A New Year's Serve

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Smoothing out the New Bod Subordinate Serve

"Subordinate" is the key word. Use bod sequence only on the backswing-- hips first then shoulders to take racket down on opposite side of the bod.

The subordination of the bod is a calming down of the bod. To do this let the two halves of the bod, upper and lower, rotate forward together, i.e., with no sequence, also slow down the whole long turn.

The predominant action in this serve comes from the arm.

Bod supports the arm by always trying to catch up with it but never passing it.

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Trip to Net off Serve with Knee Replacement

1) Reject hoppity hop serves.

2) Revert to Pancho Gonzalez genre of serve in which you stay grounded throughout.

3) Use platform stance (if you like) and drive up some but reduce harshness of landing.

4) Don't hop into 4th step even though this may get you a foot closer to net.

5) Serve (catch step), two, three, split. The fourth step (the split) can be made gentler by simply sliding other foot up next to the one that just landed as step three. But this will create a different dynamic than travel maybe after a second bounce in which you turn in determined direction while airborne. From other strokes, from skiing too, perhaps, you may be aware of alternate dynamics. I think you want to crouch down on knees a bit on fourth step or "slide."

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Hook Shot Toss Appears to Work Beautifully with this Serve

And I think I'm beginning to understand the advantage of open-faced address. Funny how no one ever wants to discuss this question. They like dumb subjects better.

Starting with strings a bit open helps one get economically to outside of ball using a Pancho Gonzalez type level backswing way around-- before the push and crow.

But I'm now ready to redefine the "push" a bit.

I thought this late push was a combination of ISR and body heft.

Partially true. But at my age (77) or perhaps at any age, one should at least consider a rolling body action that never stops just changes direction.

This creates a situation where forward body rotation, subordinated to arm action, starts before contact, happens at contact, and continues a bit after contact.

Note: If using this genre of serve, one cannot practice getting to the net enough. The rhythm is serve, two, three, split with no stagger or hesitation. The wonder of it is that the annoying hoppety-hop of modern serves is gone.

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A Rush of Enthusiasm Followed by a Rash of Criticism

Serving way out in front of the head can never work for a rotorded server what with his lousy skittle strings or shoulder adhesions or some other damned thing keeping him from being double-jointed in his shoulder cave.

He will push the ball, not hit or scrape it. This is life.

So he needs to bring the toss way back. Still, he can learn from the service chapter of TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE. He can learn a lot but needs to be selective.

Wanted: A speed throw that brings the hand up from straight behind the shoulder. A last instant turn out from the forearm to put strings on the OUTSIDE of the ball before the combined push of bod and ISR that brushes up inside of the ball.

That at least is what I will try today. I realize now that in actual play I never even tried the early vertical arm pre-toss stretch that I used in practice.

"The shot you practiced is the one you play with."-- Stan Smith

And back to Katie Kata. There are a million katas one can use in tennis or life-- little pieces of desired motion (or of desired phrase if one is learning some language which one usually is). One can put the pieces of motion or larger phrase together later.

Only one kata is so important to me right now that I give her a name.

Katie Kata consists of speed, push and crow (scarecrow finish to the serve).

Line of speed throw: Hand to shoulder to ball.

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The Future of Big Roundabout Serves

The future, you will find, reader, is the same as the past.

One thing to note (and this is much in the context of all my recent service experiments recorded here) is that if you extend both arms from all available joints they can rise from waist to shoulders.

For those who are interested I now advise a re-read of the service chapter in TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE by Vic Braden and Bill Bruns. It is a remarkable document perhaps exceeding in worth all the subsequent videos, books, articles, letters and even oral instruction that Vic Braden put out even though a lot of this material is unique, hilarious and wonderful.

Granted, this serve is different from that embodied by McEnroe, Sampras and Federer.

But is it close to that of Pancho Gonzalez?

In any case, I am no longer, with an artificial front knee joint, going to leap into the air for a "hoppity hop landing" to use Jeff Greenwald's phrase.

One of my bigger wins of a late-starting club career which snobs are apt to label mediocre was against a psychologist who had one of these horizontal type serves with hitting arm getting way way back and around-- as far back and straight as Herbert of France.

His first serve was exceptional. His second serve was non-existent, i.e., pitty-pat.

Here, to my mind, is where the Tennisone Lesson Library serve videos of Doug King can fit in nicely.

Also, if one goes this route (not traditional down and up form despite that wonderful use of gravity), one can learn-- for getting to the net-- a specific formula more helpful than what current tennis instruction ever offers.

First step: The natural service motion brings back foot forward to catch one's weight.

Second and Third Steps: Run.

Fourth Step: Split-stop.

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Pancho Gonzalez

The arm travels a lot faster and farther than the body turn.

The body turn is smooth, slow and powerful support.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...erveFront1.mov

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...erveFront2.mov

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/panchogonzales/panchogonzales.html?PGServeCourtlevelSide.mov

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Hook Shot Toss: What's the Fun of Trying Something Crazy if it's not REALLY CRAZY?

