A New Year's Serve

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Ratio

Ratio from the one set of numbers on one shot in previous post: 1 to 1 to 3/4 .
The dog shouldn't even yelp, and there ought to be a good forehand lurking in there somewhere.

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Is My Trusty Forehand "Double-Coin" even a Federfore?

All the thinking here comes from the ad "Hannah and her Horse." Let us watch it together (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omNifHK_kXM) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q58LLKjoR2I) (http://www.framestore.com/work/direc...-and-her-horse) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4W5fBHK6vk) (http://www.si.com/swim-daily/2015/04...usive-bts-clip).

The true title is "Hannah and Her Twat-Shot" as one can see by the waves that are washing up her behind.

What is being advertised? As with all really good ads, I have no idea. See "Advertising for Love, War and Job Slurping Trade Agreement" at Reader Supported News (http://readersupportednews.org/compo...itart&id=30245).

But when we give a forehand a name, "Double-Coin" in this case, we are in a sense advertising it to other people.

To hit the Double-Coin, start off like Roger Federer by lifting the racket tip during your turn and dance to the ball.

Unlike Roger however, do not take time to create a wriggle to close the racket face. (I think of a snake preparing to strike.)

Instead, let the racket head continue on its rainbow path down behind you.

That's really all there is to it. A coin on edge for the backswing. A coin on its side for the foreswing.

With of course a mondo in between.

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Caveat

What makes this shot-- The Double-Coin-- manageable however may be the lowness of the hand at mondo. Once one decides to come in with hand "behind the ball" (or even above the ball) rather than from way below, the straight arm scope may simply be too far out for a human being to handle (a satellite 65,000 miles from earth).

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Federfore: How Much is Arm Extension to the Side?

(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...r%20500fps.mp4)

What seems most likely after the sideways extension in this particular video is a very complete wipe from right fence to left fence.

(http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...f_low_to_high/)

By "extension" here I mean straightening from the elbow. And I ask, why always take the racket "back?"

Or "sideways?"

Or "forward?"

All the possibilities are good, it seems to me. Limiting oneself is shooting oneself in the foot.

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Reflection on Double-Coin Now

In the light of the multi-direction extension of arm from the elbow outlined above, which certainly has implication for the short angled shot I've written so much about as well, one can again ask if "Double-Coin" is a stupid shot.

I don't think so. But one can certainly shorten descent of the racket behind one to create a half-moon shape before sweeping level toward the ball. Don't drop racket hand so low, in other words, then experiment with shots both hit flat and with more arm roll in both directions for more topspin-- a very different feel.

[bottle]

Re-stating a Ratio

Ratio from the one set of numbers on one shot in previous post: 1 to 1 to 3/4 . The dog shouldn't even yelp, and there ought to be a good forehand lurking in there somewhere.

Rounding off, the new ratio is 2 to 1 or as better cue 1 to 1/2 .

The 1 of racket tip rise and racket wriggle tends to unify those two acts and thereby speed them up.

Although time and reps or anything labeled by admen (Gladwell, Syed etc.) as having the number 10,000 in it speeds up an athletic response, good editing can contribute to the process and when possible should happen first.

How realistic is that, though? How often is the teacher perfect in the first instant of his instruction? Never. Remember this: A lump of too much detail bores. Apply it to myself-- I don't care. My excuse is that I am, primarily, working on my own strokes, sort of a like it or lump it tactic when it comes to communication of my applied idea to another person, and this concept also goes for how I want to receive information. Give me the apprenticeship model of educational transfer any day.

Well, whatever the case, I am a human lab. And I'm advising one count of rise and wriggle here, a single act. With the dogpat to follow to take one half as long.

Ratio is tremendously important in all physical activity and sometimes even is underestimated in competitive rowing, the sport where it is most apparent. Just study the pattern of the "fading footprints" in Homer behind the speeding boat, the cluster of eight "puddles" or marks that comprise the wake. How much run has this particular crew obtained? What is the measurement in feet between each set of puddles?

Applying this concept here, I add the wrinkle that dogpat can go in any direction although that might lead to dogs floating in midair.

My advocacy is that the creation of one very great constant, Federer's rise and wriggle in this case, frees one for true improvisation.

[bottle]

The New Article by Rick Macci on Grigor Dimitrov's Forehand in TENNIS

One would be insane, probably certifiably so, to give one thought for one moment to this shot when one will play doubles within two hours.

