A New Year's Serve

[bottle]

Sanskrit and Swahili 101

ha = hit arm

ta = toss arm

If you cannot grasp this distinction, you'll never have a good serve.

But keep ha up once you get it up. If your psycho-physio system, conditioned to down together up together serves, gets any whiff of ta going down, ha is apt to go down as much as two feet, hence casting you back into bad habit. A Leni Riefenstahl like triumph of the will is required.

Made a movie not yet ready for prime time because of this defect.

New snow closing in threatens the production of a better such movie tomorrow.

[bottle]

Banned in Sweden (no kidding!)

(http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-...oll-baby-kazan)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gBX1znpd3k)

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

[bottle]

Pancho Segura to the Rescue

No down together up together for him. His ha and his ta (in alphabetical order) went in opposite direction, and I can use this formula for my own special need of getting my elbow extra high even in a probation serve.

My elbow can wait high (the probation). But it can rise even higher as my ta goes down.

The move can be cued by forearm parallelism to the court.

Wait position: forearm parallel to court.

Higher position: forearm parallel to court.

Longbow position: forearm tilts from bod re-arrangement alone but still feels parallel to court.

Leg drive and torso twist with full bod extension all the way up to the ball then = 1) an elbow snap-down combined with some ESR which 2) spills over to sweep racket tip rightward and 3) elbow snap-up that naturally stops to passively straighten the arm.

Snick longer with leading edge.

If elbow snap-down (motion dependent) added power to the serve, elbow snap-up (a muscular investment by you) can too.

Hit some serves on the leading edge (purposeful mishits).

What's the point of frequent service sessions if you don't keep your edge?

[bottle]

Lesson Acquired in Old Age

I bring attention to Chris Lewit's general principle gleaned from Spanish tennis. Hitting with one or two feet off the court combined with a prolonged hip turn creates a parabolic and more effective racket path than one that goes straight.

One thinks of the lifetime of thought that used to go toward inside out swing paths in golf and wood racket tennis forehands, how it always had to do with clearing the body and turning the hip.

Apparently, the same principle applies when one gets one foot or more off of the court only more so.

[bottle]

The Difference between Brian Gordon and All Other Teaching Pros as Far as I can Determine

The others all say experiment less. Brian says experiment more.

[bottle]

Probation Serves

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

[bottle]

Tennis Persons Who Stare out of the Screen and Just Talk to You

Brent Abel and Jeffrey Jacklitch have been doing it lately, so too Chris Lewit but at a different level in that he might include his kids and his dog in the presentation and then also give you miles of free video in which he's doing one-on-one instruction with a young prodigy.

I defy anyone to watch with full attention such a session with Lewit and not be affected by it in some unforeseen way. It is a bit like watching Brian Gordon with his young students-- that has affected virtually everyone who subscribes to Tennis Player.

The great instructors can have great effect in direct proportion to how simple and straightforward and immediate they decide to be.

But of course in the age of the selfie phone it's too easy to put out video. I myself have enjoyed staring into my phone while waving my arms about.

And everything is in flux; I understand that. What's free now may come with a price later. I don't care-- I'm enjoying the flux; e.g., from other video and written material I thought the one-hander Lewit was teaching was too elaborate for me to handle.

But as I watched a young teenager hitting it over and over (and running around a cone) just a few weeks after having acquired that stroke, I wanted to lengthen both ends of my own tract (at 79 years of age)-- very counter-intuitive.

Suddenly I was getting around on the ball as never before.

[bottle]

Probation Serves

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

What does it mean to whip the arm around the bod as Tilden among others advised? People who think too much in compartments may tend to look too much for some kind of sequence-- bod before arm, arm before bod, leg before knees and hips, etc. with kinetic chain as usual the big villain. Not that kinetic chain isn't a wondrous formula. It just happens to screw up anybody who falls into the trap of thinking consciously about it.

