A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Wanted for Murder in All 50 Tennis-Playing States: Dick "Kinetic" Chainey

The F.B.I., confusing Dick Chainey with Dick Cheney the 46th Vice President, took no action.

Their reason given was that the Bureau never met an international war crime or criminal it didn't like.

But Dick Chainey, a different kettle of fish, didn't kill innocents, he merely killed their tennis games.

By convincing young kids to turn their hips before they turned their shoulders he instilled them with a slowness they would never overcome in a lifetime of playing tennis.

Worse, the premature hips destroyed each kid's ability properly to load his or her arm on every ground stroke.

Take the following forehand, thought to be pretty good.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/index.html?dir=Forehand/RF_FH_Arm_Action&stroke=RFFHInsideInArmActionRear1_500fps.mp4

Or the following backhand, also thought to be good.

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

In either case can you tell from watching the video which turns first, shoulders or hips? For obtaining the correct answer, watching may not be enough. You simply need to know. Shoulders turn first.

Tom Okker knew it and said so in those sections of MASTERING YOUR TENNIS STROKES (1976) that dealt with his early shoulders topspin forehand.

His close friend Ivan Lendl knew it and said so in his joint book with Eugene Scott: IVAN LENDL'S POWER TENNIS (1983). To quote him: "Note that my hips only move as a product of my entire upper body movement. In a sense, the hips only follow the action of my arms, legs, and upper body. Unlike golf, the hips do not play a major part in producing power-- the idea being that if every part of your body explodes forward like the swing in baseball or golf, power may be gained but control is forever lost."

I've never heard the last word in any subject, and the passage above is no exception.

That dream murderer Dick Chainey, however, would have you believe that hips firing marginally ahead of transverse stomach muscles is the way to go.

Perhaps the jab of Muhammad Ali, which as his palookas would attest came all the way from his foot and ankle to paralyze even the most muscled part of one's arm is the perfect example.

Kinetic chain, however, is a description of rapid energy flow rather than a series of prescriptive steps.

Should not any player serious about his tennis at least try the wisdom of Okker and Lendl a single time?

[tennis_chiro]

Beg to disagree

The F.B.I., confusing Dick Chainey with Dick Cheney the 46th Vice President, took no action.

Their reason given was that the Bureau never met an international war crime or criminal it didn't like.

But Dick Chainey, a different kettle of fish, didn't kill innocents, he merely killed their tennis games.

By convincing young kids to turn their hips before they turned their shoulders he instilled them with a slowness they would never overcome in a lifetime of playing tennis.

Worse, the premature hips destroyed each kid's ability properly to load his or her arm on every ground stroke.

Take the following forehand, thought to be pretty good.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/phantom/Roger_Federer_HD_HS/index.html?dir=Forehand/RF_FH_Arm_Action&stroke=RFFHInsideInArmActionRear1_500fps.mp4

Or the following backhand, also thought to be good.

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

In either case can you tell from watching the video which turns first, shoulders or hips? For obtaining the correct answer, watching may not be enough. You simply need to know. Shoulders turn first.

Tom Okker knew it and said so in those sections of MASTERING YOUR TENNIS STROKES (1976) that dealt with his early shoulders topspin forehand.

His close friend Ivan Lendl knew it and said so in his joint book with Eugene Scott: IVAN LENDL'S POWER TENNIS (1983). To quote him: "Note that my hips only move as a product of my entire upper body movement. In a sense, the hips only follow the action of my arms, legs, and upper body. Unlike golf, the hips do not play a major part in producing power-- the idea being that if every part of your body explodes forward like the swing in baseball or golf, power may be gained but control is forever lost."

I've never heard the last word in any subject, and the passage above is no exception.

That dream murderer Dick Chainey, however, would have you believe that hips firing marginally ahead of transverse stomach muscles is the way to go.

Perhaps the jab of Muhammad Ali, which as his palookas would attest came all the way from his foot and ankle to paralyze even the most muscled part of one's arm is the perfect example.

Kinetic chain, however, is a description of rapid energy flow rather than a series of prescriptive steps.

Should not any player serious about his tennis at least try the wisdom of Okker and Lendl a single time?

So you are telling me you do not see the arm descending in a vertical plane towards the bottom of the backswing while the hips start to rotate forward!? It's not all the way to front-facing before the shoulders start to move. The initial movement of the shoulders that you see as the racket is dropping in that vertical plane is due to the movement of the hips.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ar1_500fps.mp4

don

[bottle]

That's what I've done for decades, and some of my geezer group have thought I had a good forehand ("Lots of racket head speed!") but yesterday I went to bangboard first and basket second to let the shoulders pull the hips a bit before the outside leg drove.

The arm loaded in that split-second. Also I was implementing Brian Gordon's advice to the New York Times reporter of five years tennis experience to maintain his pointing across until the hips cleared.

