A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

The guy was never a favorite writer of mine although I knew he may have been better than anybody at writing about a character or characters over time and always was super-aware of how somebody changes or doesn't change often in many decades. As I re-read him a bit now however (and thanks!) I realize that without being moralistic-- at all-- his writing is extremely close to the life decisions faced by any one of his good readers.

The world or milieu of his fiction might be off-putting to someone who only plays video games, but what does that matter? There's wisdom there-- wisdom about people over time-- and I'm glad that Bill Murray was one of the people to get this.

As a man and not as a writer Mr. W. Somerset Maugham must have been pretty interesting too. A fellow juror on a mountain in Virginia who was so appalled by my divorce that she died (well, that sounds almost self-serving but news of the divorce sure didn't help keep her alive) had given me a book to keep, a publisher's knock-off called ENCOUNTERS.

It was about real life encounters between innocent people and famous men. I'll try and re-find it. (It got lost along with my skiis and my truck in the divorce.)

The famous man who was absolutely the worst and meanest and most awful was W. Somerset Maugham. But that was just in one encounter. In another, by another person, Maugham was the most pleasant-- i.e., with sunniest disposition-- in the world. So maybe Robert Louis Stevenson wrote W. Somerset Maugham.

[bottle]

A Stupid Little Thing to Apply to Forehands, Forehand Volleys and Serves

We are tennis players. So we know that too much idea will destroy next Thursday. A small idea though, a stupid little thing, may destroy or may create. And if we no longer like it we can retract it (after we have lost a set or two).

Well-- there's the word-- "retraction."

The best advice a teaching pro ever gave me was not to imitate but to invent.

The challenge comes from low wait position cheated way over toward backhand. How specifically does John McEnroe get from there so quickly to his forehand volley? But does it matter how John McEnroe does it? Not unless figuring that out helps me John Escher do the same thing. I'm thinking, "Arm is at right angle. So squeeze it to less than a right angle. Then straighten it back to a right angle. And do all this fast to project tight albow up and away from the body."

Same thing for forehand ground stroke only behind one (yet in the slot). And incorporated into the easy up, down and up of a gravity assisted serve.

Pete Sampras never fully straightened his arm in his service backswing, right? But he was Pete Sampras, which is supposed to mean that an ordinary person can't do this, especially one who is restricted in twist capacity within the rotor cuff (a "rotorded" person). The restriction most likely isn't in the rotor cuff itself but in shortness in one or more of the strings that spin the humerus like a skittle.

Well, maybe such a person shouldn't try bent arm in backswing at home or maybe he should. Frankly, I don't think the experts have studied the subject enough to know.

In forehand volley, forehand and serve the racket now is propelled to an "air cushion," i.e., to a finesse or natural timing plateau in all three cases.

[bottle]

And Now the Other Way?

Reader, try the same trick in forward part of a few strokes. The experiment won't kill you, I promise.

[bottle]

Hmm, 4000 Posts

Maybe I should react to that. And maybe 4000 posts is the reason I held serve every time in this morning's three sets of doubles.

I do think the discovered backswing "little squeeze" of # 2898 helped make forehand volleys, serves and certain forehand ground strokes-- all three-- more organic today.

And more organic by definition is less mechanical and less studied too if that is possible.

Amusing to contemplate since I obviously study my strokes. A dancer too studies her or his moves, I would say. Can one study some move to make it more organic, and is that not worthy goal?

I think so.

You'll never be a natural but so what? And remember: a lot of "naturals" burn out.

[bottle]

Cliff Drysdale Slows Down Johanna Konta's Forehand Backswing

For most viewers, I would guess, Cliff Drysdale's slow motion footage with explanation spliced into running commentary on the Johanna Konta-Zhang Shuai Australian Open quarterfinal match was amusing interlude and a nice little furbelow.

For any technician or regular designer of tennis strokes it was or should have been much more than that.

"Keeping her elbow in shortens the backswing," Cliff said.

Yes and the elbow then goes out to a more traditional position.

If you combine this with Nick Wheatfield's unifed 1-2 rhythm you create the "air cushion" I've been talking about with option then to hit a long arm or short arm windshield wiper forehand whichever you prefer.