In fact, to do one's best-- a crazy idea in itself-- one should hit only slice backhands and McEnruefuls and never try a single Federfore or Dimifore.

I don't care though how many times I win in the round robin and am more interested in the big difference between the Fed and the Dim.

Grigor Dimitrov is Baby Fed-- HA! Much to Rick Macci's credit he never mentions the name of Roger Federer, not once.

In fact, Grigor prepares out to the side, Roger close to his ear.

In Grigor's preparation one should to be part of speedy modern tennis start drive at the top of this outward and upward bent-armed to straight-armed move, Rick Macci tells us, followed by a tap not pat of the dog.

I can't be that specific about lift-off on my Federfore but will work on it.

Although they are within the same genre, these two shots are very different.

Eventually, given my tendency, I shall further explore them both.

Is Grigor's path more economical? More versatile? Is hand close to brain a better idea? Etc., etc.

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Dimifore and Gulbifore

A similar ungainly use of early straightened arm for a paper cutter fall?

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Hoganfore

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-Zl2L6OGY)

"Hoganfore" as the name for a forehand in tennis taken from Ben Hogan's use of right arm in his golf swing does not sound nearly as good as "Federfore"; it just however could be a better shot for one of Roger's imitators of whom there are a lot.

My advice after first self-feed is to bring up racket tip a little farther to the right of body than perhaps one did if one had a Federfore.

This emphasizes EAR (external arm rotation) over bending of the arm for the same task.

Next I think one should go ahead and use Vic Braden's device for closing the racket extra amount, i.e., lift elbow a bit.

One will sidearm the elbow to maintain and increase the torsion in it, so lifting elbow a little will make this act feel more natural.

The idea builds on a Steve Navarro post in the Forehand Takeback thread.

My subsequent post there probably offers more detail than here.

One think I immediately like about the Hoganfore is that it restores classical arm straightening as a device for strings to stay longer on the ball.

At the same time, the danger of straining one's extensors seems removed just as in a perfect golf stroke.

The right arm straightening is relaxed and triggered by IAR (internal arm rotation) just as in Hogan's swing.

[don_budge]

"The Hoganfore"…equal parts Ben Hogan…Roger Federer…Frankie, Puntzi and bottle

"The Hoganfore"

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-Zl2L6OGY)

"Hoganfore" as the name for a forehand in tennis taken from Ben Hogan's use of right arm in his golf swing does not sound nearly as good as "Federfore"; it just however could be a better shot for one of Roger's imitators of whom there are a lot.

Yes…what's in a name a great man once asked. Was it April? Come she will. But anyways your name for the namesake forehand of Ben Hogan is ironically apropos as you unload that right arm slamming into your ball just yell "fore"!

I submitted those videos as I watched the two convoluted forehands in "pre-op" mode. I thought it would be a good idea to submit some good fundamental knowledge about "swings"…even though it wasn't a tennis video. As a matter of fact I have been deeply engrossed in my golf swing. Trying to find it after several years of inactivity and accumulated rust. This most excellent video struck me tennis-wise as well as all of this talk about shoulder rotation drives me batty. I hate speaking in terms like these…my own subjective dislike. But at the same time I really enjoy reading those that are comfortable with those terms…you, tennis_chiro and 10splayer to name a few.

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

At the same time…take a moment to reflect upon this move by Ben Hogan as well. It about how to create angle in the loaded wrists…another feat that both he and Roger share in their respective endeavors. See if you can some how incorporate this into your swing analysis as well. I think that you will like this very much. Roger gets so much angle in his loaded wrist…this may just be what sets it apart from the others. Well that and his ability to "dance" with the tennis ball.

In my parallel universe of golf that I am simultaneously traveling in at this point in time and space…I went out yesterday to "find" my swing on the course for the first time. I have been rehearsing these moves (the three submitted videos) and it was time for a test run. Sort of like what you are doing with your tennis. I went out with only a four wood, and irons thru number six. I birdied the first par 5 with a stiffed nine iron from 125 yards (it felt like warm butter on a hot knife) and sank the two meter putt. Then I bogied the long par 4 number two as I failed to get it up and down…barely. Two routine pars on number 3 and number 4.

