Science
"You're either wrong or you're partially right." -- Craig B. Mello
There is no way that both hands can do the exact same thing at the same time in the pursuit of AWEWAW.
But one could establish palm sandwich (with racket handle the filling) at bottom of the accelerative loop if one were willing to undergo a second grip change, this one with opposite hand.
At that point-- precisely at the bottom of the non-pause loop-- the two palms would be parallel to each other and slanted upward slightly toward side fence.
Here's how the mojo of this would work.
1) Modified flying grip change to flat-wristed eastern backhand with thumb along back plane parallel to the strings. In a normal flying grip change one just pulls back with opposite hand while relaxing fingers of the hitting hand. In this version however the hitting hand takes a more active role in turning over top of the racket. Why? Because more turning of that hand is about to happen so let's combine to make everything more seamless.
2) We just loosened hitting hand for readjustment while opposite hand held steady. Now we reverse the roles! The hitting hand keeps firm connection with the turning racket as opposite hand readjusts. Important: The hitting hand whirls the racket through talking to the beginning of hips rotation. I don't know how to say that without turning to jazz where the different instruments speak to one another. If anything becomes too deliberate or conscious or "intellectual" at this point the scheme won't work any more than jazz will.
3) Opposite or passive or "guide" hand just loosened its grip, almost released it in fact. The big question-- and I haven't tried this yet or probably I wouldn't be writing this since I bore myself easily-- is whether my left hand can rejoin the racket in a meaningful way to help ship the racket head forward with both hands employing ulnar deviation at the same time. Also, at the same time, the arm is straightening its last little bit for the same purpose. Seemingly, the two arms and hands are doing the exact same thing, but there is a caveat, a flaw in that conceptual ointment (4).
4) The two elbows are pointing in different directions. While front elbow is pointing in a direction that will aid the roundabout swing, the rear elbow is not but is pointing down. So for guide hand to hang with the swing there must be scapular adduction, i.e., extension from rear shoulder house.
Point 5) here is reflection on 4). The scapular adduction of rear shoulder can correspond to the scapular adduction of front shoulder either happening or being maintained just then. Some might say these two adductions add up to a single term, "HUSKING." And that the two scapular retractions about to happen add up to the term, "RIPPING SOMETHING APART" or, more clinically, "CLENCHING THE TWO SHOULDERBLADES TOGETHER."
6) Stride, if there is a stride, is with foot closed unlike Stanislas Wawrinka and just like one of the Lau hitters in baseball and followed seamlessly by a huge hip rotation. By "huge" I mean huge. Major sin in Lau type hitting is "squishing the bug." Which means one didn't rotate one's back heel up high enough. Such a full hips turn, to make heel come up that high, flows into braking with the front leg. One can recall how Ivan Lendl, when he was younger, almost used to thread his left knee through his right. In any case, the rear leg turns a lot to preserve balance against extreme action from the hips. And the racket tip whirls down (keys down) and immediately catches up and passes body to transfer this energy into roundabout swing.
7) Well, WHAT is swinging around? I used to think it was just the hips. And then just the arm. Ellsworth Vines after all writes that one doesn't necessarily have to use the hips at all-- not if one is stepping straight toward the net. For WAWAWE though I believe perfect set-up is always going to put contact slightly to outside and one will have stepped, if one did step, slightly across as well as toward the net. So what is swinging around? Ulnar wrist motion is swinging racket tip around. Extending front arm, simultaneously, is swinging racket tip around. The rear arm is extending too, but it is scapular adduction from the rear shoulder housing that is keeping that arm connected to the swing.
8) Delayed arm springs. Simultaneously, the two shoulderblades clench together. Since this total package involves two different fulcrums, there is more dwell than usual. One fulcrum instead of two would take strings off of the ball faster-- BAD.
9) How zany is all this? How over-elaborate? After all, I was hitting nice backhands yesterday against the city bangboard (and nope, nobody else was there). Well, a scientist and even a baseball player tries to cover all the bases.
