A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Just as BAD INFORMATION IS BEING DISPENSED AT PRINCETON is the title of a J.P. Donleavy novel, I now declare that MORE GOOD IMAGINATION NEEDS TO BE IMPARTED TO THE TENNIS FOREHAND KNOWN AS THE ELLIE-BAM.

The player attempting this shot (I) needs to ask, "What am I doing already? How can I build on that?"

Keeping both hands on the racket for a long time ("I give you sex for long time" says the Thai hooker) may be good for the conventional player, but I never went to Thailand and I got left hand off the handle long ago.

So I now will shoot both bent arms, separating slightly, toward rear right fence post.

Scapular retraction then will complete the separation.

And scapular adduction will take racket to the ball (scenario one).

In scenario two, arm instead takes racket to ball, saving scapular adduction or "husking" as additive to power pivot.

Dunno which is better, haven't campared them yet.

But either scenario to be accomplished in 1-2-3 rhythm in which arms movement is 1, scapular retraction 2, all the rest 3 .

Note: Fallback position is The Beasley-bam. That one works great both in self-feed and actual play.

[bottle]

Very High Racket Position for Returning Serve

You wouldn't want to be so high (and wrapped around toward forehand) that you couldn't chip a backhand. But I love the shot known by me as the Beasley-bam, and just think the higher wait position would make for even more speed than this form of stroke already has in getting the shot off.

Western citizens tend to put things in categories rather than seeing them as continuum. Thus one waits low or high without considering all the gradations in between.

[bottle]

Why I Love Me Beasley-bams

First, because they work and not just in self-feed. Second, they can, with a little luck, produce very clean hits.

My love for these circular strokes, which I am convinced Bud Collins had confused with Ellie-bams, prevents me from over-analyzing them to death but at the same time leads me to know them a bit more every day.

And it is not the sudden squeezing together of the two halves of the arm that lies close to the heart of their mystery, but rather the gradual extension of that arm, again at the elbow but accompanied by elbow moving out a few inches from the bod.

Explaining this concept is complicated enough in words but would be impossible in film. Suffice it to say, reader, that everything I have described so far happens as part of backswing.

And gradual extension of arm from elbow continues throughout the foreswing.

This seamless transition has to constitute the core of Mercer Beasley's genius.

All forehands contain arc, but this is a different arc. In using it one can discard the Craig Wilson Commandment to C-A-A-A-R-R-R-Y the ball since broadness of arc does that already.

And it is so instructive to learn that more than one of Beasley's many national champions of the 1930's rebelled against their mentor so good at self-promotion and, perhaps looking ahead to Fin-De-Siecle in-the-slot forehands, refused even in the 1930's to circle their racket behind their back.

I too have tried to rebel against Mercer Beasley, employing countless experiments in the quest.

But conclude, finally, that given the adjustablity of wait position and rhythmic quality of this stroke combined with other virtues, e.g., ease of production, Beasley was/is smarter than us all.

Finally again, I think one can hit just as hard with this forehand as with any other in my pantheon of experiment.

Power and control both have to do with dancer's smooth and delayed hips pivot that perfectly and entirely on balance carries one's weight across a bridge over a small creek.

[bottle]

Waterwheel and Federfore: A Two-Unit Complement of Topspin Forehands

1) Use Waterwheel for setting up close to ball. You need to be super-aware of pitch at contact when using this one, because loop and push on ball are basically part of the same vertically rotating device. And a vertical wheel changes pitch more rapidly. So I advise against this shot on a day when contact point seems to vary from shot to shot.

2) Use Federfore anytime. Federfores are especially good when interspersed with Beasley-bams. I would like to say that Federfores and Waterwheels are opposite sides of the same coin, but such a statement would only be partially true and too easily lead to confusion.

Some Federfores DO suggest horizontality contrasted to the verticality of a Waterwheel (spellcheck is going berserk). Think of Roger Federer forehands hit at great separation and looking almost like slaps.

In most of Roger's forehands however, arm extends both OUT and DOWN to varying degree.

Roger is Roger but we can do that too.