How about keeping arm whip and torso twist simultaneous as Dennis did in these great videos, with whatever thought we dare apply kept on the "cue level." Discovering best ratio of one speed to the other then becomes the challenge, especially if you were listening when Dennis told you that everybody opens their shoulders too soon.

Also notice that the more the arm rather than the bod brings the racket around the more it stays on edge even during the ISR essential to the form. While doing this I hit the first deuce court slice clean ace in a couple years. It must have landed halfway down the service line.

Next of course one must learn to do that all the time.

Note: Study the videos again to try to see arm predominance beginning even in backswing or in the case of the probations some throw like backward arm action happening just before the forward racket travel.

[bottle]

Reduce torso twist. Toss while gliding forward. Retain but subdue rock system. Lift bent elbow once on fifty-five degree angle. Get weight on rear foot.

I'm for supplanting ta's traditional downstroke with the rhythm of a glide forward. Glide and arms up then becomes reasonable sequence.

Accelerate ha. Have fun. These are little but well-placed serves. Work on best ratio between two speeds-- that of arm and that of torso twist.

In ad court, occasionally try down center to see if can run ball away from opponent. First choice however: two kinds of wide kick: 1) from triceptic extension, 2) from passive extension.

This planning is for the indoor tennis social tonight (doubles). Get the big hitters to misshit.

Note: Nobody does what they think as Stotty has been kind enough to point out. So fool around with the rocking and weight transfers to get something that feels reasonably right.

Play to win and don't film oneself for a while-- not unless one wants to become depressed.

Second Note: Brian Gordon teaches serves in which the arm extension is passive. Chris Lewit teaches topspin serves in which the triceps muscle is active. Is this just the crazy nature of reality?

[don_budge]

Oh please. It's getting to be too much. Could we please now cut it off?

Yeah...that's really rich bottle. Speak of cutting things off...what about this thread? Obviously it has outlived its usefulness by years. Droning on and on about yourself. No...it is a nice thing to pay a tribute to our fathers. Nobody cares for sure about this thread though. Except you. Self indulgence on an epic level. It's almost like watching a car accident. A very bad car accident.

But carry on...and on...and on.

[don_budge]

Yeah...that's really rich bottle. Speak of cutting things off...what about this thread? Obviously it has outlived its usefulness by years. Droning on and on about yourself. No...it is a nice thing to pay a tribute to our fathers. Nobody cares for sure about this thread though. Except you. Self indulgence on an epic level. It's almost like watching a car accident. A very bad car accident.

But carry on...and on...and on.

Yeah...I have to say that I happen to believe that Kyle's thread has been very uplifting for me personally and I cannot understand why you would object so viciously. Of course there are many things I don't understand about you and your ideas. But you sure take the liberty of expressing them.

[don_budge]

Yeah...I have to say that I happen to believe that Kyle's thread has been very uplifting for me personally and I cannot understand why you would object so viciously. Of course there are many things I don't understand about you and your ideas. But you sure take the liberty of expressing them.

It has been easy to ignore you...up to a point. This is the point. These nice fellows expressing their love and respect for their fathers is an honour to read about. But now I really must push back. Just a bit though. I really have no interest in arguing or engaging with you. Have just a little respect though. Just keep your mouth shut if you cannot say something decent about the decent efforts of other men.

[bottle]

Readers, what do you think about Chris Lewit's post today on a "new continental." At 79, I have to say I don't envision going with it although I certainly will try it. I love the "old continental" too much-- the grip I feather my best shots with. To be more specific it's Australian "composite" to use the Ellsworth Vines term. It's halfway between continental and eastern forehand, like John McEnroe, a universalist if ever there was one.

But I've been watching the free videos at Chris's "prodigy-maker" site and was already quite taken with the one hand backhand. I just needed to see it being hit a whole lot of times to be sold enough to give it a try. Which I did with a flying grip change to mimic the weird inside look to the beginning of every one of these extremely loopy shots (that is not meant to be a pejorative, one of the spelling words Chris has assigned to his national spelling bee aspiring daughter).

