A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Reader, Do you Add and Subtract?

Seventy-seven is a lucky number. And the best serve I can perform right now at 77 is slightly different from anything I did before 77 .

The basic element of high address followed by gravity drop comes across. But the tossing arm, bent, stays up in search of solid connection with rest of the bod.

Toss and wind of the shoulders, as in an Andy Roddick serve, are pretty much one and the same, which is a great example of brilliant editing. The teen-age Andy could have had a great career in publishing.

The gravity determined rate of acceleration for the racket fall however (32 feet per second per second) does not establish best speed for racket rise on opposite side of a steep gorge. Rising speed is faster than that so as to gain time for a big arm wind complete with mondo action borrowed from forehand.

That all happens after the toss, which is a combination of bod wind (long i) and straightening arm. Because tossing arm started high and never dropped it is better able to toss over head to the left.

For several weeks I have experimented with keeping constant right angle in arm through the early post-toss part of the stroke-- so as to put emphasis where it belongs, on coil (twist) of the humerus inside of the shoulder cave.

That constant right angle, however, is unnecessary if one has for decades thrown from a more bent structure in which the two halves of the arm almost squeeze together. The emphasis with this fuller arm action can still be on twist of the upper arm to help load the all important ISR (internal shoulder rotation) about to occur.

Here is where once again one word is worth a thousand images.

For one wants to put strings on outside of the ball-- desired image. But the way one achieves this is important enough to require added explanation more than added romanticism.

One holds a ball with a light grip as if about to pitch in baseball. The wrist is laid back. One turns the thumb and fingers to the right (90 degrees).

So when did wrist get laid back?

Down by the knees? Could happen almost anywhere, but since one simultaneously lays wrist back and cocks forearm every time one hits a modern forehand why not use that?

Now we are on outside of ball in an arm action that takes the strings up-- first on outside of ball, then on back of the ball, then on inside of ball.

The operative action is to catch and fling the ball (not to rush and slug the ball).

The body cartwheels to add to this upwardness.

The arm scarecrows home.

Which brings me back to my initial question.

Visual study identifies necessary elements but can't tell a person how much or little of each one to apply.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...ml?BTServe.mov)

[bottle]

This is a New Year's Serve. It's not a Christmas Serve.

Sic. Bah. Humbug.

[bottle]

To Double-End or not to Double-End: That is the Question

I'm gonna hit McEnruefuls, Double-Enders and Flashlights. Don't like the sound of that, reader? Then go your own way.

The McEnruefuls are imitation John McEnroe forehands without the leg drive. John McEnroe himself hits more of them as he gets older. Hit them badly and you get underspin. Hit one well and for two seconds you get as much attention as Donald Trump.

The Double-Enders are hit off of a windmill. (Because I'm tired of saying off of a waterwheel.) Both ends of the racket move at same speed through the hitting zone.

"Flashlights" are reference to Nick Bollettieri transforming the butt of a tennis racket into a flashlight.

One shines one's everlasting light upon the ball.

Me, I'm interested in exploring the version where hand is actually higher than the ball as the strings mondo underneath followed by ISR (internal shoulder rotation) right on the ball.

The Double-Enders, alternated, should help condition one into good extension while doing this.

[bottle]

In Which Every Tennis Tip is Seen as a Wedge into a New Understanding of the Total Cycle of Some Stroke

We start with a comparison of the backhand wind-up of Stanislas Wawrinka and Tommy Haas.

The mode for investigation is real time restraint in viewing the available video of either player. We follow the theory we have formed from watching such video in the past but won't watch the videos again until we have thought things through. At which time we will verify or disprove our conclusion. And perhaps move on from either judgment.

In so doing we take on the role of creator rather than librarian, and this will make a difference to our desire to become a more interesting player-- more interesting first and foremost to ourself.

Because we really don't need to impress anybody. Other than to beat them with new invention as player or teacher. Who should care whether one's opponent will know what just hit him?

Wawrinka takes racket up then turns it behind his back through stepping out. Haas takes it up, stepping out, then winds the racket inward as it falls (or so it appears). Either method establishes good flashlight in the racket butt. Hand grazes left pocket for either of these two guys.

