A New Year's Serve

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Turning the Chin Back

A magic move only if introduced in sequence. All other elements must be present and perfectly arranged first.

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Volley Change of Direction through Fingers

Practice with a pencil. Start with BHV. No finger squeeze for DTL. Fingers squeeze for DTL if late.

Now FHV: Prefer the straight wrist of composite grip. Think laying back the wrist with continental or using eastern for DTL was a mistake. Make contact more to the side instead.

Watch the pencil. No squeeze for DTL. Squeeze for CC or emergency DTL if late.

Try hitting these shots by right ear just to see what happens.

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Elbowing Out

I certainly do think the Stanley Plagenhoff backhand-- short backswing with elbows thrust out-- makes more sense for me than the skunk tail of Petr Korda or the preparation of almost anybody else.

Here is the question however. Should I argue for others to stick out their elbows too?

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Service Getting Clobbered

If you belong to a club, there probably are a couple of players there who can tell you when your serve is off. And tell it to you without words.

I had to do something. So during self-feed today I tried no body turn whatsoever during the down and up of both arms in a higher toss to start the motion.

Palm down to foster body turn and spaghetti arm relationship.

Body turn later now and synonymous with winding under ball so there will be double axles or multiple axles or coaxial cable like action when you go up for the ball.

Noticed more racket head speed right way. Will test this at the tennis social on Friday night.

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The Ever Evolving See See

That is the greatest aspect to this unique stroke, greater even than the oohs and ahs it occasions when done to perfection, which drive you on of course to new attempts. It grows, it evolves, it transforms.

Using the McEnrueful rhythm works but today I reject that as too complex. In self-feed to celebrate mailing taxes, the variation that was better was see sees hit off of cast net forehand.

Opposite hand stays on racket but then racket goes down as opposite hand points across. (Not true on a regular cast net forehand, which I hope to make my staple forehand. This shot was absolutely singing several weeks ago.)

No down and up and then down again. That works perfectly on a McEnrueful but takes up too much time on a see see.

Down the racket goes and keeps going down from shoulder lowering thanks to forward hips turn.

From there the shot is the same as what has almost been inventing itself. Believe that squeeze at the elbow should be optional though. "Very relaxed arm" is perhaps a single phrase to cover every one of the movements that involve that arm.

Stotty advised as few moving parts as possible, and the evolution seems to counter that idea a bit. The thing of it though is that all the movement is in a single direction-- up. None of the movement goes through the ball.

Grip is on the cusp of strong eastern and semiwestern. Despite that fact there is no mondo-- the wrist stays straight. Not so on a reverse see see. There one wants later contact combined with a good mondo but with a similar eschewing of windshield wipe.

A windshield wiper is a thing. A person should not allow himself or herself to fall in love with it. Always striving for maximum rotations of the ball is counter-productive.

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Reflection on Hitting Three See See Service Return Winners in a Row

It's not a high percentage shot. Or at least it's not supposed to be. But if you can hit three in a row you can probably hit four.

Winners, all winners. The ball trajectory is high, thus creating the angle. Topspin brings the shot down. But how much topspin? How many RPMs? Is there distinction to be made between light quick topspin and slow, heavy topspin? For sure.

Then which is more reliable? Uh-huh.

I remember in some tennis book encountering the following viewpoint: "I can teach you the basics of forehand, backhand, serve, volley, half-volley, overhead, drop-shot and lob, but when it comes to a short angle crosscourt forehand you will have to work on that project on your own."

The author apparently shared my view of the complexity of this shot.

Well I want body in the lift but not body weight countering the arm and racket work by coming through.

The sit and hit forehand of Vic Braden's TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE offers a template even though I must reject the idea of step-out and one's racket lowering happening at the same time.

One steps, then turns one's hips to lower the racket still more than the amount one already achieved with clever arm work.

So the hips have fired. That leaves shoulders and legs to add weight to one's lift.

One should not hit this shot as intentional winner but rather should follow it into net and hit a volley to the exact same spot.

The Jensen brothers used this one-two ploy to win the French Open doubles, and I suspect without knowing that every player on Luke Jensen's women's tennis team at Syracuse University has learned it.

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See See Completion of the Articulation

"Hit the ball out front and from the side," says veteran teaching pro Aggie Guastella (https://www.eastsidetennisfitness.com/staff) as she mimes the proper setup. The arm and racket are close into the body.

