A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Evolve, Evolve It. Pretend you are a theosophist obsessed with Darwin, a mad inventor able to compress a million years of change into a two-day sequence.

Starting from post # 4170, play from high initial position only with bent arms. No reason to be uncomfortable unless you grew up in the Puritan Tradition.

And if that is true, give a great shake now to the Pioneer Tradition.

The first iteration had you bending toss arm from initial straightness. Now it's bent to begin with.

The hit arm meanwhile can comfortably extend exactly as it has been doing for a month from a lower position.

Another difference is that separation of the elbows stage can play with setting of one's ice cream cone hand.

Two-prong point at the net can be exaggerated and grotesque, particularly the ice cream cone or Hungarian hot dog, where hot dog, mustard and all the condiments can threaten to fall out. The cone or lengthwise-speared bun can now be on its side threatening to drop even more than horizontal-- dangerous enough.

Now, as the upper bod arch takes elbows out, the toss hand can lag, staying more or less where it was.

The result is still some tilt toward the net but not as much as an instant ago.

The cone or hollowed bun now is aimed for a slightly more forward toss no matter how else that toss may arc.

The hands, I can now see as I mime all this on my back, can rest one on the top of the other.

Straightness of toss wrist makes a bed next to big knuckles for thumb to rest on probably at an angle.

Attention to comfort makes something new a lot easier to do.

[bottle]

My Imagination Fooled Me When I Was Lying Down

It is the throat of the racket, not the thumb, that can rest on the fisted fingers, on the middle section of the fingers to be exact.

Those fingers can be sandwiched between the racket and the held ball.

Different rackets have a different design of course. For me racket will have to be held a bit forward of what I am used to, with ball arranged a bit closer to the handle.

This could seem like too big a change but probably isn't. I can see how part of the racket, the base of the bifurcated part, can rest partially on the ball.

Whatever the other changes, the "ice cream cone" now is formed right in the beginning, not during the action as before.

[bottle]

One Can Attend Seniors Day at the Detroit Zoo to Hear the Keepers Discuss Senior Animals

So what if it's raining. I'll just receive more of the attention.

[bottle]

It is not just Any Bolo Bunch that is so Transferable to Tennis

It is this guy's bolo punch, maybe not even the bolo punch of Kid Gavilan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBVgDc8TXnk).

Set up immediately in the one power position for the two primary forehands.

One uses one's mondo in one's manifestation of the video-taped stroke. Another way of putting this is that one includes the flip one already has.

The mondo or flip however is only for flat shots in my view.

For shots with more topspin to them I favor relaxed fingers to begin with and a retained flat wrist along with determination never to hit through the ball same as on a serve.

The accumulated energy, i.e., imminent racket work is all directed past the ball to the right of it for a right-hander.

The bolo puncher's last instant added modicum of turn back of his shoulders is especially well suited for creation of the necessary angle.

And a unique sequence of arm straightening (while shoulders are still winding back) then shoulder bowling down then arm declaring its independence then arm rolling PAST not THROUGH the ball.

We are told that an independently lifting arm can combine with one's windshield wiper to generate more topspin but I have worked on enough old cars to believe this cannot be true. At the base of any windshield wiper there is a corrugated nub (your arm) against which the racket (the wiper) is set at a right angle.

This has to slow down one's potential racket head speed.

If wrist remains straight for a rasping contact the racket can turn faster and in a different direction past the ball.

That saves one's body to provide weight or not.

[bottle]

Don't Band Penguins and Tennis Players

You can tell, I guess, that I've been to the Detroit Zoo to the "Penguinarium," so named by Anne Parsons, CEO of the DSO (Detroit Symphony Orchestra).

It is an incredible display that includes along with a large number of penguins in all parts of an intricate habitat a wrap around film that puts one on the deck of Ernest Shackleton's ship The Endurance in 50-foot waves.

Some of the small penguins seem to like to slide along the glass that separates them from the largest crowd thus putting them at eye level with small children.

A lot of these penguins however have red bands at the base of their flippers.

Here's an article on banded penguins (https://www.theguardian.com/science/.../2011/jan/14/1).

[bottle]

To Try: a straight wrist topspun forehand with Ziegenfussian delay of forward bod rotation.

If you love design experiments as I do you will seldom turn down the chance to reverse bod to arm sequence whenever you have come up with a new stroke.

You don't have to stay with the reversal but you do owe it to yourself to try it.

How the experiment will work: One will start with same wind up as for the other bolo punch forehands.

But, after the added take back of shoulders while arm extends downward one will delay the shoulders from performing their forward rotation.

