A New Year's Serve

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Banking on Banking: Too Small to Fail

The first "banking" here refers to investment, the second to aeronautics. In SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER: WELBY VAN HORN AND HIS TENNIS TEACHING SYSTEM by Edward Weiss, Welby applies banking to a good eastern forehand which means he discovered it there first.

Taking this information, I found banking in the composite grip forehands of John McEnroe. The most basic example sees bending of outside knee during the up of John's down and up backswing. Then, as John drives upward on that leg, his wing tip or hitting shoulder banks down and up by contact, something that I at 75 (for three more weeks) can only do with occasional success.

The rest of the time I am better off keeping my knees loose and relaxed with butt kept low. The down and up backswing works well then if I blend it immediately into downward banking with knees still bent followed by banking up to level by contact.

Psychologically, I have conditioned myself to think only of getting solid and feel the shoulder get connected with the shot and bank down.

The time may now have come however to be aware of shoulder rising up to ball. I think that over-emphasis on kinetic chain has led players to think of body segments as sequenced horizontal discs. But if shoulder is rising it's not part of an old 33 & 1/3 rpm vinyl record. I don't see much reason either for sequencing in one's mind hips and shoulders since that either will or won't happen.

Additionally, I should not rely for more topspin on the first method of McEnrovian banking in pressure situations-- better to hit an abbreviated Federfore or ATP3 forehand with different grip.

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This Serve Probably Won't Work-- Gonna Try It Anyway

Down and up gets racket close to hitting head. Fingers relax and wrist performs radial deviation (SIM) to miss skull: the end of the backswing. Everything then accelerates from slow-fast with the two halves of the arm pressing together and the hand opening from forearm (SIM). That's two kinds of wrist movement happening quite close together. Talking things through nevertheless helps. Remember PBA (paralysis by analysis) is no worse than PBNEA sort of like an apnea (paralysis by not enough analysis).

I've kept elbow way back, remembering the time, that, to impress my Swedish girlfriend I threw a rock at a telephone pole in Eastport, Maine.

The fact that I missed the pole (and the girlfriend) is not germane to this discussion, but the elbow held back is.

Everything now flings-- hips and elbow especially, but how do the hips turn? And how does the elbow turn? And what else is going on other than triceps muscle mightily straightening the arm as wrist drives perfectly straight?

The hips turn into flat left foot since I am old. They do not turn as natural part of a rocket lift-off. Old men should not jump up in the air.

This uniquely old-fashioned hips turn offers these interesting options. Whirl a lot for a flat serve. Whirl half that much for topspin slice. Whirl not at all for kick. Just one way of approaching fine control.

But where were we in our sixth of a second? With everything unloading at a telephone pole (in Eastpole with a Hungarian girlfriend in my novel). But it's time to reverse direction-- to turn EUAR into IUAR (internal upper arm rotation) and send energy straight up as when John McEnroe's racket slipped from his sweaty hand and flew right up to the sky.

Okay, so the sudden reversal may naturally spring elbow slightly backward. But here's what I want to try: to arch upper body sending shoulder backward just then.

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Continued

Once one has settled on exactly how wants to hit the see see, the whole subject may become about where one's body is and how it is arranged in relation to the ball (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nt_of_contact/).

Nobody is perfect, so one will often have a need for fine adjustment, one example of which is sending elbow out from body on a slightly different angle. You might that way close on ball a little even though you thought you didn't want to do that any more.

Or vary the amount of cranking the lower edge of the racket forward as elbow accelerates in toward body. Or combine all factors without being aware of any particular one.

That would be "letting go."

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Continued

This seems promising. The whole concept derives from one highlighted shot of Steve Johnson pulled way wide in a recent match with Kevin Anderson. Steve brings the ball back into the court behind Kevin in improbable fashion. With delicacy!

But a discovered shot may take days (maybe days and days) to come into full focus.

To the previous post I add this: In baseball there are more pitchers with good curve balls than screwballs. It may be easier for somebody-- maybe even me-- to crank the arm one way rather than the other when in a situation requiring utmost precision.

Utmost precision is the reason I call the topspin angle a "see see."

I'm thinking, you crank the arm hard as you fling elbow down into your side. (Well, it doesn't stop or HIT it.) Rising elbow on the other side then is what administers controllable spin to the ball. Most important, contact point may now occur where it occurs in one's body-driven forehands.

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Slight Deception

If you cross with left hand on every forehand except for a see see, even a dull opponent who is not trying to read you will be tipped off.

