A New Year's Serve

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Is Pro Drop Position Reached in Furniture One here?

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...ice_serve.html)

Answer: No.

In furniture two, which is Pancho Gonzalez hitting a great wide slice serve? Answer: Yes.

In all the furnitures in the following two free videos, which you reach by giving Brent Abel your email address but why in the world WOULDN'T you? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YTAYswQqq8). Answer: No.

Brent Abel, who very recently won another age specific national title (seventies singles) slants his arm extension up to the right just the way that Dennis does even though Brent is hitting topspin serves in his videos and Dennis slices in his.

Neither comes close to pro drop position, which is really a matter of youthful flexibility more than anything else.

And yet both deliver extremely effective serves.

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Imbuing the Wrist with Snakier Feel

If you like me see a huge difference in your slices and topspin serves through just a slight increase in racket head speed you should knock yourself out to find the little thing that will effect this.

I tried to say an "effortless" thing but that is half true. We simply want more loose speed behind the back.

To that end I propose a snakier hit arm coil while holding the toss arm up.

Before (yesterday): Arm slowly bent. Upper arm did a small proportion of its ESR.

After (today): Those things still happen while wrist also slowly coils preparatory to the strike.

There are good servers who cock their wrist in the fast part of the serve. I will try to become one of them if the present experiment fails.

But consider the change both physical and mental I have just outlined. Did I remove manipulation from the incredibly fast assertive action precisely where one must have incredibly fast action?

The arm is now free to bend and unbend in a loose flash with not much else happening other than fast ESR during the bend part.

Well, how much does the arm bend to reach its fully squeezed position? Depends on where the coiling forearm points on the giant clock. I suggested two o'clock but that was just to begin: two-thirty? two forty-five? Three? One-thirty? Don't need to know. Only need to learn the where that works.

The subsequent squeeze and triceptic throw will be too quick to think about.

So does the change in hand direction at approximately the middle of the throw succeed in fooling all muscles that wanted to resist?

Two more proposed changes: No longer permit oneself to think about pronation, which is inward twist of the forearm. Just focus on internal twist from the humerus in the shoulder (ISR). And let this ISR passively straighten the wrist for the high-five if you still think there ought to be a high-five.

Me, I don't. A slap is a stop. How about a go?

Nothing to stop then especially the experiments. Imbue the wrist with feel. It even could open from beginning of the toss. Just don't ever confuse one arm with the other.

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When Should Wrist Open in a Fast-Action-Behind-the-Back Serve, Continued?

In furniture one it happens with hand high to start no pause transition from slow arm to fast arm-- no?

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...ice_serve.html)

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The Evolution of a Soft yet Highly Controlled Topspin Forehand Perfect for Hitting at the Feet of a Doubles Player Charging the Net.

It starts from other developmental shots. It probably will be good, in the future, for different specific situations as well. I'd like to try it for See Sees but will probably have to take time to work that purpose up in self-feed.

The shot is absolutely new since I only discovered it on Wednesday (it's Friday). On Monday I succeeded on a high pass down the alley off of a short ball. I could have stayed away from the net man but do I really like that much wisdom? That net man was looking to put away a volley but not a high one. Which is why I went high.

The mechanics were weird. A 243 on Welby Van Horn's big clock combined with the perverseness of an arm first bod-massage the ball second Ziegenfuss. (Valerie Ziegenfuss Cooper, back in the days when she was a playing pro, got the idea for the shot from a dude in a Texas bar.)

But I'm sure my version is different from anything Valerie would do. I started at 2, straightened to 4, scissored to 3 (contact) and bod-massaged the ball high down the line.

Tom Roberts, the cut-shot organizer of the SMTC (Grosse Pointe Senior Men's Tennis Club), was nursing a stiff shoulder so had nothing better to do than sit on a bench and watch.

"Oh my God," he said. "I suppose you're going to say you did that on purpose."

Yep.

A couple days later I thought, why ever remove such a shot from one's arsenal? But how about a related shot using more conventionally spread out transfer with hips ending parallel to net, with shoulders turned a bit beyond that, with racket face slightly canted toward left fence?

And a 253 instead of a 243? And the arm scissoring more fully both under and over the ball? Which will be taken way out front with no twist of the arm, i.e., no windshield wipe which one will save for one's straight arm Federfore?

A striking imitation of a Nautilus.

Small circle melding into big circle and therefore cochleate and more organic than a waterwheel.

With ball landing perfectly at the onrusher's feet.

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

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When Should Wrist Open in a Fast-Action-Behind-the-Back Serve, Continued?

In furniture one it happens with hand high to start no pause transition from slow arm to fast arm-- no?

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...ice_serve.html)

Starting with wrist like this is the quickest way to press the two halves of the arm together? Seems to conjure up a good brain impulse? Something about the way one threw a rock when one was a boy?

