A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Relentless Tennis Invention is not as Sweet as it Looks

Maybe my inner McEnrueful is dead stick-- Steve Mizerak in billiards. Use same path both ways. Bowl but out from bod a bit. Take back, pause, cream.

Was the pause a sandwich around the step?

Probably.

[bottle]

Backhand on Edge and Steady; A Good Time to Plunge into the Forehand Labyrinth

I showed 100-year-old Aunt Frieda my new backhand. "Can you win with that?" she asked. "Yes," I said, having already done so. But I didn't show her my revived sit-and-hit, a new backhand I invented a week ago just in case I can't win with the easy one.

Also, I believe that forward hips rotation may be too important a power source to waste on just straightening your arm.

On the forehand side I'm still reeling from keen disappointment at my McEnruefuls in match play.

As I hit the ball 20 feet past the baseline one of the good geezers whom I hadn't played with in a year and had never spoken any word to me about anything said, "You do have to try that."

On a day or two before straining my Achilles, I didn't miss one McEnrueful in three sets of doubles. And very few of those rolled Australian-gripped shots even came back, and those that did were dying swans.

While I'm re-discovering my true McEnrueful, I'll need another forehand to tide me over. If it isn't my Federfore due to the introduced joker factor of thumb on left bevel, it will have to be my Ziegenfuss.

And I'm not talking about some Real Estate transaction in San Diego where Valerie Ziegenfuss (Bradshaw) is a famous agent with Century I believe.

No, I'm talking about the arm first shoulders second sockdolager she used to capture the bronze doubles with Peaches Barkowicz at the Mexico City Olympics.

Valerie had an over the top forehand loop just as I used to. Wearing a lace dress, she would contact the ball with partially bent arm that was neither straight genre or double-bend but precisely in between.

Now that I've let John McEnroe's bowl-back replace my loop, everything is different.

Do I have the opportunity here for a higher level of consistency than I have ever dreamt of? Most affirmatively yes.

As Jimmy Arias, formerly my most detested of TV announcers but now my most favored, recently said while comparing the forehand styles of John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, "They're both straight back with little to go wrong."

It takes tennis intelligence extraordinaire not to point out the extraneous, that Connors is high skunk tail, that McEnroe is bowl-back. The important point is that the preparation is straight back in both cases. So thanks, Jimmy Arias.

I've used skunk-tail in various shots before but right now am building on bowl-back. And though I am the worst bowler in the world I shall proceed.

As arm bowls back close to my body I shall make no endeavor to point the racket at rear fence.

But as I bowl forward, whether using the Australian (1.5/2.5 heel to base knuckle) or classical Eastern (2/3) I shall roll-adjust arm forward to place the shank of my arm ahead of my elbow.

Time now for some truth-telling about forward hips rotation.

When people use this term, they seldom mean the same thing. Sometimes they may mean a small pivot to achieve a dancer's good balance.

At the opposite extreme is the start early and end late full crank of Hogan or Woods.

The Ziegenfuss, as I see it, is a minimalist stroke. But to ensure that the hips rotation therein is solid and emphatic, I'm thinking that during the prop step for a neutral stance forehand one can turn one's lead knee-- the knee that will step out-- somewhat inward in the manner of certain baseball batters who sometimes do that while lifting their leg way high.

No need for this latter part, just turn the knee inward a bit. Now that knee is ready to turn out, indicating or preparing for hips rotation, and who knows but that all these turns can develop a mystical inter-understanding.

In routinely televised observation of some batters in slow motion, the stride is first square to the pitcher and then splays at last instant before setting down.

The trick with a Ziegenfuss is to extend followthrough by turning shoulders near contact-- much later than in other batting styles.

But there is no reason that power cannot be rumbling up from below at the same time.

[stotty]

Jimmy is right

As Jimmy Arias, formerly my most detested of TV announcers but now my most favored, recently said while comparing the forehand styles of John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, "They're both straight back with little to go wrong."

Jimmy Arias is right. There is a lot to be said for simplicity.

