A New Year's Serve

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Vic Braden's Sit and Hit, although Ridiculous, Won the 1998 Australian Open

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA)

Reader, you probably know my method, which is exactly like that of Donald Trump: Shoot first and revise/reverse later, the reason you should elect neither one of us president.

But my car is out on the street this Sunday morning pointed toward the left tennis court at Pier Park on the bank of Lake St. Clair in Detroit.

As soon as I arrive there I shall attempt in self-feed on backhand side the old sit and hit of Vic Braden.

The difference shall be that where the Vic Braden students curved left hand down to just above left knee, I shall do the Petr Korda move instead.

Simultaneously as body crumples like an accordion but still is turning back the hand will reach similar position but in a propulsive rather than repulsive way.

Instead of following the handbodhandbod formula I apply to my BAM! forehand, I shall use handbodbod with a smidge of forward hand press thrown into the final bod.

(http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sport...pen/53058240/1)

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Petraccordion

Sorry I got fancy in my evaluation of the Petr Korda backhand. It's such a cool and minimalist one hander, however, that one wants just to keep talking about it, although better would be to hit it and every time like Petr himself.

Because of age and a partial knee replacement, I play doubles not singles any more. And know that if I want to keep my head still, a sliced backhand is the way to go.

But the minimalist backhand of Korda and Vic Braden has always intrigued me. There is an accordion aspect to each. One could speak of Korda's body extension on his forehand and serve in the same context. And then move on to a discussion of Alexander's Ragtime Body Extension, I mean The Alexander Technique. (Alexander Korda the movie-maker is an entirely different subject.)

Ground force after all is supposed to go down then come up (maybe not up from the magma at the earth's center but nevertheless up she comes).

How much do or don't knees extend? How much or little does the hinging back, having lowered accordion-like now open out? And how much does the head move (up)-- three inches? Six?

And how about hips turn? Does it really occur AFTER contact? Should it be fast or slow? Is there a difference in hips turn in shots springing from the ground, that start while the shot is grounded or shots that do a bit of both? Should the turning of the hips be entirely different for a shot down the line, down the center, crosscourt? These still are worthy areas to explore.

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Korda Curd

The one teaching pro who ever worked with me for a long time, Jim Kacian, advised me not to imitate but to create.

And so, reader, I regret to inform you that my topspin backhand has had triplets:

1) The Woulda Korda

2) The Basic Stanley Plagenhoef

3) The Vic Braden Redux

The VBR does exactly what Vic Braden says not to do in TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE, starts with a Petr Korda backswing. Petr Korda, the Czech, was born but hadn't happened yet. His namesakes, Michael Korda the publisher of Simon and Schuster and Alexander Korda, producer of THE THIRD MAN starring Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Trevor Howard and Alida Valli were distant history. It was Alexander Korda who said, "If you have a Hungarian for a friend you don't need an enemy."

So here we are with the Petr Korda backswing but wanting to hit all body like Uncle Vic. I can hear Vic's voice now: "You will have a hard time stopping the momentum started by the wrist so that arm and body can become a solid and seamless blend." But for how long and well did Vic Braden really know me?

To hit the shot I'll yield to the hated New York Times Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman and past number one American tennis player Dennis Ralston: As Dennis advises I'll start forward hips rotation BEFORE my step-out.

That leaves nice opportunity for double leg drive since the two knees now are close together.

And length to outside will increase through a bit of shoulders turn chiming in with arm press also inside out and up.

The Basic Stanley Plagenhoef

This backhand (see attachment), hit improbably from Petr Korda backswing, will use two different speeds of arm roll-- fast to slow in sequence-- to abbreviate the scope of the shoulder swing and enable unique follow-through off to the right thus restoring weight to back foot for an interesting recovery.

The Woulda Korda

The two preceding innovations should in no way be permitted to inhibit ongoing tweak of The Woulda Korda itself. How much and fast and when does Petr really turn his hips? The answer, reader, may be not what you think but rather what you see (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA). Possibly, these old Czech golfer-guys Petr Korda and Ivan Lendl even believed-- in tennis-- in letting the hips be turned by the shoulders.

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Surveyor's Scope

An effective cue indexes and focuses a plethora of intentional experience in any sport.