But focus here is on Haas. Think of any reason. It needn't be good. Maybe one is simply more interested one day after Christmas in building something out of one's observation of Haas.

And here in one's daydream is a question: Does Haas create the mechanical regularity of an arm windmill or waterwheel and then distort it by stepping and hip rotating into it, or does he simply pull racket in as it falls or does he do both?

Finally, regardless of what Haas does, what do you, reader, a player who wants to invent something, most want to try?

If one maintains the mechanical regularity of the waterwheel but rotates toward and through it on an angle, the racket butt is going to flashlight more toward the ball with no added manipulation by you.

This is what I want to try despite all the snow and slush on outside courts. And what I will try as soon as I get the chance even if it has to be in an indoors match where one's mind ought to be on other things such as how to line up one's bod on the oncoming trajectory of a lob to one's partner.

To examine Haas now is simple curiosity that shouldn't affect one's experiment although it always might.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...evelFront1.mov)

How about the footwork in this one (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...velRear2.mov)? A three-part step-out? Then I'll call this one a two-part step-out (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...StanceSide.mov). Note the extra lifting of the racket at the top. And no extra lifting in this one (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...StanceRear.mov).

Next question: Do pileated woodpeckers eat wood-boring bumblebees?

[bottle]

Overheads Have Consequence

Been losing. How to turn this around against the same guys? Did it by making one of them hit lobs before the first match. Smashing those lobs reminded me that I have a net game. So that I poached more when we started to play. Why, reader, should you care? You shouldn't. But maybe should practice some overheads in the warmup before your next match.

[bottle]

Enjoying Two Transitions

1) From present serve toward more Roddick-like form. I'm obviously not going to obtain Roddick-like result. It would nevertheless be a great disgrace not to re-examine Roddickphernalia while in the neighborhood of integrated toss and wind.

First change, feet close together. Second change, double barrel leg drive. Third change, toss early with weight going backward (heresy!). Fourth change, toss from bent over position and use straightening of upper bod to assist the toss. Fifth change, use the taking of racket from one side of the body to the other (the big wind and collect) to curl the tossing arm back toward rear fence rather than keeping it artificially up like the hero of the bad film WIMBLEDON before he married Kirsten Dunce.

Like anybody who thinks much about serving, I am not advocating Roddick imitation for longer than a week. Remember though that Roddick himself came up with his teen-age bombshell never to change it again all in a single second or flash.

Also, in Virginia, I had a match point against a guy one time and decided to try a Roddick-like serve. It only came at him at 30 mph but my sudden resemblance to Andy Roddick caused him to miss the return.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...DeuceFront.mov)

2) From double-ending forehands off of waterwheel back to forehands whose windshield wiper begins while on the ball. For this purpose, I believe, if one possesses the double-ender, one can use the same symmetrical waterwheel or vertical circle loop but set up farther from the ball and take it from a contact point that is farther back in the slot.

Who am I, as don_budge would say, to recommend anything? Answer: Just a player messing around with his strokes as you ought to be, reader, unless you are complacent.

I recommend hitting a mix of present style serves with Roddick style serves, and double-ended forehands with NOT double-ended forehands in some proportion determined by the score in an actual match.

These transitions, if past personal history matters (and it most certainly does) will soon disappear in favor of one method or the other. One may as well enjoy them however for as long as they last.

[bottle]

Developing Extra Feel in a Backhand Modeled on Tommy Haas

One ought to be able to do this in a single place in the stroke cycle and then let the new feel radiate outward.

Starting with backward arm windmills, one can alter hand to string alignment through rotating the hips.

The bod in other words continues its travel once one has stepped out, and if this travel goes on a 45 degree angle toward the net, the arm fulcrum, i.e., the shoulder can move toward left fence while the strings stay where they were.

Put another way, the racket continues to produce an upright hoop but with the frame pointing more at rear fence.

Put still another way, the strings face less toward the ball and more toward left fence.

As we just said, hips action produces this re-alignment, but this may be a concept hard to grasp and feel.

I invoke here the "calm the horse" paradigm. If you can get the horse's head to descend, the horse will calm down. Similarly, if the horse calms down, its head will descend. So work on any such challenge from more than one direction.

