A New Year's Serve

[gzhpcu]

[bottle]

I'm nothing like this. My devices, like yours, are internal.

[bottle]

Further Assessment

Also, I never had any game. I'm just finding some game right now. How my physique stands up to the new game is another question.

[gzhpcu]

Been searching all my life, the endless quest... That is part of the fascination of the game...

[bottle]

The first fascination in my case.

[bottle]

Rowing and Tennis: A Preview of "Boys in the Boat," the Film

hockeycoach was the forum member who most expressed an interest in whatever commonalities there are between rowing and tennis. He's gone! I nevertheless proceed.

Since I recently gave in these pages an imaginary tennis lesson to the late Bill Stowe, author of ALL TOGETHER and stroke of the 1964 Gold Medal eight-oared crew, here is a photo of that crew with Stowe the first tall guy on the left (https://www.flickr.com/photos/thehap...356/?ytcheck=1). The scrawny looking coxswain, Bob Zimonyi, much older than the other guys, defected from Budapest, Hungary to the Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia.

I've tried today to post the Tokyo final from that year, wanted in particular to see if the crew kept their arms slightly bent at the catch as Stowe recounted in his book; however, that film is less widely circulated than other Olympic footage, perhaps because the race was run at night.

The 1936 film is much more available. The film-maker, Leni Riefenstahl, was as Nazi as she was good. This film gives a good sense of the excitement at the core of the current best-seller THE BOYS IN THE BOAT. The Germans were supposed to win. There is a thematic correlation to Jesse Owens track performances and the famous tennis match between J. Donald Budge and Gottfried von Cramm, with Adolph Hitler personally calling von Cramm just BEFORE that match to put some pressure on him and then sending him to the eastern front when he didn't win.

Here, Hitler is in the crowd. The U.S., with his help, got a lousy lane assignment. The race was won by a yard. The film is all about the German crew until the U.S. wins.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HunZsKugJmY)

[stotty]

Incredible film and photo...

Incredible photo. I didn't realise rowing built up such fine legs in men, clearly it does.

Incredible film....absolutely loved it! I watch a film like that and wonder if any of those men are still alive. Wonderful, natural athletes long since forgotten, by most, one would have thought. I know nothing of rowing but found the atmosphere of the race truly, truly amazing. You sense there was much at stake.

[bottle]

How Much Self-Authorization is Healthy in Tennis?

If one tries too many different things one might end up a lousy player like Hana Mandlikova, who, as everybody knows, only won the U.S. Open once.

Reading a full book written by a player who stresses the game's fundamentals over its gimmicks can be an amusing experience.

The book I'm thinking of is DENNIS RALSTON'S TENNIS WORKBOOK, 1987, which comes with a complete section of blank self-evaluation forms, the first question on which is "BALANCE (is it smooth as I hit the ball? Am I on balance after I hit the ball?")

WORKBOOK is full of down-to-earth stuff like this but also is deeply revealing of the biases and personal philosophy of its author-- the reason I bought it.

The bias of any accomplished tennis player (and this guy certainly served his apprenticeship at number one) probably starts with grip.

The rap is that Ralston learned everything he knew from Pancho Gonzalez and later from coaching Chris Evert Lloyd. He himself however is a continental grip player, great at the net. I just think this grip and that net proficiency inform the overall outlook, especially one point which he stresses over and over again, sometimes in an unconscious way.

Don't step out and put your weight on the front foot too soon (opposite from what Peter Burwash has always taught). Hold weight instead on rear or outside or "prop" foot to use the Tony Roche term. To keep weight back on a neutral stance shot Ralston even suggests putting the toes down first (mistakenly taken on popular level to indicate indecision) and then pivot hips from behind so that foot gets flat. In such a swing there can be hips rotation with both feet flat before the rear heel finally comes up. And the shoulders never separate ahead of the hips as in kinetic chain evangelism. Is there then a save step, a slight replacement step with rear foot as in one scenario outlined by Welby Van Horn? Saw it in one of the Ralston photos.

So much saving of weight on back foot is provocative philosophy to which we add very upright stance on all shots with no bowing forward and shoulders kept level. No "banking" as in Van Horn. No hunching forward as in a Gonzalez forehand. These observations are my own, are what I see as implicit. Ralston certainly would never disparage Van Horn and especially Gonzalez who mentored him and with whom he lived at an important time for both.