I agree that the hips clear. I just wanted to see if I could start the shoulders to pull hips while still pointing across.

Maybe the feel and refined accuracy and spin all were a yesterday thing and a function of self-feed which often does but sometimes does not speak to actual play. And it's true that my murder indictment was simply the result of momentary exhilaration. An experiment is an experiment, though, and you know I'll end up doing what works best and staying with it at least for a while.

("Nay, by my troth, I know not. But I know to be up late is to be up late.")

I didn't answer the point you brought up about certain springy things being over before hips get parallel to net. Good point. And on this and some others I may not know exactly what I'm doing (sometimes better that way). But, per usual, am fooling around and having fun.

I've always been amazed by Tom Okker's written distinction between his "flat" forehand and his "topspin" forehand where he says (and shows photographically with little superimposed lines drawn across the frames) how the shoulders are more open-- and early-- for the topspin.

I've only met one other tennis player in my life as taken with this as I, the son of a mad and probably drunken psychiatrist who died young. His son the lad was very good and hit a lot of topspin and did very well later in the Florida leagues, I was told through his mother, but I imagine his tennis hit a plateau eventually because of the limits of his continental grip.

[bottle]

Progress Report: One 73-Year-Old's Tennis Game

Could be, that, given my affection for excruciating detail, I've already bitten off more than I can chew.

The title here however does reflect the egotism or rather self-interestedness I try to encourage in every tennis player I meet.

The forehand-- ah, my forehand-- falls into two divisions excluding chips and chops.

First, FEDERERIAN FOREVER with big knuckle on 3.5 despite Roger's apparent decline in fortunes if not fortune. And the same shot is Gordonian (as in "Gordonian Knot"), also Maccian and Yandellian. Despite these influences it's MY FEDERFORE conceived a couple of decades back. MY FEDERFORE is all mine and nobody else's and contains the unique characteristic of purposefully unstable teeter-totter melding into "tapping the dog."

Has evolution occurred? Of course. I plan to be tweaker city until my last breath. So the racket tip rolls up during unit turn as left hand stays on racket almost catching up to right hand. The rolling up starts sooner than in the case of Roger. And my pointing across starts later than it used to. Teeter-totter (unstable) starts the strings down, closing them. Unlike an ordinary see-saw, there's much simultaneous weirdness and moving about of various fulcrums. The elbow goes back and up, the racket head goes forward and down. If that's too complex, then think of a university student elevator in Bonn, Germany in which a parade of wooden platforms rises up as next to it a parade of wooden platforms plunges down. This teaches any surviving student a certain bit of dexterity to avoid being squashed. There are no doors of any kind, just attempts to board or leave as the wooden platform ephemerally coincides with the wooden floor where one's next or last class is alleged to have occurred.

FOREHAND TWO is a bowled version after John McEnroe but without his leg drive since MY FEDERFORE already has enough of that. MY FOREHAND TWO is a stay down shot with big knuckle on 2.5 and perfectly straight wrist and the backward pendulum motion of a grandfather clock. A plethora of experiments eliminated as ineffective all manner of arm rolls except for three:

1) Don't roll at all on backswing, start rolling as arm passes body to close strings on ball out front. 2) Slightly roll in both directions as you go back and forward to keep racket perfectly vertical and capable of balancing a coin on frame until after contact. 3) Close racket on backswing, then open and close it on down-swing and hit-through, which feels a bit like a slapshot in hockey or skipping a stone across the surface of a fetid pond.

BACKHANDS, VOLLEYS, LOBS, DROPSHOTS and OVERHEADS: All okay. MOVEMENT: Painful but still there.

[bottle]

Short, Wide and Effective from Deuce Court

If like me you are in sporadic pursuit of this difficult serve (which gets clobbered if you do it wrong) you might consider a little baseball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEq5xZvqGXc

I'm specifically interested in the beginner's curve ball shown here where palm faces head for most of the pitch (or serve).

[tennis_chiro]

If like me you are in sporadic pursuit of this difficult serve (which gets clobbered if you do it wrong) you might consider a little baseball.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEq5xZvqGXc

I'm specifically interested in the beginner's curve ball shown here where palm faces head for most of the pitch (or serve).

This corresponds with the Dennis Ralston slice serve lesson.

[bottle]

Great Similarity

The Dan Gazaway and Dennis Ralston videos do correspond with one another and here they are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEq5xZvqGXc

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/famouscoach/denn_ralston/developing_the_slice_serve/developing_the_slice_serve.html

Together they provide almost too much content but nobody ever said that tennis (or baseball) should be easy.

The distinction Gazaway makes between novice and advanced curveballs can be applied to anyone's serve. You can get palm to face your head early or you can do it late during the forward horizontal body rotation the way Ralston does.

