A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

The Arm Bends Completely before the Elbow Starts to Screw

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...r%20500fps.mp4)

[bottle]

A New Interpretation of Isner Serve Adduction that Allows an Imitator to Do One Less Thing Without Harm to his Upward Rotations

It's all about screwing. The arm completely bends, at which point the elbow begins to screw. It screws through low point and continues to screw for about half of the one tenth second zoom to the ball.

The shoulder adduction, in other words, just continues something one already was in the process of doing.

In no way does it interfere with ESR, EFR and wrist extension, the three-rotation sequence that marks the start of the one tenth second upward zing.

Just slow down the beginning of the screw by one nano-second to make everything happen where you want it.

[bottle]

Will the Blocks Fall Down?

I don't think so. Already I've hit some wide slice serves from the deuce court that were in a different league of depth, height, speed and break.

I'm not yet at the engineering stage but still am tweaking my blueprint.

Nobody squeezes their arm together as soon as John Isner. Certainly not Milos Raonic. He never squeezes it together anyplace, at least not here:

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...0240%20fps.mp4)

Does Isner's elbow also remain needled for longer than other servers who squeeze it together like him? Could be.

Key words from Brian Gordon, directed in general rather than to a specific serve, are to the effect that the abduction/adduction rotation of necessity must be extremely fast, and it goes "up" and "forward."

A sudden change of direction then must be taken into account.

Isner's compressed elbow does not continue up the edge of his bod as if he were doing a jumping jack.

It has been screwing up in that direction with smooth speed but now must jump with a turn.

For this purpose some available range of elbow lift must have been preserved.

I see the ESR, the EFR and the wrist extension as a single swirl to the right that now continues but in larger form.

The squeezed elbow smoothly keys upward while perpendicular to side fence.

Suddenly it jump-twists forward which multiplies torso twist in the same arc.

(https://www.tennisplayer.net/members...1%20500fps.mp4)

[bottle]

Isner Fully Bends Arm; Raonic Does Not Fully Bend Arm

~

[bottle]

Gadfly, Io, Io, Moo, Move it, Io

I was advised by the wife of a college president in Middletown, Connecticut more than half a century ago that my value as a journalist was as a gadfly.

So here goes. More insight please, tennis teaching establishment, on the differences in arm bend among different servers.

Also, please and double-please, could someone offer some meaningful discussion on the subject of different racket pitch at service address?

I've been waiting for that one for at least 20 years.

[bottle]

Edberg and McEnroe, Stockholm Kings of Tennis Just Five Years Ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs2MPHxAmxg

[stotty]

Edberg and McEnroe, Stockholm Kings of Tennis Just Five Years Ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs2MPHxAmxg

Terrific. Both men still volleying far better than most players today.

[bottle]

Come Together, Rotorded Servers. Needle! Give it a try. Milos Raonic won't but you could.

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

John Isner really does this. Why couldn't I see it before. And did somebody ever talk about it? Maybe a coach who helped John develop his serve? If so, I sure wasn't privy to the discussion. Or did John develop his serve all by himself the way Andy Roddick did? What is the history of the evolution of this remarkable thing-- Isner's tight little needle swing, anyways?

Isner gets the two halves of his arm pressed together rather early in his serve and then swings them as a single needle this way and that way and this way, but, most astonishlngly, it works!

[bottle]

Accelerate the Full Squeeze to Become a Viper about to Strike?

One will obtain one's needle sooner.

So that the needle will have more time to do tricks.

My drive to the netless court today will make this experiment very real.

I play with this serve for the second time, tomorrow morning.

Tried it against young Turks Friday night. Hadn't used a pinpoint in 25 years.

Held half the time.

Tomorrow I go with my regular geezers, Rich, Ron, Leon or maybe Tom-- each an old weasel eager to eat me up.

Am not going to let them do it.

In self-feed today, although it is cold enough so the balls won't bounce, I'll work on ratio.

Narragansett Bay didn't freeze. We didn't wait for much but preferred cold sunlight for slow water work since we didn't have ergometers and surely not an indoor tank.