The swing thoughts were more in line with the other two videos than the one that you cited…in fact I would say the thought that predominately was on my mind was the second video that I referenced here. The one about the angle…the steeper angle.

I have issues with my right handed golf swing because of my left handed tennis. In my golf swing my left hand tends to play the role of a backhand and takes precedence over my right hand releasing. Between the three videos I am trying to undo what took me thirteen years to create. I hope to get it done in a couple of hours. See me change. Maybe I should practice right handed forehands ala bottleesque.

Thanks for the heart warming references to chocolate labs. I lost one three days before Christmas…the saddest day of my life. Then I found one the day before my birthday in March. It's interesting that you pick up on the minutia where many get lost in the flood. You are most welcome…my friend…bottle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQESBJB-vyQ

This third video is equally relevant to your "Hoganfore" as it is to my golf swing. Having fun with tennis is a lost art as well. Having fun in golf is equally tough. The experimenting is a large part of the fun aspect…which is an important aspect of life. It would be an interesting world if professional tennis teachers were required to achieve single digit handicap status in golf instead of the accreditation process that is in play now.

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What gets me is the complete denial that experimentation in either tennis or golf is ever going to produce anything good. I encountered it at a recent college reunion (Hope's, not my own). A retired English professor from Indiana University there played piano for five hundred persons and was well into his golf. He and I could discuss the decline in Walt Whitman's poetry as Whitman got older, but when it came to golf, there was nothing but noir in this professor's view. He read Golf Magazine, etc., but indicated that nothing he ever read had done him any good and never would.

And it won't.

I LOVE these experiments. And your crack about yelling "Fore" is right on. I hit a few home runs yesterday-- with the Hoganfore-- and may do the same today in actual competition. Or not be able to hit the ball at all. It just won't matter. If something like that happens I'll switch to Double-Coins or Federfores or McEnruefuls-- the one that works best since I can only do round-robin for 45 minutes today. One great thing about a carousel-- you can come or leave at any time.

However-- the shot, the Hoganfore-- is really promising. I wouldn't have put up a post about it if it wasn't. Oh sorry, I don't want to sound like Nick Bollettieri selling a rod stuck through a ball. But on the adjacent court, as I did my self-feed was my friend if I dare say that JAY, a very active Detroit teaching pro with a bunch of little kids. He would slowly pitch a ball so that it bounced and dribbled along the court in who knew what direction. The kids all had to line themselves up with the path of the already dribbling and bouncing ball so that it went through all of their legs, and the first kid as it went under had to run to the end of the group so that it rolled through his legs a second time.

A very charming sight in my view. And in contrast to what I was doing with all of my thoughts about skipping stones and golf and tennis technique.

Well, I'm a verbal learner, as Vic Braden correctly said. "It just will take you longer." And I am a verbal teacher, too. Still, I think by now I ought to be able to learn silently from my home runs.

Great hearing from you. Thanks so much.

P.S. Grigor Dimitrov should take his dimifore to Demi Moore. Ernst Gulbis should take his gulbifore to Domenic Thiem. The famous coach who handles them both should line them up side by side and say, "Ernst, your forehand is too ugly. And Domenic, your forehand is too beautiful. And your backhand is too beautiful by far. So Ernst, you need to beautify your forehand, just a little. And Domenic, you need to uglify your backhand, just a little."

There were eight-oared crews like Domenic's backhand in 1959. Princeton was one of them. We beat the crap out of them. This year, though, 2o15, they're best on the East Coast. They only beat us by two tenths of a second, twice, but in the national collegiate championship it was more like 5 seconds. How did they improve that much, both from 1959 and from earlier in this season? Uglification.

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Progress Report

Most of my shots worked, Steve. It was just one of those days. So I hit all Hoganfores and one Double-Coin (no Federfores or McEnruefuls) with all of these forehands successful.

But if I've learned anything from all of my experimentation, Steve, it is not to be overly entranced when some current idea works briefly-- once-- immediately-- for a clean winner.

Repeatability, as you have stressed, is what working on some innovation or production of stroke has to be about.

Still, I think that concentration on ratio applies across a spectrum of shots.

I mentioned 2 to 1 or 1 to 1/2 in connection with a Federfore, where the "1/2" referred to straightening of arm from the elbow, i.e., "tapping the dog."