Reader, you have to think my experience may be useful to you. Otherwise you should not read this.

Hips turn back. I keep feet flat, so as better to stretch the rubber bands of the gut.

As hips turn back the hitting arm straightens toward the rear fence. And the tossing arm straightens toward the sky, but in a stretch, not in a toss. There is no toss yet.

Now the shoulders wind back in two different ways, roundabout and linear. The combination raises the tossing shoulder as in a hook shot in basketball. At the same time the tossing arm scissors to project the ball over your head.

At the same time the hitting arm bends a little with palm of hand faced down.

Previously, we experimented with toss both as early and as late as possible. Now we put the toss in the precise middle of these two possibilities.

Linear movement of the shoulders toward rear fence balances linear movement of front hip toward the net. If good tosses only occur during forward travel the bottom half of the body can go forward more than the top half goes back.

In the late legs serve I have chosen, I need some special device to speed up the racket, and that would be an immediate or sudden reversal of shoulders.

The mantra from there of "speed, push and crow" (scarecrow) still holds.

Go now to court.

Report: Can't say "promising" yet but probably will soon. A bit of circular arm action from rear fence toward net helped the toss.

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Elimination

The previously narrated service return (# 3464) has eliminated my Federfore. In trying to imitate the Roger Federer forehand I repeated the experiment of the Swede Jonas Bjorkman. I learned Roger's forehand in excruciating detail only to realize I now had a forehand worse than my old one. The difference is that Bjorkman quickly went back to his old forehand. Me, I kept trying to imitate Roger for almost two decades.

But I'm not sorry. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So I reaped great vicarious satisfaction as Roger Federer defeated Rafael Nadal to win the 2017 Australian Open.

Okay, but recently I instituted a "Platter Loop" to try to decapitate top of the Federforian backswing-- the place where I'm sure the remaining obstacle lay (#3462). This shot works great in self-feed but in fast play takes too long to get off.

So now I've got three forehands: Big Push, Jamaican Bobsled, and my McEnrueful.

Notes:

The McEnrueful is a very live shot if just a bit hit or miss for someone who is less of an athletic freak than John McEnroe. Can nevertheless put that consideration aside and declare that something alive can be viewed in a number of ways. Today I wish to say that the McEnrueful backswing is a shallow version of a down-together-and-up-together classic serve. It's just a little forehand. The arms go shallowly down and up in perfect unison as the body makes a full turn back.

In Big Push I've been hitting hard recently but not with sufficient depth. I'm a doubles player so have to think about an opponent's poach. But when nobody's poaching, I certainly ought to put more air beneath the ball.

How to do this? First thought is a contact point farther in front since both ends of the racket are going up in similar fashion thus opening the strings.

But is this realistic? Isn't one better off always trying for the same contact point?

In that case one could roll the racket down from the forearm a bit more. Or roll hips forward out of the way to let one's bod be the agent of changing racket pitch.

Jamaican Bobsled is a tabula rasa, a blank tablet. It is an effective service return. But who knows how it will work out in ordinary play?

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Unexpected Pathways

Most tennis players don't go on a hike (they already know everything about everything), but those who do sooner or later will be in for a surprise.

A technical discovery can occur out on the court during a match as well as in one's shower.

I love tennis writer John M. Barnaby's old take on returning against an overwhelming serve.

It boils down to "Have a bunch of different possible service returns to try. Go down the list until you find the one that works."

But once one finds it, one may wish to adapt it to ordinary ground strokes. Because all tennis strokes have larger principles in common.

Always, we want economy and efficiency of stroke production along with adaptability to the most recent emergency which we know will recur.

Me, I tried what I call "The Jamaican forehand service return" simply because I once witnessed in Winston-Salem a large Jamaican pro with beautiful dreadlocks teach this return to a young small white guy with money enough to pay for the lesson.

The stroke the pro demonstrated involved a true unit turn in which arm goes independently back along with shoulders, hips and outside forefoot.

Most "unit turns," as commonly taught, include the gross body part but withhold the arm movement until later.

Independent from turning core, palm facing down goes around in The Jamaican Forehand Service Return.
Now hips turn forward whether inside foot has replaced or not.

The hips turn lowers the racket. One then can use Ivan Lendl's prescription to swing the shoulders in such a way that hips follow rather than lead.

But there appears a contradiction. We said that forward hips turn lowers the racket. Which implies that hips lead the shoulders.

Well, hips turn wants to be a long rather than short thing.

Hips can lead shoulders. Aeronautically banking shoulders can then lead the hips.