[bottle]

Complete Seniors Tennis Service Return Plan for Player Whose Backhand Slice is Sufficient Enough that all other Players Avoid it

With slice that good the player ought to be able to improvise his slice (a package of countless variation after all) from racket wait position higher and farther to right than usual.

In the flat forehand known as the Beasley-bam, the player can wait with arm quite bent, the two halves of it in fact either pressed together or almost.

Two halves pressed together is what we see in the photographs of HOW TO PLAY TENNIS, by Mercer Beasley, 1936, the book that first introduced the Beasley-bam to the tennis paying public.

The two halves are pressed together with racket resting on shoulder. And Beasley shows his famous genius once again by giving no indication whatsoever of how it got there.

If we like this shot and want to use it, we'll invent the time it takes to put racket in this key bat position all by ourselves.

Or do as I'm suggesting now, adopt that key bat position straight off but modified just enough so that one can still chip a backhand return if asked to do so.

Arm can be very bent but not completely bent. Racket can still float a bit in front of one. Those two measures ought to achieve desired purpose.

We now apply same philosophy to a shot more familiar to the players of 2017, the imitation Roger Federer forehand, the Federfore.

That one doesn't bend arm together but does start with bent arm and a raise of racket tip while keeping elbow down below.

Is everything understood so far? Good. We're now ready for our choice of two killer forehand service returns, the Beasley-bam hit closer to bod and the Federfore taken farther out.

[bottle]

Tennis Invention Back-up

Not back-up in the sense of an extra copy but rather back-up of unwanted water behind a dam.

This is the second day when play at the senior men's association as been canceled due to rain. I've put in some self-feed but that is just not the same.

So I'm all ready to unleash two killer forehand service returns thanks to new abbreviation at the wait position end.

But won't get the chance again today. So in the meantime I've been reading USPTR tennis wag Ron Waite, the Tom Waits of written tennis waggery.

Ron invokes Oscar Wegner's stalking of the ball and easy arm work before putting a big push on the ball. (Personally, I think that Doug King with his "chute" has expressed this better than anybody-- not to take anything away from Oscar, who has been unfairly beat up on more than enough. Oscar makes a huge contribution always.)

Ron Waite would have us all try a six-inch forehand backswing in contrast to whatever else we do.

Am with you, Ron. Will start on it if the weather permits self-feed today.

[bottle]

Ron Waite: Six-inch Forehand Backswing

So how do we interpret this? Or does it not need interpretation? I say it does, that any idea, no matter how simple, always leads to further thought to convert it into action.

I see two beginning choices, at least for me: 1) The racket, disengaged from other arm, sets where you want it as part of unit turn. It then goes back six inches and then forward the same six inches to find the ball.

2) (very different): The racket, disengaged from other arm, takes the extra six inches immediately as part of the unit turn. All Zen (concentration) can now go into slowness of forward six inches to find the ball.

Don't see this as either/or but rather what one wants to do on a given shot.

[bottle]

Ron Waite: Six-inch Forehand Backswing

So how do we interpret this? Or does it not need interpretation? I say it does, that any idea, no matter how simple, always leads to further thought to convert it into action.

I see two beginning choices, at least for me: 1) The racket, disengaged from other arm, sets where you want it as part of unit turn. It then goes back six inches and then forward the same six inches to find the ball.

2) (very different): The racket, disengaged from other arm, takes the extra six inches immediately as part of the unit turn. All Zen (concentration) can now go into slowness of forward six inches to find the ball.

Don't see this as either/or but rather what one wants to do on a given shot.

Nope, it's either/or for me. I know players who can do 1), and when they do, sometimes it's spectacular. But 2) worked better for me today in doubles and was the only choice that seemed viable.

[bottle]

What does it mean to gradually extend arm from the elbow throughout a forehand?

I don't know and you reader probably don't know either. It's just not on the acceptable list of best tennis topics for discussion, with the inevitable result that we're likely to remain forever ignorant about it along with other unaddressed scores.

Like scissoring the arm like Agi Radwanska. Or leaving the arm at one length throughout a forehand, or using one length only variable depending on how far you camped out from the ball.