In a dimwitted or gullible fore, tapping the dog with one's racket can be accomplished with a straightened and stiffened arm, an arm with a hard-on-- ask Demi Moore. I'm sure that Grigor wanted to go and see her right after he read my last post-- he just needed the suggestion.

For a Hoganfore, one shouldn't rob in a plodding, lugubrious way from this intriguing video you put up. One doesn't want to start with bending back wrist or give any credence to the sequence outlined here, not in tennis (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-Zl2L6OGY).

The point is to be selective and use the upper arm better by twisting it axle-like the way Roger Federer already does near the beginning of his backswing to lift the racket tip up.

But if you are willing to then do something that Roger does not do, viz., lift elbow up a little, you can extend the EAR (external arm rotation) over the two steps combined in one. (Elbow can rise as humerus twists. It is physical possibility.)

You start tip up first but the whole beat feels like cocking your arm to skip a rock.

The half-beat that follows is of the same duration as Roger's straightening of his arm but is about inversion of the bent arm instead-- to maintain and increase torsion for a big release.

Mondo is the transition between this half-count and the rest of the stroke which is too fast to think about.

P.S. Today I may get to hit with a 9-year-old whose two-person team recently finished fifth in the nationals of Great Britain. She has a Russian coach, a male with some relation to Olga Morisova, who supposedly first noticed Andy Murray. Wonder how I'll do or as my older sister wonders, will the girl progress? I'll try to get the full story.

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Ten Thousand Miles

You just put in your ten thousand miles and you won't even need a tennis racket. You can use a rod stuck through a tennis ball instead. If it weren't good
Nick Bollettieri wouldn't tell you so (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8CcCQyj4fc).

[don_budge]

Fundamentally speaking…and The Minutia of Details

But if I've learned anything from all of my experimentation, Steve, it is not to be overly entranced when some current idea works briefly-- once-- immediately-- for a clean winner.


For a Hoganfore, one shouldn't take from this intriguing video you put up in a plodding, lugubrious way where you do everything in sequence exactly as the man says

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-Zl2L6OGY

Another thing that I have learned is one can never think too deeply about things. Explore the minutia and connect the dots. I get so obsessed with connecting those damned impossible dots sometimes. I can understand how Ferdinand Celine was writing in such a crazy manner. Nothing is ever handed to you. Then go to work…and repeat. Evaluate each shot individually for a split second…then onwards. Eventually though…if you are teaching you must arrive at some conclusions in order to communicate something concrete to the student in terms of something fundamentally solid from which to begin.

Go to 2.20 of this video. Look how he is demonstrating how his left hand is "helping" his shoulder to rotate. Is it possible that in a Fedefore that you also use the left hand in a similar manner? I constantly remind my students to keep both hands on the racquet as long as possible. All shots are some variation of two handedness.

I appreciate you taking this up with this particular video and hoping you will also look at the other two with regard to their content. It's also rather amusing to watch your antics with your "McEnrueful" after I went through all of those contortions hitting and learning the continental game some time ago. But I felt that this stuff (these three videos) was really relevant regards to the two rather "unorthodox" backswings in the other thread. It's good stuff. Really, really good stuff.

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Beachball

Will look into those other videos.

But my McEnrueful is a good because extremely simple shot.

It's really Doug King's beachball shot where you feel up to the ball and then give it a huge shove.

But Doug may have a loop first in mind. Me, I only want a straight wristed hand rise both up and back a few inches then change directions after perceptible pause as in a volley.

It's body tilt from the hips with straight back (I mean spine) that administers mild topspin on the shot from core body rotation.

To learn the shoulders swing you take a pin from the fifth hole on a golf course and thread it behind you through your elbows. Or follow the example of Mr.
Wadden in the first of the three videos where pin is in front of his neck.

That gives the whole hitting area the look of a shallow U. You get the hand by the navel and crank. For me this works best with a neutral hitting step. The followthrough is apt to be abbreviated too.

McEnroe-- he's a martinet, upright. Not me. I'm slightly bent from the hips like an oarsman (or Rory McIlroy) at least on this one shot.

The first time I ever tried this as a passing shot against an extremely knowledgeable player, he just stood there like a toadstool as the ball whizzed past. It wasn't that he had slow reflexes. He was just amazed by the unusual looking shot and was trying to figure it out.

"I was just trying to figure out what you were doing."