A New Year's Serve

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Extremely Provocative on Forehand and Serve

https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html

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Drive Wipe vs. Windshield Wipe

The wipe that drives the ball is entirely different from the wipe that merely brushes the ball thus leaving the bod to provide whatever heft one decides to put on the shot.

One wants heft on most of one's shots, and this does come from bod, but it also can come from non swing like propulsive wipe, i.e., the additive of wipe that all by itself puts some push on the ball.

A good example of this is the reverse forehand of Rafa Nadal. In fact, all of Nadal's great forehands are reverse forehands. The elbow goes backward and upward as Rafa cranks. This sends the strings forward. Imagined contact is from lower left quadrant to upper right quadrant of the ball if you aren't Rafa and are right-handed..

Can one hit reverse forehands without finishing over the top of one's head or behind one's neck? Yes. The defining act is that elbow neither stays where it is or goes forward as part of the wiping action but actually goes backward and upward. This discussion is exclusive of anything the bod does.

Doug King contends that Nadal's serve would be as great a weapon as his forehand-- i.e., one of the very top serves on the tour-- if he could see the "spike" at top as the same as his forehand wipe only upside down.

Okay, there are other variables involved but that to me seems like the kernel of the argument, which is really about what you and I could do but probably won't with our resistance to a bit more understanding of succinctness than we already have.

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Connection of Dots

The arm, obviously, is straight for a Nadalian forehand (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...e_In&stroke=RN FH InsideIn Rear1 500fps.mp4). This makes the roll on the ball an example of short power, the same maneuver as on a great kick serve though inverted or on a one hand backhand by Justine Henin, who said as she demonstrated by wrapping her strings from under-inside of the ball to back of the ball to over-outside of the ball, "I hit de ball here & here & here."

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Moral

Bowl the racket tip way out toward the side fence. Then split this energy in halves to send rolling racket head toward net and rolling elbow toward rear fence or at least to stay approximately where it was. (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...e_In&stroke=RN FH InsideIn Rear8 250fps.mp4)

Note (or rather a question): If straight arm, elbow rolls in place? If bent arm, elbow goes backward a bit as it rolls?

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Contrast

Interesting to contrast John Craig's current article (oral) with this idea in # 3289 . For spin you'd roll, no? For flatter you wouldn't, could add from shoulder toward the net as Craig prescribes. But if going for maximum spin you'd do better not to add forwardly from the shoulder until at contact, no? You could be adding forwardly from other parts of the organism.

You say something, anything, are the least bit provocative and somebody will disagree-- goes with the territory. I am the one objecting here in the case of maximum spin delivered also as a stroke rather than a snap. The roll doesn't want to be too fast. If the elbow doesn't go abruptly forward on its own, the racket head can rise more up than sideways and stay on the ball while pushing it. But pitch will change a lot. (https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html)
(https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html)

Racket will drive from elbow rolling in place or even nudging backward a bit as in a once called "reverse forehand" that finishes behind the neck or with a halo like Rafa Nadal's. What I'm trying to say although this may be a difficult concept to put across: Drive wipe is available to us along with windshield wipe and the two are not the same, with windshield wipe as common sense image too apt to happen after contact.

The flat (or possibly poptopped) shot described by John Craig, different from drive wipe, can be a very good shot. As for windshield wipers, after working on one all afternoon yesterday (been raining around Detroit a lot), I'd like to smash them all although I finally did succeed in bending and fixing the damned thing.

In watching the two videos here I am taken by the advice to whip at side fence before bod seamlessly rotates through. Would you say, reader, that this combination should produce good extension? I would. The arm extension to occur a bit before the whip, a time when it could more easily be called "separation."

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Toss Pull Kick

That's about what the feeble human brain can handle in the way of conscious thought. That or some other mantra to free the unconscious stuff.

These three words however imply to me at least a toss which included the hips going out toward the net. And a pull up on a steel ring hanging from the ceiling or sky. By the left arm after it tossed. With front of the body lifting as weight returns to rear foot.

And a kick from rear foot combined with cartwheel to shake water out of ear combined with engagement with the ball combined with volleyball spike.

And if this isn't correct sequence, study more or don't and go back to the drawing board.

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Bad Idea of Early Weight Shifts in Previous Post

Keep equal distribution between the two legs (https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html). Click on "Serve Kata Training, Part 2."