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Furniture One, Ralston

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...ice_serve.html

The toss is near the palm tree. The nose stays pointed at the palm tree until the moment the ball is hit. Then the body continues its rotation as it bows, turning and lowering the head as well. Since most athletic motion starts in its preceding phase it seems likely that ISR started from strings on ball (or a little before). But the main flattening out occurs after the ball is hit.

Try one where there is no ISR? Try one where there's early ISR to put strings flush on ball then carve to a paveloader finish?

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The Manufacture of Loose Motion for a Restricted Shoulder Person in a Serve that is Fantastically Quick behind the Back

I believe this is necessary in order to coordinate the conflict between leg and bod thrust on the one hand and racket lowering on the other.

What we demand is terribly fast and therefore difficult but perhaps can be done.

In the snakelike coil that occurs from ball release to ball acme and slight leftward curl-drop, one must refrain from any ESR (external rotation of the shoulder or more precisely of the humerus).

The arm should slightly bend. It shouldn't do anything else.

In the boyhood throw preparation consisting of wrist flipping open combined with two halves of arm pressing together, ESR shall similarly be prohibited.

In the vigorously scaled sidearm throw that initiates quick arm extension up to the ball, any ESR shall henceforth be STRICTLY PROHIBITED.

That leaves all ESR to happen between arm clench and sidearm throw no matter how quick all this action must be.

Note: A sidearm throw is a sidearm throw even when it goes almost straight upward.

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The Giant Clock of Welby Van Horn Gives One a Fighting Chance of Understanding any Forehand

The way to use it, I believe, is deliberately to reject all other use of clock faces in tennis thought.

We won't put flat clock faces on round balls, we won't put round clock faces there either, we won't use ground clocks for the purpose of arranging the feet, we won't even wear a watch.

But we will come up with triple digit numbers for each forehand, with first integer indicating height of backswing, second integer the shot's low point, third integer the contact point.

The shots we started out to identify were waist high 243's in which we then realized, once we agreed to think this way, the containment of scissoring preceded by arm extension just as in the powerful forehand of Tomas Berdych even though seen here in demure form.

The giant clock is a flat clock, something one draws or imagines on a flat bangboard directly in front of one.

Thus a failing Federfore or Nadalburger, among the very most difficult forehands to master, can immediately be taken to a veterinarian who specializes in tennis animals.

Dr. Chowski of Detroit's Chowski Animal Hospital, in evaluating a sick Federfore, may therefore recommend that it drink more water followed by the employment of more hip power to flow flat along the court before arm throw containing a windshield wipe continues to do the same thing.

Here, in numerical representation, we get a 343 instead of Roger Federer's 143-- with a chance then at least to save the animal.

To even go this far-- small progress indeed-- we will have to reject the tennis cliche that a Grigor Dimitrov forehand is a perfect replica of a Roger Federer forehand. There is a huge difference up top.

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Here was a tennis player who knew something about strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIE3CFNpZ5Y

And he was a lot nicer in this interview than generally cracked up to be, and in the 60 Minutes in the Catskills one as well that probably follows for you, reader, if you go with the links. During the 60 Minutes episode he thanks the producers for removing the birthday cake they brought in for him (Easy to imagine them talking among themselves: "Let's see how he reacts").

Who are the other persons at the table besides Fischer and Dick Cavett: Ralph Nader and who is the lady? Note the noise that each chess piece makes as Fischer sets it down.

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Forever

These experiments should continue forever. Something new every day.

I'm interested right now in a serve warning by Sidney Plagenhoef of too much straightening of arm.

Which could lead to this formula: ESR + arm straightening + ISR + arm straightening + arm shortening = a single, trainable moment.

On cue level you throw racket length to right then racket head to right.

"A sidearm throw is a sidearm throw even if it goes almost straight up."

But take these thoughts together and you may realize, that, because of second half or ISR-blended arm extension, the racket head will whirl to left of the ball before it whirls to the right.

And your deep set assumption that radius of whirligig during contact should be as short as possible may be wrong. Was Plagenhoef's enigmatic, non-detailed warning getting at this? That one might gain some topspin component with a slightly longer though shrinking radius?

"Mummy, I want to be a geometer when I grow up." (https://www.google.com/search?q=geom...hrome&ie=UTF-8)

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More Animal in the Arm Work

For serving, using ISR to bounce the ball from your side of the net to your opponent between points now makes more sense.

It's not how I return a ball to my opponent, but I can better understand those who do it that way.

And I need to do it as a simple but vigorous exercise using my entire formula of ESR+arm extension+ISR+arm extension+arm shortening = a single fluid move.

Except maybe for the high speed 1) boyhood stone throw windup and 2) ESR which come first before the rest of the unified animal move.

From your-side bounces hit off of a waist or chest high toss one can gradually move one's release higher and higher, not worrying about where the ball goes but enjoying the racket head speed and likely depth of shot.

At some point one should see slice. This may or may not be the exact way one wants to produce one's slice serves in a match.

A little higher or rather farther to left or probably just farther back one should start to see some topspin.

