A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

Whose is the smartest forehand of all?

I always thought that Chris Evert was smarter than Tracy Austin and Jimmy Connors. The latter two's dumbness is what they had going for them and still do.

All four of the players in this discussion of course are smarter than all the tennis players in the world who have forehand loops, but that doesn't stop half of them from still being pretty dumb.

Down and up go the Evert and McEnroe backswings. McEnroe swings. He makes contact! He continues to roll his arm to finish with his strings off to the side.

Chris Evert is up at the plate. She makes contact! Her elbow comes back and finishes to the left. Did it ever stop? Was Evert's addition of body weight in the middle of the stroke what lent the heft and pace to this no-miss shot?

[bottle]

On Dumbness in Sports

My father would always go to the Babe Ruth press conferences. The Babe would always make the same speech. Something to do with young boys and clean living. If people weren't paying enough attention he would slip under the table and give someone a hotfoot.

[bottle]

Freaking Out with Aunt Frieda

Aunt Frieda, 100, doesn’t think that I, 74, should do tennis invention any more but should just play the game.

But a doubles player named Hector hit me with an arrow in my Achilles. As I stretch my soleus and my gastroc, I can only garden and self-feed while realizing that I probably shouldn’t even be deadheading roses.

Frieda and Hugh, who never had children or animals and hated gardens, gave up tennis in their early seventies, bought two big Harleys, launched a chapter of Hell’s Geezers, zipped all over Michigan.

Frieda lives alone in her own quiet house on a shady street. When she comes for dinner three or four times a week, I always start her with a glass of wine.

Yesterday, we got a call from the neighbor across the street. It was late in the afternoon and Frieda’s newspaper was still on her porch.

My partner Hope was out of town but told me by cell phone that I must immediately drive over, go up the stairs, wake Frieda if she was asleep to see if everything was all right.

I have my own keys. I went into the house and passed the wall with the framed photograph on it that I like so much. Standing in line are Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, Gardnar Mulloy and six other tennis luminaries with Uncle Hugh in the middle.

I limped up the stairs.

A sleeping centenarian (she was on her back) looks dead even if she is not, I discovered, and she was not.

As I followed the instructions from my cell phone, I lightly touched Frieda on the left arm.

A blue eye opened. She smiled. She said she had stayed up a bit late the night before and was extremely grateful for all the attention.

[bottle]

Learning The Chris Evert Forehand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WOcEIjGJQ

The way I'm going to try and do it is to drive to the court and drop balls.

I will use 2/3 grip, even "palm slide close trigger"-- the same thing.

What truly gives this grip its scythe-like feel is heel of hand on right bevel.

With slightly bent arm at constant setting forming a long scythe throughout and using as cue the elbow to move the arm both above and below it, I shall swing elbow from back to forward and up to the side.

This liquid move shall be the skeleton of the stroke if such a paradox is possible.

Only then will I flesh the thing out with body surge.

And will try next of course the flat, topspin and slice variations that Chris Evert demonstrates in the video each with its distinctive followthrough.

Together, the suite of shots offered are: 1) Flat in which one swings level and finishes with racket lined up with both shoulderballs. 2) Topspin in which one crowds and retraces the scythe-like backswing so that low to high becomes high to low, with strings vertical again at contact and followthrough ending up and over the shoulders line. 3) Slice in which open racket face scrapes into ball then dives and rises and dives to a finish in front of the shoulders line.

Report : The down and up backswing of all these strokes combined with a smooth elbow throw twice as long as in most forehands should put one in the number where the saints come marching in.

Note : Everett the old dowser and gravedigger of Parsonsfield, Maine gave an ancient scythe-- the Tolstoyan version-- to a friend of mine and so I was able to use it. Its two handles are at a slight angle to each other, and as the character Levin discovers in WAR AND PEACE, if you don't fight this instrument it practically tells you how to swing itself.

Coincidentally, Leo Tolstoy owned the first tennis court in Russia.

Backswing is always the same: Slightly down and up. Foreswing can be level or slightly down and up.

