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A New Year's Serve

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  • Water Wheel

    The water wheel image worked well in self-feed.
    Will see if it works in competition tonight.
    Much will depend on a good warmup hit with
    another player if I can find him or her before the
    round-robin begins.

    The modern forehands I've examined mostly come
    from square or beveled racket in the preparation.
    This need not preclude coming to the ball with an
    open face. But one does recall tennis writer John
    M. Barnaby's prototypical description of someone
    with many strokes most of which are in disrepair.

    Before I eliminate something however I want to try
    open face and closed face in the same set just for
    the sake of expanding my knowledge. The initial hand
    move for both is not much different. For open face the two
    elbows rise to same level. For closed face the hitting
    elbow rises higher than the other yet maintains constant
    distance between both within same imaginary hoop.

    It is one thing to react to what happens on a tennis court,
    quite another to react or over or under react to some
    conceptual image that may form some new and possibly
    very exciting stroke design.

    The higher elbow forms more fullness of water wheel,
    it seems to me, with rounded fall on back of wheel along
    with rounded rise that occurs on front of the wheel.

    Such knowledge has immediate implication for essential
    arm work on a one hand backhand as well.
    Last edited by bottle; 10-28-2016, 07:29 AM.

    Comment


    • Open Face One Hand Topspin Backhand

      Well, it's open while behind the back. J. Donald Budge's worked that way.
      So did Gene Mayer's. Ivan Lendl's did not.

      As I watch or re-watch Doug King's many videos on one hand backhand
      I realize I've been getting away from a certain sensory instruction and
      plan now to return to it.

      That is the idea of scraping inner edge of racket down the upper part
      of one's opposite arm.

      Then: Straightening of arm to separate hands and put racket out to
      side with tip very low.

      Then: Roll of arm to square racket as body squares too.

      Then: Force both ends of racket with arm and handle right-angled
      to rise as if on front of a water wheel.

      One truly gets to feel the heel of the hand pulling on the butt rim
      just before the squaring begins. That should help.
      Last edited by bottle; 10-28-2016, 08:08 AM.

      Comment


      • Oh What a Night

        A lot came together, not least the acquisition of three different
        first grade doubles partners. The tennis social was unexpectedly
        small but with unexpectedly good participants all the way around.
        Didn't lose and in the last round, against tiptop players in the
        club prevailed 6-3 .

        My partner, a research scientist at BASF injection molding, was
        somebody I had never met. He served first, then asked me which
        side I wanted to play. "Judging only from your serve," I said, "I
        give you the backhand side."

        Afterwards, during the social part of the tennis social, he offered
        me a beer. And later, when I was about to go home, he came
        by again and said "Amazing. Just amazing." These things happen,
        I tell you, if you persist in your madness whatever it is.

        Can't say the topspin backhand was what kept us in there, with me
        having at least 30 years on the next oldest. But the forehands did
        give our opponents trouble, both forehands and both opponents, and
        so did my serve although it was nothing like my partner's.

        When he served, I stood tight in to the net on the singles line. Didn't
        want to get killed from behind.

        Tennis is so much about whether one feels good. I hadn't felt that
        good in a long, long time. Guess I'd better learn the dude's name.

        Comment


        • Big Change on Serve

          Brought over the distinctive toss from the Doug King service videos
          but not ALL the rest of Doug's recommendations. Or maybe they
          were there, at work, whether I knew it or not. As Doug himself says
          in one of those videos, you cannot possibly nor should you try to
          think of everything at once.

          What I did do to prepare for my pay-off night (one in a thousand)
          was arrive early in search of a good hitting partner. He wasn't
          yet there and all the hard courts were occupied by USTA. So
          went back to the clay courts where nobody could see me and
          self-fed forehands, backhands and serves.

          On serve, I went farther away from J. Donald Budge videos and
          back to rocking like Don Brosseau with a maximum use of gravity.
          Why though, I asked myself, do you have to lower both hands
          together? Just keep left hand up and bring it around with hip
          rotation while left arm is still bent. At same time the racket
          can be going down and up. The toss with ice cream cone
          hold can be with bent arm. The ball is just there when you
          are there ready to paste it or scrape it or whatever. Drove
          all six pretty good opponents thoroughly nuts.