Gazaway's understated use of the word "garbage" could be useful for saving one's arm or keeping one's head still. In fact, he says a lot about saving the arm.

As for the "coming over the top of the ball" part, I must admit that some upper arm axle-like twist, counterclockwise for a right-handed server looking toward the opposite service box, will get into the act.

I find Gazaway's demonstration of three different followthroughs especially interesting. Is there any good reason why people serving tennis balls should not apply this information? What?

[bottle]

Changing Fulcrum From Center Of Body To Edge Of Body All In One Motion

Language is not something you learn to hate in English class, and a sentence or tennis stroke can always be revised-- more true than ever thanks to the editing function on the internet.

If some right-hander's short wide slice from deuce court is too dicey, he can simplify today, again tomorrow, and the day after, reducing the service cycle down to its essential elements to see if there is one or two he could discard.

Today, even though I'm scheduled to hit with somebody, I'll work from Dan Gazaway's novice curveball (#'s 1775, 6,7) without sticking to every single thing that Dan says since rules are made to be broken by those who know them.

In my case, with my rear-leg load putting much more energy into horizontal rotation than upward thrust, I'll try something very new taken from recent development in my ground strokes.

That will be a bit of forward shoulders swing before I initiate my kinetic snake.

(If you want to see a chain as in "kinetic chain," go to the Constitution Island Museum in the Hudson River-- big, clunky copper links that surely didn't move as fast as a striking snake as the colonial Americans strung them across the water to West Point to stop the British ships.)

I'll start by winding and compressing my arm until palm faces me all in rhythm with the toss.

Body alone will carry the racket spear toward the ball except for the smoothly extending arm while I load down on rear foot.

Then when I finally do fire the rear leg (from platform stance), I'll firmly brace against the movement with my bent left leg.

If this doesn't work as I hit with my partner Hope's son-in-law Greg, I'll try some topspin serves and a few fast balls.

[bottle]

Good Wide Slice = Less Violence + More Finesse

Building on # 1778, I am ready to discard two elements: 1) separate rear leg load as in all the other serves or certain serves where it will remain and 2) the separate and early rear leg thrust which also will remain in all other serves or in certain serves.

The new service action could go from balance on rear foot to balance on front foot. One could maintain a bent front leg throughout, even during the toss; however, disguise that way would be compromised too soon.

And so, we sink into the front leg and heel like a pitcher in baseball as we bring our spearing, extending racket slowly around through the use of our shoulders alone. (Too late now for disguise but perhaps we can terrorize.)

But the shoulders slowly pull the hips around, too. If hips can pull shoulders, shoulders can pull hips.

Front leg without extending then stiffens on flat bracing foot to accelerate arm and shoulders more in a vertical way with human head finally moving down left a bit from the hit as countering rear leg swings round toward the net.

This system seems so much like my fantasy of a Big League baseball pitch that I'll have to try it with cannonballs and topspin serves as well.

Starting place will be the three followthroughs demonstrated by Dan Gazaway, who points to three different wrist positions as hand is down by left thigh just above the knee.

I'd like to declare each followthrough a seminal position, which, if one traces backward, can dictate contact position along with various earlier positions.

But, we want to take personal possession of Dan's great information, so how about a new formula meant to simplify and clarify?

Thumb pointing at left fence for slice.
Thumb pointing at rear fence for flat.
Thumb pointing at far fence for topspin.

[bottle]

Trial

Okay, I've tried this now. If thumb points at left fence for slice followthrough, then strings will be about 45 degrees open as in the video of Pancho Gonzalez in the Ralston article:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/famouscoach/denn_ralston/developing_the_slice_serve/developing_the_slice_serve.html

Ralston himself has racket a bit more turned over so that strings are square, but he probably had them in a more open position as he cut the ball and hopefully with no kind of an arm roll going on just then.

The prescribed followthroughs are cues for desired performance, that's all. Other persons may have arrived at the same performance in different ways.

From each followthrough one can swing backward and forward in small increments of six inches, then from contact, then from six inches before contact, twelve inches before, etc., etc. and then back off and loosen up.

To put things most simply, one wants the strings not to roll in either direction from before contact to end of followthrough, it seems to me.

Is not this the way to administer a surgical incision? From a three-quarter pitching motion like that of Dan Gazaway combined with what the upper body does one can chop as with an ax using the frame to come down on a 45-degree path which will reinforce power along 45-degree angle of the strings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEq5xZvqGXc

The next logical experiments will be to grab handle as if it's a baseball, getting it out in fingers and adding some nifty loosening and tightening of bottom two fingers as natural adjunct to whatever wrist action there already is, and, finally, to work backward in small increments from the other two followthroughs.

