A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Report

Guess what: These backhands work, although they raise for me the somewhat uncomfortable thought that the top batting coaches in baseball explain ground strokes in tennis better than the top mechanics in tennis itself.

But how much am I supposed to care? Am I really out to reform tennis instruction like World's Best Coach? Am I that generous? No, I want a good backhand. And if everybody was smart whom would there be left for me to destroy as I feel very, very good about myself, as I did early Tuesday morning when I was the only person on the winner's court three times.

Not that I have found Eldorado or the Fountain of Youth or even my best backhand. I most certainly am on track however and that alone may provide the biggest high or "rush" as we romantics of the sixties were apt to say even if we were among the straighter members of that club.

Still to be determined: A) Should closed front foot stay flat in a single position (simple) or pivot a bit on heel (complex)? And B) Since feel of my backhand is now more like a baseball swing in which all elements of transition are built into the dynamic action of forwardness, should I save a bit of forward arm straightening for then, too?*

Finally, I reserve Wawrinkle rollover for the future, reveling for the time being in a flat hand single piece swing with racket trailing directly behind my hand until long after contact.

*Answer: No. Get arm straight (barred) while it is high, as you (I) stride out.

[bottle]

Melbourne

We Eschers von Glas of Snob Hill, Zurich, join the rest of Switzerland in applauding both of our lads, Roger and the Stanimal.

We wish them all the best in their future endeavors, and I, as third generation American branch, just wish to say that, despite all the doilies and fingerbowls we Eschers use when we take tea up on Snob Hill, at heart we are regular guys and gals.

In fact, I, Bottle Escher, don't know exactly what transpired with Fafa this morning at 3:30 a.m. other than that Roger came to the net.

As I watch that match during daylight, I shall wish-- even desperately-- that no one tell me the result.

[bottle]

Knob-Pulling that is a Simultaneous Feeling for the 1htsbh Ball

If you swing roundhouse at the ball you ain't feeling for it.

If you feel for it by bowling the knob down and up-- on a straight line-- you ain't swinging at it.

If you swing at it while doing nothing else but veering hand slightly in toward your body you arrive at a compromise.

To ensure the necessity for this veer only, you can set up with ball to the outside.

All this relies on perfect batting launch position from baseball, i.e., the racket length is set at 45 degrees in two different dimensions.

As you step and untwist your hips, your feel/swing (half-feel, half-swing) levels your hitting palm with no added backward twist of the arm by you.

As you brake hips from your front foot, energy runs up your front leg and stiffens your entire body so that all of your recent hip-work is transmitted directly into the arm and racket.

Among other likely pitfalls, this shot will never work if the shoulder is not completely relaxed during this essential transmission of stored energy.

[bottle]

Backhand Ziegenfuss (Goat's Foot)

A Ziegenfuss, named after the suffragette tennis player Valerie Ziegenfuss, early activist compatriot of Peaches Bartkowicz and Billie Jean King, is a forehand like Valerie's in which the arm goes first, the body second.

While miming in my stocking feet against a varnished wood floor both Lau type (lots of hips) and Wawrinkle (lots of shoulders) 1htsbh's, I noticed that if one swings arm alone in the desired pattern of either category, the arm naturally pulls the shoulders around which in turn pull the hips and feet around for perfect recovery in any direction.

One could see this as development of sequence opposite to kinetic chain-- good sedition in other words.

A lot of delayed angular weight seems to go onto the ball, but have I tried this quiet, miminalist shot yet? Nope, haven't had time or court time.

[bottle]

"You can do anything you want-- if you have the talent."-- Jim Kacian

But sometimes I don't and sometimes I do.

[julian1]

A Swiss chocolate thread

But sometimes I don't and sometimes I do.

Did you read a Swiss chocolate thread?

[bottle]

Yes I did and I enjoyed the Times article and the detail of the Stanimal's chair refusing to fold.

[bottle]

Different Definitions of Extension, Cont'd

From gsheiner:

1. I've been focusing on getting a really good upper body rotation with a significant angle between the upper body and lower body. Doing this enables me to get back to the ball with my core and not have to use my arm as much.

2. Extension, extension, extension-- but within the context of core rotation. So, the core rotation never stops but at contact I try to extend the hitting arm structure as much as possible. Also, I try to keep my head fixed as possible on the contact point after contact since lifting the head ruins the stroke for me.

To purposefully limit my discussion to 1htsbh, this sounds like Stanislas Wawrinka. I have spoken before of the “Wawrinkle” as consisting of relatively stable hips combined with a lot of continuous shoulders.

Reducing arm motion through more use of core is pure Vic Braden.

At opposite extreme from the Wawrinkle is Lau type batting from baseball where the hips and arms get going early and then front leg slams on the brake to throw everything forward (and maybe over the fence).

That these variations seldom get discussed together seems fairly moronic since they are what’s out there.

One thing that Wawrinka and good batters have in common is that they come level to the ball. Wawrinka doesn’t generate his topspin from a foot or more below the ball the way so many of us were instructed.*

It seems to me that Wawrinka’s rollover then provides racket tip extension straight at the target long before his arm points straight at the target.

The Lau type batters meanwhile, with no rollover whatsoever, create underspin for carry—seemingly a whole different thing.

