A New Year's Serve

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Reversible Cues

One can in present service design start the knees and hips as in a conventional golf stroke.

At the same time though from a separate fulcrum one can take the racket tip around while keeping elbow on line with rear edge of bod.

We already experimented with clinging the elbow to bod edge but now push it out a bit.

The farm gate turn of forearm now will open the racket a bit.

But starting with the elbow out like this may obscure the farm gate feel.

A new idea begets another. How far out or rather up is the elbow from address position onward?

If the elbow though out is still a bit low it can naturally rise an inch or two as part of right arm squeeze.

I put this squeeze in tandem with the rising-shoulder-and-separately-rising-elbow toss.

The strings are to left of one's bod and therefore can go all the way to ear.

This will lift elbow a bit at end of squeeze.

Then the elbow will invert, which inversion finally lifts it to shoulders line.

Then the elbow will continue upward still on the shoulders line as a result of the rotation of upper bod.

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Reverse See See

I almost have forgotten my see sees. Shy fish that they are, they have swum down into the dark depths of consciousness. For weeks or months I haven't hit a single one despite playing doubles twice every week.

And then yesterday one emerged from the murk as I, right-hander, was playing deuce court. My service return landed short in the diagonal alley due to lots of topspin. See! See! "Best shot of the day" said Mike Finan, a generous if former repo man.

Did I attempt another? Not yesterday. I just took my riches home where I began to think of other things that included reverse see sees.

To be sure, as of today, I've only hit the reverse version from self-feed. But these shots can go high so as to clear the net if they display sufficient sharpness of angle.

I'm hitting a see see right now with bent arm and less raise of the elbow to buy time to wank the forearm smoothly and forcelessly way out front. Then roll the arm and racket. That simple.

Reverse see see: Straight arm. And hit the ball almost behind one (one will have to wait for the ball to get there). A true patting of the dog as high elbow descends, arm straightens, mondo and dog pat and push are one and the same, the straight arm is close behind one, and there is no wish whatsoever to rotate body into the shot.

See this reverse see see as twisting arm blended with just a bit of bowl (as in the sport of bowling) to open the racket face.

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Orphans at Indian Wells and Key Biscayne

Did you know, reader, that all the pro players wearing the Nike uniform are orphans?

Me neither. And it isn't true.

But they LOOK like orphans. Imagine them as all coming out of the Nike orphanage dorm at dawn and repairing to adjacent tennis courts wearing their identical uniform.

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From Arm Thought to Body Thought

Now that one has a better idea of what he wants the arm to do, he needs a rear leg thrust that will A) send rear hip slightly over front hip while B) most effectively helping back hip to accelerate around.

That is how rear leg thrust ought to work in a good serve? Send rear hip up and around at the same time?

I speak here about an old fashion grounded serve, not a Michael Jordon serve where you start by elevating feet off of the court through the use of both springs.

With slight leftward lean achieved during shoulders wind, the upper body (think transverse stomach muscles) will now pick up and increase the acceleration.

Then comes the kick in the stomach (though from your forearm, your own opposite forearm). The continued and ever faster shoulders rotation combines with jackknifing diver's push over the ball. With left leg driving straight at the same time.

To reiterate with something new: The front heel goes up with hips backward turn. The rear heel goes up with shoulders backward turn.

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What If...

What if you separate wind-up and toss in that order, i.e., in reverse order from a conventional serve?

Now the hand turns over and rises to ear as tossing shoulder winds up.

Now you toss as rear leg drives to invert elbow.

And it is gut to continue racket rise on shoulders bat before the arm extension combined with ISR with body jackknife caused by forearm kick in the gut just before contact.

If this doesn't work I revert to previous post-- difficult but can be done.

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No. Things Change Every Day. Nothing Wrong with That

The hand turns over and rises to ear as hips turn back.

Toss no longer happens as upper body turns back but is withheld through that.

So what is going on with your two arms during this phase of the serve? Nothing.

Toss happens during forward hips drive, which also sets the shoulders bat, i.e., lifts the elbow to the shoulders line.

Using this pattern in actual play with only one service session first to try and make things gel, I often couldn't stop myself from tossing too soon but this didn't hurt me overly much. Tossing late into a sound serving mechanism is a fun idea and is just a matter of persistence, I believe, with positive result to be accelerated by thinking and miming while off the court in bed and shower, taking a walk etc.

[bottle]

New Cue for the McEnrueful

Why not? Haven't I hit this special forehand-- though sparingly-- for a long time by now?

The original cue, which worked quite well, was down and up with both arms. Followed by forward hips rotation to lower rear shoulder in aeronautical banking. A very "connected" shot in other words, with arm not doing anything separate but moved entirely by the torso. Shoulders, i.e., the transverse stomach muscles, then cream the ball by coming both around and up at the same time. The ball, with a little topspin but not much, I guess, goes low like a laser darting deep into the opposite court.