[bottle]

Try

Pendulum-style variation of Ziegenfuss in which straight arm stays close to body while tocking and finding ball and getting shank of arm out front and countering natural pitch change. Arm movement next vigorously to slam to right as shoulders movement vigorously slams to left. Left and right movements to neutralize one another to keep strings on ball.

[bottle]

A Lousy Idea-- Didn't Work at all

Was ungainly, felt awful, created dying swans that any good player would crunch.

[bottle]

Subtract One Moving Part

Restored McEnrueful to pristine wonder through a single self-feed session.

The word "extension" plus body lurching too far over front foot had destroyed it.

One needs great extension to make one's staple forehands work but exactly where or when should the extension occur?

This is not a silly question.

It hearkens back to the running debate I hold with myself between my Ziegenfusses on the one hand and my Federfores and McEnruefuls on the other.

A McEnrueful could pretty much be defined by its bowl-back preparation combined with Australian grip-- don't let it.

A more inclusive view seeks one variation with conventional eastern forehand grip-- not Roger Federer's 3/3 but rather the old 2/3 in universal nomenclature in which heel of the hand identified first feels comfortable on right bevel.

Bowl-back can then present a same option for either the 1.5/2.5 or 2/3 shots.

For mild version leading to best balance at the finish one can turn about-to-stride knee slightly inward during the final prop-step.

Then one whirls the pigeon toe thus created into a wall foot during one's hitting stride.

The mental aspect of this is a verbal declaration that hip rotation shall be limited and occur only while hitting foot is in the air.

The hitting foot thus whirls down followed by solid whirling of the gut simultaneous with whirling (rolling) but not extension of the straight arm.

Is there good extension in this shot? Not good but terrific. It is determined mainly from HOW FAR THE RACKET HEAD WAS PERMITTED TO TOCK BACK AND UP IN THE SLOT.

The working principle here is a solid, connected and unified swing. Under no circumstance should one swing from the shoulder in the area of the ball. One can twist the arm there to multiply power while divining correct pitch (a challenge!) but that is different.

Now comes a more extreme version of the same shot complete with a full Hogan hips turn followed by a galumphing save-step.

The long hips turn is very elegant but the save-step is not. However, this shot goes all out for a winner. The recovery component may not be as crucial as in most shots.

This shot again is "connected." This time however there is no concern with swinging from the gut since that either happens by itself or not-- the hips turn subsumes all.

Since this is a clear example of golf on wheels, one is precluded from the perfect on balance finish of Ben Hogan's golf swing. The "wheels" part dictates the galumphing save-step at least in my case.

Mixed with a judicious smattering of Ziegenfusses and Federfores, this type of forehand game can be quite effective.

Shipping butt cap forward from the shoulder-- the famous flip or mondo of the Federfore-- does not need to take the racket overly far toward the net.

There is so much hips and shoulders rotation available in a Federfore that one can ascribe to these two functions the contact or "extension" so far out front.

One's Ziegenfuss meanwhile can get milder and milder-- become a slow finding from the shoulder followed by firm pushing of a beach ball.

Will the easy airborne hip turn described in paragraph nine be effective in this shot? I believe it will. And may-- for topspin-- scissoring arm replace the straight armed wiper of the Federfore while on the ball? Yes again.

And, personally asking, has thumb retreated yet from experimental placement on left bevel back down to left vertical panel in the Federfore? Yup.

[bottle]

More Loose Motion Over And Under The Elbow Throwing From Behind The Back

Ed Faulkner, perpetual Davis Cup captain until more brilliant and up-to-date tennis minds (supposedly) decided to roll him into the past, wants you-- reader-- to use a rhythmic up, down and up beginning to your serve.

Beginnings, reader, as you know, are very important, and the one that Ed has in mind for you in the old green book ED FAULKNER'S TENNIS consists of at least one very clear direction.

Start your up down up with hitting side of your strings facing the left fence. Finish the second up with the hitting side of your strings facing the right fence.

I speak from personal experience when I tell you that this easy change won't solve all of your serving problem (I mean challenge), only about half of it.

[gzhpcu]

I would add: keep a very loose grip, on the take back make sure that the face of the racket is facing your head (making a halo...). That which friend Ed refers to is pronation...