In doubles yesterday morning before I saw the Konta match I just hit the straight arm version and why wouldn't I since I've hit straight arm for more than a decade. And my good opponents feasted on it whenever I hit it once again.

Short arm is going to be more effective as soon as it's ready.

Why (among other reasons)? Because it's early in getting the rod (one's forearm) pointing at the net.

From there one can give a body shove to the ball while wiping it at the same time.

I've got this shot working in self-feed. And it worked after a bit of adjustment in a long hit with my friend Ken Hunt.

But it is not working in clay court doubles where I get severely jerked around and where I want it primarily as a service return.

Besides, I was a teenager and not a 76-year-old. I hit plenty of my McEnrueful, a shot that takes the racket back in the easy bowler's way. I was hellbent on winning and I didn't even try one short arm FETF, the concentrated energy backswing forward emphasis topspin forehand I've been working on.

This is about to change, I believe, a matter of sticking with some new shot before it is ready to be unveiled.

[don_budge]

Thanks for your thoughts…One a Day

Maybe I should react to that. And maybe 4000 posts is the reason I held serve every time in this morning's three sets of doubles.

I do think the discovered backswing "little squeeze" of # 2898 helped make forehand volleys, serves and certain forehand ground strokes-- all three-- more organic today.

And more organic by definition is less mechanical and less studied too if that is possible.

Amusing to contemplate since I obviously study my strokes. A dancer too studies her or his moves, I would say. Can one study some move to make it more organic, and is that not worthy goal?

I think so.

You'll never be a natural but so what? And remember: a lot of "naturals" burn out.

Hmmm…that's a bit over one a day since you became a member of the website. One a day keeps the doctor away. It's great therapy isn't it John? It was great to meet you in person and we are going to have that hit someday real soon. So be ready. Thanks for sharing all of your thoughts about tennis and tennis strokes.

My father got as big a kick out of meeting you as I did. He couldn't get over that we knew each other on the forum and that we had a chance to meet at Gracie See's on their last day in business.

[bottle]

Bottle's FETF Foreswing as Closer Imitation of his FETF Backswing

FETF: forward emphasis topspin forehand

FETF backswing: elbow in until the little squeeze and straighten has propelled (sequentially) the elbow outward.

FETF foreswing: Keep elbow out and still to propel rod (forearm) inward-forward. But don't waste internal rotation of upper arm on moving hand into the forward inward position. Free range rotation of the upper arm is needed for the wipe, i.e., should be delayed.

Mondo (flip): Save flip for the straighten part of "little squeeze and straighten." In other words, put flip close to wipe.

"Little squeeze and straighten" in either direction: The squeeze lessens right angle in arm, i.e., makes it acute. The straighten restores the right angle. The total motion creates useful energy and firmness unavailable to people like me who didn't previously think of this. On the foreswing there also will be inside-out vector, viz., out after in. Then comes the wipe.

[bottle]

Liquid

Now we give the same shot an infusion of liquidity. Initial squeeze of arm-- liquid. Straightening of arm to right angle-- liquid. Elbow traveling out from body-- liquid. There in a nutshell is a short unified rising backswing with nothing propulsive or repulsive about it.

Now comes second half of the shot the beginning of which is equally liquid. That is where rotating hips on flat feet (in neutral stance version) take the rear shoulder down which is a procedure familiar to us from our McEnruefuls.

At the same time the arm, liquid, squeezes again but this time to align the rod as axle of our fan on boat in the Everglades.

Second half of shot may be defined as "the hit," but that doesn't mean that half of the half wasn't first all finesse just the way that all of the backswing was.

Next: The shove including mondo as arm re-extends to right angle and wipe and subsequent return to the bod.

[bottle]

More Liquid-- Tried and Reviewed

One cue derived from today's self-feed-- and I view any "cue" in the stage sense of a jog to some actor's memory-- is a level section of sideways racket travel to initiate the forward stroke.

This happens as one squeezes biceps for a second time.

The racket comes sideways toward the body if one is using a strong eastern grip and elbow has gone slightly out and up and stayed there.

At the same time the hitting shoulder banks down preparatory to a more horizontal body whirl.