Ever since I read Don Budge’s autobiography, however, I have wondered if the most penetrating topspun and underspun shots in tennis are not, technically speaking, almost the same.

How else could Don Budge have confused them before a Wimbledon final for which he solved the problem just in time.

*Oh, sorry. I'll stick with most of what I just said. But in this one the Stanimal comes to the ball from underneath:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHCenterArmActionCourtLevelFront1.mp4

Here's another come from below.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHCenterArmActionRear1.mp4

If these special format video links to the Stanimal are beginning to disintegrate, we'd better enjoy the good ones while we can. The inclination to do so certainly becomes greater right after the Stanimal wins a major. For the sake of tennis history, the Stanimal didn't blow Nadal off the court for just a set, but rather for a set and one break. That was when the standing nine-count occurred.

Followed by everything in that and the next and then the final round.

No rollover (!):

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

Rollover this far after contact doesn't count as rollover:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHWideArmActionCourtLevelFront1.mp4

[bottle]

A Lot of Hips or A Lot of Shoulders?

Look at all the hips in this one, and how rear heel comes up early, just like a baseball batter determined to avoid the dreaded “squishing a bug” yet still able to freeze his swing without coming around if he's taking the pitch.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHWideArmActionSide2.mp4

One could have the rhythm down for this shot but still be lacking Stan's fullness of loop as racket goes down and ALMOST gets parallel to rear fence (but not quite), then circles in the low position until racket butt is perpendicular to the net.

That is when the arm rolls to give strings their upward brush, in my view, followed by NO ROLL in some videos and STILL MORE ROLL in others.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHWideArmActionCourtLevelFront1.mp4

In this one the Lynne Rolley assertion in this month’s TENNIS that Stan doesn’t open his shoulders too soon seems accurate. Hips carried shoulders and “kept chest on ball." There wasn’t independent swing from the gut at least by contact time:

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

Anybody who decided to feature Stan’s backhand just before The Australian Open may possess prophetic powers.

But that doesn’t solve the point of contention over whether Stan keeps his hips relatively stable and derives more power from gut or whether he uses a lot of early hips like one of the Lau book baseball players.

In those videos and articles I’ve seen he does both—perhaps in the same match or at different times in his life. Not that my prime interest is to get this straight. My concern is which method is going to work best for me, and I put that in the future since until now I have been down and up and up and down, success-wise, in trying out these ideas in doubles competition from the ad court on clay.

[bottle]

A New Scheme Out Of All This

Stick the stride.

Start the hips while shooting racket tip way down.

Use rise of heel, i.e., hips rotation moving shoulder to bring racket tip (still way down) perpendicular to rear fence.

Whirl the racket up.

Transmute energy of upward whirl into simple racket trajectory-- upper cut on more of a "through the ball" vector.

How provocative is this? Very, in that the strings come up to ball on a steeper slant than they depart from it.

[bottle]

Modeling on Wednesday at Noon

I really like this one and think it has to work and believe I will be able to do it if I concentrate enough. Reader, grab the capsule and slowly slide it back and forth. Stop with racket tip by right calf. Behold the extreme slant of the racket! Could you do that? Why not? You got a prejudice against big slant?

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

One thing I'm NOT going to experiment with: The splayed front foot of Wawrinka in every video where he steps out. I am a closed front foot guy both from reading LAU'S LAWS ON HITTING and from being slightly pigeon-toed.

[bottle]

More Swing Level to the Ball

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHMovesBackArmActionRear.mp4

How about the late stride? That's something worth noting, too.

[bottle]

High Ball

Here's a very high one. Despite the height of contact, Stan's palm just got parallel to the court.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHCenterArmActionRear4.mp4

[bottle]

Swiss but not Federer

In this one the palm gets parallel to the court at the same place as for high contact (# 1978), but the ball was hit lower with top of frame significantly below the hand!

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/stanislas_wawrinka/sw_backhand/sw_bh_armaction/sw_bh_armaction.html?SWBHShortHittingArmRear.mp4

A person trying to master this particular breed of one-hander needs to understand and accept such basic slanted down contacts (racket length tilted 45 degrees in this case) even though there was roll of the arm to bring strings up just before contact, just not as much as one might expect.

I'm also circling back to the earlier idea of adopting a skunk tailed backswing just as I do on my slice.

A more vertical racket-- in the 1htsbh-- will minimize the twist and turns of other one handers (Federer) by getting strings more closed at the beginning.

Gravity will become more of a component too as one pulls knob toward ball while cranking the hips.

Wawrinka is seen in this month's issue of TENNIS Magazine with racket at 45 degrees, the basic "launch position" in a baseball swing-- but these videos show the simplification of more verticality. The racket knob is pulled but can almost form a waterfall coming down.

Tony Roche's backhand comes to mind. All I'm saying is that there is a dramatic drop. But hips most likely are bringing shoulder and the whole dropping apparatus somewhat around at the same time.

If a 74-year-old can talk himself into a great 1htsbh I may do it now.

[stotty]

Weight transfer

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

How about the late stride? That's something worth noting, too.

Terrific shot this one because he's moving back yet still manages to transfer weight forwards, visibly. When I try this sort of thing, the ball drops off the racket and goes nowhere.