A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Drawings and Video

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

So, through repeated viewings, can we notice anything else? There’s always the chance that the repetition will ensure that we notice less.

In forward action, however, the right heel pivots before the left heel does. Some people might say that this is a change of gears.

The shoulders bump out toward target a lot more than the hips simultaneously bump back toward rear fence, with hips spiraling up at same time to lend starch to the plot.

Now, finally, the Ed Vebell drawings (but give me a while to get them up):

[IMG]Budge Photos_0002.jpg[/IMG] Yikes, I've got to see the little paper clip. Before I see that, I can do nothing, and it's not coming up right now. (Just go to the next post, reader, and notice at first how wonderful these drawings are. Arriving at this verdict will put you in an unusually good mood to learn something new. These likenesses of Donald Budge compel. The use of thatchwork to portray shadow in drawings # 2 and 3 of the 8 gives a good sense of hips turn. The authors of THE GAME OF SINGLES IN TENNIS, William F. Talbert and Bruce S. Old, knew that drawings can present emphasis even better than the photographic frames from which they are taken.)

That’s why the professional field of scientific/medical illustration exists.

Also, Talbert and Old, tennis players themselves, may have been exerting their belief in competition—or was it an editor who was responsible for there being different illustrators in the same book: Old Vebell then author’s wife Katharine D. Old with a second “a” in her first name like Hepburn, third Stephen P. Baldwin, who made countless diagrams of points.

It’s all good stuff, but, we’re spoiled by the one great video we have:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

And we wonder if Donald Budge ever did use his hips to screw down his front foot into its original flatness. Or was that mere “educational emphasis,” i.e., projection of the verbal instruction that left foot “pivots only slightly throughout.”

Certainly, if we like this serve enough to imitate it, we can try both methods: screwing the front foot down or leaving the heel up as in the video.

[bottle]

Progress

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Second Gear to First

So much more fun playing with an energy-saving device:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov

Face it, miserable youths, with the shuttle lift-off method that you presently employ, you have to overcome your body weight and then hope that you have enough energy left over to create some velocity.

And everybody knows that young people are becoming more obese.

Self-instruction for next service session: In after school driver's ed, work more on downshifting, i.e., focus on second gear to first gear hips transition as exemplified by Donald Budge's turning first of his right heel and then of his left. Then, if it's Monday, proceed directly to tennis court for a 20-minute session with basket in which you keep all attention beneath the knees.

Serve from the heels. Let them be the foundation.

[bottle]

Cleverness

Cleverness most often is an irritant, as suggested by the strained, artificial smile frozen on the face of Mitt Romney or the vapid joviality of both him and Paul Ryan.

Very personally speaking however-- which is exactly what I advise that everybody in the world do-- I've never found more cleverness anywhere than in the book TENNIS MADE EASY by Lloyd Budge or in any tennis stroke produced by his much younger brother, the former baseball player J. Donald Budge.

This is not to say that their technique surpasses the future. It doesn't.

But Lloyd and Don were extraordinarily clever men. And cleverness, as nowhere else, is a virtue in tennis.

So we all should observe and listen to these two dead guys however we can.

[bottle]

Forehand Waiting or Running Position

I often don't like TENNIS magazine articles and columns but have found much to admire in the Nov/Dec issue.

I'd like to draw attention in particular to the waiting position of Li Na, illustration # 1 in "Li Na's Forehand," an article by Rick Macci in the Great Shots section.

This seated forehand look, with left shoulder under chin and the hands just split and straight left arm pointing at right fence can all be achieved in unit turn.

Then one can go running or not as needs be.

This position seems good for any grip or planned arm length, but I must confess that, personally, my left hand still is on racket at this point.

Hope to get to Li Na's more athletic position soon.

And install next a cluster of octopus's suction cups, i.e., miniature radar, sonar and humidity detection devices all along the straight left arm to produce a fly's eyes composite image of oncoming ball.

[don_budge]

The Game of Singles in Tennis...Talbert and Old

These likenesses of Donald Budge compel. The use of thatchwork to portray shadow in drawings # 2 and 3 of the 8 gives a good sense of hips turn. The authors of THE GAME OF SINGLES IN TENNIS, William F. Talbert and Bruce S. Old, knew that drawings can present emphasis even better than the photographic frames from which they are taken.)

