A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Honing Volleys in a New System

Like Luke Digweed in the UK, the American teaching pro who is working with me has a special feeder stroke for improving any student's volley.

He tosses the ball quite high, which gives him time to take his racket quite far back. Then he whollops the ball straight at the student.

FV, BV, FV, BV-- that's the way it's going in splendidly regular percussive rhythm with variety and more distant contacts to happen later.

The new volley design is perfect for the new year and my new age, 76 .

For the BV I need do practically nothing-- just lift the racket a little to go DTL, maybe dip the shoulder a little-- and lift racket less-- to go cc .

The 10 to 1 ratio for FV is working well so long as I think of catching the ball with a butterfly net. I don't do that of course but rather fire the racket a couple inches ahead of still elbow while turning the strings slightly under, a powerful because controlling move.

These volleys are temptation free since wrist is already straight. When wrist is already straight who's going to flip it forward?

Note: The American teaching pro working with me is fictional. Sorry about that.

[bottle]

FV's Where Upper Arm Acts as a Post

Tried some of these posted volleys in self-feed where I threw ball up and hit it out of the air-- very promising if one declares a 10 to 1 ratio between FV flip-out and FV forward hit.

Let's follow Oscar Wegner's joke recommendation to have a one inch long volley (yes Oscar does tell jokes).

That would be 10 inches of racket head travel to side followed by one inch forward.

When I try this with a racket the distances actually are more like 20 inches and two inches.

The bent arm makes some twisting backward from forearm to send (better sand) bottom edge forward during the two inches very confidently and firmly.

Compare this ratio to that of a conventional volley where waiting position points the racket on a perpendicular to the net. BV is then one to one as is FV.

In the new system one could call BV one to one but FV ten to one. How many days would a person need to get used to that?

[bottle]

Amen. And Happy New Year.

[stotty]

Similarly, one can pose many questions about tennis and only sometime receive a satisfactory answer or a satisfactory other question among the hits. Very often-- surprisingly often with all the information so readily available nowadays-- one will be left to rely on one's own experience if one truly seeks the best answer. I'm not complaining, just trying to tell it like it is.

Yes, this is how it is - and with all the extraordinary nuances that come with a single tennis stroke, it's how it should be. It's an endlessly intriguing game for the likes of you and me.

[bottle]

Are the Two Snakes in the Caduceus Symbol Having Sex?

Intriguing shot that FV of McEnroe's. His upper arm is often wedged a little closer to the body than other players. Sometimes he almost sticks it to his side and uses it as a post to deflect or steer the volley. One such example is in the archive somewhere...wait a minute, it's here: http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...evelFront2.mov

I have never seen any other player do this as McEnroe does. It's a deft trick...

Yes. And my title question seems a fair one to ask too (http://www.avatarpoint.com/caduceus.html). My primal experience is of watching two milk snakes intertwined and stretched out on a mountaintop in Garrison, New York. I posed the question years ago during the infancy of the internet and received unsatisfactory answers.

Similarly, one can pose many questions about tennis and only sometime receive a satisfactory answer or a satisfactory other question among the hits. Very often-- surprisingly often with all the information so readily available nowadays-- one will be left to rely on one's own experience if one truly seeks the best answer. I'm not complaining, just trying to tell it like it is.

Is there intrinsic advantage to forehand volley preparation that is longer than normal and starts from low (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...evelRear.mov)?

How could this work? How be fast enough? Questions, questions.

Also, what are the odds that one's distinctive stapler, older than one's 35-year-old son and which he remembers, would only run out of staples on December thirty-first? Or that the huge damp and gnarled log in the fireplace would burn all the way down to ash? It did.

Stotty found the above example of John McEnroe planing a forehand volley with his elbow in. I should like to now suggest that McEnroe does this more often than not and only uses more traditional forward use of the arm when he has to stretch for the ball which happens more and more but not too much as he grows older.

And that if McEnroe's default FV does involve such "planing" of the forearm perhaps he does the same thing on the "backswing," i.e., fires the racket head past the bent elbow.

[bottle]

Feet Under One

The best athlete I've ever seen was Chris Paul at Wake Forest University before he was in the NBA, a point guard who always keeps his feet under his shoulders. Similarly, John McEnroe is a very good point guard when he plays basketball. Keeping one's feet beneath one, the way Mac does, is the key to skipping, running or skating through a volley.

[bottle]

A Backhand I've Never Tried

Composite grip but with bent thumb on pointy ridge. Body only backswing in which you make your body small and try to look like John McEnroe (impossible but worth a try).

Something extra happens as the shoulder rotates down and around. It might be Victoria's Secret.

The hands perform a slight tug 'o war the one against the other.

Now you can "cut the wire," much like Cageman as he opens this website with the waterfall species of one hand backhand.

