A New Year's Serve

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Do I Repeat Myself?

I hope so. A repeating serve is the idea, no?

The tall body cartwheels. Torso twist happens second. They don't take place at the same time unless you want to hurt yourself.

The tall body catapults. One learns to launch off of rear foot. And to brake immediately with arm, leg and willpower, simultaneous.

The braking action is applied to the catapult, not to the torso twist. So imagine a steel bar across the mouth of the catapult? The arm of the catapult hits the bar. What the rock in the scoop doesn't kill the scoop does having broken off.

Jim McLennan's old idea that a ball machine with horizontal wheels squeezes the ball out is good if you understand that one wheel is ISR, the other torso twist, and they both happen after the catapult.

After "whip straight," i.e., passive arm extension too.

Is there internal bump of the bum back and shoulders forward to add to the force of the short range catapult as well? Yes if you understand this happens early and is small and the best catapults always had a bit of elasticity in their arm.

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Don Budge Throwback Backhand

Trying to hit this shot is fun. That one can do it somewhat tempts one away from one's hammered backhands, especially in doubles where the opportunity to hit full backhands of any type may be limited.

My idea is to streamline the DBBH and the hammered backhand at one and the same time. To sideways hammer, one can take racket mildly up to the inside and fashion a small loop consisting of two simultaneous elements only, 1) straightening of wrist and 2) slight raising of elbow. The little turtle shell loop thus produced is very much part of the backswing. It is not transition. The hammer motion is sudden.

Now there is no need-- most of the time-- for further cornering in this shot. The racket flies at ball on forearm hinged at the elbow. It continues to fly inside out from shoulder on the same line. Most cornering from the standpoint of desired aim took place when you flattened the wrist.

But suppose you want to go sharply crosscourt? How about hammering forearm farther to the side?! Such huge separation will get you used to the huge and confident separation needed for your DBBH.

The DBBH meanwhile with flat wrist all the way and early straightened arm loops to outside then only slightly back inside and down. The front leg fires to take you up in the air where not much force is necessary to pivot the bod. Needed force could come from a heavy racket swing-- a physically heavy old racket like Don Budge's or a light more modern racket which you fool into thinking it's heavy through a slow, deliberate, powerful arm swing.

If this shot works or even partially works, I see immediate implication for certain forehands.

Sure, kinetic chain is great, but how about saving hips for delayed effortless power in a more old fashioned way?

Driving up on front leg could unweight the bod.

Racket action-- outside inside and straight-- could turn the hips.

The idea of turning the unweighted bod with racket swing seems sound but a bit romantic too. To reinforce the romanticism with rebar I suggest a big step across (simultaneous) on both sides.

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Assumptions in the Don Budge Topspin Backhand Re-discovery Project

1) A type of topspin that is close to being flat and even slice

2) Open faced approach to ball

3) Rising rump as seen through a knothole by a college kid who hitchhiked to Detroit from Kalamazoo

4) Reversal of Vic Braden's attempt to mass-teach this backhand with a minimum of arm swing; reversal also from Vic's attempt to build a corresponding forehand that also carried a minimum of arm swing.

6) Substitution of big step across for internal hips rotation.

My friend Harry Constant, who played both against Vic and with Vic at Kalamazoo College when Harry was an alternate with the Hillsdale College tennis team, describes the bewilderment that he and his Hillsdale teammates felt when first encountering Vic's topspin. "Topspin?" Harry said. "What was that?"

An underappreciated aspect of the Budge brothers, in my view, is that they were gyros, inventors, crazy innovators just like Vic.

Don Budge's natural athleticism, his manners, his consistency, generosity and dapper elegance always gets the emphasis in the many accounts of him. But both brothers, Don and Lloyd, were inventors. And Don kept himself open to the invention of Tom Stow too.

The Hillsdale players weren't used to topspin. How used to topspin were players on the tour?

Nowadays we have multitudinous ways of producing topspin, in fact topspin is the norm.

So anyone who succeeds in producing a partial reconstruction of Don Budge's most famous shot is not going to use it to blow anyone away.

Still, in 2018, a Budge type backhand can be a solid and useful shot-- dapper and very elegant.

One can even hit it with a light if well balanced racket.