          Will I ever change again? I hope not.
          Last edited by bottle; 10-30-2016, 04:26 AM.

          Comment


          • To Explore: How Racket Should Best Fall from High
            and Narrow Forehand Spot


            A spot? Yes, a spot in the air. High? Yes, high through
            early and stacked separation of bent arms. Narrow? Yes,
            because classical big impact swing at ball from behind has
            been eliminated.

            If one can accept all that, one will be in position to ask how
            racket should fall in this particular waterwheel-imaged forehand.

            The question pertains to elbow position in the higher spot. Elbow
            now points more inward.

            So if one presses one's palm straight down like a basketball
            dribble, elbow point won't affect this drop.

            If the fall is a bit more passive than that, nothing but gravity will
            take the racket down so that it spirals in and out.

            Those are two alternatives leading to a third, which is a curved
            path that stays parallel to side fence.

            The third alternative creates an earlier waterwheel. All three
            are apt to produce different effects on the ball.
            Last edited by bottle; 10-30-2016, 09:22 AM.

            Comment


            • Reading Between the Lines

              I can tell that don_budge doesn't like the idea of delayed bod
              in the forehand ground stroke. He is a kinetic chain constitutionalist
              in that he wants to see hips turn starting in neutral step-out followed
              by shoulders rotation followed by springing arm.

              That model can lead to good forehands. But it's not the only possible
              model. I first became aware of big bod delayed rotation in reading
              Valerie Ziegenfuss's forehand section in the old book TENNIS FOR
              WOMEN. There, the lace-wearing Valerie, now a Real Estate mogul
              in San Diego, told about a tennis conversation she had in a Texas bar.

              Some guy convinced her to give her forehand more place to go by delaying
              her bod. She subsequently won the bronze doubles medal with Peaches Barkowicz
              of Hamtramck, Michigan in Mexico City.

              I see some of this design thought in the TennisOne/TennisPlayer lessons
              of Doug King. Doug preaches short power. The racket kind of sneaks
              up on the ball (very much from underneath) and then adds on to the
              incipient spin a big bod push.

              Ivan Lendl, a golfer-tennis player like Petr Korda or Ellsworth Vines, drew
              distinction between full golf swing and full forehand-- in the book he co-wrote
              with the late Eugene Scott.

              Without going into the detail of what Ivan said, I just think that we as tennis
              players should always be alive to forehand prescriptions that sort of
              catch-and-sling the ball rather than crush it with control-draining huge
              swatted impact.

              Also, I think that kinetic chain may work best as a concentrate as in a
              Muhammad Ali jab. Protracted kinetic chain may or may not work-- a
              bit iffy in my case. But a faster kinetic chain does seem to work pretty
              much all of the time, i.e., leads to more consistency.
              Last edited by bottle; 10-31-2016, 08:20 AM.

              Comment


              • 1HBH: Zeroing in on Squaring up

                1) tennisone.com

                2) Doug King

                3) Finding Zero-- Backhand

                4) Zeroing in on Squaring up.






                Comment


                • TSFH: Pursuing the Possible Aeronautical Banking
                  and Power Cord Difference


                  In aeronautical banking, the hitting shoulder sinks then
                  rises as one hits the ball to give the arm some added push.

                  In power pocket to power cord application, the middle of
                  the bod springs forward thus giving arm some added push.

                  Which method is going to leave a player in better balance?

                  Is there any reason, whatever it might be, that one method
                  is better than the other?

                  And how does each method co-exist with straightening of
                  whole body from foot up?

                  To me, if such straightening occurs, the two methods are
                  one and the same.

                  If body is lower and more loosey-goosey, however, the different
                  body parts may wag in opposite direction thus indicating an
                  area for further exploration.

                  Comment


                  • Speed but not Force in the Way Racket Comes to the Ball

                    Explore this notion in groundies before applying it to the
                    other strokes.