If Cageman can drop racket tip to inside before effectively rolling it to outside even as his racket falls a thousand feet, you can do the same thing but not in mist.

This means, unlike Ivan Lendl, early withdrawal of guide hand from racket.

Try keeping shoulder low and use this unified double roll for sloppy slappy contact. Then back off a little so that there is no slap. Continue to smooth out the conglomeration and play ball.

[bottle]

More on John McEnroe's Volley "Backswings"

So how far out in front does JM hit his forehand volley (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...cFHVSide.mov)? Some people say you ought to hit it by the side of your body.

Way out front.

And does the backswing go back? A backswing has to go back to be a backswing, right? Rather, it goes sideways-- no surprise when you consider that strings were cheated for a backhand volley.

So, does the backswing go forward as well as sideways? Possibly. And then maybe go backward a little? Use the computer's arrow keys if you are interested in questions such as these. Good advice or the best I can do and that even rhymes (keys and these).

As racket goes up it naturally closes: one of many interesting features. McEnroe sure didn't open the strings on this one then or during contact or afterwards. And don't forget his footwork.

[bottle]

Another Strategy: Talk to Them

Here comes the big anti-climax as in a symphony by Anton Bruckner. Maybe anti-climax is where things end up. You get better if you keep trying but you've never gotten better. But if you think mistakenly that you are "there" watch out for what happens next.

I won't give up my doubles league, so I am considering negotiation with any order of the three enemies of mine who are always on the court.

"Isolation tennis!" I shall cry as the first lob towers to within six inches of the indoor facility roof.

I shall be pretending to be Bobby Riggs and the mockery won't stop there.

"Afraid to hit it to me, eh?-- buk-bukkety-buk."

This will at least shake things up. But first I'll try some mild drifts and madman poaches. Did you know, reader, that a rotorded server ought to have a very good overhead?

"Rotorded," of course, is my neologistic adjective for a player whose physique won't allow him to get his racket tip low enough for a good serve.

That very fact should qualify him for an excellent overhead. He need only pattern it on that of John McEnroe (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...LevelRear1.mov) even though John can make the tip go very low.

Don't point first with elbow and then index finger or use any other schoolmarmish trick but do get opposite hand high and use the down-and-up of your everyday serve and whale away. For a good whale see Louise's shirt in # 2842 .

[bottle]

Isn't it amazing. How amazing I began to realize this summer when I met "Stotty." He is a guy that really preserves his handle. I know who don-budge is and who bottle is and who klacr, tennis-chiro, Phil etc. are. I know Stotty's real name too but make sure to preserve his moniker because that is the way he wants it.

[klacr]

Glad to hear that don_budge and bottle met. It's a powerful connection. I met gzhpcu this past summer. What a great experience! Always fascinating to go from the text on the forum to meeting the actual person.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[don_budge]

The Razor's Edge...W. Somerset Maughm

So what to do in the case of either explanation?

That's right bottle...aka John Escher. Life is merely a game of connecting the dots and I sure am glad that we connected.

The ice storm came as predicted and life being what it is...fragile...it's wise to avoid making foolish decisions. Driving all of the way to the Eastside Tennis Club would have been great to actually see what it is that you are writing about in your descriptive posts but we chose the conservative way out...we went to watch a movie instead. Seeing as I have not been to an American movie theater in ten years I left the decision to see "The Danish Girl" up to my father's wife. I just went along for the ride. It's always my own peculiar version in my "Journey to the End of the Night".

"The Danish Girl" was a superb movie of choice seeing as it has the same Scandinavian roots that I have been assimilated into for the past ten years, only it takes place nearly a century ago. It is the story of the first attempted operation to transition a man into a woman...the first transsexual. Or is it transgender? Never mind about being politically correct...the Donald is setting all of that straight. Or is he? Just what the hell is he doing anyways?

It was a superb movie on different levels. A wonderful choice considering the liberal LBGT agenda that is sweeping mankind. The story begins in Copenhagen as a young married couple of artists begin their journey unwittingly as the successful husband artist discovers that he likes to dress up in lacey nothings and underthings...in woman's clothing. The wife as a consequence becomes more successful than the husband as an artist as she achieves her unparalleled success by painting portaits of her husband transitioning into a woman. At first it is only in the clothes that satisfies him but he eventually succumbs to a longing that is much deeper than "skin deep".

Bing...bang...bye. There go the bits and pieces that make him a man and he survives the first operation that renders him a virtual eunuch. He perhaps gets a little over anxious to become a woman and he undergoes the second operation a tad prematurely that would have given him the flower that he had always longed for deep down inside...he wanted to have a vagina. He dies after this operation but in a dream he is a baby and his mommy calls him by his "lady name"...Lily. By coming full circle he fulfills his dream...by dying. The ultimate irony.