[bottle]

Attack the Serve

Transition from center to edge fulcrum works better if shoulders have built up steam by the time bent front leg and crossing opposite arm stop body to accelerate hitting arm and both shoulders.

[bottle]

Center to Edge

A flowing change in fulcrum within some stroke process can happen among other places in 1) the Do Budge Don't Budge Don Budge Backhand and 2) the Dan Gazaway derived baseball pitch where the first modification is to put a tennis racket in the pitcher's hand.

1) The big one-hander I have developed is only enabled by smaller backhands. You can't put a Stradivarius in the hands of a beginning violinist and expect happy results. For me, this backhand should lurk, awaiting a moment of inspiration. It is not a shot I'll try every time.

But now the score is good. Although the ball is coming fast, the big backhand actually takes less time to get off than some others. Backswing was good. Palm faced down early and hand then dropped a little with palm still faced down to get the tent inflation going as fist smoothly bonks sideways with palm still faced down.

If you remember (for few great things can be learned in a single day), the shoulders are smoothly turning and the front leg is locked-- yes, locked by virtue of being pointed more toward side fence than the leg of Adriano Panatta or Gustavo Kuerten. Compare front foot in each of three videos to see what I mean. Sorry, Adriano, you weren't included.

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

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/pro_men/gustavo_kuerten/gustavo_kuerten_v1/gustavo_kuerten_v1.html?GKBHWideRear-0151810-0001-001.mov

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

A good question to ask of turning shoulders is, "Are you, shoulders, pulling the hips around or not?" Choose "not."

"Not" will keep the hips closed until desired release of them which will be late. Think dance. And classic tennis advice to keep head still. Which rotation keeps head stiller, rotation from gut (center fulcrum) or rotation from hips (body edge fulcrum)? Especially if you believe that the biggest contributor to effective hips rotation is drive from the outside leg. This shot is a dance step. Perfect balance is the goal.

2) Curveball or wide serve is, as Dennis Ralston says, "the hardest of the four placements to develop." Again I follow the center to edge fulcrum change rule. This most difficult of serves however can provide the foundation for a new variety of fastballs and topspin serves without compromising the neuronal pathways of one's previous serves-- especially if the older serves are very different.

The new plan: Using lots of gravity for repeatability (Brosseau), drop both hands and then take them up together. The racket however turns out as it starts up to bare its saber like front edge for slice. At top of backswing, just as ball begins to fall, the bottom two fingers of hitting hand relax to let the racket tip fall along the diagonal plane of the strings. The forefinger already was relaxed or off the racket. The handle pivots between the thumb and middle finger which are across from each other-- best if this grip is out in the fingers and not settled into the palm. I'd like to keep front heel up for first part of the forward swing which, starting immediately once the tossed ball has fallen a bit, goes fast, i.e., the shoulders crank but the hips stay closed and the head stays still. Now the hips do crank to flatten the foot which immediately locks and braces on bent knee and resists and brakes.

That accelerates the arm and both shoulders, i.e., there is a small jackknife which helps put the hand on the thigh just above the knee with 45-degrees open racket pointing at side fence.

[bottle]

Kinetic Chain Abuse

The overly logical modern mind is the culprit.

So, in the simplest of all rhythmic backswings adopted from the John McEnroe forehand, one says to oneself, "I'll keep the racket always on edge this time as if to balance a coin on the upper rim."

That part is all right-- not the only approach to contact available but it will suffice.

One is more apt to go wrong in what happens next. The arm falls like a paper cutter as the shoulders turn-- still okay.

The delayed hips finally release with purpose in mind of prolonging "dwell"-- not bad.

The rub is in the left brain concept that the shoulders move first, the hips second.

How about if the shoulders move first and the hips and shoulders move second to form a kinetic snake?

This prolonging i.e. slowing down of forward shoulders swing could work. Who knows until who has tried it?

[bottle]

J.

J., the 4.5 player I was telling you about, reader, also was the narrator of "As the Sauce Burns," my favorite all-time play at the National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem.

[bottle]

Re # 1782 On Baseball Pitch Tennis Serves

All of this service thought is new to me, reader, just as I imagine it-- due to the predominant tennis instruction of our time-- is new to you. How much I want to hit through the ball on out wide slice or topspin possibly breaking the other way I still need to determine. For a cannonball however there is no question, and a relief pitcher for the Detroit Tigers recently made a video to demonstrate "the towel exercise."

Using a knotted towel of the type familiar to learning tennis players, he shows how from a three-quarters arm pitching motion, one can hurl the knot across the body (bad) or out toward target (good) before it then comes round.

This reliever, successful on more than one team, says he does the towel trick twice a week to improve his "extension."

The TV crew who worked with him, however, says that Justin Verlander, the highest paid Detroit pitcher, is dismissive of the towel.

Verlander, however, has not pitched up to his usual standard this year.