A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

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Very promising in self-feed. Found that I preferred wishbone (actively leading with elbow on backswing) for heaviest topspin and Gordon-Yandell-Macci ATP3 for the flat version.

This could create a flawed program in that either of these choices would be telegraphed by the wind-up.

On the other hand I have another version of flat domain (my McEnrueful) which is bizarre enough to confuse most opponents when alternated with ATP3 flat or anything else.

The reason for wishbone preference when one goes about producing heavy topspin is, that, although one can learn to do the same thing from ATP3 dogpat, the racket is earlier in getting closed with tip lagged toward net, which in my view makes the shot easier to produce.

If one will permit oneself to contemplate a bit, this forehand-- the one producing heaviest topspin-- is a triple roll.

If that contention is true, I can't see why to put the first two of the three rolls too close together.

[bottle]

Lead from the Elbow But in What Direction?

A scientist, as I understand him or her, does not stop with something she likes but rather wishes to be thorough.

A sequence from excellent to good to worse therefore seems quite possible. Re-stated, that would be from likely to less likely to less likely than that.

SIDEWAYS, to answer the question posed in my title here. With a simple drop of the racket head to transform it into a tray to replace its solid and connected whip-around in a normal unit turn.

Now hands separate at the bottom of this drop. Because of one's grip, close to that used by Roger Federer in his forehand, the tray-like or frisbee-like racket sails around rather than whips around as both arm straightening and smooth body rotation take place.

The biggest departure from what appears sensible is elimination of normal turn and arm work sequence.

Both arms rather fly around the body as the body flies around.

Or does the body limp around? Or backswing around in a controlled way irrevocably intertwined with the steps of one's feet?

Backward rotation of hips thus melds into forward rotation of hips exactly as in a Ted Williams' baseball swing.

Perhaps, reader, you are inclined to point out that the Ted Williams' design is for accommodation of a 100 miles-per-hour pitch and will not work at slower speeds.

Perhaps that is the experiment.

Note: One should keep other forms of forehand at the ready in case this one does not work.

[bottle]

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But it does work, at least in self-feed. The racket, after fall and arm extension, is pointing toward the net just as Rick Macci's does after he makes his small adjustment following his dogpat.

There no longer is any need for adjustment, but different adjustments in elbow setting can be fun. The adjustment or lack thereof will affect how far one spins the racket around one's hand as one begins one's "pull and roll."

The crucial factor will be if one can play tennis while linking the two hips turns. When I've done this occasionally in my tennis life I've felt I was hitting a different quality of shot. Naturally, I wonder now: Can I or should I do this all the time?

Today I found that if I wanted to hit with accuracy the length of the alley I needed to pull my hitting arm (as I straightened it) back a little more. I self-fed from both open and neutral stance.

Will I be ready next week for Cate, fifth in Great Britain in the English national 9-year-olds? No but I might be. We probably will play in Cornwall at St. Ives.

[bottle]

Self-Feed II

Rain kept me from trying out the new shot in competitive doubles so I decided on a bit more solitaire.

Some players change grip before their shot even begins-- Philip Kohlschreiber comes to mind.

The extra beat of this when one already has desired grip can be applied to the keylike drop in this design leaving only straightening of the elbow to occur during backward rotation of the hips. In any case the drop-then-extension feels economical, smooth and a blended act.

Loop then in response to change of direction of the hips comes exclusively from wrist, forearm and the humerus twisting in its cave.

There always will be the chance to shorten the key-like drop-- good for flattening out a shot. Roll will still be present just less of it, which gives more zen-like emphasis to the wrist suddenly and responsively laying back.

At opposite end of the spectrum one can, while straightening elbow, twist it up to press the racket tip even lower than level.

This straight-wristed move can generate extra spin needed to hit crosscourt short angle ("the pro shot").

Note: The vectors in this overall method of shot seem to argue for it. Flat, sailing racket (like a frisbee) seems to create momentum to the outside. When arm stops then the racket can keep rolling to the outside which helps it to continue to roll to the inside and with all of this activated from body core.

Mondo or flip, it seems to me, occurs in a slantwise direction from high outside to low inside, never straight over the top.

[bottle]

Blocked Slice or a Forehand that Starts Out like a Backhand?

Okay, so no one wants to talk about the crazy forehand. I'll just use it to beat the crap out of people.

And I'll write instead today about backhand double-roll tabletop slice that blocks the ball in the contact area and even will try this out if I can get to a tennis court amidst TV Davis Cup and the packing and preparations for our flight across the pond from Detroit to London.

The idea of blocked slice comes, I guess, from someone decades ago saying, "Ken Rosewall's slice is a blocked shot."