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Different 1-2-3's

I currently am using three micro-counts soon to be forgotten to catch the ball and fling it
on the forehand side, viz., 1) a soft meeting of open strings with lower left quadrant, 2) a
soft roll to back of ball, 3) an amazingly quick volleyball spike like throw over top right
quadrant caused by vigorous roll of whole arm (ISR) with bent elbow moving slightly backward.

So I want three micro-counts on one hand backhand side too: 1) lowering of right hand
under left hand to spear butt to outside, 2) soft movement of arm and strings to almost
put strings on lower right quadrant, 3) squaring of the racket by retracting right hip as body
and arm straighten.

All for what happens next (https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...e.outline.html).
Choose "one hand backhand racquet & live ball training."

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Editing

Note on previous post: I made some editorial changes. What they are is less interesting than what
the whole thing now says or is trying to say. In number 2 for one hand backhand, "soft movement of arm and
strings to almost put strings on lower right quadrant" it could be noted and so I do: When one moves the
arm like that one can get the racket head to go farther if one doesn't close strings at the same time. A
bit of delayed straightening of arm from elbow helps.

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Here's How to Do it

http://www.npr.org/event/music/14142...y-desk-concert

When I circled back and clicked on that link it didn't work. So go to hilaryhahn.com then
click on tiny desk concert.

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Hmm

This elusive stuff must be perfectly understood. The body elongating with front hip coming slightly back also
straightens arm passively from the elbow, does it not? Which is part of squaring the strings, no?

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Revision of Micro-counts for 1HBH

"So I want three micro-counts on one hand backhand side too: 1) lower right hand
under left hand to spear butt to outside, 2) slide knuckles along inside edge of ball,
3) square racket by retracting right hip as body and arm straighten."

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In Search of Better Fall Design for Forehand

I speak not of the autumnal but of something related to gravity.

If your main plot is to sneak up on the ball then envelop and fling it, some
gravity drop should add to the effortlessness of getting there.

Well, how much? How high should the racket be before you drop it?
And should it be stopped, like Doug King's, no matter with what brevity
or delay? Probably.

And should you roll the strings more closed as you drop them? Why is
that necessary if one believes in open-faced approach to lower inside
quadrant of the ball as if to catch it? Because-- perhaps-- one wants
to load the forearm by rolling it backward late.

I'm thinking that moderate height of the elbow will suffice. I'd like forearm,
not turning elbow, to caress the ball from bottom to back. Since I'm saving
socket roll (Internal Shoulder Rotation) for the big push with elbow to crank
over upper outside quadrant while moving slightly backward in a volleyball
spike.

When best do the major body contributions fit into this scheme?

First try at an answer which isn't an answer yet: Reject the Nike myth
"Just Do It." Give body specific tasks shortly before and during contact
(https://tennisone.tennisplayer.net/m...ng.flow/course
.outline.html) through clicking under forehand training category on
"Racquet and Live Ball Stroking."

To ask a question is the beginning of an answer.

Study Christine's body actions to get to lower edge of ball.

One mantra heard here: "Lift, Fall, Roll."

That would be backward roll, right?

(The key video here can also be found by going to the tennisone cache
and looking for Flow Course.)

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Continued

Working from "Lift, Fall, Roll" mantra, why not try the lift of John McEnroe-- especially since
in my own case I already have a McEnrueful (sad that it isn't a John McEnroe forehand), a
flat shot that's pure body blow.

To lift the arm and racket as in a conventional loop but stop it like a paper cutter about to
fall takes energy.

Reaching the exact same spot with an underhand bowl takes less energy, I would submit,
and so I am going to do it to make my backswing for all forehands more golf-like and
consistent.

The significant difference between a McEnrueful and a topspin forehand-- in backswing--
will be composite vs. semiwestern grip.

Practicing the two shots in strict alternation should be fun.

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How I Want it to Work

As if you cared, reader. But some of you do. Others read this thread for different reasons.

Concealment is a perennial theme in tennis philosophy. To me, it should be a last flourish.
Basics should be mastered first.

When I say I'll build the backswing for my new topspin forehand on that for my McEnrueful--
a flat shot-- I propose an interesting experiment.

I'll not however abandon direct lift backswing. The direct lift will show me where to go with
a U-shaped lift. And of course I'll go with either or both if I think that will help me win.