On the VBR (Vic Braden Redux backhand) one can simultaneously use the pad of one's thumb tip, the tip itself, the index finger knuckle and all four biggest knuckles at once.

Using only the healthiest magic marker, one inks a dot on the thumb pad. The dot will point at the target and so will all four knuckles taken together as a unit.

Thumb tip and first knuckle however will-- at the same time-- point at left net post for a down the line shot or at the left fence post for a cross-court.

The agents of aim shall be the dot and knuckles with these aim positions to happen at contact.

The agents of swing however-- the thumb tip and first knuckle-- can site either of the two posts to create one's inside out swing path.

In this way one hits the ball rather than pushes it.

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Racket Not Pointing on a Perpendicular at Rear Fence

When one re-visits the backhand section photos of VIC BRADEN'S TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE one may be surprised like me by how little the racket is viewed as turning around from the shoulder in the administration of this shot.

In larger risk virtuoso one-handers utilizing roll-over the racket butt first points at the ball "like a flashlight" in Nick Bollettieri's words.

On page 83 frame three showing Richie Ley in full accordion to achieve a low low low point the racket is somewhat open to the ball rather than pointing on a perpendicular to rear fence as usually is taught.

Creating perfect racket position at contact is absolutely essential. If racket position is correct, Braden/Bruns wrote, one's body can do weird things and still produce a good shot.

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Another Idea for where the Power comes from in a Petr Korda Backhand

What about if both hips and shoulders are proactive and simultaneous and slow? With ragtime Alexander's accordion opening out (from toes to high racket tip) in the same simultaneity? And arm swing pushing both ends of the racket at same slow speed again in the same simultaneity?

Not many tennistas conduct the simultaneity vs. sequence discussion, but Martina Navratilova is one, arguing one time on television in her announcer's role for simultaneity rather than the other whenever possible on the grounds that simultaneity will break down less often.

It's fun to self-feed these shots using strict sequence as in the Vic Braden Redux, although this extreme becomes ridiculous if one buys into a final stoppage of the shoulders that shoots the arm forward and up. Deceleration-acceleration at the end of a kinetic chain is what I guess one would call that.

I saw Vic in a film once allegedly demonstrating this d-a although the only body power he demonstrated to set it up was from the transverse muscles of the stomach. And staff members from his first tennis college in San Diego wrote a similar argument to me in a letter. Sorry, I don't believe in it. Much better to be sinuous all the way to end of the stroke like Petr Korda. But there could be some sequence, e.g., hips then shoulders combined with other simultaneous stuff.

Finally, it's fun to hit an abbreviated version by incorporating slow arm roll through the latter three-fourths of the stroke as in the Stanley Plagenhoef Basic. Whether I'll hit the SPB with hips then shoulders sequence or shoulders being the active agent to pull the hips around or both shoulders and hips being active and simultaneous with arm swing is yet to be determined.

No sequence anywhere seems very good in that it allows all the elements to proceed more slowly. On the other hand hips-shoulders marginal sequence can be very good for an inside out swing as in golf.

Eventually, I suppose, I'll choose one of these three backhands and discard the other two. I have lots of backhand slice choices and just want to keep the one-handed topspin shot that is best of the three.

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Roll Press Lift, or, Let's Give this VBRBH a Hand

VBRBH: Vic Braden Redux Backhand.

Roll Press: Can happen as sequence sim with hip-driven step-out. The term "roll" however has a private meaning here that is very tricky. For as the stationed elbow rolls it straightens whole arm. The term "press" here is tricky too in that it only refers to the hand. Body press will come next.

Total Hand Action in this Highly Topspun Version of PetraKordian: down forward lift or in other words a "U."

Don Budge advice, best and worst as it applies to this specific version. Best: more thumb behind handle. Worst: just swing at the ball. For this more vertical version (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DBBHFront1.mov) is a Don Budge backhand too.

Final Judgment. This shot is pure fantasy. Of course. First comes the vision then the shot if it comes at all in this case with two legs and transverse stomach muscles and shoulder abduction system all driving racket in a single vector up.

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Frame the Shot: Ask how Wide or Narrow is the Window

Am still talking about the VBRBH. Width or narrowness of the window is going to make a big difference to pace-spin ratio. For most spin with least weight squeeze the whole shot into a narrow frame.