From this instrument came the golf-club cutter before the advent of the weed-whacker.

And thus we return to the classic debate ever raging in the Tennis Player forearm: Modern Tennis seen as the best of all possible worlds vs. Modern Tennis as moral decay.

Personally, I side more with moral decay as exemplified by mechanistic forehands that resemble weed-whackers.

This is not to say that one cannot hit a Federfore from the Connors-Evert-McEnroe scythe-like backswing.

One need only discard "patting the dog," which drains time, but keep the mondo or flip.

[bottle]

Four of the U.S. Open Winners without Overhand Forehand Loops

Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Chris Evert, Tracy Austin.

[gzhpcu]

Thanks for the nice Chris Evert instruction video find!

[bottle]

It's a good one or rather three just in the forehand section.

[bottle]

Further Reflection on Forehand Section of Chris Evert Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WOcEIjGJQ

The player's rap is far better than normal, but turn the sound off to avoid dullness through repetition and to understand what really is going on.

Flat: Long level section of backswing before elbow goes up. Long level section of foreswing before elbow goes up (quite far to the side and rising the whole way).

The postures: Neutral for flat, a slight comma backward for topspin, hunched forward for slice.

Topspin: If foreswing traces backswing, Chris must be crowding the ball compared to her flat shot. The steeper rise dictates crowding on the left side of her body as well-- compared to what happens in her flat shot.

Slice: If racket comes down before contact, she's crowding here too. If path to ball is level, she is crowding only on her left side. I see this version of forehand slice from contact onward as very unique-- down up and down to tie a bow in front, almost a shake.

Note: Ezra Pound: "Poetic language is language that is charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree." So when I recently said that the Chris Evert forehand was "no-miss," I meant that in at least three ways.

Note to Stotty: I am trying to find an apt expression for doubles tennis in which the players stay on the baseline. "Puddle doubles" is all I've come up with so far.

Remember: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xyk...ldren_creation

[bottle]

3-Grip Forehand System

That's what I've got. "Unwise," you say, reader? "You'll have to think too much. You will be like the protagonist of SCHACHNOVELLE by Stefan Zweig, unsure which of the games he mentally developed on the ceiling of his prison cell he now is using against the world chess champion Centovic as their steamer steams toward Argentina."

Well, reader, I'm sure I like anybody who reads my stuff but must take anything you say with a grain of salt.

If you say I think too much I say you don't think enough and I want to think exactly the right amount, which always shall be a different norm for different people.

Meanwhile I introspect concerning my thumb.

Australian grip is 1.5/2.5, so where does that put any thumb? Answer depends on size of handle and size of hand. Well lookie here. Thumb is on 7.5 .

Eastern grip (palm slide close trigger) is a firm 2/3 . Well lookie here, thumb is light on panel 8 a.k.a. left bevel. Would you mind, reader, if I use the word "pane" today instead of "panel?" I may be a pain but am trying to keep things fresh.

Now I go to the Federerian grip 3/3 . Where is my thumb? The most sensitive part of it is on 8.5 .

Add the info up. 7.5, 8, and 8.5 is small variation. This is simplification, i.e., THUMBNAIL.

For 7.5, my arm will be straighter than for a scythe-like eastern and I will hit like John McEnroe with a big roll.

For 8 I will hit like Chris Evert or Jimmy Connors scything all the way.

For 8.5 I will hit like Roger Federer, but why doesn't he make a video exactly like this one by Chris Evert? Or the self-narrated haiku video of Ben Hogan's golf swing now viewed three million times? Does Roger have anything better to do? Can't you see Roger Federer successfully narrating a gift forehand video similar to these?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WOcEIjGJQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL_6M_xZvq0

[bottle]

Grip Progression Too Far From Habit or Muscle Memory or Myelination?

Well that has to be one's legitimate fear but in that case couldn't one retreat some part of a slat (steppe) or ridge?

Consistency with one's overall grip system has to be a big consideration.