                    Comment


                    • Powerpocket

                      1) tennisone.com

                      2) Doug King: Keys to Modern Tennis Technique

                      3) Topspin Forehand

                      4) Slow Motion Analysis

                      Initial turn finds hands above rather than below elbows.

                      The body then continues back and rear shoulder dips
                      as racket falls.

                      Continuation of bod rotation creates the top of a wave
                      but then the wave goes down as arm goes down
                      independently too.

                      Moreover, the racket butt changed from orientation toward
                      rear fence to 45 degrees to right fence.

                      Racket is upward at crest of wave.

                      Racket disappears.

                      Hips shift out to ball in drop.

                      "Elbow tucked into the hips."

                      Comment


                      • The Wish to be Different in Tennis

                        You want to be different when you write a resume for yourself, no?
                        Similarly, you'd like to sound original if you write an essay or anything
                        else. Because you are in competition. And if you do not stand out,
                        you will be buried. No one will want to read you. Your document
                        may lie at the bottom of a wastebasket, not even at the top. ("Write
                        your resume in moose blood," my late mentor Richard K. Irish used
                        to say. He was the author of the Anchor Book good seller GO HIRE
                        YOURSELF AN EMPLOYER.)

                        You are not going for presentation however when you hit a forehand,
                        which is more like doing the job. While I cannot imagine a forehand
                        much better looking than that of Doug King, a man who believes in
                        dance and twenty other spheres of knowledge when it comes to tennis
                        for himself and his successful students, Doug's forehand-- in every
                        minute detail or kata-- may not be exactly right for the arthritic me
                        at 76 (and 77 next month).

                        Edit, urges another guru, John M. Barnaby, tennis coach of Tim Gallway
                        and everybody else at Harvard University for fifty years.

                        If in other words you can subtract some kata from your forehand, do so.
                        How many moving parts do you want?

                        So, I've written here about forehands in which I try to employ most of
                        Doug's principles and imagery but won't come open-faced to the ball.
                        If I continue with the briefly open-faced route I may find superior result
                        in time, but at 77...?

                        Proposed forehand starts with the inverted hoop of the two hands stacked
                        one above the other. The hoop inverts from ready position to the stack.
                        The hands both don't stay on the racket but rather separate from volleyball
                        to small beachball width. The opposite hand turns body as if still on racket
                        or your dance partner's back by retaining severe bend at elbow and circling
                        sharply around. (Let's call this a controlled whirl.)

                        From its closed position even parallel to court, the racket drops rather close
                        to the bod. It may start slowly from gravity but then proceed with pressing
                        down. It may fall all the way in a straight line or curve-- either one. I have
                        eliminated my previously explored in and out falling options. Simple up and
                        down is enough to handle. The racket mondoes at bottom of the drop in
                        transition to both ends of the racket moving together.

                        Followed by wipe home.

                        A last question: Does originality translate into points? Answer: Surely by
                        confusing people especially cookie-cutter dullards.
                        Last edited by bottle; 11-05-2016, 10:23 AM.

                        Comment


                        • Exciting Evolution (and I am up Early in the Morning)

                          Okay okay, reader, the evolution of my forehand is exciting
                          to me and not to you, but on the other hand we both want
                          good forehands, no?

                          I started out this time with three different forehands along with
                          my McEnrueful, and managed to exclude one of them yesterday,
                          the one where from high perch on a narrow wave I let the point
                          of my elbow determine the initial direction of a spiraling fall that
                          took the racket briefly out of the slot before returning to said slot
                          with accelerative vengeance preparatory to blocking movement
                          of both ends of my racket moving together followed by windshield
                          wipe home.

                          This sounds good on paper, is good on paper, is one of the essential
                          sequences outlined by Ray and Becky Brown back in the pre-TennisPlayer
                          days when John Yandell was editor of TennisOne just as he is again.

                          While the full stroke works well in self-feed, it doesn't work as well as
                          two others in actual competition at least for me.

