A New Year's Serve

[stotty]

lobndropshot: Writing in the middle of the night is not good for one's daytime efficiency or in court or on court performance but may be good for ease of prose. The prolific French writer Honore de Balzac wrote all night every night but died from drinking too much coffee.

It was worth it...to write that well.

[bottle]

A Sickle is Not a Scythe

One hacks with a sickle. One swings a scythe.

This distinction may be difficult for a modern tennis player upon whom somebody has inflicted a weed-whacker forehand.

But suppose that he is trying to be more one-handed on both sides.

Even if this wretched innocent does not like to read he should sit through a thousand pages of WAR AND PEACE just so that the character Levin can impart to him the true feel of a scythe.

A sickle of course is a one-handed instrument. What we advise, reader, is a one-handed swing that feels like the two-handed swing of a scythe.

That probably is the best way available to learn a Chris Evert forehand, after which one can alter to the grips and forehand strokes of John McEnroe and Roger Federer, both hit from the McEnroe and Jimmy Connors backswing.

Moonball Down the Center

The brother in Virginia who conducted Monica Seles and her mother on a private tour of the White House tried to teach me this shot in the one lesson he gave me. (He had been the captain of Southern Methodist and singled out for special attention by Arthur Ashe. He spoke of Chris Evert's efficiency in employing the deep down the center shot and showed me how he himself did it.)

Now that I am learning more technique, I am not sure whether Chrissie topspin, Chrissie flat or Federfore itself is best way to carry out the stratagem.

One can only answer questions like these in match play.

Note that Chrissie in her teaching video mentions low balls specifically as the cue to hit her particular version of topspin.

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

lobndropshot: Writing in the middle of the night is not good for one's daytime efficiency or in court or on court performance but may be good for ease of prose. The prolific French writer Honore de Balzac wrote all night every night but died from drinking too much coffee.

[bottle]

Thumb Trick Cont'd

Placing diagonal thumb on 7.5, 8, and 8.5 for the three forehands-- McEnroe, Evert, and Federer-- could just be a personal fad, a passing fancy, an interim learning device.

The diagonal thumb teaches one accuracy of distinction. That is the point.

Once the accuracy is ingrained, the person resumes his thumb wrap or not depending upon his whim or scores.

Thumb wrestling might be good practice too.

[bottle]

Scythey Scythey Scythe

And these scythey shots feel so good. Scythey backward and forward in the case of "flat" shots like Connors' and Evert's, and scythey backward in the case of McEnroe. Maybe McEnroe scythes his forward too to the midstroke point where he rolls the arm.

I've always loved your saying that this roll sends energy up the ball and through the ball in a proportion of about 50-50 in John McEnroe's forehand. That helped me develop some really fast strokes with a McEnroe type grip.

I think it very important though not to crowd on that shot, not to bowl down and up as you swing forward.

Do that and you suddenly have created the need for TOO MUCH roll.

(I'm still trying to figure out why I sprayed in one match.)

As for hitting a Roger Federer like forehand from a Jimmy Connors backswing, all I truthfully can say is that first attempts reveal a shot just as good or no worse than when hit the more conventional way, the way everybody else learning an ATP3 most likely does it.

So why not go with the exciting new iteration which by the way is consistent with a bunch of other shots?

Note: In his McGraw-Hill book, Oscar Wegner asserts that contrary to popular belief Jimmy Connors hits with a bunch of sidespin rather than flat. Flat is what the flat-worlders in the Tennis Warehouse discussion board think. So glad I was lifetime banned from that empty space.

[don_budge]

"Outsider"....James Scott Connors

Not for me. Forgive me my arrogance. Right or wrong, I believe that I am working on something better, a Roger Federer like forehand from a Jimmy Connors backswing.

I am just finishing up the great Jimmy Connors autobiography and I have to tell you bottle...he would certainly approve.

But you see...he is another case of arrested development. Which is the way to go in many respects. Afterall...why give in to maturity when you can maintain an attitude of adventurism.

[bottle]

The Biggest Surprise In My Tennis Inventions So Far

When it comes to racket technique, I don't believe that there are answers, just progressions, iterations.

The biggest surprise? That one can hit an easy one-hander and a stubbed one-hander on successive shots in match play with no loss of internal rhythm.

The easy version uses forward hips rotation to straighten the arm.

The stubbed version gets arm straight before that and uses the same forward hips rotation to build circular tension between the two arms for abrupt release.

Hips gear shoulders around from underneath. The shoulders turn but the racket, transforming into a spear, doesn't. The sudden release then slings the racket tip around.

The first implicit conviction from ED FAULKNER'S TENNIS that has led to all of this is that one-handed drives that change racket pitch are almost impossible to replicate (not so in backhand slice!).

The second is that waiting position for any ground stroke ought to be slightly high and cheated left.

A continuous motion one-hander from there can be short. Here I consult John M. Barnaby in his book RACKET WORK: THE KEY TO TENNIS. Most one-handers turn the racket too far around behind them. If you start by pointing the racket tip at the side fence, by the time you have stepped across it will be just about right.

A person could try all of this and find that these two shots still won't work.

I, in my most sympathetic way, might say, "Tough luck sucker! You probably didn't buy into diagonal thumb on left vertical panel."

This is subtle and difficult stuff. Even Ed Faulkner would not like the scythe-like backswing for forehands I next propose from his patented waiting position.

No, in his big book, he teaches his many students to bring the racket tip around high and level, then drop it-- not exactly an overhand loop but not straight back either.

In a Federfore (not yet invented when Faulkner wrote his book) that would lead to patting the dog.

Not for me. Forgive me my arrogance. Right or wrong, I believe that I am working on something better, a Roger Federer like forehand from a Jimmy Connors backswing.

[bottle]

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?

If one is ready to try that, why not delay the wrist straightening (abetted by hand squeeze) until contact or afterward on the theory that how one comes off the ball is what counts big.

Bendables can straighten wrist and still deliver an upward blow through great internal rotation of the arm.

Because they have more racket range in which to work.

The rotorded server on the other hand sends racket up and then down when he would prefer it kept going up.

The adjustment possibility should not be underestimated-- one inch of wrist and fingers throw instead of three, say, or two inches, who knows.

One intrinsic difficulty of mental formulation is that one tends too much toward a round number when maybe some fraction would do better.

Try: A single inch of fingers squeeze to start the racket up before internal rotation takes over.

Now try wrist instead while keeping fingers open.

Fool around with any serve, looking for a break in the serve rather than of the serve.

[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?

[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.

[stotty]

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

Steady on, old bean!

[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

[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]

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]

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]

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