But his (Ralston's) game is different, and on some service returns he even advises one to get the arms going before the body. Let's react: HERESY! WHAT HAPPENED TO UNIT TURN, OUR ROCK OF AGES?

So even in a book on basics, especially in a book on basics, if the author is any good, there is provocation in spades, and the provocation is greater than when somebody consciously strives for it.

Everything is on the level of suggestion and thus very powerful. I'm not saying Dennis Ralston does the following on every shot: but here is an implicit thought to contemplate, something to aspire toward if you yourself are wild enough to want real adventure and don't always wish to hit the ball the same way.

Arm first on backswing with body chiming in. Arm first on foreswing with body chiming in.

[lobndropshot]

Bottle I enjoyed reading this post and I am sure I will enjoy it again when I re-read it later today.

[bottle]

Agassi-But-Me

I’m down now from ten forehands to three (I don’t count chips, lobs and dropshots—they are different animals):

1) McEnrueful settling down from toe of inside foot

2) Djokovic-itch

3) Agassi-But-Me in which arm contracts as it mondoes, and then keys, with elbow throw to complete the followthrough. Compared to the Djokovic-itch, there is no arm roll in this shot, just a swing of forearm then whole arm around the turning body. (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...tanceRear1.mov)

It is fun to hit a Ralston version of all three shots in which arm movement precedes main body turn which precedes arm movement which precedes main body turn.

In the McEnrueful then, the down of down and up backswing is arm. The up is body and arm. The down is from arm to start the foreswing. The body then chimes in.

In the Djokovic-itch, the racket gets cocked fast with the body having chimed in. Then the arm mondoes and bowls with body chiming in for arm roll and followthrough.

In the Agassi-but-me both arms go out and hitting arm settles (that’s the backswing) with body turn having chimed in. Then arm contracts and mondoes. Then body chimes in as forearm keys before elbow leaves the barn.

Other forms exist for all three shots, and that is important. The forms here however offer a unique opportunity for one to work on one’s peripheral vision. One just moves one’s eyes not one’s head as one starts the hand or hands. Then as hand approaches where it’s going the body and head do turn.

[bottle]

Forehand "Compassing"

In these explorations when in the self-feed stage I frequently find myself saying, "I've never hit this shot before." That is because one altered detail changes the whole stroke.

So I've never keyed from the insect feelers of an Agassi imitation or from the snake-like coil of my Djokovic-itch.

"Keying" is a term I had to make up simply because I didn't want to talk about the hinges on a farm gate every time I tried to describe the forearm dialing around from a bent elbow as if it were the pointer on a compass.

I'm still looking for a better word but until I find it have identified something I want to use.

First experiments in keying involved vertical upper arm held close to one's core, now I want more.

Elbow starts out from body both in the Agassi-But-Me (to the side on outer edge of slot) and the Djokovic-itch (more behind on inner edge of slot). In the former, contraction of the arm and the keying can fire in close succession to get the pointer aimed forward. Oh, mondo is in there too.

In the latter shot, we incorporate the mondo and racket-tip-bowling-under succession we see in films of Novak.

I have suggested, I know, that Novak plunges his elbow down and forward, but now I want to try holding the elbow back for keying as in any other shot only underhand this time.

This saves the elbow for push right on the ball during the essential wipe followed by decelerative followthrough.

[bottle]

Elbow starts out from body both in the Agassi-But-Me (to the side on outer edge of slot) and the Djokovic-itch (more behind on inner edge of slot). In the former, contraction of the arm and the keying can fire in close succession to get the pointer aimed forward. Oh, mondo is in there too.

And so, in the Agassi-But-Me, combine arm contraction and keying and mondo without thinking of any sequence among the three. This at least held promise in today's self-feed session.

One of the many reasons I like Dennis Ralston as a preceptor of learning tennis is that like me he values self-feed (usually after a run to the oncoming ball, which you catch and then drop) and writing things down.

This writing of things down is not to remember the list but so as not to have to remember it. The writing down helps one get the information into one's unconscious where it belongs.

[bottle]

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

Played badly today partially because of sciatica but more from laboring with too many new ideas. If one doesn't have any new ideas, one needn't worry. But if one does have ideas, they'll need time for seating in the nerves. One always has to ask the price.