The movie struck a couple of chords. My father was particularly moved as was his wife. The acting was actually wonderful and the only casting change I may have suggested was Nicolas Cage as the supporting actor who was the childhood friend of the man who had the soul of a woman trapped inside of him. The scenes from Denmark and Paris were beautiful and the performance by the man\woman was particularly moving. The woman was every bit as convincing as the man transitioning was.

Interesting enough...I think that my father and his wife were particularly surprised in my assessment of the film as I launched into a soliloquy...about an experience I had in a previous life in San Francisco. It was a show done by transvestites. After witnessing this spectacle I was always convinced that these creatures knew more about women that any other "normal" man...any other straight man. From the make up to the dressing up...these guys were in touch with their feminine sides inside and out. You didn't think I was that sensitive did you? Hope knows though...she correctly diagnosed me as a man of the world bypassing the words "libertard" and "conservatard".

But I do regret not having that hit with bottle...we did have a wonderful discussion about writing about tennis. I won't bore you with the details...which were actually anything but boring. All I can say is John is the kind of man you would be lucky to call a friend. His significant other...Hope, obviously has good taste.

I began this trip reading "The Razor's Edge" for the third or fourth time. As I finished reading it I struck up a conversation with the gentleman sitting next to me on the flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Chicago. He was an Indian man...he had flown on an eleven hour flight to Germany before getting on the nine hour jaunt to Chicago...the main character's hometown in Somerset's brilliant novel. He was a vegetarian and a surgeon...we talked about Hinduism for hours...seven miles high. A very surreal experience as the turbulence bounced us around in the air.

He spoke of the balance of the good and evil that resides in all of us and he spoke of our struggle trying to evolve to a higher level. This trip has really been "a trip"...a real journey. Meeting Escher and his Hope were a couple of dots...significant dots. One that I am thankful for.

[bottle]

Isolation in Senior Doubles

Steve-- don_budge-- is about to return to his wife's horse-breeding farm in Sweden. We were going to hit for an hour at East Side Tennis, Detroit. But then something happened even worse than the two feet of snow I predicted: ice.

Since Steve, more than an hour away, was bringing his father and step-mother and I Hope to watch, and the father was ailing somewhat, and nobody likes ice we thought it best to cancel but I took the court time anyway and did self-feed preparatory to doubles tomorrow.

One of the many subjects that Steve and I discussed on the phone was what to do when you get isolated in doubles.

Your opponents won't hit to you, which could be a compliment, but it makes Steve mad and it makes me mad.

The three players just hit the ball to each other with a succession of towering lobs included. They jockey, Steve pointed out, until they get a perfect angle with which to hit at you and make you look like a chump.

I already knew that Steve has a very good mind but I liked this explanation very much, certainly better than my own which was that I have so much time to think that I overthink and therefore miss the shot when it finally comes.

So what to do in the case of either explanation?

Steve's solution is not to play doubles but rather singles as a better adjunct to his contracted 25 hours (or was it 29?) of teaching tennis in central Sweden each week.

In mixed doubles, he suggested, the same problem can become even worse.

One could always find a very, very good doubles partner, I suppose, which might cause the opponents to hit to you. Or one could pretend to be young and poach like a madman. Think I'll try that one. So what if we lose but maybe we won't.

[bottle]

Down-and-Up McEnroes

Ground strokes go down and up.

Volleys go down and up.

Serves go down and up.

Overheads go down and up (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...evelFront1.mov).

I'm glad JM beat all those people who had upside down strokes. They deserved it.

[bottle]

FHV in a New System

Is based on that of John McEnroe. Don't know why didn't do this before. The racket, low and cheated over, seems designed for BHV. Just raise the racket to hit one.

Now comes the challenge of the FHV which seems too distant from the preparation to be quick enough to be effective.

Just think of a tomahawk. The racket does down and up now instead of straight across from the middle of possibilities. If you do this kill action rather than think about it you realize on some unconscious level you are hitting a unique form of volley-smash that is more closely related to the down-and-up in a service motion than to the straight back racket of an ordinary smash.

The down of down-and-up is accomplished with both hands on the racket.

The up of down-and-up is accomplished with soloing racket.

If one is early enough one can wait with strings still as in dead stick in billiards. The most accurate volleys always seem to have the word "wait" built into them.

But if one is late getting to one's FHV but nevertheless does succeed in getting there, one probably will hit the ball harder than usual because of the new tomahawk motion that relies less on speed of the oncoming ball to generate quality put-away (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...MacFHVRear.mov). In this one the time/action ratio within the "backswing" seems about 1 with both hands to take the racket down compared to 5 for individual snaking out and up of the arm to reach the ball.