Originally posted by bottle
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There is no way that both hands can do the exact same thing at the same time in the pursuit of AWEWAW.
But one could establish palm sandwich (with racket handle the filling) at bottom of the accelerative loop if one were willing to undergo a second grip change, this one with opposite hand.
At that point-- precisely at the bottom of the non-pause loop-- the two palms would be parallel to each other and slanted upward slightly toward side fence.
Here's how the mojo of this would work.
1) Modified flying grip change to flat-wristed eastern backhand with thumb along back plane parallel to the strings. In a normal flying grip change one just pulls back with opposite hand while relaxing fingers of the hitting hand. In this version however the hitting hand takes a more active role in turning over top of the racket. Why? Because more turning of that hand is about to happen so let's combine to make everything more seamless.
2) We just loosened hitting hand for readjustment while opposite hand held steady. Now we reverse the roles! The hitting hand keeps firm connection with the turning racket as opposite hand readjusts. Important: The hitting hand whirls the racket through talking to the beginning of hips rotation. I don't know how to say that without turning to jazz where the different instruments speak to one another. If anything becomes too deliberate or conscious or "intellectual" at this point the scheme won't work any more than jazz will.
3) Opposite or passive or "guide" hand just loosened its grip, almost released it in fact. The big question-- and I haven't tried this yet or probably I wouldn't be writing this since I bore myself easily-- is whether my left hand can rejoin the racket in a meaningful way to help ship the racket head forward with both hands employing ulnar deviation at the same time. Also, at the same time, the arm is straightening its last little bit for the same purpose. Seemingly, the two arms and hands are doing the exact same thing, but there is a caveat, a flaw in that conceptual ointment (4).
4) The two elbows are pointing in different directions. While front elbow is pointing in a direction that will aid the roundabout swing, the rear elbow is not but is pointing down. So for guide hand to hang with the swing there must be scapular adduction, i.e., extension from rear shoulder house.
Point 5) here is reflection on 4). The scapular adduction of rear shoulder can correspond to the scapular adduction of front shoulder either happening or being maintained just then. Some might say these two adductions add up to a single term, "HUSKING." And that the two scapular retractions about to happen add up to the term, "RIPPING SOMETHING APART" or, more clinically, "CLENCHING THE TWO SHOULDERBLADES TOGETHER."
6) Stride, if there is a stride, is with foot closed unlike Stanislas Wawrinka and just like one of the Lau hitters in baseball and followed seamlessly by a huge hip rotation. By "huge" I mean huge. Major sin in Lau type hitting is "squishing the bug." Which means one didn't rotate one's back heel up high enough. Such a full hips turn, to make heel come up that high, flows into braking with the front leg. One can recall how Ivan Lendl, when he was younger, almost used to thread his left knee through his right. In any case, the rear leg turns a lot to preserve balance against extreme action from the hips. And the racket tip whirls down (keys down) and immediately catches up and passes body to transfer this energy into roundabout swing.
7) Well, WHAT is swinging around? I used to think it was just the hips. And then just the arm. Ellsworth Vines after all writes that one doesn't necessarily have to use the hips at all-- not if one is stepping straight toward the net. For WAWAWE though I believe perfect set-up is always going to put contact slightly to outside and one will have stepped, if one did step, slightly across as well as toward the net. So what is swinging around? Ulnar wrist motion is swinging racket tip around. Extending front arm, simultaneously, is swinging racket tip around. The rear arm is extending too, but it is scapular adduction from the rear shoulder housing that is keeping that arm connected to the swing.
8) Delayed arm springs. Simultaneously, the two shoulderblades clench together. Since this total package involves two different fulcrums, there is more dwell than usual. One fulcrum instead of two would take strings off of the ball faster-- BAD.
9) How zany is all this? How over-elaborate? After all, I was hitting nice backhands yesterday against the city bangboard (and nope, nobody else was there). Well, a scientist and even a baseball player tries to cover all the bases.
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