Shot will be all arm in the middle.

Then shoulders will chime in to give the follow-through more room in which to go.

At that point you will roll the arm while tightening the fingers.

With the energy of this most likely to take racket past the ball rather than through it.

[bottle]

One great thing about the way Vic Braden taught serving is that it gives players a second option for creating a long runway.

The two options as I see them are vertical dimension and horizontal dimension runways.

Some servers like John McEnroe and Pete Sampras are able to combine both options in every serve.

Players who can't get racket low enough however can still get it around enough.

And still will use some verticality in the upward administration of this serve.

[bottle]

Roll Toss Hand a Little as Racket Goes Back

This makes ice cream or Hungarian hot dog less likely to fall out of its cone.

And frees subsequent elbow separation from encumbering adjustment.

And gets hands moving in same direction to start the serve.

Left hand moves a little-- no more than the bit caused by its slight roll.

The closed right hand meanwhile moves quite far quite fast as arm straightens to give level racket trajectory a square shape.

Next comes the slow rhythmic separation caused by upper chest thrusting out.

One can minimize initial arm travel by starting from turned around stance. Racket can start from behind base line.

The independent arm travel will then be roughly matched by the subsequent arm travel caused by the organic feeling elbow separation.

All this happens before the toss, which happens in turn with backward body wind (long "i" as in Long Island).

Note: When miming without racket the rhythm of this serve make sure to preserve the static hand separation that occurs when racket is resting on the ball. This arrangement need not change from past years.

[bottle]

The Same Murderous Intent that Allows this Body Punch to Work Allows my New Serve to Work.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBVgDc8TXnk)

The boxer wants to put a hurt on the punching bag. So even though his shoulders are in good position, he turns them back a little more while using the force of that to start his bolo.

In the new serve the shoulders are in only fair position for beginning of the toss.

The new serve also employs a last instant supernumerary shoulders turn as part of the force of the toss.

Similarly, shoulders wind back and release with nothing in between.

[bottle]

Progression

We start today with substitute teaching from which I extrapolate a valuable lesson that applies to the new motion I used to hold serve every time last night except for once at the very end of the two hours when I was bone tired and the just fabricated thing finally began to unravel.

I started serving with both hands held high-- and didn't serve at all during the hour of cardio that preceded the social doubles.

The cardio or warm-up drill included an old Australian friend who volleys like a dream.

"I loved where you were standing," I said afterward. "Farther back than most players. And you were getting a lot of balls."

"I have long arms so I figure why not. It gives me more reaction time. I get ready and pretty much can reach everything with one step."

To make sure I understood he repeated every word of this-- a very good example of effective substitute teaching although the regular teacher did her job well too.

In real substitute teaching the day before, I found myself at a distant Montessori school in west Detroit where the teachers were requiring fourth and fifth graders to memorize poems.

Some of the kids didn't have the family background that would enable them to do this or hadn't been able to do it yet.

The successful ones however were grateful for a fresh audience and recited for me one by one.

Everything in teaching is about encouragement.

Many more people could participate.

And I in turn was encouraged to depart from all the printed sub plans and ask the teacher's aide in the room if it would be all right if I stopped everything and read out loud.

"By all means," she said.

So I read a bunch of poems from the current Caroline Kennedy assembled best seller including "If" by Rudyard Kipling.

In the hallway coming back from recess a teacher whom I obviously didn't know said the kids from my class were all talking about my reading.

So I repeated the same approach after lunch.

The poetry went over again but not as well. The teacher's aide was gone and this was a tougher group.

Still, my aggressive reading established me on a different level of guest teaching for them, and so, later, when they were supposed to be doing their work but weren't, I seized a provided drumstick and beat on the chimes that lay on the regular teacher's desk.

The class became silent.

"Why did I do that?" "Because we were talking?" "Nope." "Because we weren't putting the books back on the shelves?" "Nope." "Because some of us were fixing each other's hair? And some were up out of their seats shadow boxing?" "Nope."

They stared at me.

"Because it's fun!!!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The serve in actual competition didn't like the beginning level I chose for it. So I started from a bit lower. And last night received subliminal messaging in my sleep.

"Why do you have to roll your toss arm?" asked the voice of my new serve. "Why don't you just get your hand cone aimed right in wait position? And why do you have to divide the take back into independent arm and upper chest arching of elbows away from one another? Do it all at once!"

The toss elbow will naturally go out a very small but rhythmic amount.

The combined independent arm and upper core involvement will get everything up to shoulder level and way back.

The toss will have more time to arc downward before I scrape it.