Hips will change the alignment, so re-alignment of the racket conversely can help the hips do what you want.

Simply turn the racket butt a bit more toward the net, the tip a bit more toward rear fence. Practice this action by itself. Then combine it with forward hips rotation for extra feel.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...nterFront1.mov)

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...LevelRear2.mov)

Same thing here with advanced footwork (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...LevelRear1.mov).

[bottle]

Neuro-Linguistic Programming vs. Neanderthal Tennis Camp of the Ozarks

The year is coming to an end. Got to have my game together by midnight tomorrow. Think I'll start with forehands following the horse calming paradigm introduced on backhand yesterday.

So, in my already handsy game I'll use my hands more even calling them my brain if I have to.

Early separation sets elbow twisted high and left hand down by waist turning it.

But back in the old days when my forehand more closely resembled everybody else with left hand held religiously on the racket throat, the left arm next would straighten toward side fence.

So why can't I do that still? The difference will be left hand in a lower place. Left hand, which helped turn bod by staying in can now continue the bod turn by extending out. And lifting up at the same time to help bring hitting shoulder down into a power pocket.

Hips will tell hand what to do. Hand will tell hips what to do-- a perfect marriage.

neuro-linguistic programming (http://www.bing.com/search?q=neuro-l...R&pc=EUPP_DCTE)

Neanderthal (http://www.bing.com/search?q=Neander...R&pc=EUPP_DCTE)

[10splayer]

[QUOTE=bottle;n62009]Neuro-Linguistic Programming vs. Neanderthal Tennis Camp of the Ozarks

The year is coming to an end. Got to have my game together by midnight tomorrow. Think I'll start with forehands following the horse calming paradigm introduced on backhand yesterday.

So, in my already handsy game I'll use my hands more even calling them my brain if I have to.

Early separation sets elbow twisted high and left hand down by waist turning it.

But back in the old days when my forehand more closely resembled everybody else with left hand held religiously on the racket throat, the left arm next would straighten toward side fence.

So why can't I do that still? The difference will be left hand in a lower place. Left hand, which helped turn bod by staying in can now continue the bod turn by extending out. And lifting up at the same time to help bring hitting shoulder down into a power pocket.

Hips will tell hand what to do. Hand will tell hips what to do-- a perfect marriage.

neuro-linguistic programming (http://www.bing.com/search?q=neuro-l...R&pc=EUPP_DCTE)

Neanderthal (http://www.bing.com/search?q=Neander...R&pc=EUPP_DCTE)[/QUOTE





Oh that's right, tonight is round robin with the crackers. Here's a little inspiration.

https://youtu.be/CwEmzppSCg0

And please, try not to hit yourself in the fucking head with your racquet this week.

[bottle]

Thanks for the response. I guess you know I hate Sylvester Stallone. Ever since a friend and I were working in a yard in Sharon, Massachusetts. The people next door played the theme from ROCKY at full blast 24 hours a day for over a week.

[bottle]

LAST DAY OF THE YEAR

Time to make the keyboard zing on forehand, backhand and rotorded serve. Gotta get everything perfect by midnight.

Forehand:
Am working on a pretty small default-sized waterwheel that allows body segmentation to provide all necessary waterwheel distortion and lowering of the racket.

Why should anyone do otherwise if ball sits waist high? And one can achieve that perfect height almost any time with great footwork (ahem).

For higher and lower bounce, sure, I'll lift or lower arm an extra amount, but medium bounce affords the chance to steal from one's flat stroke a solidity that makes gravity and core involvement one and the same.

Backhand:
Have been getting a bit fancy (# 3427). Better to think of design evolution here as a beachhead in World War II even though World War III will be nothing like that. Capturing the beachhead in my case involved successful imitation of the small loop racket head acceleration used by both Ken Rosewall and Trey Waltke as they deliver great backhand slice again and again. Many people have tried to link the forward hips rotation happening just about then with straightening of the arm. Nope. The hips rotation best links with the small loop at the back of slice backswing.