Most players don't want to think about this stuff but I sure do.

Reading HOW TO PLAY TENNIS 1937 revised edition by Mercer Beasley set me off on a merry quest of self-feed sessions alternated with regular doubles at the senior senior level.

What I can tell you, as of today, is that a Beasley-bammed forehand is not as bankable as I first thought.

In first flush of discovering it I hit it all the time and seemed to win most of those points.

But then, like many new strokes it went slightly sour.

I think the shot is infected by my other experiments in which I have fiddled with length and placement of backswing.

If you have decided to hit the ball with gradual elbow extension throughout, the very nature of every shot will change according to different lengths of backswing, no?

That realization may come to you, also that a Beasley-bam is a really extreme form of forehand.

In that the elbow extension we have been talking about happens from full compression to fully straight arm.

Whether one can break off a smaller part of the broad arc thus produced has piqued my interest, and I don't yet have an answer.

To restore one's Beasley-bam to full splendor, however, one must not forget to start the at-the-elbow extension during the backswing before it continues during the foreswing.

And if splendiferous restoration has then occurred, why not then proceed to new experiment? A Federfore gets arm straight before it wipes, no? So what will happen if gradually straightening arm gets fully straight before contact? A sharp flat crosscourt? What will happen if the big range of extension still starts during backswing replacement of the elbow but goes quite slow at that beginning part so that more of it is delayed until the pivot?

Thinking opens new possibilities for which we may pay a price or be rewarded. Would we want it any other way?

[bottle]

The Geico Salamander Speaks

"I have too many forehands. What should I do?"

Answer: Don't worry. Pick forehands that are working today. Hana Mandlikova had the same problem yet still had a good career.

[bottle]

Two Topspin Forehands that One can Alternate

1) Agi-scissor. Agi Rad gets racket tip a-moving by straightening arm at the elbow and then bending it at the same place. And then she wipes with her strings coming off of the ball. She makes contact way out front. Way out front means in one of the dimensions close in to the bod.

2) Federfore. This shot is hit farther to the side and with straight-armed rather than bent-armed wipe. Is there a pause when racket tip has wound up? Yes, the semblance of one. One would not want to start dog knockout maneuver either before or after that point. The total action of this shot is quicker than one commonly imagines.

I see both of these shots as stay-down with head as still as a parked hubcap. From being an oarsman and a crew coach I know that when you push with your legs you move your head. So don't do that, especially if you have any knee replacements.

A benefit added to possible personal survival is that you will see the ball well.

[johnyandell]

OK Bottle and DB,
The war is over. Stick to tennis or whatever topic and just stop talking to each other. Bottle as I know you know most of the comments of yours DB reposted here are over the line. I don't have the time or certainly the interest to follow this back. I suspect DB may have made a few comments in the past, but I really don't care. You don't like each other I get it. SO just stop. I suggest you guys take a cue from Phil and both block each other.
John Yandell

[bottle]

A New Program for Rotorded Serving

With serves that separate toss from rest of the service action, I have no problem moving head backward at a time when one is supposed to glide it forward.

This is the way-- the only way-- to generate upward spin given substantial restriction in the shoulder.

So now I want to incorporate this bloodily acquired knowledge in mediocre serves that I have refined for years and years.

Whatever else these serves are, the toss and wind-back is integrated.

Hips and knees rotate back, the ball is in the air, then shoulders rotate back to shift racket from one side of the bod to the other.

Such an easy serve. Tried it in geezer dubs. One of the opponents, a very good player, muffed his return. Same thing happened to his partner.

"An overwhelming serve," the good player said.

"That's what I was thinking," I said. I have never served more easily and forcelessly in my life.

When the good player and his partner heard me they of course lifted their game and won the next two points to make it 30-30 .

But I'm on to a new program. Serve your easiest serves possible and make them clobberable on purpose.

Then do something-- anything-- to keep them just as easy but non-clobberable now.

For me it seems a bit of attacking acceleration at upper end of external shoulder rotation (ESR) combined with arm straightening just before seamless reversal to internal shoulder rotation (ISR).