The narrowest frames are created by pressing already rolled hand forward more which gets it lower for a longer steeper lift.

The end of the lift will be higher. Very low to very high equals very narrow frame, but with contact point farther toward left fence too, i.e., more separation.

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When Exactly did Vic Braden Invent his Topspin Backhand?

This piece of historical trivia has become important to me just as I couldn't care less when Vic Braden invented his topspin forehand although both inventions probably happened at about the same time before college or even when Vic Braden was a freshman at Kalamazoo.

That seems pretty late, I must admit, but we suspect that Vic Braden still was developing his backhand at the overhaul level when he hitch-hiked into Detroit to watch Don Budge play Bobby Riggs.

Kalamazoo is a considerable hike to the west of Detroit. And Vic would have brought his index cards with different sized holes in them through which to peer at the Don Budge backhand.

We know about the holes from TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE, but whether Vic was hitch-hiking from Kalamazoo College is not nailed down as historical fact.

I do know from my friend Harry Constant of Grosse Pointe that Vic had heavy topspin off of both sides and that Harry and his team-mates at Hillsdale College were flummoxed. "We didn't even know what topspin was."

But I join Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith in laughing at Vic's forehand. That's what Arthur and Stan did in TENNIS OUR WAY, the cassette video made by all three. There is a scene of Vic hitting a forehand. Arthur and Stan watch. They laugh as Vic sits and hits.

Interestingly, there is no corresponding view of Vic's backhand. I'll tell you why. Vic Braden's backhand was a very good one.

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Three Rooms in The Asspiration Suite of Trump Tower

Each room is a topspin backhand. And my lover insisted that I only use one hand. She has her preferences. What's a fellow going to do.

I thought we'd just follow Pascual's advice to stay in one room but found myself using all three.

The PetraKordian is an especially roomy room overlooking a fountain in the Roman garden just below.

We get in our bathing suits and go down there every day and lie on our sides, eating grapes.

It's not a bad life. As I said, the PetraKordian is a spacious stroke. The hips, the stomach, the legs, the rolling then not rolling arm-- all of it seems to happen slowly and at once, and Alexander (as my honey calls a certain part of my anatomy) becomes great.

The Vic Braden Redux is an accordion too. It's just that when Vic imitated the Don Budge backhand, he got the thumb right but left out the best part. That would be the open backswing followed by rolling straightening arm. Both I and my lover-- let's call her Mimi after the man who lent his name to this tower-- find ourselves asking ourselves over and over, "What did Stan Smith mean when he said the weight is where the racket is?"

We try to talk everything out-- one reason our relationship is so good although Mimi has permanently forbidden me any use of that word in her presence.

We both agree that Stan didn't want us to do a Saint Vitus Dance as one's arm rolls straight.

Reader, do you follow? As you roll your arm straight the racket tip comes around in a pretty quick way. So does that mean your weight shifts pretty fast too? I don't think so. You have to give Stan's words a loose interpretation. Weight doesn't really start its shift until the racket has rolled.

That leaves the Stanley Plagenhoef Basic-- very good for beginners or more advanced intermediates who are feeling like a beginner on a certain day.

One can do one of two things: 1) Go down to the garden and eat more grapes; 2) Immediately following the quick roll, employ slow roll like Stanley to keep the racket square at all times.

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Keep Knuckles Going toward the Target: A Miserable Cue Unless...

Unless you have a roll of coins clenched in your knuckles and you mean the ball to go in the direction the coin roll points.

One therefore may as well edit the cue to "Keep your pinkie knuckle going toward your target," as the Hollywood teaching pro Al Secunda used to advise.

Of course the pinky has three different knuckles. Which did Al mean? Doesn't matter. Any will do.

A spot marked on the thumb can also work well. We're speaking of a certain generation of one-handers in which elbow roll occurs early if it occurs at all-- the antithesis of Stanlislas Wawrinka and Domenic Thiem.

It is interesting to re-read Vic Braden and Bill Bruns on this subject.

Vic at some place in TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE tells his reader to follow his directions strictly and never diverge from a single detail.

But on aiming a one-hand backhand he is quite different, suggesting that the reader may need to put in major time to experiment and figure this out.

Be very free in figuring out my best aim cue, is how I take this.