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Budge Backhand Imitation Iterations Continued

Eliminate the "down" of arms at beginning of the stroke. Just go from outside to inside while straightening arm with both hands on the racket.

Two-handed beginning to stroke seen as crucial.

Left arm pulls right arm then right arm pushes left arm with all this still in the backswing.

Does left arm straighten then bend as part of this? It does.

Does either arm get fully straight in the backswing?

Depends on respective length of one's arms but probably not.

Hitting arm can get straighter in what happens next adding to its force.

The gradual straightening of hitting arm happens late in backswing and early in foreswing both.

Start forward swing and knee extension and step across all at the same time.

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Hammered One Hand Backhand: Maximize Force through Abbreviation at Both Ends

Flatten wrist on bent arm on backswing. This to explore the hammered backhand recently taught in free division of D-Con.

So, what did elbow do? Did it rise? If it did, the racket opened while it closed if that makes sense. And the opening versus the closing shortened the backswing. (Elbow rose twisting but otherwise stayed in one place, didn't go back but did go toward side fence for more scope.)

So that's the backswing. Now, to hit the ball, hammer sideways, but once arm is straight roll it in place once again to shorten something, the follow through in this case.

Suspected report: A lot of zing (topspin) and pace.

Body has got to be good through being fully adapted to this small kernel of racket work of course. Any shot that is all arm is not good.

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Rise and Fall

Everything is second guess in evolution. If God got it right the first time there wouldn't be any need for further change. So add a bit of lift and fall to the previous iteration of imitation DBBH. That is what happens here. (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...l?DBBHRear.mov)

Note however: The rise occurs as racket draws to the inside. There is no rise as racket starts to the outside. From inside position it then drops and swings forward coincident with the leg elements.

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"Lob the Mabel" and be Theatrical about it

A basic Australian strategy for all doubles. As a right-handed deuce court specialist, I think little u-i should set up the lob with topspin angles and backhand underspun sidespins to same spot as short as possible in diagonal alley. While at it, come in to net and send first volley to exact same spot.

Some Australians would like to see you lob the Mabel 80 per cent of the time. Others would advise doing so off of all second serves.

But, assuming you are not Australian, you must work out the best mix of short angles, deep returns and Mabel lobs for yourself.

Which will vary according to different opponents and partners.

To hit each Mabel, fake the short angle first. To hit the short angle, fake the Mabel first. When you have done both things a few times, don't fake anything but just hit the shot. Then go back to the fakes and feint but don't faint.

[bottle]

What if you were fast approaching 79 with 80 close behind and were working on a Don Budge imitation backhand...

And this project was coming along better than all nine previous attempts (at 43, 53, 56, 58, 61, 63, 66, 69 and 74)...

And you noticed that the young Budge in this TP forehand # 1 (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...DBFHFront1.mov) employed a backswing with similar shape and rhythm...

And so you tried it in self-feed and discovered that your forehands were no less accurate than when...

You use a conventional loop as Don Budge himself did when he was older (forehands 2 and 3 in the same menu)...

Would you have the moxie to go with the earlier version that was more of a piece with the Budge backhand?

I don't know since I'm still in self-feed and won't play before Election Day...

But plan right now to use it for low shots while retaining the loop for higher versions.

[bottle]

Plan for Both Sides in DB Imitation Ground Strokes: Low Outside to High Inside then Hitting Drop

In early (young) DBFH video, striking pattern is a racket laid on court with stalk pointed at net, i.e., outside inside straight.

A loop that rises as racket works to outside next must come across slot before it descends.

If first move however is low the elbow will naturally rise and can imediately become stationary (though twisting).

One brain impulse gets racket in perfect position for what comes next: a pure hitting drop straight down as in many baseball swings (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...DBFHFront1.mov).

DBBH: Previous description of left hand pulling and right hand then pushing is possible but complicated.

I now opt for equal contribution from both hands. They guide racket low to outside then bend racket up to inside.

Same vertical drop now becomes immediately possible.

The two legs next work together. They just have different functions. (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...l?DBBHRear.mov)

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Keep Front Shoulder Down

That is something a very good teaching pro told me. But my best one hand backhands are delivered from level shoulders. And I observe, from video, that John McEnroe dips front shoulder to begin, levels it in the middle, lifts it at the end.