Finally, I'd just like to say in defense of this thread, which has been attacked countless times before, usually by the same little cadre of intolerance: a very good man, Rosheem, suggested I end it at least ten years ago and I thought about that.

The reason I didn't and don't is, that, contrary to what has just been asserted, it is not about myself but about a true search which any of my regular partners could tell you is not only genuine but has, as Phil Picuri surmised, produced considerable improvement.

I feel that a post like Chris's today is very much about "search." And that the Brian Gordon articles and videos are about "search." And that 87 per cent of the posts in this forum are not about "search" but rather are "advertisements for self" and often of celebrity.

[don_budge]

Readers, what do you think about Chris Lewit's post today on a "new continental." At 79, I have to say I don't envision going with it although I certainly will try it. I love the "old continental" too much-- the grip I feather my best shots with. To be more specific it's Australian "composite" to use the Ellsworth Vines term. It's halfway between continental and eastern forehand, like John McEnroe, a universalist if ever there was one.

But I've been watching the free videos at Chris's "prodigy-maker" site and was already quite taken with the one hand backhand. I just needed to see it being hit a whole lot of times to be sold enough to give it a try. Which I did with a flying grip change to mimic the weird inside look to the beginning of every one of these extremely loopy shots (that is not meant to be a pejorative, one of the spelling words Chris has assigned to his national spelling bee aspiring daughter).

Finally, I'd just like to say in defense of this thread, which has been attacked countless times before, usually by the same little cadre of intolerance: a very good man, Rosheem, suggested I end it at least ten years ago and I thought about that.

The reason I didn't and don't is, that, contrary to what has just been asserted, it is not about myself but about a true search which any of my regular partners could tell you is not only genuine but has, as Phil Picuri surmised, produced considerable improvement.

I feel that a post like Chris's today is very much about "search." And that the Brian Gordon articles and videos are about "search." And that 87 per cent of the posts in this forum are not about "search" but rather are "advertisements for self" and often of celebrity.

Carry on...

[bottle]

Tract

BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
I will teach you my townspeople

how to perform a funeral —

for you have it over a troop

of artists—

unless one should scour the world —

you have the ground sense necessary.


See! the hearse leads.

I begin with a design for a hearse.

For Christ's sake not black —

nor white either — and not polished!

Let it be weathered — like a farm wagon —

with gilt wheels (this could be

applied fresh at small expense)

or no wheels at all:

a rough dray to drag over the ground.


Knock the glass out!

My God-glass, my townspeople!

For what purpose? Is it for the dead

to look out or for us to see

how well he is housed or to see

the flowers or the lack of them —

or what?

To keep the rain and snow from him?

He will have a heavier rain soon:

pebbles and dirt and what not.

Let there be no glass —

and no upholstery phew!

and no little brass rollers

and small easy wheels on the bottom —

my townspeople what are you thinking of?


A rough plain hearse then

with gilt wheels and no top at all.

On this the coffin lies

by its own weight.


No wreathes please —

especially no hot house flowers.

Some common memento is better,

something he prized and is known by:

his old clothes — a few books perhaps —

God knows what! You realize

how we are about these things

my townspeople —

something will be found — anything

even flowers if he had come to that.

So much for the hearse.


For heaven's sake though see to the driver!

Take off the silk hat! In fact

that's no place at all for him —

up there unceremoniously

dragging our friend out to his own dignity!

Bring him down — bring him down!

Low and inconspicuous! I'd not have him ride

on the wagon at all — damn him —

the undertaker's understrapper!

Let him hold the reins

and walk at the side

and inconspicuously too!


Then briefly as to yourselves:

Walk behind — as they do in France,

seventh class, or if you ride

Hell take curtains! Go with some show

of inconvenience; sit openly —

to the weather as to grief.

Or do you think you can shut grief in?

What — from us? We who have perhaps

nothing to lose? Share with us

share with us — it will be money

in your pockets.

Go now

I think you are ready.