                          And now I'm wondering if I can't eliminate one of the two others so that
                          my two big forehands, McEnrueful and Simple Curved Fall, both
                          characterized by Doug King's "dynamic wobble," will take sole possession
                          of any dynamic concentration left over in my 77-year-old soul.

                          The choice is between racket pressing straight down and racket curving
                          straight down roughly parallel to side fence in both cases.

                          Probably I will save straight down for return of very fast serves and other
                          emergencies, but would love to make curve down my default of all
                          forehands.

                          Evolution from breaking wave in the Pacific or Atlantic oceans to 19th century
                          Connecticut water wheel turning in opposite direction is its main characteristic.

                          The curved drop of arm, shockingly deep, is lengthened even more by hips
                          easing toward ball to lower hitting shoulder at the same time thus making
                          racket seem to disappear.

                          As the buckets on the front of the water wheel start to rise, relaxed
                          contact with the ball is made just as all major muscle groups chime in.

                          The McEnrueful on the other hand is saved for special events when sheer
                          speed with little spin is desired.
                          Last edited by bottle; 11-06-2016, 07:43 PM.

                          Comment


                          • From Waterwheel Forehands to Refined 1HBH Racket Drop

                            Some of my discovered strokes have converted nicely to doubles
                            competition. And these waterwheel forehands are the smoothest
                            forehands I've ever hit in my life at least in self-feed. So will they
                            come across? I think so. May take a few weeks since we are about
                            to go on a possibly disrupting trip although I'll bring one racket.

                            Now, on backhand side, I'd like to look for similar improvement. First
                            experiment will be not to turn racket as it drops-- that would be logical
                            simplification. But logic often doesn't work in tennis-- we know that.
                            Sometimes however it does work and this again may be one of those
                            times.

                            I fully accept Doug King's teaching premise that racket should not rise
                            immediately-- better that it start out to the side first to keep various
                            athletic elements together as dancer's one.

                            So I want to feel hand out toward left fence to lead my forward travel
                            at least partially in that direction.

                            The hand can lead toward side fence, the racket tip doesn't have
                            to do it.

                            Grip change to the right-hander's left can therefore put a tail on itself
                            in which racket butt turns a bit toward side fence.

                            Now racket tip can slide into one's bod without turning so much.
                            Last edited by bottle; 11-09-2016, 04:02 AM.

                            Comment


                            • What's your Best Shot? Would you Ever Consider Changing it?

                              I would. I'd need a reason-- perhaps the thought that the change would
                              make my whole game more cohesive.

                              Of course the notion that I could always reverse the change would stay
                              at the back of my mind, although going back is harder than getting some
                              new shot right in the first place.

                              But if I had Andy Roddick's serve-- perhaps the best example of teenaged
                              invention in world history-- I guess I wouldn't change it.

                              Dispassionately speaking, my best shot according to my opponents is my
                              backhand slice.

                              At least one version of this bag of shots consists of a double roll.

                              The change I made yesterday-- in self-feed-- was to put more time,
                              i.e., distance, between the first and second rolls, in a one hand topspin
                              backhand.

                              It seems to work. So should I apply it to backhand slice as well? Why not?
                              Isn't tennis supposed to be a game?
                              Last edited by bottle; 11-08-2016, 09:04 AM.

                              Comment


                              • TAKING SPEED OFF THE BALL

                                We in rowing (crew) know there is more than one way to roll the forearm. I refer to the term "feather," which occurs at the beginning and end of every stroke.

                                Let's go for immediate application to tennis. In most volleys one takes speed off the ball, in a few adds speed to it.

                                The taking off involves two elements: 1) strings open, 2) tip goes back.

                                You can accomplish both objectives at once by rolling hand from pinkie edge.

                                This would be a disaster in crew. The oar would sky. When you brought it back down it would plunge. You would "catch a crab." Eight big guys plus the momentum of the boat would work against you. The handle would catch you in the gut and throw you into the water where most likely you would drown.

                                On a volley however rolling from edge of the hand can both open strings and take the racket tip slightly back.

                                Comment

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