I defy anyone to defy any of this.

To run an experiment, I like to write it up before I perform it. By the time I've performed it, I'm on to thinking the things that other people think I ought to think, e.g., "Lob the Mabel."

Today with 10 balls in the pockets of my black overcoat for self-feed, I plan to keep my front shoulder down all the way for a blocked shot.

That means I will have dipped it in the backswing to lift the racket slightly behind me and somewhat out in the slot. The arm will proactively (muscularly) straighten and roll before both ends of the racket move out.

From same preparation, for topspin, I will similarly hammer down a gentle slope. But roll of the arm will be delayed so that it scrapes racket face sharply up. Which will be reinforced by a return of front shoulder to level and leg extension.

Unless I want more body weight to come through in which case front knee will stay bent and press toward net.

In none of these three strokes will there be early straightening of the arm combined with a Don Budge type of baseball batter's drop.

Furthermore, for the topspin, the elbow will commit to stay in one spot, twisting, not take off in mad flight.

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Three Common Signatures in Budge and McEnroe Backhands

1) Relaxed guide hand down by side

2) Jack-in-the-box characteristic (Don Budge). Jack-in-the-pulpit characteristic (John McEnroe). Send-off of one leg up and the other out.

3) Bent hitting arm at end of the follow through.

As a one hander, Budge with its early straightening and baseball batter's drop offers huge separation/scope. McEnroe meanwhile offers abbreviation everywhere. So there are huge differences. But let's stick with commonality and devise a course of action.

Relaxed guide hand down by side indicates that scapular retraction (the pressing of one's two shoulder-blades toward one another) occurred early. When it occurs late the two arms fly out straight and high.

Don Budge is tall and open as he bounds toward the ball in large increments (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...l?DBBHRear.mov). John McEnroe uses a plethora of mincing steps while keeping himself small and ensconced (https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...enterFront.mov).

To take pressure off Budge's sweeping long arm he bends it near end of the stroke. McEnroe meanwhile hammers sideways. Hammering, a combination of slight elbow movement and arm straightening when properly done is pro-active to state the obvious mildly. My friend Greg Robinson, a cabinet-maker, drives every nail all the way down with one whack.

Proceeding directly to prescription, we hammer sideways, i.e., level. Then elbow stays in one spot while it rolls strings sharply upward. The upwardness continues if one then lets the elbow bend again.

But how does scapular retraction fit in? Well, I love the timing unit of Budge's batting drop. And propose replacing it with a slight tug between the two hands. Which can be combined with slight movement from the outside if one believes that every one hander ought to contain a figure eight. The tugging engages the scapulae which then let go.

P.S. I can't try any of this until the indoor tennis social tonight. But my firm belief is that although the John McEnroe wrist structure is impossible for a mere mortal to imitate, one can put thumb on a diagonal across the back of the racket and keep wrist straight throughout. It's not what a lot of people do but so what? You heard me correctly: Use a Don Budge backhand grip to hit a John McEnroe type backhand.

The teaching pro Vince Eldridge wrote a tennis book, preface by George Plimpton, that advised an "ensconced" Jack-in-the-pulpit one hander like this. And John McEnroe certainly has a pulpit but I'm trying to suggest the word in a physical sense. A pulpit is high but sometimes enclosed and a bit homelike. Like Father Mapple's New Bedford pulpit in MOBY DICK with a rope ladder and all kinds of whaling stuff built in.

[bottle]

Self-Sabotage and Tap Hammer

"I hit my backhands better from level shoulders." That's what you said, Bottle. And why not believe it? Why mess with something that was working? And don't tug with hands against each other before you snap-separate them either. That's a questionable theory that can be especially disruptive.

So what was the agent of this self-awakening? A really great topspin forehand which an opponent had mastered and used to tear me apart.

No further litany of excuses, please. I don't care either that my team won. The lesson was about one hand topspin backhand.

Rx: Go to court with same 10 balls in black overcoat as last time when hit 30 topspin backhands in self-feed. In play the next morning did not miss one.

Try level-shouldered backhands in which everything is down or up with no transition of racket head keying downward between the two swings. The down and up, in fact, are both to be located in the foreswing.