But a person needs to say important stuff more than once. An arm going back level and straightening from beneath shoulder gets up to shoulder if one is committed to getting it all the way back.

Also, continue to start the serve with independent arm movement kept deliberate and smooth but very soon let the elbow separation from upper core chime in.

[bottle]

How Little can one Raise Racket Tip in a Bolo Punch Forehand?

This forehand contains a mondo, but a mondo in an extended sense.

Most mondoes are simple flips in which wrist lays back while forearm turns down.

The mondo is a passive act caused by primary body parts that are stockier than forearm or wrist.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBVgDc8TXnk)

In a bolo punch forehand, entirely based on that guy's sockdolager into his opponent's gut however the mondo is best performed as simultaneous adjunct to the whole arm turning inside out.

One could say this arm transformation is a loop albeit a power loop and not a passive one.

So how low should racket tip be to start its whirl?

Experiment, experiment. And report back.

[bottle]

From Low to High or Level to High or Down to Up but in a Completely Different Way?

I am trying to skip one week in the development of this serve.

The "from low to high" version became very comfortable and consistent but didn't always produce serves as crisp as I want.

"Level to high," though a bit less smooth, was promising and enabled me to hold serve for most of a long evening.

But if I were just slightly off-level, i.e., kept butt protruded toward rear fence through the entire pre-toss phase, the earlier separation of the elbows would take toss arm down just a little to create a slightly longer motion up.

Since my toss is ice cream cone from a bent arm, I will be interested in having hand to elbow cover the low end four-inch slightly downward tract like a golf club cutter that doesn't turn just then.

[bottle]

Time to Combine Eight Different Instructional Sources on the Subject of Volleys

1) Turn an old racket into a butterfly net. One can either do that or imagine it (cheaper and simpler). Either way you will catch rather than punch balls in your dreams.

2) Simulate catching of balls in the butterfly net by starting each volley with bottom three fingers relaxed. Tighten those fingers while opening the strings to catch the ball. The combined action shortens the volley, applies controlling spin, determines direction of the shot. It is the "kernel" of the shot, the sine qua non (https://www.google.com/search?q=sine...hrome&ie=UTF-8),

3) Take balls a bit more to the side rather than way out front.

4) Use a composite grip like John McEnroe for all volleys. This grip is half way between continental and eastern forehand. Keep wrist straight.

5) Practice one step volleys if you are tall or have long arms.

6) Stop distinguishing between blocked and "sticked" volleys. They all are solid if one blends the mechanics of catching or blocking with that of driving lower edge of opening frame while tightening the bottom three fingers which brings the racket tip slightly around. This is a more specifically focused instruction than the old "You tell the ball what to do. It doesn't tell you what to do."

7) Enjoy the facility that the new "kernel" gives you. You can hit forceless volleys that dribble. You can angle the ball off the court by using speed of the oncoming shot. You can supply your own power through transferring body weight. You can be on front foot and restrain any use of body weight so long as you are as solid as the flying buttress at the bottom of a cathedral.

8) Hit volleys against a bangboard which is how Pancho Segura learned his. How many can you keep going? (None in my case until I recently learned my "kernel" at the age of 78.) Later, like Segura, use the bangboard to force yourself to move and stretch to wide balls yet still keep the rat-a-tat-tat-tat.

[bottle]

Am Now Willing to Return to the Conventionality of Straight Arm Toss in the Serve and Laid Back Wrist for a Windshield Wipered Forehand.

It is precisely because I don't know anything that I perform so many experiments.

The difference in the straight arm toss will derive from the forward ramplike shallowness with which it goes down. The toss hand may roll in either or neither direction at the same time.

The difference in the wipered forehand comes at the beginning of its bolo punch. One advantage of taking one's forehand from boxing is that the boxer does not carry a racket. The experimenter therefore must invent his own racket work to go with the boxer's handiwork.

To that end I have returned to an old experiment in which I first send the racket tip down rather than up.

Racket tip goes down in conjunction with the boxer's supernumerary wind back of his shoulders. Hand like his rises one or two inches at the same time.

[bottle]

Bolo Punch Forehand: Simulate the Shoulders Turn that Players Achieve when they Keep Opposite Hand on the Racket

Spray both hands a bit while letting them stay at level of wait position as a way of doing this.

However much or little you turned your shoulders, the opposite hand is going to point across more and the shoulders are going to turn around more.

This is the supernumerary shoulders turn that one can see so clearly in our model of a bolo punch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBVgDc8TXnk).

As this supernumerary turn happens the arm is still bent but with the racket tip turning under.

https://www.google.com/search?q=supe...hrome&ie=UTF-8