[bottle]

Open Out Or Close In?

I would add: keep a very loose grip, on the take back make sure that the face of the racket is facing your head (making a halo...). That which friend Ed refers to is pronation...

I am once again amazed at how some seemingly simple thing is not, how different persons can interpret-- legitimately-- in diametrically opposed not to mention slantwise difference.

Palm-down lectures would include Vic Braden, and yes, in this kind of serving one CAN twist racket counter-clockwise on the up-down-and-up so that now hitting side faces right fence.

I'll try it in one serve or for the rest of my life without waiting weeks or years for disenchantment with my present turning out of the strings to set in.

Predominant emphasis right now however is with opening out the strings as they pass the right ankle (John M. Barnaby) or somewhere but gradually in up-down-up repeatable apparatus (Ed Faulkner).

Barnaby's book came out when TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE did. Without naming Braden, the perhaps too civilized Barnaby clearly thought "Braden" when he objected to the extra curliques in a Braden-type serve.

I see as identical Faulkner's bias for turning out though without specification as to where. Not wanting to do it while falling hands are linked, I think it ought to start at separation and finish precisely at the second "up."

Then there are initial addresses where palm faces upward such as Milos Raonic or at least one serve taught long ago in video by Oscar Wegner.

I see Faulkner's recommendation as square strings faced neither down or up at least at the crucial point of second up.

Arm can then bend and go into a Stich-like curlicue (a tight curlicue for sure!) in rapid sequence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwCkC0CaORE

Ed Faulkner makes the big point that a serve ought to build momentum, and this process is aided by holding elbow back toward rear fence during beginning of the throw.

To criticize some of my own previous efforts, I've spent too many years hung up on just the twisting aspect of getting racket tip low.

I want to be pitching elbow forward ("adduction"?) during the racket lowering. Racket tip will quite naturally fly out low and to the right.

[bottle]

Power of a New Video

Upon embedding a video in one of my progressional posts, I often then re-view it in light of the new context just created.

Here, in re-viewing the 2014 Euro exhibition between Michael Stich and John McEnroe generously provided by Steve, I see that Stich's racket is slightly closed at top of his "up."

Still, the racket tip is very far back-- let's say almost perpendicular to the rear fence.

To me, this position is determined by amount of opening out of the racket face-- just not quite as much as would cause a perfectly on edge racket.

The opening out still exists, however, and is crucial to getting off a good delayed throw forward of the upper arm. (Such throw of the elbow, while involving whole body, has also to come independently from the relaxed shoulder.)

Will slightly closed racket aid Stich's tight curlicue? Probably.

[gzhpcu]

bottle, I am reminded to an old Italian adage, which also applies to me btw:

Chi troppo pensa, pazzo diventa...

which literally means: "he who thinks too much goes crazy"....

But, I can't stop doing it either...

[bottle]

So, just accept it. You maybe don't find what you're looking for but it makes you better. (I hate people who aren't crazy enough. "Tied to the apron strings of civilization." From MARITIME ODE by Alvaro de Campos, a heteronym of the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, translation by Edwin Honig.)

[bottle]

Middle Joint of Thumb on 7.5 Pointy Ridge for a Federfore

A good grip feels good, but if it doesn't, maybe some part of it will.

Or maybe some part of the grip can cue the rest, thereby increasing confidence in some important shot.

My recent attempt at placing thumb on left bevel, i.e., panel eight, like most experiments was negative. It didn't do anything particularly positive for me so I abandoned it. The experiment came from reading ED FAULKNER'S TENNIS on semiwestern grip.

Still, my curiosity to try that experiment tells me that I must have been a little uneasy with thumb on left vertical panel. There it rode for more than a decade.

Was this just me? Probably. The size of my hand? The size of my handle?

Progressions often lead to subtle change though not the one you had in mind.

[gzhpcu]

I noticed my grip occurs automatically... (only thing I don't think about...)

[bottle]

Yeah, but I had a beautiful interlocking grip in golf like that of my father, an almost scratch golfer, and then a teaching pro in Lakeville, Connecticut changed it to Hogan's overlap and within five minutes I was hitting 6-irons 50 feet farther.