll with racket still behind me, with just a bit of wrist straightening included in this act, followed by an inside out swing to form a brief concision before followthrough goes off in another direction.

[bottle]

Two Levels of Flat Backhand: Soft and Hard

Both utilize the inside out philosophy that exists but is far from the whole story in all hitting sports.

Both reject the slapped whip through arm action that often is effective in backhand slice (but again is far from the whole backhand slice story).

Both reject the rolled monstrosities of Richard Gasquet or Stanislas Wawrinka declaring Thiem too virtuoso and unattainable in reliability.

Both levels have in them a small amount of arm roll coupled with minor wrist straightening at their rear end.

This "turns the corner" early, which prepares one for a long level path of inside out travel of both one's loaded elbow and straightening arm.

This form of stroke results in a higher sooner followthrough that is less far around. You could see it in Roger Federer's capture of the 2017 Australian Open.

Soft level moves the elbow around from the shoulder ball fulcrum.

Hard level uses center of the back fulcrum instead. Which means that one's front side scapula goes to work.

John Carpenter of St. Louis once emailed me that when he hits these shots he feels that he is developing muscles on top of other muscles.

An interesting thought, but I am of the belief right now that one should flatten out these topspin backhands and hit them from one identified fulcrum or the other but not both.

In both the soft and hard versions the arm straightens on the way out to the ball rather than barring itself behind the body. And yet this late straightening is a secondary factor subordinate to the longer lever from shoulderball or center of the back.

A final consideration is that inside out swings create a small hitting zone in which the straighter the racket goes the better off one is.

One strokes in a circular manner in other words to create a small concision between line of racket travel and line of departing shot.

After that the racket rises up to abbreviated finish.

[bottle]

100 per cent Wrong

I can't easily find the post I wrote on forehand loops from the shoulder joint only.

Much better at the same time in a big rounded waterwheel forehand to lower elbow through forward hips rotation-- to go for sim instead of seq (simultaneity instead of sequence).

[bottle]

What Made it Begin to Work

was starting on front foot with conventional down and up rhythm in mind but not accompanied by straightening of the toss arm. Had produced some good serves with this method before. The toss arm stays close to the vest almost as if it is withered. The down and up of the racket gets hitting arm to desired distance and bend behind you with weight now on rear foot..

Hit arm can then squeeze in a more conventional manner as initial skate step gets underway. The toss is late. So there are big differences from anything you probably did before and yet decades of conditioned movement have mostly been preserved or restored.

[bottle]

1-2, not 1-2-3

1-2-3 is toss-wind-hit.

1-2 is toss/wind-hit.

1-2 is skate off right leg-skate off left leg.

At least for me it is.

This design is for kick and "flat."

For slice, one can rotate hip forward against braced front leg then send arm around the shoulders.

These two-count serves did not at first create sufficient racket head speed. But saw improvement if hitting loop proceeded a bit farther before the beginning of the curveball phase.

To this end I now wish for the first time in my life to try an address with the two hands set apart.

I will try anything, reader, you knew that.

Both hands, separated, to start on bent arms with inherently strong ice cream cone ball hold essential.

In count one, despite their initial resemblance, the two arms to function in different ways.

The toss can hold its bent arm shape thus rising like a brandished scimitar. Ball trajectory from hand could also be described as scimitar or "bent arm shape."

The hit arm to squeeze, i.e., its two halves squeeze together preparatory to curveball-screwball sequence.

How front leg extension in the crosscut skating format now being used will reinforce pre-load within humeral twist-- and exactly when in all the katas now put together-- is still to be determined.

The difference in initial address, however, removes one whole element-- level drawing back of hitting elbow-- thus buying time for better coordination between the two hands.

[bottle]

False Deception Concern

I refer to players who modify stroke design to make themselves more deceptive when often these changes are uncalled for.

Against an extremely shrewd and observant opponent such measures could make good sense.

Most opponents, even some shrewd ones, however, are unobservant.

On big hoop forehand I am therefore thinking of the following orchestration: Set up for a shot down the line. In contact area push elbow smoothly out (with no abruptness!).

For crosscourt off of same preparation and rhythm slowly and unhurriedly ply bent forearm about before the elbow release.