Raising this question: To hammer well on the downstroke the elbow moves a little as it extends. So, hammer badly? Make this motion come all from the elbow as if you are tapping a nail into a wall on which to hang the schedule for your next doubles match?

That frees the recently loaded elbow to spring forward as it rolls the strings sharply upward.

It is the newfound sharpness of this rise that suggests the addition of another agent of levelness besides one's body weight oozing toward the net.

Does a spinning elbow that springs forward a little still qualify for the "KEEP THE ELBOW IN" admonition with which John McEnroe hit Greg Rusedski? Perhaps. At least the elbow, controlled, won't flail.

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DBBH as Mass-Produced by Vic Braden

https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...l?DBBHRear.mov

One can see Don Budge's chest open out: scapular retraction. And his body straighten and leave the ground: Alexander technique. And attainment of yardarm: minimized limb swing. And left leg rise and slowly cross for the smooth landing: external hips rotation. And slight closing of the racket: leg and back prying or rowing technique.

And then there is what Don Budge himself called it: an easy Ted Williams baseball swing.

Now, who in the world tried most to bottle this magic and mass-produce it? Vic Braden. Are we supposed to dismiss every technical idea Vic Braden ever had just because he dismissed a few of them himself in his old age?

How about his idea of a racket drop followed by a lift of the hips combined with smooth arm swing but as little as possible?

Nasty old Vic Seixas played Vic Braden and was not very charitable about this match when it came time to write it up in his awful autobiography.

Even Vic, however, allowed that Vic had a very good backhand (something that he, Vic, was famous for not having-- he just served and volleyed and hit approach shots all day and came into the net).

But Vic Braden's backhand was the core of his hugely impactful book TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE, was even the basis for the weird sit-and-hit forehands he espoused.

My question: how is Vic Braden's backhand, created for the masses, most different from the Don Budge original?

Answer: two hands to drop instead of one.

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Self-Sabotage and Tap Hammer

Try level-shouldered backhands in which everything is down or up with no transition of racket head keying downward between the two swings. The down and up, in fact, are both to be located in the foreswing.

Raising this question: To hammer well on the downstroke the elbow moves a little as it extends. So, hammer badly? Make this motion come all from the elbow as if you are tapping a nail into a wall on which to hang the schedule for your next doubles match?

That frees the recently loaded elbow to spring forward as it rolls the strings sharply upward.

It is the newfound sharpness of this rise that suggests the addition of another agent of levelness besides one's body weight oozing toward the net.

Does a spinning elbow that springs forward a little still qualify for the "KEEP THE ELBOW IN" admonition with which John McEnroe hit Greg Rusedski? Perhaps. At least the elbow, controlled, won't flail.

Add:

Significant delayed flashlighting of the racket butt as arm taps straight. Which means the racket head will come around toward the net in a tight arc with mucho leverage. As it rises. As it springs forward. But what about "dwell?" Nobody ever said this stuff wasn't complicated except for a few wrong persons who like to make a habit of being wrong about everything.

To sound more sympathetic toward them, I perhaps should say that extremely technical information in any field is rather apt to be slippery. In tennis, it seems, you might figure out what you want to do-- now you have a course of action at least. But when you try to figure out all the elements involved, you leave something out, something important.

And yet if you don't try for something along these lines, you are just parroting someone else's ideas. You want to find the best designs you can. But then you need more invention to make them your own. Ever talk to an engineer working with an architect? Even if you yourself are both, you've got to get these two professions to talk to each other.

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One distributes the Zen through three elements in other words, twirled racket rise, twirled racket wrench forward, elbow sling forward.

The bod meanwhile contributes horizontal weight or vertical lift or a bit of both.

The shot is a topspin backhand which can be improved by relegating the arm twist function to a specific pair of pressure points in one's hand.

Forehand (in my case): 1) locked intersection of middle finger beneath thumb; 2) tip of forefinger.

Backhand: 1) tip of thumb; 2) pinkie finger, with both contributing 50-50 to strings rise and strings going through.

The elbow sling contributes meanwhile to strings going through.

What is the best verb to describe the single action? Arthur Ashe used "sling."