Those are some fantastic drawings. Any idea when they were made. My guess is around 1970 or so. He looks just a tad younger than when I knew him. The artist caught his skinny calves and legs alright. The motion looks exactly as I remember it, particularly sketches #1 and #2...more so than that video when he was younger. As it was he was such a distinguished gentlemen and he was getting older gracefully.

That is a fine book on tennis...Talbert and Old's "The Game of Singles in Tennis". There is a sister book too..."The Game of Doubles in Tennis". Both fantastic and classic tennis books. I use to have them, or rather I should say my father had them. Somehow some of his books end up in my library. But these two somehow went out and were discarded in one move or another. I regret that they are not in my library.

[bottle]

Three Forehands from Li Na Running Position with 3.5 Grip

1) Slightly drop racket head then straighten arm and hit a Federfore, finishing around left shoulder.

2) Keep arm bent like Djokovic and finish over shoulder.

3) Go from bent arm to straight from contact for maximum extension like Li Na.

[bottle]

To don_budge

Same thing with me. Various moves mess with my possessions (with ALL of them going into a dumpster in one case-- see THE PURSE MAKER'S CLASP). So am not sure if I have the Talbert and Old doubles book any more but will look in the basement. But could surely lend the singles book the next time you come to Detroit.

My ex-wife preserved my tennis books during our divorce. Eventually, she sent all of them to me in big boxes, except for TENNIS FOR WOMEN, a gift from Anita DeFranco, a Washington, D.C. area good player and marathon runner. That book contains the Ziegenfuss, which I've experimented with and written about from memory.

Copyright of THE GAME OF SINGLES IN TENNIS is 1962 .

[don_budge]

Positions #1 and #3...of the J. Donald Budge service motion

John...please consider these two images. Positions #1 and #3. One very key and interesting aspect of this beautiful classic motion is the fact that the position of the racquet, hand and arm have virtually maintained the identical position throughout the backswing. He is truly swinging the racquet into position to go forwards. At the top of the backswing in image #3 the racquet is in perfect position to "fall" behind the server.

This perfect "falling" motion is very instrumental and key in the timing of the swing. The only way to maintain this position of the racquet, hand and arm throughout the backswing is to take the tip of the racquet down a path in front of you along the parallel path in front of the toes. Does that make any sense to you? It's all coming back to me now...this is the basis for all of my rollercoaster rigamarole and service theory...it was J. Donald's explanation to me made back in the summers of '72 and '73.

Very cool of you to revive this beautiful classic motion in your New Year's Serve! I think that I detect a smile on his face from above...he would have been very proud to know that someone was discussing the merits of his great service motion and not just the legendary backhand. It really brings back some fond memories of when I used to be you know who.

[bottle]

Not Rigamarole

Great stuff. And you're discussing the overall when I'm still stuck on the heels but I'll get over that very soon.

In the meantime:

Easy version of Don Budge serve:

Make all final preparations while front heel screws down and back heel screws up (one motion).

Then hold heels where they are while you hit the ball.

The front heel lifts a second time as part of the action that pulls the back leg through.

But don't be overly literal about this stuff or anything in tennis. Maybe front heel is already coming up a little while one is hitting the ball. Maybe the weight shift starts a smidge earlier or later than one thought, etc.

I love it when perfect strangers say to me, "You have a really good serve" whether that's true or not. Yes I played on Friday night and wasn't as damaged as usual on Saturday. Now to second Detroit play-off game. Verlander, Benoit and Papa Grande all were good enough last night (3-1). Hope's son-in-law surprised us by buying us tickets to actually go to Comerica Park with them at noon today (Sunday)!

[don_budge]

Go Tigers! From Sweden...

Hope's son-in-law surprised us by buying us tickets to actually go to Comerica Park with them at noon today (Sunday)!

But you do have a really good serve...John!

You lucky dog! Not the same as the old Tiger Stadium but man...I hope the weather is just great. Eat a hot dog for me. Wash it down with a couple of beers. Go Tigers! Verlander and the triple crown winner...what's his name? Cabrera? What the hell am I doing in Sweden?