[bottle]

The National Abandoned Tennis Courts Reclamation Project

Well, it's an idea. But no one should have overly high expectations. You see a total of twelve courts, five of them without nets.

You meanwhile want only one court for self-feed.

So you set up your basket of balls on its stilts among the four-foot bushes on the court nearest to the parking lot, try a few serves, Beasley-bams and Federfores. (Hadn't discovered the Agi-scissor yet.)

Do this a few times. Then one day the bushes are down. "They finally mowed it," an old man informs you as he walks past.

For how long were the weeds permitted to grow up? Years? Decades? And yet the Rouge Park Detroit attendants left seven nets up, some of them in not too bad shape.

A couple of months have passed by now. There was a time in there where a court upgrade seemed in order.

So I tried serving on a bunch of different courts, brought a big half-inch drive socket wrench to lift one of the cables up to standard height.

That worked but was bad choice. There were other courts whose nets were already at proper height.

Tried serving here and there. In most of the courts 10 balls or more went under a fence.

But one court was untried and looked pretty good. In one direction however the balls went through a door out onto the grass bordering Plymouth Street.

So I worked on the door. It just needed some weeding and a big push. Problem solved.

This, in a relative world, is a great court, very smooth, fast and slick. It would almost play like the laykold we learned on at Crooked Run Racket Club in Front Royal Virginia before the managers dumbed (slowed) the courts down and after we left reduced the numbers of them to make room for more exercise machines.

You might trip on the Rouge Park whiskers protruding through the cracks but you could almost play on this one court three over in the row nearest to Plymouth Street.

And one can imagine 1928 Plymouths cruising slowly past.

Perfect for self-feed.

The balls don't go under any fence.

And yet the fence is loose enough so that you merely have to push on it when you're picking up your balls and it slides nicely out of the way.

[bottle]

Two Birds with One Stone

First bird: A modification to one's Agi-scissor.

Second bird: A modification to one's notion of a Ron Waite six-inch backswing in a certain kind of forehand in which elbow straightens during forward part of the stroke.

Since life is short and art is long, I seek a single modification to cover both instances.

The modification will be a simultaneous bending and waving of both arms toward the net no matter how slight.

So let me explain.

Starting with the Agi-scissor first having adjusted it to one's own personality, one recognizes a huge classical element in Agnieszka's forehand in contrast to the innovation or departure that it also offers.

What's classical is the "breaststroke" to use Stotty's word common to many forehands e.g. Juan Del Potro. Left hand stays on the racket to assist the unit turn and rotate both hands way back. Then the two arms go out.

In earlier hand separation forehands (John McEnroe is notable) both arms similarly balance each other but do so earlier.

Clearly, in the Agi-scissor, the hitting arm, having straightened to create kinetic energy in the backswing next scissors in the foreswing also to create kinetic energy and put the contact way out front.

So, from early separation structure, what can the left arm do? It can sort of float and practically do nothing. It can "smooth the waters" (Tom Okker's expression). It can bend a small amount. All this is still to be worked out, including with the exercise where you put left hand in left pocket just to see what you most want left hand to do-- Paul Metzler's idea. Regardless, that left and right arms will parallel one another seems likely.

Imagine that happening, and then visualize Agi's right knee whirling down at the same time.

In the elbow straightening variation of Waite's six-incher, I see the knee whirl as happening a moment later.

In this stroke, the two elbows can bend both hands forcelessly toward the net to prefigure or actually start the weight transfer that will happen during the delayed but now ready to go power pivot.

Hitting arm will extend from elbow at same time. Left arm will stay bent. Haven't tried this yet.

Note: My notion of Waite's six-inch backswing is pretty radical. Sorry about that. There may be thousands of players who hit the same way whom I just don't know about, but I see differences from the way the word "backswing" is commonly interpreted. I see independent arm motion occurring during the body turn (six inches worth). Now six inches of arm travel (let's say "elbow travel") happens the other way before the pivot chimes in. With arm straightening only during the pivot.

The Grips: Strong eastern for Agi-scissor. Composite (halfway between eastern and continental) for the elbow-straightening number. (This second shot will only get a name if it is very good.)