The combination produces level, sideways racket motion going down to leave the racket tip almost pointing at the ball as in a Jack Sock forehand although this rod forward position has been more easily arrived at.

Also, I think I learned that elbow moving forward away from the body does not open the strings if push rod position has already been achieved. A push from body, upper arm and elbow is then to be combined with twist from the upper arm. The two different motions are at right angles to one another-- probably the central idea in all the writings of the great tennis technician John M. Barnaby. One sends weight forward or withholds some or all of it every time one delivers a spinny shot.

[bottle]

Subtract One Element

This is fun. It makes me laugh. At the same time though I seriously think this is the way that any optimal design for a good new tennis stroke comes about.

Nobody gets the design right away. At least I don't. And as you know, reader, I make no distinctions among the various pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they and you-all.

So the design here is coming along fine but we ought to cut something out. I nominate first straightening at the elbow while elbow is held in. Just let it go out as arm re-straightens to a right angle. This will create a more pronounced air cushion.

Enough to hold elbow in as arm squeezes from the biceps muscle for the first time. We got the shortened backswing that Cliff Drysdale made a big deal of in the case of Johanna Konta. My short backswing may or may not be exactly the same as hers but so what-- both of us at least keep elbow in for a good long while. Let's just not make the sequencing of the provocative new backswing too lugubrious and challenging and slow.

[bottle]

The Great Therapy Continues

Some might say that all present thought is a disaster. And I make no distinction among pronouns. Self-feed has honed the new shot to razor sharp. Tonight's tennis social would be the perfect occasion to unveil the thing.

Except I may in the three rounds of doubles end up playing against Zi-Zi the house pro.

Last time my partner started off by hitting a perfect shot to Zi-Zi's forehand. "Why are you being nice to me?" Zi-Zi said. "I'm not going to be nice to you."

Thanks to that little bit of help along with mild flaws in Zi-Zi's partner we won the set. But Zi-Zi is apt to come back into my tennis life at any time and I'd like to be prepared.

"You play with the shot you practiced," Stan Smith said. On the other hand if I go to the park this afternoon for self-feed I'll be too tired and sciaticized for effective play this evening. And there is the little matter of work. At least I don't have to do another bibliography of some dead person's book collection for unlikely sale.

Here is the problem: I see more paring down of my FETF-- my forward emphasis topspin forehand-- hoving into view. I'm squeezing arm twice which is one time too many.

So I'll take the low road by brush-sliding elbow past bod as bod turns past the ball. This will send racket tip down. How straight or bent the arm will be right then I don't know yet. But I like the idea of the two halves of the arm squeezing together as hitting shoulder banks down in first half of the subsequent foreswing to put the racket length level and parallel to the court.

Racket tip, not racket butt will once again point at the ball. From there everything in the Konta-like-elbow-kept-in-short-backswing-but-high-road-shot will remain the same.

This shot will be snakelike. A snake can coil its head slowly or quickly, rearwardly or forwardly, but if forwardly old hiss factory may prove less dramatic but more accurate.

[bottle]

Self-Dialogue Before Self-Feed

Engineer 1: On second thought a vertical forward swing starting from the elbow hinge changes pitch out front even faster (and therefore more unreliably) than long arm version of the same thing.

Engineer 2: No, it would if palm were in the lead. But not if the yoke between thumb and index finger were leading with wrist still configured straight at that pre-mondoed point.

Editor's note: In living room swings the racket reaches the exact same "push-rod" point whether Konta-like high road or the present low road described here.

[bottle]

McEnrueful Backswing Morphing into FETF Backswing

A McEnrueful is an imitation John McEnroe forehand. Here is one hit by John McEnroe himself (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...tLevelRear.mov).

The distinguishing feature is the timed down and up backswing. Usually McEnroe then puts a lot of upward leg drive into the shot. In the space of this leg drive his hitting shoulder, aeronautical, banks and unbanks.

The intermediate, if crazy enough, can learn this shot only to find that it won't stand up in fierce competition. The more workable shot for him is presented in the video above.

But how rhythmic is the backswing for any of these shots? Very. So the intermediate who has come this far would be unreasonable not to continue to use it with an ATP3 (Association of Touring Professionals Type III forehand).