I'm looking now for a reduction in concept-- an adherence to Ralston principle because I love experiments and departures from common wisdom more than I hate playing poorly. I guess I know that where there are true experiments there always will be surprises, disaster and re-birth-- all three.

In his book TENNIS WORKBOOK one of the exercises Dennis Ralston proposes is standing on a tennis court with one's shoulders parallel to the net and shifting one's eyes back and forth to work on developing better peripheral vision.

In my first sport, competitive rowing, good peripheral vision also is important (and tremendous fun). The idea is to have shifty eyes not a shifty head.

And stillness of head is a huge emphasis in the teachings of Ralston, as one would expect from the coach of Chris Evert. She first got that instruction from her father but Ralston continued it.

When you add to it the radical idea of moving arms marginally ahead of starting your backward body rotation with both then happening at once, and then using the exact same sequence in forward part of the stroke, you suddenly are in a different tennis world.

Is this new tennis world better? Probably. I give it the benefit of the doubt for as long as I conduct the experiment (on all shots!).

This interest in Ralstonian instruction starts for me with this great TennisPlayer article (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ice_serve.html). One thing I long ago noticed in its repeating videos but now find reinforced is the notion of arm going around a still head and body until finally the head and hips do chime in-- in an extremely delayed way. I don't think the article fully expresses that but the book does, at least for me if reader response matters.

And in a forehand backswung according to this instruction-- no matter the nature of the forehand-- the shifty eyes might focus early on contact point and the delayed turning of the head then transfer same focus from one's dominant eye.

On backhand one might want to keep both eyes focused on ball throughout. FYI I'm right-handed and left eye dominant-- very common.

[bottle]

Walk a Little Plainer, Daddy

If one edits out the vertical tip lift and subsequent turn down of palm here (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...nt2_250fps.mp4) by using same grip but with a slight rise of elbow one can achieve a same freeze frame as Federer but earlier in the stroke cycle and therefore with more simplicity.

Having done that (which I recommend for all players as flawed as myself), one can still do a dogpat followed by a huge mondo.

But let's run the filmstrip of ourselves backward so that the dog gets unpatted and the racket is once again at the same point where Federer had it immediately before his racket descent.

Where in 1-2 rhythm does the backswing end and the foreswing begin? At top or bottom?

At the top. That's where hand lingers or hurries. At this point we stop being a compliant low level player to become a self-empowered bull.

We're conceiving things differently now. So go back to wait position. We're all arm and no body till the new top of arm movement place, which is almost like Andre Agassi (two insect feelers going out toward side fence) except with more bent elbow.

And body turns backward now during the dogpat. Wait a minute! Didn't we state that foreswing began with racket up?

We did, but nobody said this was going to be simple. The foreswing for the arm begins at top of dogpat. The backswing for the body ends with its backward rotation in tandem with the downward dogpat thus imparting a bit of momentum to the racket head which helps form the big mondo.

Using the filmstrip shown here as model, the mondo will be huge, particularly in right to left dimension.

The racket tip in other words goes from way out toward right fence to way in toward left fence all in the space of Roger's very low mondo which we have decided to filch.

The mondoeing and wiping arm swing will now continue to the ball at which time the body will chime in.

[bottle]

Down to Three Forehands Maybe Two

1) McEnrueful as a total body shot (although arm body arm body produces a potentially very good shot). The body shot, using banking, is what I've done for a long time. Its logic is body and arm first, then all body with pretty much fixed arm. Body like a golfer's is slanted toward ball from the hips rather than being upright.

2) Agassi-But-Me starts out with shifty eyes and two feelers probing toward right fence. The logic is arm, body, arm, body (see earlier posts for more explanation). The arm straightens as torso belatedly turns back. The straighened arm followed by big mondo creates similarity to a Federfore.

3) In this variation of 2) army backswing around upright body to start is the same but the hitting arm stays bent. Which offers distinct challenges for getting low and different possibilities for building racket head speed. Right now I see A) elbow leaving the station early taking upper and lower arms with it or B) keying with forearm before elbow leaves station.

If either 2) or 3) turns out better than the other and sufficiently different in the way ball behaves in competition I go with it. In the case of 3) being better, because of the two variations A) and B) I still would have three forehands.