We were under 18 strokes per minute compared to 40 on race day.

My sophomore year we went all the way down to 12 . And then briefly we rowed at 8 strokes per minute. Every error of all eight guys became perfectly magnified. When something is magnified you can fix it.

Throughout the beginning and middle winter we did four to one ratio-- sweeps in air for four beats, in water for one beat. (People sometimes still called oarsmen like us "sweepswingers" in those days.)

Here in my John Isner imitation the slow part may take two seconds-- how will I know? My hands will be too full to put a stopwatch on myself,

But make that the assumption: two seconds for slow part of the serve, one tenth of a second for quick part.

A ratio of 1 to 20 or reversed 20 to 1. Oars/sweeps in air for 20 beats. Oars in water for one beat.

Forget the follow through. It can take care of itself. But watch the way the huge Isner sticks his ta way out to the left for perfect landing and balance.

I'm about to present the guy who said, "I never met an oarsman I didn't like." But as Bill Stowe the stroke of a more recent Olympic gold medal crew said, "Yes, but he never met the Amlong brothers."

https://www.si.com/vault/1955/06/06/602152/mr-rowing

[bottle]

When you're a hermit swamped in papers with all kinds of projects going on you're apt to lose track of some schedule here or there.

I just checked. I'm not scheduled to play this week-- not on Tuesday not on Thursday. No play then until with young Turks Friday night inside at Eastside Detroit.

Good. More time to work on Isnerian serve. And I noticed today that even when it's too cold for tennis balls to bounce very much you can self-feed a backhand belonging in the Becker-- Edberg phylum.

You just have to toss the ball very high so it will go down and then make it back up to your waist.

Here's what I decided or learned-- much the same idea.

On Isnerian serve take your ta up to top of head on initial move whether Isner does that or not. (I just checked: He takes it quite a bit higher than that. Good-- try for higher tomorrow. That ought to get ball farther left over one's head after ta hooks to side.)

On Becker-Edberg steep and golfy backhand apply a bit of common sense to total orchestration.

Although one may have all sorts of slice to draw upon, try choosing the one closest to Becker-Edberg backhand topspin for now.

Stretch shoulder housing at top, in other words, still in slot but way back.

Could lead to very effective flat slice while doing away with any semblance of loop.

[bottle]

Arturo Hernandez, Jim McLennan and John Escher (Bottle) all Praising Tomaz Mencinger

Not that we are the only ones.

"It's very simple," says Ian Wilson, a player-friend of mine who spent two months studying the videos at "Feel Tennis" and trying to put them into effect.

"I don't know everything," Tomaz himself recently said.

But he knows a lot.

[bottle]

Everyone is Built Differently

And even though Pam Shriver's description of her trick shoulder is similar to mine of mine, if a quick-look anatomical wizard (say tennischiro) placed us shoulder to shoulder, he would note a huge difference that wasn't just political.

And might stress the difference in our tennis careers even pointing out that Pam's shoulder didn't cause her to write most of "A New Year's Serve."

[bottle]

When a Shoulder Stretches Backward it Raises the Elbow too

For purpose of sanity, i.e., to keep things clear, one could call this "stretching the elbow backward" and use the words "raising the elbow" to refer to something else, viz., number four or cleanup spot in the upward arm rotations.

[bottle]

Practical Prescription

A trip to netless court. Don't film yet.

Cross the bridge in one's Isnerian serve with whole bod cantilevering in two directions.

Right foot comes up to left foot.

Arm completely bends as knees bend a little more.

Legs fire as shoulder stretches backward to put more of the serve behind you.

This also preserves more range for upward forward thrust (fast!) of the needled elbow.

But shoulder must be extremely relaxed.

Did arm go back just far enough to clear the bod during the initial cantilevering?

Did one rockstep con brio to establish needed rhythm?

You spoke before, Bottle, of "screwing the elbow upward."

Not a bad idea.

But have you been doing this too soon?

Oppose leg thrust/cartwheel with stretching the shoulder BACK.

[bottle]

Imagined Conversation with the Other Geezers if This Stuff Works

"You shouldn't have given me a week off."