Well, if all that is true, the subject is footwork to establish a clear pathway to the target. We students are standing behind Aggie and a bit to the side, or rather she assumed the position that best reveals the pathway she's got us thinking about.

Tom serves from deuce court. Bill is at the net. Bottle receives. The first few returns go crosscourt but don't reach the alley. Then...three see sees in a row.

Next goal: four.

Value of this instruction: $1 million.

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Elbows out BHD: What it is, What it isn't.

This backhand drive is characterized by its short backswing. The racket is pulled directly behind one which results in an elbows out look.

An extreme version could keep both hands brushing the bod at this point-- as short as one could get although the racket might wrap around more.

That might prove awkward in what comes next but possibly also provide extra deception in direction of shot.

I'm recommending (to myself) hands out a small bit from the body for a comfortable shot. With racket on a 45-degree angle to rear fence rather than being parallel with it.

Next comes straightening of the arm and roll of the racket-- the famous "turning of the corner" which builds racket head speed and direction.

Some think one should use hips to straighten the arm. Me, I prefer to save hips for controlled weight shift from rear to front foot as both ends of the racket go out.

Such preference creates independence in the straighten-and-roll. I believe the roll starts when arm is almost straight same as on a serve though the roll there is in the opposite direction.

What this shot is not: A building of tension between the two hands. The arm straightening takes one hand out of the other in an easy way that facilitates the roll.

What of the old fashioned idea of "removing slack from the arm?" Is it compatible? Perhaps.

Save hips but still have lean from the shoulders available.

Such lean is what I plan to explore today (Sunday) in self-feed.

If the experiment is positive one will develop a compromise between total independence of the arm and racket unit and some use of the bod pulling in different direction.

Arthur Ashe was the master of this. One should sling the racket, he would say. One should "lift the racket over the net," he would say another time. Try slinging the racket into a double-ended lifting of the ball over the net?

Does leaning with the shoulder mean pressing down with it? No, one can keep shoulders level while shoving everything a mild amount toward the net.

I'm wondering if one could do away with forward hips rotation altogether for cleanest contact ever.

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Report

Hit shots where level-shouldered lean started during straightening of arm and continued to end of shot, where that lean didn't start till racket cornered, where lean started early and finished early thus establishing the double end racket push on a steeper path.

Don't know nuthin, which is another way of saying that I didn't conclude anything.

Also used hips rotation at various times in the stroke-- same story.

Concluded nothing and probably will use everything.

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1HBH Depth Control and Reverse See See

Post # 4119, while seeming high liability, shouldn't.

The palaver and drills of many coaches are determined from their natural areas of fascination as well as from their philosophy of tennis and orientation toward basics rather than fine points or both.

A player practicing one handers in a simple hit with another player may notice occasional unwanted variation in his depth of shot.

This should be an alert.

Great shots are hit with body weight coming through the contact, but what about the obverse of this idea?

Peter Burwash, like Vic Braden, really wrote just one great book.

In it (TENNIS FOR LIFE) Burwash advocated getting weight on front foot BEFORE one hits the ball-- to foster more consistency.

The formula I derived from this was "step press hit." But is this something I want to do all the time? Definitely not although it took me a while to arrive at that view. I do want to do it some of the time.

One example where a step press hit backhand can make sense: a reverse see see.

In the past I may have dwelt too much on modification of forehand for this shot when an ordinary forehand deep to center or deep to opponent's backhand would be smart.

The percentage reverse see see is a backhand not a forehand.

Reverse see see like see see then can be a variation of sit and hit, a Braden and Burwash combination for short angles hit from side of body opposite to the target.

And if going nevertheless for similar placement from same side use sidespin-underspin blend.

So, in reverse see see from backhand side do step press hit with hips turn in the press and then lift both ends of the racket sharply.

It's no time for the romance of the windshield wipe (as many as possible RPS-- revolutions per second-- no, don't want).

Just a few thoughts.

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Racket to Rise at End of a Volley-- Braden (V.), Jensen (L.)

Admire these guys and think their advice has to be good.

To make the wisdom my own, however, there has to be some further interpretation-- by me-- and here it is.

The volley is hit level and short with strings that open out.

The Braden-Jensen advice therefore applies only to the lower edge of the racket.

