Racket drop woes...

[gzhpcu]

Thanks for the good analysis don. Yes, I am fascinated with the Gonzales serve, and just serving relatively well doesn't do it for me - as you mentioned, the aesthetics of the serve is important to me (maybe because I have been a painter since the age of 5...)!

Just an aside: what do you think of the "praying mantis" position as an experiment?

another training session... am just stuck....
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=_4NZ8MGMFOs

I think, analyze, then the automatic pilot overrides everything...

[gzhpcu]

Here is another great sequence of Pancho's serve... sigh....

I tried doing the swing imitation without the ball... the drop is nothing to write home about, but better nonetheless...

[don_budge]

The Process...of Changing. Go Ask Alice...when she's ten feet tall.

I think, analyze, then the automatic pilot overrides everything...

I look, I feel...then I do it. I fuck up...I let it go...then I do it again. I feel some more. I let it go. I do it again. I repeat the process...letting go until it feels right.

Thinking and analyzing is the kiss of death here. It only serve to build tension. You must get out of your own way...you have to let go. Even your art work looks to be paint by numbers...everything is exactly thought out and plotted on the canvas to the point of being contrived. Very little inspiration or spiritual sense of perception or proportion. Let it go.

The fascination with big cats gives you just a glimmer of hope. The feline silky smoothness of big cat movement...one of the most breathtaking sensations in nature. Gonzales was a big cat spiritually. A panther. A mountain lion. Aztec shape shifter...the ferocity manifested itself in his competitive nature. This is why he is my model in my coaches paradigm in creating tennis players.

You will have to toss the dice. Bet it all on one pitch of the dice. Let it ride...and give up on the thinking analysis that has you paralyzed and trapped in your own body. Your serving soul is a prisoner to your brain...the logical side of you. Always change a losing game.

Look at the pictures...he is leaning backwards effortlessly and the racquet follows suit falling effortlessly with his body and soul. His spirit. The Ghost of Gonzales. But only after he had the patience to get to the point where to lean back makes perfect sense. Such relaxation. Such feline grace loading and coiling and ready to spring and unload on the victim...the tennis ball. This cat relies solely on instinct and feel. He watched, he felt, he did. Over and over...until it felt right. It felt so right he could bet his very life on it. Without a doubt. He had to get out of his own way...there was no option. Losing was not an option. Big cats are like that you know. Never a doubt...no hesitation. Calculations? Yes. But only subliminally...a primal force.

I suggest Ecstasy Therapy with a qualified therapist or a long weekend out in the desert with a Yaqui Indian administering Psychedelic Mushrooms to enable you to connect with your primal self. Or as a last resort call in good old don_budge. There are certain aspects of life that we cannot engage with in our normal civilized state of being. The question is...how do we get outside of ourself in order to get in touch with ourself?

Go ask Alice...when she's ten feet tall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y19n2_bdncw

and...Woodstock 1969

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl89g2SwMh4

White Rabbit...Jefferson Airplane

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all

Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call

And call Alice, when she was just small

When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low

Go ask Alice, I think she'll know

When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead
And the white knight is talking backwards
And the red queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head, feed your head

[don_budge]

The above post...

...was written a bit tongue in cheek...in order to jog the creative process.

[don_budge]

Frame #3...

Great sequence to see Pancho's lineup for his serve. I always tell my students that they should fall toward their target so their nose is pointing where the ball is going. I think I can see the center mark in the first two pictures, so I think he is serving to the deuce court. I tell my students to take a stance so a line through the toes, heels and knees points to the middle of the box (no telegraphing, please!).

It's also a great shot in pics 4 and 5 of how much internal rotation Pancho had and the fact that he got the racket shaft pointed down at the ground while his hand was stlll at shoulder level. Wonderful!

don

http://www.tennisplayer.net/bulletin/showthread.php?t=1777&highlight=gonzalez

Yeah...you betcha tennis_chiro. Frames 4 and 5 are beauties! In fact each frame is a story. Just wonderful!

I like frame #3...that trail of the ball leaving the racquet with all of the Gonzales energy pouring right into it. A metaphysical masterpiece...frame #3.

[gzhpcu]

Well don, while I agree on your analysis of tennis strokes, can't say I really agree on your other points...

As to art, yes, I am precise, I happen to be Virgo, ascendent Leo (and a lot of other characteristics, based on the placement of my natal planets in signs and houses, and their respective aspects with one another... yes, I am not only an engineer, but an experienced astrologer, of the Jung psychological school - Greene, Sasportas, Hand, Pottinger to name a few...), so I don't dig this abstract stuff, where a snotty person tries to explain to me what I should see...

Ecstasy therapy? You must be kidding right? Apart from astrology, I am not into either the Woodstock, or new Age stuff...

But thanks for the insights on tennis serve...


I tried doing the swing without the ball in front of my garage... the drop is nothing to write home about, but better nonetheless...

[gzhpcu]

Darn... I keep trying, but the racket drop is the same as it ever was... Same as February 2006 in your strokes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFCcWjAY2oM

P.S. Don't forget I am 69 years old, so maybe you can't teach an old dog new tricks...

[bobbyswift]

racket drop

You need to get a feeling for external rotation. It appears you are focused on racket position instead of trying to get forearm parallel to the sky. My recommendation is exercise for the shoulder with tubing to understand the feel of the movement.

[gzhpcu]

You need to get a feeling for external rotation. It appears you are focused on racket position instead of trying to get forearm parallel to the sky. My recommendation is exercise for the shoulder with tubing to understand the feel of the movement.

Thanks bobbyswift. Which excercise is that?

I also see that my palm is not down on the backswing. Need to correct that.

Should I consciously try to supinate more on the backswing?

I am looking for the silver bullet...

[gzhpcu]

Reading John's Serve series, I see I need to use my video camera in a different fashion: Hit a couple of serves, then look at the result. Keep playing with different "feelings" till I see improvement. Compliment the visual with the "body feeling". When a certain "feeling" delivers the right result on the video, then just reproduce the feeling...

[bobbyswift]

racket drop

It is interesting how you filmed pictures. It is the legs driving up that makes the racket go down. Maybe more focus on legs loading then driving than upper body. Shoulder exercises are tubing for rotator cuff prehab.

[gzhpcu]

The pictures are just static with arm movement only to see if I get a drop, it is the video you have to look at...

[bobbyswift]

racket drop

Sorry. I work with dartfish forty hours a week. What you are trying to achieve is a function of leg drive paired with back extension paired with working with exercise for the shoulder. It is hard to feel statically.

[GeoffWilliams]

you don't coil your shoulders, or hips. Your elbow is way too low and too tight to your body. Your racquet never drops at all. The motion is all arm and a stiff stopped arm at that. You need to do a circular shadow swing program, like Serena does at the net before her matches, or like Becker used to do. Ie, keep your elbow high and away from your body, as you swing your racquet in a circular motion, while bringing the frame towards your neck, and dropping it down, and then up again, keeping the elbow high the whole time and away from your body.

[gzhpcu]

Geoff, this is what I do in practicing the swing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd4W4UnLwCs

The drop occurs here, the moment I am on court, it doesn't...