Well, if my assertion is true (but remember that don_budge has said I use a lot of words without saying anything so you may choose if you wish to stop reading right now), why not apply the same compressed loop only in a different direction as in a topspin backhand by Tommy Haas? (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...LevelRear1.mov). You see the little loop at top of the backswing? Racket goes up in a skunk's tail. It's vertical. Then it topples over. We could speak of "the small loop at the back of slice backswing" and still be accurate. For topspin, however, better to say "the small loop at the top of Tommy's topspin backhand upswing." Same loop though, and Bottle (I mean I) got it working on slice so why not now on topspin?

Rotorded Serve:
The image of myself driving into a junkyard where there is a car compressor just won't go away. The idea is that if you stay in your junker while it gets squashed, the adhesions in your rotor cuff will get loosened up too. Exactly like voting for or supporting Donald Trump since you want unknown change. But you wouldn't have to do that. You could go to a specialist. He or she would take care of those adhesions. Or you could lure a dominatrix into a steam bath. She could beat you with witch hazel sticks while you pulled on a series of knots you tied in a long wet towel with the whole arrangement tugging the shoulder down from behind. Or you could find the perfect weight hand barbell to see how far you could stretch it down behind your back. One of the factors in shoulder inflexibility is not just ski race accidents but the simple advance of old age. So if you are going to pursue any of these measures make sure you do so before 2017 .

Alternately, you may reject long runway theory unless your envisioned runway is curved instead of straight. But remember, don_budge has said I never say anything, so again, stop reading right now. I WANT you to have a lousy serve since we may play against each other some day. But don_budge is not the only person not to listen to in a world full of villains. There are those many other teaching pros (I never would try to put words in don_budge's empty head) who say the fullest possible serving motion is the way for the rotorded server to go, never explaining this very much. And of course if you use the word "rotorded," they think you are retarded and from then on can't follow you very well.

The way to go, in utter defiance of this herd of tennis teachers all going BAH, BA-A-A-A-H-H, is severe abbreviation. So, if you have been down together up together you may want to retain what you've been doing but with the hitting arm only. As transition while you learn.

Eventually, though, you'll be able to strip your contraption down to its essential parts. Tossing hand will start high. Hitting hand will start high. The hips will start turning back as elbow led hitting hand pulls slightly ahead but on the same level path. But not so fast, let's back up. What was the angle of hitting hand to racket tip when you started? Well, how rotorded are you? When Andy Roddick takes racket down behind his back the tip is perfectly vertical. And a big loop then occurs on his way up the ball, a loop which is beyond your downward reach, reader, I'm quite sure.

But you can at least replicate the existence of a big loop, just in a different place, if you point racket tip down toward the net at the address.

Let's keep going since every serve is a narrative. Andy tosses with the aid of body straightening then winds down. He's had a good tennis career so should we let him have all the fun of invention too? No, let's improve on him. Let's make toss and wind down (and back) a single motion. The word that best describes this change is EDITING.

We proceed to catch and fling, using three different sides of the ball.

[bottle]

Why Don't Teaching Pros Other than Jimmy Arias Speak More about John McEnroe's Forehand Backswing?

Because it's different from what they do and they therefore don't like it.

[bottle]

Not a Spectacular Result but a Solid One, I Think

I refer to the whittling down referred to in post # 3431:

Forehand:
Am working on a pretty small default-sized waterwheel that allows body segmentation to provide all necessary waterwheel distortion and lowering of the racket.

Why should anyone do otherwise if ball sits waist high? And one can achieve that perfect height almost any time with great footwork (ahem).

For higher and lower bounce, sure, I'll lift or lower arm an extra amount, but medium bounce affords the chance to steal from one's flat stroke a solidity that makes gravity and core involvement one and the same.

And why wouldn't this work? Early separation of the hands gives one's hitting hand a freedom it would not ordinarily have. Keeping hand for longer on the racket may carry teacherly reasons for doing so, but freedom and flow of hand is what one should most want. Consider a painter or illustrator trying to do sensitive work with two rather than one hands.

One can keep hands stacked but close together. Like a dancer then, fool around with altering the relation of the two hands to correspond with the bod segmentation happening just then.

One's waterwheel distorts. The body brings hand both downward and inward then puts strings on bottom inside of the ball.

A deft roll of the hand then puts strings on back and then outside of the ball, providing speed and finesse both at the same time.

"Catch then fling the ball" becomes the new mantra and not just for forehands.