Or maybe from a Julie Heldman slice article in her mother's old magazine TENNIS WORLD.

"Keep the racket going toward the target," Julie wrote.

So I'll wind up farther around or compress the two rolls to get all the accelerative detail out of the way before a big block.

I customarily play with old geezers like myself, don't you know, and have become addicted to hitting the ball with the second roll.

This imparts a soupcon of sidespin guaranteed to drive any geezer nuts. But I'm going to play against Cate, 9, in England. She'll get to that shot and crush it.

So, having whipped the racket head fro and to, I'll make both ends of my stick PROCEED AT THE SAME SPEED.

[bottle]

Orthodox ATP3 Makes Its Reappearance But With A Screwball Dogpat

Instead of just hinging the forearm down like a halfback straight-arming a defensive end in his puss, one screws the whole arm counterclockwise at the same time (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P52Ggata7qY).

If this doesn't work and not screwing doesn't work then return immediately to the screwball forehand discussed in the immediately preceding posts. In any case I see good potential for service returns and other quick shots there because of the linked hip turns. Had particular success against the geezers of the Grosse Pointe carousel with just a soupcon of key-like wind down: ball went extra fast, guy couldn't react and was late, we won point.

These irrepressible thoughts and another to lower wait position will surely screw my chances of victory against Cate in England (we fly tonight), but I am always becoming something and like life that way and understand this and accept it.

Was ist da zu verloren?

[bottle]

When Expectation and Reality are Exactly the Same

St. Ives, UK. Got to play in Maidenhead against Cate Cowper and Francesca Davis, both of whom are coached by Victor Roubanov, married to Olga Morozova, former number one in Russia and discoverer of Andy Murray. She partnered with Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon.

I've seen a picture of Victor with the two young girls. He has a kind face, requisite to be an effective young person's coach?

And he was not too shabby a player himself, in fact 18 and under champion of the USSR.

Whom else did he coach? Henman and Kournikova among others.

Up to age of 11, Victor is interested only in grooving somebody's forehand then shortening it.

Quite critical of British acceptance of mediocrity, Victor wants all of his players to succeed at the highest levels and doesn't think doubles earns anyone enough money.

Cate Cowper was fresh from winning her first grass court tournament the day before. I worked my way to net and was passed by Francesca Davis short in the alley (what I like to call the short angle or pro shot). The ball came up and down very fast.

My partner was first Kristin Cowper, American, then John Cowper, a transplant from Rhodesia.

For a spell there Kristin and I ran four games, but then the girls figured things out and we did not fare well.

Cate's 10th birthday was today.

[bottle]

Soupcon of Scintilla of Sidespin Balanced by Completely Different Slice

ST. IVES, UK. There simply isn't time for compressed double-roll then a long straight-a-way, I found.

If one is to hit a tabletop double-roll like Ken Rosewall and is exactly of my ability, one ought to make contact on the second roll.

To make contact on long straight-a-way then one need only draw double-roll construction backward through tract of the whole shot.

If one has long experimented with skunk tail uprightness and then further over slantwise preparation, it is nothing to go a third step and lower racket tip right away as part of the backswing (and call this first roll now).

Hips can be associated with arm straightening and forward roll rather than arm straightening and backward roll.

That leaves plenty of time for a very long straight-a-way as if one is determined to follow the ball with one's racket forever.

Haven't tried this yet; it nevertheless has to work.

[bottle]

Four Forehands All to Try at 1 p.m.

ST. IVES, UK. If now that she is 10 years old we can get my Roubanov coached faux-granddaughter to a tennis court, I will try-- some would say miserably-- four different forehands all at once.

She, the faux-granddaugher Cate Cowper, has worked with Victor Roubanov for four years, and like Anna Kournikova, a previous kid student of his, has one forehand that is very grooved and very good.

As I write, she is sitting next to me playing (and winning) games on a new touchscreen.

The first of the forehands I shall try, my version of an ATP3, contains a closing of the racket face as its dogpat goes out and down. Although I wrote a whole essay on this subject, such was the pressure of playing against great 9-year-olds that I only remembered to hit the shot one time in the session.

The second forehand, my "Keystone," as I call it, stood up well and may work exceptionally well on those occasions when I try to hit with two beats rather than three, perhaps for a short hopped half volley.

The third and fourth are versions in which the arm straightens early as the body turns back. That creates a space/beat for interesting deviations of the two hands away from each other before the final pull and roll.

The "Keystone," by the way, is so named for starting with a keying down motion that closes the racket in that special way and frees up the arm for simple, unfettered extension.

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The Keystone Pipeline

St. Ives, Cornwall, UK. Reader, I am sure you would rather hear of a game score dispute and how it came about to almost sever the ligatures among the persons of three different nations.