Ultimate determinant of the direction and excellence of the volley is finger pressure.

Is this subject a basic or a fine point?

Both.

To block a volley, finger pressure stays constant, well, isn't much but stiffens a bit. To take speed off a volley, fingers loosen. To stick a volley, fingers compress even on a backhand volley down the line. John M. Barnaby's analogy: Opening a stuck peanut butter jar.

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Vocabulary and Whirligig

Betty Grimm, Civil Rights activist and former school teacher living in this 52-person Detroit building complex escapes from the right brain chauvinism that says "words are no good."

In fact Betty points to bookless households with only a television set and now perhaps a device or two as a source of the conceptual dysfunction that characterizes our age.

Vocabulary in Betty's view is not just words but complex thought. And lack of vocabulary equals inability to make distinction and express oneself.

At which point one lives by stereotype and ready made or half-baked notion.

This line of thought extends not just to the social realm but such mundane topics as how to hit a golf ball or serve in tennis.

One needs to expand one's definition of "vocabulary" (https://www.google.com/search?q=voca...hrome&ie=UTF-8) beyond "fancy words" to the essential lingo of any specialized subject.

Phrases such as "toss higher" and "keep palm down" thus become essential vocabulary which once mastered could lead you to "accelerate the whole arm mechanism into a whirligig" (https://www.google.com/search?q=whir...hrome&ie=UTF-8).

Which then could lead to this idea: "Don't confuse your whirligig with your effort to achieve lowness of racket tip. They are two distinct efforts which you must blend through willpower-- nothing else will do it. This is your job."

A ray of hope for people who read books and use smartphones without the one excluding the other is the ease now of looking any word up, of even looking up words one thought one knew.

Thus the words "vocabulary" and "whirligig" give hope today for a serve on track.

Arm Speed

Is arm speed important? Of course. So speed it up or slow it down until you find what you want.

If there aren't enough variables in your serve you end up doing the same old stupid thing.

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"Compress your Fingers"

If this phrase is not present in your tennis vocabulary you may be condemned to blocked volleys only, volleys in which both ends of the racket move at the same speed.

The idea is that the fingers move the racket tip around a little or a lot when you are out to stick a volley.

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Whirligig Serving: Remember, there are People in the World who are Eager that you Not Succeed

Think of them as ordinary louts on the other side of the net. You can forgive them for not wanting to be aced.

Then ask thyself: Am I too worried about the result of this serve? Is it crazy enough? That should not be my sole goal but should be the first.

With second that I don't care whether tossing hand goes down before it goes up. That gives me an option to try either in self-feed today or in the next match or both (one option hah-- many).

Beginners who put racket down behind their back before they try anything do fine-- so long as they don't hold on to this design for too many months.

The exception is Jay Berger but so what.

Why eschew the fun of a full baseball pitcher's motion?

From the top then: Only one arm goes down and up. The toss arm stays where it is. If you haven't made any effort to toss you can do anything you want. Again, ask only, "Is this crazy enough?" Wait until later to find out if the lunacy works.

Keep the hitting arm a-going. Let it fall and proceed way back. You always sort of wanted an unhurried straight arm set way around and way back with palm facing the surface of the court, right?

Well here now is your chance since you haven't even yet contemplated lofting of the toss into the whirligig's mechanism.

Try now the option hinted at: 1) Lower toss arm as hit arm rises from elbow into the forward part of its curlicue. 2) Just toss upward from the high wait position but at that same exact time.

Options 3) 4) 5) 6) 7): Lower toss arm one centimeter, two centimeters, three centimeters, four centimeters, no centimeters.

Haven't tried these serves yet. But notice that the huge unhurried arm take back invites one to lower rear shoulder thus raising front shoulder right then.

If doing that, explore simultaneous downswing of toss arm to give subsequent toss a bit of extra spring.

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Report

The most promising avenue, which I now write down so as not to forget it: Lower the tossing arm a small amount but do it by actively angling shoulders down from rear fence toward net.

The rear shoulder goes up at end of the hitting arm take back. Which lowers the front shoulder and hence the tossing arm.

Toss then in sync with hit arm breaking into a whirligig.

And with front shoulder pushing the toss upward from underneath for extra spring.

This is an example of unexpected discovery during self-feed.

One needs to bring a plate full of seemingly solid ideas to the task.

Then and probably only then comes a new idea better than the rest.