Since I haven't self-fed for several days, I think I'll try open racket like Petr Korda but not as far around as his. Vic Braden would hate this but Petr and I know how to get the racket hooded fast.

Vic Braden: "If your racket is perfect...you can do a lot of crazy things with your body and still make the shot."

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An Even Bigger Forehand

You've got to get it off fast although it has four parts.

So do that but make it a heavier shot too through using a Dennis Ralston trick.

There are two parts going backward: 1) Body turn and placement/turning up of the elbow. 2) More body turn with hand kept still.

There are two parts going forward: 1) Elbow stays back while hand mondoes down. 2) Push through a stuck cellar door.

In 2) going backward, no matter to where you are getting the left foot make sure it's up on its TOES (Ralston).

In 2) going forward use hips to drive down the heel as you push the elbow from your super relaxed shoulder.

Finally, set up away from the ball so that the two forward parts go inside out.

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Flattening out a Big Forehand

If you're not going to be unhealthy sometime, reader, how are you ever going to build up your immune system?

I've got the BAM-- all elbow throw and no wipe. I've got the McEnrueful too-- a big slow body sweep that keeps racket linear to stay on the ball. And I've got the kickshawe as good as any man in Illyria.

Why not stop there? Well, there's all the investment I put into wipe.

But I would like not to depart much from backswing I've currently got going.

So my new mondo in which elbow stays back becomes a keeper.

But now, instead of throwing elbow straight so knuckles reverse and flow back to brush ear, I swing the elbow more round-about for inside out path and finish by shoulder.

At the same time I start the wipe. Once you've mondoed, it seems to me, you either wipe or not.

At the same time you fire both hips and shoulders in equal measure.

But let's back up, particularly on the subject of the hips.

Either of two things are likely already to have happened, neither of which should be confused with the other: 1) you (I) did a little foot patter of four steps-- "outside-inside-outside-inside." On the fourth step (with inside foot) the heel went up on toes. You are ready to hit the ball. There should be no further step-out. The forward hips turn flattens the foot but continues with it flat then continues as you go up on your toes. I'm proposing hips turn solo followed by hips turn and shoulders turn in equal measure since I believe that "kinetic chain" has never had any cue value whatsoever.

or

2) You got shoulders completely around as you turned up elbow, so that you should eschew (leave out) any farther shoulders turn. You've saved a step-- made three in fact instead of four. So you won't do the questionable thing of stepping out on your toes. Forward hips turn will start early now, driving the step-out which will land on a flat foot. Hips turn will continue through the flatness and subsequent rising from the toes.

All of this sounds to me like prolonged hips turn compared to the extremely fast and very rough hips turn that so many people adore.

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Aesthetics Raise Their Ugly Head Once Again

We learned in rowing that a crew must be beautiful but not too beautiful to go very fast.

In serving, one need not start turning shoulders backward halfway along arm travel to rear fence even though Don Budge appears in video to do exactly that.

One can use left hand repeatedly to flex right arm as one gets ready to serve.

Then at time to go, left arm can straighten over and down for its toss as right arm also straightens, in fact both arms can move just at the elbow. In other words the two forearms are what moves.

Next, the arm can continue to fence during upward part of the toss. Another way of thinking about this is that the two arms move from their shoulders.

So first the forearms move and then the whole arms move thus lengthening a moving lever.

Now the same moving lever lengthens again as one's backward turning body takes over and the serve continues from there.

This lengthening of a moving lever seems beautiful to me but not too beautiful, i.e., is functional, and one may notice a difference in one's serve.

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Geriatrics Tennis

My friend Ron has been calling me up a lot so as to keep me playing seniors tennis. You see, in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, there are two groups: seniors tennis and geriatrics tennis. Ron knows how much I enjoy geriatrics tennis with its carousel of erect rackets to determine who will play four games next. Being a good doubles partner, he suspects I may go out to pasture.

"Player on court six!" comes the command.

Phil in his nineties comes shuffling and limping out.

"Aha," you say to yourself, "I'm going to hit to Phil."

Wrong. Hit to Phil and you will be sorry. Hit away from Phil.

The truth is that so long as my partial knee replacement and other things hold up I can play seniors tennis, geriatrics tennis or any tennis. There's no need to cut anything out other than singles. One can enjoy it all.