Requisites: 1) Good grip. A strong eastern will do. 2) Unlike McEnrueful, the banked down shoulder will stay down for the hit and only come up afterward. 3) Now we get personal enough maybe to defy all possible labels. The down and up backswing ends by pointing racket TIP under the ball so that the banking down levels out the racket and points the tip right at the ball. 4) Everything else is concentrate: orange juice from a small container with no water added and including the mondo and the wipe.

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But, if backswing for FETF (forward emphasis topspin forehand) is now an imitation of McEnrueful backswing, how is it imitation? In the rhythm and speed but not the details.

Details: Since racket starts waist high and cheated over for anybody in the McEnroe mode, the arm is bent. Let it stay that way.

And since we want soon to be pointing racket tip at the ball, we needn't do much, in fact, it makes sense not to use a McEnrueful's immediate separation of the hands.

Left hand stays on racket with human head and body left to do all. The head leans toward the ball. The body turns toward the ball. These simultaneous moves are the down of this down and up backswing.

The up of it will be very different from anything known to man but is indeed known to two children on a see-saw.

The racket tip goes down as the elbow rises up. Wheatley's 1-2 rhythm is at work here (down and up is the 1). Now it is time to hit the ball.

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I admire good articles and posts on complete tennis matches but don't see why a single shot can't contain a world of experience (as in the last sentence of LEVELS OF THE GAME by John McPhee). For me last night this happened twice. The first instance was a huge poach by a doubles opponent who happens to be a very good net man.

The serve was to my forehand in the deuce court. If it had been a great serve I would either have had to hit behind the poacher or lob. But the serve just bounced in the center of the box and hung stupidly in the air so that I had all day to do whatever I wanted.

I simply used the extra time to adjust my aim point. I've never shot skeet or a duck and don't intend to start now but imagine that the shifting aim point just in front of the streaking poacher was like that. All I will say is that the measured McEnrueful down and up backswing allowed me to do this. The ball passed six inches in front of the outstretched racket.

The second world of experience happened on an overhead. Instead of hitting a full slam I used abbreviation as described on page 67 of TENNIS BY PANCHO GONZALEZ.

"You hit that one very clean," my friend Ken Hunt then said.

Sure I did because there wasn't the usual internal arm rotation stuff as on a serve or full smash.

The cue that will work for me is a chopping block set on its side up in the air and directly in front of me. But strings will be open to the ball the whole way to it. To complete the image there is an axe head attached to the strings and perpendicular to them and I split the ball into halves.

[bottle]

One New Shot Suggests Another

We have the idea of, usefully, cloning rhythm of our McEnrueful backswing onto an FETF (forward emphasis topspin forehand).

If the push-rod nature of this shot (# 2908) is as good as I think it is, there appears no reason not also to combine it with a weird loop entirely new to me, reader, if not to you.

Backswing now consists of body turn while hands are separating combined with compression of elbow as if you are trying to send both halves of your arm through a needle's eye.

From there one can hydraulically re-straighten arm to right angle as hitting shoulder banks down to the seminal position of # 2908, a level push-rod slightly out from body toward side fence and pointing racket tip at the ball.

Note: I never understood precisely what the past forum member WBC meant when he advocated "forward emphasis forehands" so now have used this phrase alone to invent two of them by and for myself.

[bottle]

Snake Coil See See-- New Way to Approach it

If one claims that one's game contains a constellation of backhand slices, how many kinds of slice would that be? Well, there are seven main stars in Orion, so I'll start there. For forehands of any kind, I think I'd like fewer rather than more, but one has to be a see see, "the topspin angle."

To adjust to the see see purpose one's new snake coil then push-rod FETF (forward emphasis topspin forehand), one needs to understand that closing the strings by lifting elbow to the side no longer sends ball into bottom of the net-- not if one remains steady in one's hallucination of a swamp buggy boring through the Everglades.

The boat's giant fan spins evenly around one's push-rod, which aims at the short target. Lifting the elbow is likely to shorten the upward spin part of a half-cycle, but one can perhaps find a subtle way or ways to compensate for this.