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Alternate Scheme
Premise: People don't try different stuff enough.
1) Both hands down followed by body bend then knees bend to continue the downwardness. During the knee bend stage of this prolonged gravity fall the hips shall rotate backward.
2) Shoulders rotate backward as the line between them tilts upward, and lower half of bod shifts toward net while upper half of bod shifts toward rear fence while chest shifts toward sky, and arms prepare for their two different functions, which are
A) Straight arm or bent arm or bent arm to straight arm toss
B) Compression of two halves of arm combined with ESR (external shoulder rotation or "cootie check").
3) Simultaneous toss and triceptic extension to speed strings toward outside of ball. The bod now combines with ISR (internal shoulder rotation) to put an upward push on the ball. The arm returns to scarecrow form (bent) for ride home.

Only tried this serve once, outside, before the snows came. Seemed promising, but on the other hand I'm going to play inside tomorrow, and doubt I'll know enough about this serve to do well with it.

The real reason I write about tennis technique is that I seldom hear from other people the kinds of thing I need or would like to hear.

For instance, Vic Braden discussed early vs. late legs thrust. And no one else did. Why not? Clearly this is a basic choice made by all players.

The new serve here is of the late legs thrust variety. If nothing else it should keep head up or even rising during the hit.

Don't know whether I'll reject this serve or keep it. We'll see. The determination may come tomorrow or perhaps later after more practice time.

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Rejection of Sluiceway 3/4ths of the Way up the Waterwheel

Acceptance of Left Hand Tucked in Close to Belly as Bod Turns

Continuation of Forehands that use both a Waterwheel Loop and a Platter Loop (an editing down of Roger Federer's forehand loop)

Water from sluiceway fills the buckets and thus hires gravity to turn the wheel. But, as Robert Frost asserted, there is a point at which every metaphor breaks down. As you push some analogy further and farther, the new points of correspondence between the two things being compared are no longer true or become a dissonance you don't want.

Me, I have experienced tennis instruction in various forms that advocated a pause or slowing down in vicinity of the top of one's forehand loop.

Now that seems something that leads to big shove in the wrong place.

On waterwheel then hand loops down and around at even pace as if to catch the ball, at which point whole bod chimes in.

In platter version the hand snakes way out to side, almost going backward thanks to the direction in which one's elbow points.

Again, the idea is a fast catch but with maximum interaction between strings and ball as full bod chimes in.

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Comment on my Tennis Enemies

What a passel of prurient preening peacocks proudly proclaiming how they ignore people. When I ignore, I don't proclaim. In fact, reader, when you say that you are ignoring someone you are not ignoring that person. And so, my phonies, absorb this message. Learn from it well. Think next time before you write. And sneck up!

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Alternate Scheme

Premise: People don't try different stuff enough.

1) Both hands down followed by body bend then knees bend to continue the downwardness. During the knee bend stage of this prolonged gravity fall the hips shall rotate backward.


2) Shoulders rotate backward as the line between them tilts upward, and lower half of bod shifts toward net while upper half of bod shifts toward rear fence while chest shifts toward sky, and arms prepare for their two different functions, which are

A) Straight arm or bent arm or bent arm to straight arm toss

B) Compression of two halves of arm combined with ESR (external shoulder rotation or "cootie check").


3) Simultaneous toss and triceptic extension to speed strings toward outside of ball. The bod now combines with ISR (internal shoulder rotation) to put an upward push on the ball. The arm returns to scarecrow form (bent) for ride home.

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The term "kata" (see # 3458) is well suited for learning progressions outside of as well as inside of the martial arts.

We learn to walk through katas (crawling for instance) unless we are an ibex ready to "hit the ground running at the end of the day" and other stupid clichés (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...#q=ibex+images).

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Fullest Possible Motion on the Serve

The discussion has long ranged if not raged on which route a server of limited ESR is best off to follow; abbreviation or full caboodle.

ESR is an acronym for external shoulder rotation. Important to understand, I think, that, the external rotation occurs internally i.e., within the cave where the bump laden end of the humerus is twiddled like a skittle by an improbable pair of human ropes.

The same linguistic oddity (or should I say obscurity) does not exist in the opposite twist direction of ISR. There, thanks to a pun, the word "internal" is used in two different ways, one directional and the other anatomical, so that everything lines up better, I guess.

But should we ever let obscurity creep into our tennis instruction? I think not and therefore have coined the neologism "rotordedness" to describe the condition of a server with limited ESR.

Recently, I acquired a pretty accurate abbreviated serve. Yesterday however my doubles partner spoke of my "slow serves." We got to 5-0 . Then the slow serve got too slow and we only won the set at 6-3 . Unacceptable. I now choose the fullest motion possible thus adjudging the abbreviated serves as kata (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...e=UTF-8#q=kata) for newly emerging and differently full serves now.

So-- down together up together becomes my working mantra once again. "Down" however shall include along with dropping hands both on the racket at least for a while and backward rotating hips, a body bend from the hips with back held straight.

"Up" to include a complete reversal of this bend so that chest faces the sky. At same time tossing arm gets straight but does not toss. The tossing shoulder and arm are so high at beginning of toss that arcing the ball over one's head to inside although still a challenge becomes less of a problem.

Where, yes somewhere, have we progressed? To late toss into the service mechanism.