Note: I've started to notice, out on the internet, a few recent jeremiads directed at anyone's detailed focus on stroke technique. "Less talk," the thrust is. "Get out on the court and get bloodied."

I do, I do! Three times a week to be exact during the summer months. But maybe these critics have someone other than bottle in mind. (The doubles are on MWF. I do self-feed on TTHSat&Sun.)

What most helped my game this winter were weekly cardio sessions in which there was no time to think. But I noticed the same sessions didn't help the younger players, the big boppers, as much as they did me. That's because these young strong persons don't study enough. And as one of the teaching pros, a very nice person, pointed out, I, bottle, was winning most of the points.

Well, in a few sessions where I was feeling good that was true.

But listen, my old guy inventions are more apt to pare something useless away from a stroke rather than try to add any new element to it.

Finally, I think the various Jeremiahs ought to watch themselves. The last thing they want to do, if they are responsible teachers, is dampen anyone's enthusiasm.

And enthusiasm in tennis or any highly specialized subject, in my view, presupposes a lively interest and even fascination in every single aspect of it. I used to be a crew coach. So I can discuss the calipers used now to establish rigger elevation.

You don't believe me? Okay, here goes. "They're terrible. The old method where you popped in a shim or subtracted one from the bolt that connected the rigger to the hull was much simpler and better."

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Serve a Strand of Broccoli

It's good for you and should make a fine splat.

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Hip for Flip or Flip for Hip?

This seditious question begins with mastery of the careful, soft forehand which I call The Ziegenfuss, the goat's foot, the arm first bod second shot, that, in seeming to defy The Kinetic Chain and all other modern religions takes a loose tooth player and converts him to an overly consistent bore.

Well, I hit it exclusively a couple years when I was young, won some singles matches, produced one three-set epic in which my opponent's two sons, shortly to graduate from tennis college on Hilton Head and become teaching pros, hugged the sideline and coached their dad on to nip me in the final game with surprise kick serves.

A sad story but negligible when compared to the educational value of The Ziegenfuss.

Just how late can one's hips pivot through in tennis? Just when is one massaging the ball instead of hitting the hell out of it?

Mercer Beasley, Ellsworth Vines and even Don Budge could speak of using one's hips to dance onto one's front foot thus completing one's weight transfer and aim.

Narrow the frame, some modern coaches say. Give your shots a more vertical orientation.

No, broaden the frame, others say, which I will try today if the rain outside decides to stop after I vote.

A long pencil-thin loop, a 343 on Welby Van Horn's giant clock.

Wrist in neutral position, with arm straightening (first 3), bending and flipping and laying back the wrist but all from arm loop consolidating weight on the rear foot (level 2).

Now hips can do something instead of wasting themselves in the formation of some loop.

The hips-driven racket will move decisively forward rather than firing from rest (stupid physics-- another way I used to hit the ball when I was young and didn't know better).

Now one shall be balanced for what comes next. And will be balanced after one crosses the sagging bridge with arm again at level 3 or perhaps higher.

And the strings will have tick-tocked from right fence to left.

The hips first arm second sequence will have enough overall space to cooperate in sending the hand down the rails like Gerard Kitchen O'Neill's mass driver.

This is all I can do. The torso will have to have taken care of itself.

Summary: arm hips arm.

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Effortless Power Added on to the Other Things you do

If, like me, you believe that old men should not jump up in the air, and you either are an old man or planning to become one, now might be the perfect time to review the following basic of weight transfer as described in the book called SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER: WELBY VAN HORN AND HIS TENNIS TEACHING SYSTEM.

In a neutral stance forehand then, "The step of the front anchor foot starts the weight transfer." And,

"After the front/anchor foot has completed the step towards the net, the hips and shoulders start to rotate forward. The body is rotating around the front foot (in other words, the axis around which the body rotates is a line perpendicular to the court which runs through the front foot."

A pretty nifty and provocative thought eh? Almost as if the rear knee is screwing inward throughout the rotation to get closer to the front knee so both knees can press together toward the net for effortless added power just as you hit the ball and the front leg can stiffen for balance after that to finish things off.

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Why Did Tiny Tom Okker Stay Down So Much?

And if a tiny guy determined to stay down once made it to the final of the U.S. Open, shouldn't old big guys playing recreational tennis and trying not to hurt themselves also decide to stay down?

In a neutral stance forehand both knees rotate forward as the hips turn 90 degrees to transfer one's body weight from rear foot to front foot, right?

But the front foot is the axis, and one knee (the rear knee) rotates faster than the other one, right?

And both knees can bend throughout to put easy pressure on the ball, right?

And airborne tennis, despite its obvious advantages, is pretty insular when you consider all the players in the world who do well every day by maintaining the best connection with the ground they can think of.

I see further excitement in a cochleate swing that lets the arm gradually straighten and then gradually bends just a little to provide a modicum of extra mild topspin.

Excitement? Yes because the bend of arm and knees can be in tandem. Think of the commitment in this. "An arm and a leg." No, an arm and two legs!