Transition from thumb along or even thumb wrapped to diagonal thumb produced one hand backhand drive benefit out of all proportion to one's lifelong (and rather glib, it turns out) expectation.

Diagonal thumb became a good idea again, period.

In post # 2229, in a quest for simplification, I tried to use thumb marker to produce the subtle forehand variations 7.5, 8 and 8.5 .

Question: Is same part of thumb always providing the mark?

Suggestion: Replicate diagonal thumb of the backhand drive for these three forehand cases.

To discuss just the most prominent case, eastern forehand, the flat of the thumb makes light but good connection with the narrow flatness of panel 8 . Heel of hand meanwhile remains nicely ensconced on right bevel. We can achieve left bevel and right bevel balance this way. Now there is asymmetrical top down purchase on the racket to match the bottom up purchase of the fingers underneath. Loose meat of the hand directly behind the racket provides ultimate heft to the shot.

The fourth or front side of the racket, left vertical panel, now becomes more neglected as it should have been all along, but still has bottom three fingertips against it to keep it honest.

What was the thumb doing on the front part of the racket anyway?

Strangling it.

Time to challenge anyone's use of tightly wrapped thumb in a forehand and call most people stupid once again although nobody will like that.

[bottle]

So, John Isner and Nick Bollettieri, tell us if Jonnie Williams is as Bad as We Think

When Paul Krugman tries to explain to right wing nuts that government isn't all bad and private business all good, he points to TV cable companies as examples of private enterprise that really suck.

I don't know if he has got around yet to pointing to delightful postmistresses in rural areas as examples of government who are really good.

For sucky companies he could equally well point to Star Scientific, i.e. "Anatabloc" as in the word stenciled on Isner's hat, although the word "sucky" could suddenly include a different meaning.

Jonnie is also reported to have a condo at the Bollettieri Academy, so Nick and John seem pretty implicated in all the McDonnell shenanigans or at least succumbed to the same slickie-- Jonnie-- as the McDonnells, who face a possible 20 years if convicted in the Virginia governor's ongoing corruption trial.

Am I wrong about this? Don't think so. But-- anyone-- if you want to set me straight I will listen.

[bottle]

Chrissie, Jimmy, Tracy, Johnny-- Don't Tippecanoe-- Father Time Does a Review

The canoe one doesn't want tipped is one's overhaul of one's ground strokes in advanced middle age.

Father Time is interested. The new strokes remind him both of his J-stroke and his scythe and therefore make him consider taking up tennis himself. But he wonders if Chrissie's backswing is maybe too flat. He dabbled in bowling once. So why couldn't Chrissie just bowl her racket back? Goes down and up already no? Or flat and up, he's just an amateur so he doesn't know. But the approach he now will follow if he does take up the game is that the seemingly flat part of the takeback be attributed entirely to shoulders rotation thanks to opposite arm pointing across.

Whoops, Father Time is in a bar-- Swaim's Grocery in Winston-Salem. This is a distinct moment. His listeners shiver and shudder. Disturbingly, their eyes glaze over. Is this a mixed reaction or just death?

"Now Tracy," he says to Stacey the bartender, "is just the opposite. She's totally flat the way she takes the racket back. The down and up happens in her forward swing. Or is her forward swing flat and up? You decide, I'm not a tennis pro."

"Chrissie and Jimmy-- they both have similar followthroughs, more to the side. They both got that when they were girlfriend and boyfriend. John Lloyd-- he doesn't count-- he's a Brit. There may be others but I don't remember their names, Andy I think. But I'm sure Chrissie did consider a more upright followthrough when she was married to Greg Norman."

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/jimmyconnor/jc_forehand/jc_fh_arm_action/jc_fh_arm_action.html?JCFHArmActionRear.mov

[stotty]

John Lloyd-- he doesn't count-- he's a Brit.

Steady on, old bean!

[bottle]

A Hilarious Discussion

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=33951&page=2

I tend to side with post # 9 in the discussion.

But in any case, who cares what grip/s any player uses other than oneself? Except as knowledge of one’s opponent that in rare cases (where one is a really intelligent person) one can use to outwit him.