The hand provides speed and finesse. The body adds heft.

P.S. Perhaps a great athlete compared to a so-so athlete could understand the concept of fast catch if he or she liked to read posts such as this one. Most such great athletes don't and won't. The exceptions, I guess, are my target. But from studying the interaction of coach and athlete in both competitive rowing and dance, I know there is an essential place for language in any sport with plenty of room for improvement.

[bottle]

The Term "Fast Catch" Immediately Raises all Tennis Instruction to a Higher Level

That statement ought to infuriate somebody. I hope so. Not to endorse the self-indulgent and mawkish wish for personal attack and reprisal so characteristic of Donald Trump. I never would do that. A number of people however do sleepwalk their way through life exactly like Donald Trump. They are balloons more than people, balloons that need to be popped.

But forget, reader, all personal animus stuff. Forget too for a brief moment our immediate collective future and what our country is about to be. Just consider what the polymath tennis champion and tennis teacher Doug King has said about the sport of competitive rowing, i.e., crew.

An oarsman creeps slowly up a slide on lubricated wheels. As his hands cross his knees (bad crews), he slowly feathers his blade 90 degrees to square. To do this too fast, to "snap-feather," would be a great disgrace. But as his hands cross his shins (good crews) he smoothly feathers his blade 90 degrees to square.

What happens next? Something quicker than the human eye. He lifts the square blade straight up from his shoulder sockets to just bury the blade in the water-- no more and no less.

The water, in Doug King's words, instantly "turns to concrete." Concrete that the oarsman then pries against with all the force in legs, back and arms.

Could we do something similar in tennis? If we were a great tennis player we could.

King offers "katas" () to teach one to use inside, back and outside of the ball in this interactive process.

As an Annapolis-certified NAAO (National Association of Amateur Oarsmen) rowing coach, I would say, "Get the blade or racket squared up before the fast-catching contact where water or air turns to concrete." And think that King would agree due to statements he has made on one hand backhand.

Is there mystery rather than formula in this? Absolutely. And the chance for a bunch of new questions. Could mondo still be happening at forehand contact?

[bottle]

Ford Hospital, West Bloomfield, Michigan

Am on a couch here as my partner Hope starts her therapy for a knee replacement. I think she came through the operation well although neither of us slept very soundly. Not much I can do until we get home. A perfect time for me to think up a totally new forehand.

I'm telling you, both readers and malevolent reader, the simplicity meme that drives 98 per cent of tennis players is not a good idea.

"You'll win." Just hit the same old boring shot, Vic Braden said. But if you constantly change your strokes, striving always for something better, you will win too. And with more pleasure.

In rejecting simplicity, I don't mean simplicity of design, which is essential. I mean that if you never try to change or improve your strokes you are a simpleton.

Never mind. I understand that simpletons have fragile egos along with a tendency toward formula. They go only with what makes them win rather than with what would make them win better. One needs more than natural ambition to constantly invent.

Of course there is a price, too, one worth paying, I have always argued.

First one learns the basics but after that can identify if one is curious enough many different ways of hitting the ball.

To build on what has come before (yes, I dare to think my experiments matter or MIGHT matter), I propose today a leading with right hand rather than with opposite hand on racket to initiate one's turn.

Rotating hips next raise the left hand and lower the right all as continued motion.

In terms of cue, the rotating hips put strings on lower inside edge of ball. The arm then rolls to back of ball. The arm then rolls strings to upper outside of ball.

In actuality, I believe none of this happens on the ball but rather before the ball so that strings do get to the outside of the ball.

The shoulders rotation and pulling of the power cord put heft on the ball. And I think it important to note that this is a shot I have not yet hit, a shot I will put to trial soon. But right now (in pantomime without a racket) I like the way the small loop or quick waterwheel melds into hips rotation and then aeronautical banking of the shoulders.

The arm rotates on the ball while pushing out.

Did hitting wrist stay straight? Of course not. If one has mondoed for a long time one will mondo now.

But I ask, since I know there are differences in degree of hand yield at the contact point of different forehands: Is one still mondoeing at contact, i.e., in spite of all the force going forward are strings going backward a little to try to catch the ball before you fling it?