I nevertheless would like to get the left elbow up on left side of body for slightly more upward angle to the subsequent uppercut.

Both forearms therefore bend inward from the two elbows. And the hitting arm backswing now changes from the easy down-and-up of a McEnrueful to a kind of inverted stirring of a pot that severely turns the racket tip down toward the court while closing it even more than strong grip dictates.

The feel of sidearm scaling of a flat rock now comes into play. Psychologically, such childhood memory may be all there is left to cling to in that the shot has been evolving more and more toward arm only.

Arm only. That sounds awful. But a baseball pitcher or person who has ever undergone strength testing from a chiropractor may know that the arm is stronger from some positions than others.

To try, from the inverted stir position with scapula retracted: Elbow comes into body before it goes out while twisting racket to a more square position by contact.

If one can twist elbow over a tennis ball one can twist elbow downward as well, perhaps with the result that strings zing sharply upward at a good contact point.

Followthrough: Release of scapular retraction combined with arm straightening after the ball.

Whole shot feel: Swing of both elbows around the still body so that distance of hands from one another (about shoulders' width) remains constant throughout.

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Against Easy Satisfaction

This is see see exploration, not ego massage. Decision: Scapulation at end of the down-and-up. Decision: Relax the shoulder to swing the elbow. Decision: keep scapula retracted during the swing. Decision: Right left right footwork. Decision: No extra load of right leg other than the bend the natural footwork can provide. Decision: Don't swing from shoulders or hips or both-- not in this shot. Decision: Don't fire outside leg either. Decision: Let the footwork determine desired compass setting so that elbow can swing away from the body to slightly open the racket face.

Decision: Try these decisions to see how they work and with what followthrough.

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Big Guy on Tennis Channel: Lean, Load, Leverage

He is a teaching pro. And what he says contradicts the immediate unit turn espoused by the tennis teaching world. His "leverage" equates with what other persons might call body turn or turns.

So, should we include this teacher in our rocket pointed at the Andromeda Galaxy along with all the politicians we have already put there? Or should we give his idea a try?

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Addendum to this Futuristic Thought

The immediately preceding scheme includes scapular retraction in that right shoulder-blade (in the case of a right handed player) clenches toward left shoulder-blade. Well, that action might be made to fight hips rotation into flat left foot rather than happen sooner during the down and up backswing. One of these alternatives ought to work better than the other-- will see.

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Lead Elbow Reversed

I've tried so many forms of see see that I feel I shouldn't ignore the other possibilities. My first question is "Who knows?" Who really has figured out a simpler and more reliable way of hitting the see see, and if so, why haven't they shared this information with others? Or "with udders," as Andre Agassi would say.

Am always looking for Aunt Frieda's (about to be 102) "stupid little thing that might make a big difference." And this has led to misunderstanding. For opponents know I can hit the shot-- they've seen me do it and even have begged me not to do it. So why shouldn't I be happy with the way I did it? Because I miss my see sees too. And because I suspect there is a better way to hit them that has nothing to do with athleticism and everything to do with common sense.

Today we start with two English expressions, one from tennis-- "lead elbow"-- and the other a verb from mathematics-- to "sum." Lead elbow, generally speaking, refers to a seizing up of the whole body, a kind of cerebral arthritic paralysis, i.e., what happens to the tin woodman after a thunderstorm.

More specifically, lead elbow implies an elbow that ought to slide or throw past or away from or away from and then into the body but doesn't. Well, lead is heavy. So we start by lightening up, by utterly relaxing the shoulder so that the elbow can move with smoothness and ease.

The second expression, "to sum," gets used far less in tennis than "kinetic chain" and other dreams of sequence. Those theories and dreams are neither bad nor the whole story.

We sum the following elements today although falling snow forbids the use of an outdoor court: relaxed elbow combined with severely closed racket that got that way early. Plus adduction from right scapula plus minimal body rotation of hips into flat foot.

A backswing that could enable this: inverted or down and up like that of John McEnroe only with a western grip. To this I would add a snakelike return of head toward ball on the up of down-and-up (reptilian head in the case of the serpent, racket tip return in the case of the tennis player). The arm which was fairly straight contracts to a right angle to do this.

Envisioned strings are parallel to court-- that closed. The hitting side scapula has cocked (retracted) as part of the easy backswing. The forward swing now can go more away from the body. The shoulders therefore are more open to the target than in certain other designs. The strings are in the process of opening rather than closing as they make contact with the ball.