I will simply report the final score when we had to give up our court-- 8-8 in a tiebreak-- and say that all's well that ends well (in Cornwall).

My new forehand, The Keystone Pipeline, is oozing forward pretty well.

For the record, I oppose the real Keystone Pipeline, which is designed for scummy and stupid people who prefer scum over all other forms of energy.

I despise The Keystone Pipeline so much that I have decided to co-opt its name and give it to my forehand.

The ATP3, you will recall, involves the rapid turn of one's shoulders followed by a distinct dogpat (video: 2013 Tennis Rick Macci Breaks Down the Forehand). Can you see the two timing units in that? Me too. I simply reverse them and transform the dogpat into a bent-arm keying down.

This leaves arm straightening to occur coincident with backward turning of the core.

Reversal of core then activates pull and roll.

Future of this shot may lie in a hip turn that keeps heel down for first half of itself exactly as in a David Leadbetter golf swing.

Only as you are about to hit the ball do you squish a bug.

[stotty]

Cate...Victor...the fish

I saw Cate shadow stroke one forehand in the beer garden. The shape looked good. I wish I had that kind of shape in my forehand. Victor just might have done a great job. One thing is for sure, a player simply must have a reliable forehand….and preferably a big forehand.

I would have sacrificed the rest of my game for a decent forehand.

Today, a boy of 14 played at the tournament I am running this week. All he had was a forehand and fast feet. He won….enough said. He may well win the whole event. I am waging a fiver he will.

Epping….what a wonderful place….what a wonderful thing to do.

I forgot to ask, how was the fish?

[bottle]

Stotty, Cate, Viktor Roubanov, Luke Digweed

The fish and chips were okay, but your comment on the shape of Cate's forehand is right on. Coincidentally, the day after we met, John Cowper, father of Cate, took us all (John, Hope, me-- Kristin was elsewhere) to witness Cate's 8 a.m. in Bradfield UK Indoor Tennis Facility with Luke Digweed, a teaching pro I can wholeheartedly endorse even though in the sixties (throughout) I held my breath.

Luke Digweed is a master of unstudied clarity. First item: shape of roll in Cate's or anybody's forehand. He mimed three freeze points. I would, more cumbersomely, identify them as 1) mondo or flip, 2) racket tip pointing at sky, 3) racket tip pointing at side fence. Only then does racket come back toward body in a Federer-like finish.

It's all one uninhibited motion, of course, but all three visuals will be in my thought if I can get to a court after mowing a couple of overgrown Michigan lawns. The short review seemed to elicit even better forehands from Cate than the ones I experienced in a hit with her the night before.

I can't tell you how lucky I've been to hit with a real junior like Cate these past two weeks. Our whole trip to England was great but this was great, too. Cate just turned 10 and I am 75 . If she were 20 I don't think I'd reach a single ball.

Second item was net. Luke had Cate just creaming forehands deep down the line. Her opponent would then be so deep behind the baseline that if Cate volleyed into the court the point would be hers. So she didn't need to slug or swat the ball, just take speed off and deflect it, which Luke showed again with simple mime-- hand curling a little, I would say, through involvement of whole arm.

I liked your comment in answer to Hope's question, Stotty. You didn't say "plastics." You said "footwork." Right now the exquisitely balanced Cate takes six steps to my one and it's all rhythmic if you know what I mean. She'll run around her backhand any time of the day although her backhand is very good.

I wonder if Victor and Luke ever work on her two-hander-- the day I watched Luke left it alone.

Here Hopefully is a photo. Nope, Hope's sleeping off the delayed flights. Will put up a photo later.

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Two Forehand Roll Images Instead of the Digweed Three

The first image can be a moving image (or film scene or device) from mondo to racket pointing at side fence. Right now I see this entire tract as accelerative although one could experiment with keeping the acceleration on only until racket tip was pointing to sky, I suppose.

To make this moving image more understandable, one could think of blackboard like Oscar or windshield like everybody else. Up and over equals image one.

Image two then is a simple Federer-like followthrough decelerating as it returns to body.

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Meeting in Epping Forest, UK

Stotty likes to write. He says tennis is all he knows so that is what he writes about. Actually he knows a lot of different things and can write or talk about any of them.

(https://www.google.com/search?q=eppi...FUkakgodA9IBfw)

Here are some photos, first Stotty and Bot, second our family we got to stay with in England including my partner Hope’s granddaughter Cate the Viktor Rebanov coached tennis player, third Cate at a St. Ives UK beach paddling ball in air with her father 480 times (or was that on another occasion?), fourth family on a deck at St. Ives.

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Problem

Too big the images (too many bytes) for the crummy photo-editing programs we have.