New cue which can turn good shots into absolute killers: Down and up with both arms (as you turn bod back just as before). Now just crank hips with all the abandon you want. Wrist stays straight as before. There is no laying back of it. The grip is composite or "Australian" to use Ellsworth Vines' vocabulary, i.e., between a continental and eastern. I've got my thumb on a pointy ridge for reference but turn hand farther around the barrel for a normal topspin forehand and have thumb more wrapped by now. The training wheel of thumb tip to a pointy ridge in that case is gone.

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Pigeon-toed Serves

Stop thinking about so many body parts.

I will, I will, Martina, but not right now. The new serve is still in a design phase that I am thoroughly fond of as I enjoy every jot and tittle.

Proceed now to one arm doing nothing-- in the middle of the serve-- while the other winds hand up to ear.

Turning the racket over can set pace of the whole serve which we now edit so that the backward hips backward shoulders sequence is a single molten move.

One could say there are five parts to this new serve different from yesterday if one wanted. Better to say "parts" than counts because as counts the parts are uneven. We could signify the conglomeration as 123-4-5 but that would under-express the speed with which the 3-4-5 is jammed together.

1) The hitting arm slowly turns over in an effort to set best speed and rhythm for beginning of the serve.

2) The hips turn so that front heel goes slowly up followed by shoulders turn and rear heel going up to form a starter's block as in track. At the same time the arm folds together and continues up until hand is by ear thus raising elbow a small amount.

3) The rear foot and leg fires hips mostly in a roundabout direction but upward too. This pigeon-toed foot best indicates the roundabout direction. If it were splayed in conventional set, it would make the body skate too much toward the net. The energy from this leg thrust forms a spiral around and up. At the same time the elbow inverts which puts it on shoulders line to transform it into a shoulders line bat.

4) The bat accelerates from transverse stomach muscles. The axis for this forward rotation of the shoulders is either on a tilt or is actively tilting or both. The elbow continues to invert to create conflict in the humeral connection (rotator cuff) for what happens next.

5) ISR. Halfway through this ISR the opposite forearm kicks one's middle as front leg thrusts up and body slightly jackknifes and upper bod continues to rotate as the total serve goes into its scarecrow conclusion.

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A New Serve Every Day

Today's serve however is no different from yesterday's except in the way it is described. Or rather cued. With three counts rather than five.

1) The arm turns over, which takes racket around level.

2) A single molten move: The hips turn raises front heel as hand folds upward from the elbow. The rear shoulder goes down as pigeon-toed rear foot goes up (at heel) and elbow goes slightly up.

3) While tossing, drive with rear leg to raise elbow to bat line.

3) is provocative but 2) is interesting in that the shoulder going down balances the elbow coming up with net result that the elbow stays at one level while being carried about by bod.

Don't be overly struck by that however. To think about it would probably be just as great a tactical mistake as pondering the rest of the serve in minute detail.

Post-mortem: Served this way this morning. The result was less than stellar. Was on the winning team in two of the three set-long matches but held half the time. Not good enough. See next post.

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Keep Some Things, Delete Others, Reinstitute or Bring Across

First thing to bring across is late toss. It just can't be late enough as far as I am concerned. Toss late into the overall motion.

Second, pigeon-toed rear foot for the type of rear leg drive I want.

Third, the single molten move.

Fourth, drive from rear leg both lifts toss and lifts (inverts) hitting elbow.

Delete: All the nonsense about folding up arm to then lift elbow part way to bat line. Mark it off as an experiment for servers with lapsed shoulder.

Just lift elbow to a few inches under bat line straight off as second part of one's old down-and-up motion.

It is however a down-and-up motion with a difference. Only the hitting arm goes down and up. And as it goes up it turns out. I'll begin these new experiments with some modern tradition. At the end of the "up" the arm will be right-angled in trophy pose but with strings turned out a bit.

Furthermore: As racket goes down the hips turn to lift front foot by its heel up on its toes. As racket goes up, the shoulders turn to lift rear foot by its heel up on its toes.

But you haven't tossed yet! Forward hips turn-- now-- simultaneously lifts hitting elbow and ice cream cone toss.

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Kinetic Chain Nonsense the Villain Once More?

Someone will read that and conclude that I am opposed to kinetic chain. I'm not.

I'm opposed to the way people interpret kinetic chain and try to use their interpretation.

If kinetic chain theory is correct, an impartial observer should be able to examine any one of its links with good result.

And a link that seems very powerful is the one between hips and shoulders with shorthand for shoulders being "gut."

The closest any famous coach has come to the proper examination I seek is the late baseball coach and slugger Ted Williams.

He taught his Washington Senators to "fire the hips marginally ahead of the shoulders."

My question: Did he really need to say that? Does one have to consciously decide on this "marginal" sequence? How about firing hips and gut at the exact same moment? Won't the hips naturally overpower gut to form desired sequence? And isn't firing hips and gut with a single brain impulse much more compact and easy to do?

We take our new serve to the court where we work on single piece arm spiral up to medium high bent-elbow position a few inches below shoulders bat line with the knowledge in mind that big bod action will achieve the last few inches of elbow rise all by itself.