Oops...I see Verlander pitched last night. 120 pitches. Mickey Lolich said, "120 pitches is just warming up...but then again, I am a dinosaur". I saw him pitch in the 1968 series...I guess that makes me at least the son of a dinosaur. Sorry about that Dad.

Have a great day...bottle and Hope!

[bottle]

Swirling into a Serve

This is more like dance class than tennis class, but as you might suspect, I like that idea, and who wouldn't if he or she strives for balance.

The feet are close together with weight on back one and arms and racket easily rising to a good first drop position. Top of body then sways forward to create a Leaning Tower of Pisa. Things that happen during this delicate, straight-bodied sway (if we can remember them but if we've forgotten some that's probably good, too) are the toss, the backward turn of the hips, the rising front heel, the dropping of the racket which then glides or even slightly accelerates up back side of a canyon.

Rhythmically, the hips reverse, with front heel returning to down and rear heel rising to up. In the low toss version of Donald Budge compared to the two foot higher toss of Lloyd Budge, the ball will only drop three or four inches before contact.

Focus here is still on the feet. The heels descending and elevating all at once are part of a body swivel that is very snakelike if I do say so myself.

Hips thrust toward target is pretty much common to all serves but this action in most serves nowadays is positively self-conscious compared to this one.

All the player is doing, really, is rhythmically loading for a powerful but unstrained throw. Also, during this forward hips swirl, upper body is winding back along with the muscular portion of the bone, gristle and muscle that comprise the scapula.

Did I think this serve would use one half the energy? More like one third.

Will there be problems, under pressure, with the toss? No doubt. If so, catch it and try again. That's what Lloyd Budge says, and he lured his brother away from baseball and taught him to play, so listen to him.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Note on American League baseball playoffs: With one out, the bases loaded, Kelly hits a deep fly in the bottom of the ninth to break the 4-4 tie and end the game! On the way out of Comerica Park we see a small kid with the name "Kelly" on his Detroit-shirted back. So I pat him on the shoulder. And his father says that the kid is the only person in the stadium wearing a Kelly sweatshirt. So I suggest that he take the kid to Oakland!

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Simple Facts for the Rotorded Server (or Anybody Else)

We all know that racket tip not getting low enough is going to louse up a serve.

But do we realize that runway to the ball can also be lengthened by simultaneously uncocking the shoulders while pushing them toward the net in the vicinity of a toss twenty-four inches in front of the baseline?

We've noticed before how still Don Budge keeps his head and eyes in the phase just before the sudden release which must be last instant to work.

don_budge, who spent two summers staffing for Don Budge, has indicated that drawings from THE GAME OF SINGLES IN TENNIS (post # 1307) are probably closer to the master's old age serve than the most instructional of films we've ever seen probably made when Budge was young and at the peak of his powers.

A distinguishing feature of these line drawings is that while the heels "thresh," i.e., one goes down while the other goes up, neither turns just then-- and yet the knees and hips do turn.

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Re # 1314

What a tip!

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Threshing Heels and Image Three

Remember, I'm a rotorded server. So can't really know, at this point of progression, what will help somebody else-- maybe reader even you-- due to the degree of my self-concern and admiration for what seems to have evolved.

We all know that people who talk like this are cruising for a bruising. Don't worry, that's already happened, i.e., I've lost some service games. But I think I'll blame that on my partner.

Overall, I'm holding more and am presently playing three times a week instead of the one time a week of the past year since the left leg is better. And there's a reason. My new serve puts less pressure on it.

I'll append Image Three here because I'm quite sure it's helping to prolong my second gravity drop and thereby is improving the rhythm and timing of the serve.

This will happen any time I get myself easily to Image Three. So, how to do it? First develop some mild contempt for the autocracy of "trophy position." Vic Braden was on the right track when he mercilessly mocked it in TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE.

Second, set up a smidge right of a first gravity drop along the toes of both feet. If one is going to do that, however-- offset the racket just a bit so it starts falling mildly toward the body, one needs to start bending arm a bit sooner than one is accustomed to do.

Anyway, this is one way to achieve Image Three with ease.