The important thing is what grip YOU use, my reader, not Jimmy Connors. And you is I is we if not they.

It’s been a revelation to me that Roger’s eastern (3/3) is far more diagonal than classical eastern (2/3). I love the scythey backswings of Connors, Evert, McEnroe and Austin, which I see as closer to golf backswings than the more common loopy and mechanistic backswings of tennis that don’t even know where they end.

And I see no reason whatsoever that one can’t hit a Federfore/ATP3 off of a scythey backswing.

As for grip, I’m experimenting with diagonal thumb light on left bevel (8), the narrow but flat part of the racket just there. This would be for scything action essentially in flat forehands and to go along with the diagonal thumb of vertical-strings-at-all-times backhand drives whether easy or sit-and-hit stubbed.

Only for my backhand slice of all my ground strokes do I want to wrap my thumb around the racket any more. Oh, maybe for a forehand chop, too.

Of course one has to look at photos of a million forehands before one can find one where thumb isn’t wrapped. But what is the logic of thumb strangulation when one is swinging the meat of one’s hand from the opposite side of the handle?

So I shall continue, reader, to call all those millions of loopy persons stupid as they can me until you interrupt and set me straight.

[bottle]

Stillness of Head in the Evert Suite of the John Escher Hotel

We are still working on groundies in the total overhaul of our tennis game so naturally occurring in advanced middle age.

We have yet to apply diagonal thumb philosophy to our serves and volleys since we envision the full catastrophe that also comes with advanced middle age.

Most likely we shall keep thumb wrap for serves and volleys-- do we really need to change every little thing in our game? What would drive us to such silliness? Well, we choose to investigate, always, rather than take anything for granted. Blame or praise the IC Program at Brown University for that one (the Identification and Classification of Ideas).

Self-feed with volleys is really difficult but we can see even before we get to the court that these shots are no worse with the higher thumb and in fact are better supported on the backhand side.

I toss to drop and bounce the ball as for a ground stroke but declare it a volley.

On serves the challenge is different. Here the higher thumb feels great all through the down and up but creates a waterfall into cleft of the hand, a waterfall higher even than that precipitated in our earlier experiments so deleterious to "internal-rotation-dominant" serves.

So it's back to groundies then with no Orphean gaze behind.

How does Chrissie adopt three different forehand postures for flat, topspin and slice yet keep head rock still for all as her daddy taught?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WOcEIjGJQ

One can see in the flat shots that Chrissie's head-- still in the lateral and vertical sense-- moves forward about nine inches.

In topspin-- think moonball of great accuracy pinning opponent to center of baseline-- Chrissie's head moves forward two to three inches. How could this be? Is she not still stepping into the shot and transferring body weight?

Well, although there is total body travel the upper body is segmenting backward to increase the racket head's upward component. Human head meanwhile c. 4.26 rises two to four inches but mostly from contact-- it's how you come off the ball that counts big.

For slice, c. 5.49, we're back to about nine inches forward. With an option of three inches forward and three inches downward or some other combination.

Let us return to serves now. The extreme openness of Milos Raonic's racket (who's he?-- I believe you know) combined with Faulkner's advocacy during one's down-and-up of ABOUT FACE! convinces us of unique opportunity here for rotorded serves.

The more one's racket like Raonic's is open to start, the less one will have to turn the strings out-- from facing left fence to facing right fence in the Faulknerian formula.

The less one's racket is open like Raonic's to start, the more one is assured that some opening out still will occur.

And if opening out still is occurring as racket comes up with idea in mind of opening still more in the subsequent throw, the racket handle will not get mired on base knuckle of the index finger-- the knuckle uniquely buried in flesh of the hand. No, the racket will fall into cleft of the hand no matter from how high. We're talking Zambezi River at the bottom of Victoria Falls.

But how soon can this happen? In time for a propellant mix in which internal rotation of arm parts far exceeds the rotorded server's straightening of wrist abetted for niftiness by hand squeeze?