And we also work on a down-and-up option that establishes the exact same pre-bat position.

Then, in more serves, we fire hips and gut to accomplish both a good toss and an elbow inversion (continuing) in which our toss and racket tip is cocked out to the right.

At which point we clutch the gut for jackknife toward the side fence, which accelerates the already quick shoulders all in the direction indicated by pigeon-toed rear foot.

Oh yes, ISR was happening at contact too.

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Hop (one) and Hoppety Hop (two hops)

Even writing narratives about one's tennis strokes can become a copout, a distraction, a failure of character as in the Trump administration. And even good fruit can go bad if you leave it in the sun too long.

My strokes nevertheless have mostly benefitted from my impulse to make them into stories.

On the backhand side, all shots including the volleys now include arm straightening right up to contact. That is a provocative view and far from the modern norm. But who cares? One wouldn't if something works? There has to be a reason my doubles' opponents hit to the other guy.

On forehand, I use both composite and strong eastern grip. I like to crack forehand volleys above the net with a bit of wrist snap.

On overhead, I'm partial to that technique which takes strings up on the ball even as those strings are slanted down.

On serves, I'm back to down-and-up gravity assisted rhythm but with the hitting arm only, and with strings turned out at address to simplify and make more spare what is about to happen behind one's back. The tossing hand, ice cream coned, stays on bent arm around waist level and turns back with the shoulders.

The service stance is conventional once again, with back foot perpendicular to target, front foot pointed at target or to the right of it since I am right-handed. The amount one is turned away from the net need not and should not always be the same.

The feet in this stance are flat which is startlingly good for activating the transverse stomach muscles, a first thing to do in present narrative.

For a long time I've started backward rotation with the hips rather than the shoulders but see no reason not to reverse this sequence. (The reason for this has to do with a better hop or hoppety hop.)

The hop itself has been a subject of fear since I have a replacement in left leg, but I think the healing has proceeded to the stage where I can hop again so long as I don't rise more than a couple inches off the court.

"I have come to the conclusion that all true power in the serve comes from arching the back," said a former national champion of Guyana. Was he kidding? I'm still not sure.

Arching the back, as Chris Lewit has shown, can happen in two different directions. One of them could qualify for the description "leftward lean."

The toss in present serve is at the beginning of forward travel. The knees then bend and straighten. As they straighten the hips naturally rotate due to the splayed stance. At the same time I seek to fire the stomach though still in my leftward lean.

Since I am a "rotorded" server, i.e., a server without much humeral twist available (pun fully intended), I'd like to snap both shoulders upward more than over. A fanciful idea I've recently evoked is to slap the belly downward rather than backward, so that the shoulders snap upward more than downward..

Finally to use a baseball term there is the question of "arm slot." My better serves occur with this slot starting lower than I used to use. This puts a bit more action in all directions into the body assisted rise of elbow up to shoulders bat line.

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Progress

Post # 3536: Lost serve every time along with dropping all three change-off sets in doubles. Post # 3537: Held serve every time along with prevailing in all three change-off sets, again in doubles. One of the four players was not the same, but he is a good player. So I would say the return to hop-style serving (with new knowledge brought across) had positive repercussion.

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All the Ways the Serving Arm Goes Round the Bod

I don't even want to think about a down and up motion of the hitting arm. That's too complicated at the moment.

So I go here in the category of what I want to try next with horizontal travel of the arm to get the racket far back. Maybe the lessons learned will later apply to a down and up.

What are the options for getting racket way back-- to develop working room for most powerful conversion to vertical string path?

1) Farm gate. If the arm is right-angled, the humerus can simulate a farm gate hinge pin. If humerus is perpendicular to the court the pitch will not change. The hand will travel X amount to physical limitation.

2) Swing elbow instead. This too could move hand X amount-- approximately the same amount as the hinge example.

3) Try either of these methods with vertical and open racket face. The hand will still go X amount but racket tip will start farther back and end farther back in the open string variation.

4) Keep elbow in to do farm gate then let elbow go: now we get X + X but also a curved path followed by a straighter path-- too complicated? Better for more regular circularity to start at address with elbow somewhat out?

5) Simultaneously combine farm gate and elbow swing to achieve 2X.

6) Start with strings square then roll them open, creating another X amount if you measure at racket tip rather than hand.

7) Extend arm from bent elbow = X amount of travel again or almost.

8) Starting with elbow somewhat out, combine all the other methods to get racket around the largest amount. Does this mean going farther than the shoulders bat line? It needn't. But it gets racket tip around and way back toward the fences.

Arm will be straight. That means it gets to bend as knees bend down thus turning hips naturally backward due to a conventional splay-foot stance.

[stotty]

A serve should have no unnecessary movements, for the same reason that a forehand should have no unnecessary backswing and a backhand no unnecessary quirks. Simplicity is the key to successful tennis strokes just as simplicity is the key to making the perfect cup of tea.