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Procrustes

Teaching pros will sometimes object to one-size-fits-all thinking in tennis. They could go one step further to make this sentiment more memorable by explaining the meaning of the word procrustean (same idea) and then describe Procrustes as a rogue smith and bandit from Attica who stretched people or cut off their legs so as to fit the size of an iron bed.

Of course such use of Greek mythology might drive all tough guys and gals from tennis or so enrage them that they would drive every intellectual out of tennis either of which would be an equal shame.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/33595-why-athletes-use-their-platform-to-effect-change-off-the-field

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Five One Hand Backhands in a Row

Bumblebee....bumblebee....alternate....Watergate.. ..pollinate.

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Bumblebee Backhand

It's a one-hander in which the syllables of bumblebee replace the syllables of bumpety-bump for perfect footwork.

"bum" is the flying grip change that suddenly puts the racket up and around and behind one's neck.

"ble" is the noise of right toes hitting the court directly in front of left foot as the two hands on the racket go into their tug o' war.

"bee" is the step-out and hips turn that make the thing work, i.e., "pollinate," a tri-syllabic word which now can be alternated with "bumblebee," a creature after all whose distinct vibration is especially good for the task at hand.

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No, Try This Instead

This much the same: Thumb bent with pad on Choctaw Ridge (1.5), which is as sharp as the crest of a miniature house, an A-frame. I had one in which to write, my ex another in which to paint. We weren't married yet. The two skinny A-frames were side by side on the bank of a narrow creek with dolphins swimming past. We were artists in a small scientific community at Middle Place, Ossabaw Island, Georgia.

Why did we have such a good deal? Because I had been to the island the year before staying at the artist colony five miles away. Every day I would write for four hours, make myself lunch, then ride a bike to Middle Place, split wood, then ride back.

The scientists liked that. They liked to stay warm at night. And they weren't good at splitting wood.

I think it important to stress the sharpness of the crests of those A-frames. Just as one should stress the sharpness of each pointy ridge on the handle of a tennis racket.

I have already tried to improve on the abstraction of most grip change systems. My bent thumb is always on some ridge. The only question is which ridge. I've got to feel the sharpness of it in the end of my thumb.

So we've got the right grip. Now we key the racket to the right with elbow held in to the body and the two halves of the arm held perpendicular to one another and the wrist held straight. That is a good backswing if it is smooth and controlled.

But we need a tennis tip now, a kinesthetic cue that is going to make the see see work once and for all. Predictably perhaps the cue lies in the thumb.

Elbow stayed in for the backswing but will be permitted to go naturally out now on the foreswing. The precise directions it goes out will prove quite crucial to a see see but we nevertheless do not wish to be self-conscious about this. Thumb therefore and not elbow or brain gets the controlling job.

Level racket sweeps back. The elbow now releases to sweep the strings forward and slightly upward. But thinking about the elbow is a mistake. It is the thumb tip that sweeps toward the target and ends pointing at left fence.

Just a smidge of racket roll took place. Use too much and stability is gone. Same with body whirl-- use none or a little but not a lot.

When I first tried this shot in self-feed I found that keying racket back far enough to feel a stretch-- with elbow held in-- was essential to getting the racket tip sufficiently around and with proper acceleration when going the other way.

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Alternative Experiment (and What isn't an Experiment in Tennis)

Grip for this see see: bent thumb on Choctaw Ridge (1.5). Elbow: in close to body on level backswing then goes outside of ball to produce roundabout arm swing. Forearm: rolls racket up to form brush. Feet: are arranged however they must be to make shot. Body rotation: is non-existent or concluded before the arm swing.

Second half of experiment: Get rid of forearm brush just to see if that one moving part can be removed. Knees could unbend for substitute brush.

Am I obsessed with this shot? Of course. Will try anything, even ordinary mechanics, until I get what I want.

To keep Nick Wheatley influenced 2-part rhythm one could cut normal backward and forward body rotations in half. The limited backward body rotation and the right-angled keying of the arm could then be simultaneous. The forward swing though a single piece could then consist of body first arm second.

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Report

Didn't work for me, in actual play. Some earlier ideas for see see developed and reported in this forum appear to be more easily produced. Composite grip see see as reported now might have the potential to become good in time, but the idea of moving adjustment foot while hitting this particular shot-- one of the more demanding of all shots-- is not for me personally and I'm grateful to know that.