Short Angle: A Tennis Book, Simon and Schuster 2016, 504 Pages

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Tom Avery's Film

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb_Rch1MOUQ

Tom, like me, is not afraid to concentrate on this one shot. Here is a whole video devoted to short angle, which, although not the same as 904 pages, offers significant variation to and perhaps even refreshment of my own point of view.

Again, fear is not the way to go. Leave fear to warmongers, climate deniers, science disbelievers and ugly philistines, with their fear of work, fear of coping, fear of thought, fear of beauty and new experience of any kind. You like these people, reader? You can have them.

Tom's is a really good film. Note how Tom tells us never to think of more than two things at once while immediately giving us extra rumination. We need to interpret here: Yes, two points is the limit right while we are hitting the shot. But how about short angle overnights six per year spread over three decades? Is this not a great way to bring new information to the subject of short angle without gumming up the short angle works?

A bit of wrist to make a vertical incision in the air, Tom tells us, combined with special lowering of the back leg. We can start there. Why not? It's good advice.

But will this open up our composite grip too much? Will we have to abandon it? If so, no problem. We've got many grips in our 904 pages.

And what about Tom's contact point, so much more around toward his target? We, Mr. Karp, are determined to be pointing racket tip during contact every time at right net post no matter what. The racket length angle may alter, in turn affecting elbow placement and full body stance, but netpost is our lighthouse and our rock.

Reader, are you the publisher Mr. Karp? Not likely, but like him, I know you think, "Too much thought here. Can't possibly appeal to the large and lazy audience. Would I wish to inflict this extraneous idea on a tennis student? Never."

The answer to that is simple. Assign the subject to a netpost overnight two years down the road.

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Tom Avery

1) racket closed

2) racket squares

3) racket flicks.

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Addendum

Tom is a hell of an athlete, so turn off the sound and let his body speak.

Come up with more than two thinking points during a special overnight.

Front foot stays flat. Back knee slowly bends to low point. Hips turn is in tandem with this smooth taking of knee bend combined with lowering way down of racket head followed by body rise all before the flick.

Minimize normal shoulders turn on the backswing-- who needs it?

Personal: The more separation, i.e., the farther the racket is away from body toward right fence on the backswing, the more the racket face closes. One possibly therefore can even get away with a composite grip.

If not, this shall be my one shot hit with a classical eastern grip and thumb on diagonal on panel seven to preserve my whole thumb-marker-for-grip-change system.

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Shot Rhythm and Setting of the Wrist

What is the rhythm, sound turned off, of Tom Avery’s shot?

Or if not of his shot, the shot which Tom’s can inspire?

Shoulders turn, the lowering, the rising, the flick? Four counts then? I don’t think so.

Try instead shoulders turn, lowering and rising, then with a right leg kick-back stop the hips to flick the wrist—one two three.

Three counts—not four—are manageable in this courageous, go for it shot.

With forward hips rotation extending through both the dip and the rise all on one count.

Is Tom’s wrist straight or bent back during his flick, and if bent back, when did it get that way?

Bent back wrist creates a neat surgical incision in the air, like a straight line perforation in skim ice.

Straight wrist on the other hand splits energy between up the ball and through the ball—okay for certain shots but too wobbly and low percentage for this one.

Question: Are teaching pros linguists? Sometimes. Example: Welby Van Horn using the aeronautical word "banking." Note: All poets, even bad ones, are linguists although the opposite is not true. So, when the non-linguist teaching pro says “use your wrist,” does the tennis student understand what he means? Never.

So let’s play the Avery video sound off once again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb_Rch1MOUQ

How does Tom Avery use his wrist? He rolls his arm and probably his forearm to roll or flick his wrist, right? And that is why good one-half wrist layback is essential, to make a straight brush up back of the ball without altering square racket pitch and to maintain steady aim toward the target.

All personal forehand grip choices for me are composite, eastern or Federer, with bent and slanted thumb-- correspondingly-- on 7.5, 8 or 8.5 .

The bent and diagonal thumb is always the same limited distance up the racket.

The precise feel is of a pointer (the bent thumb) on a dial.

To accomplish this, two hands on racket are better, but could one find the desired placement with one hand? Absolutely.

Drill: Go through the different grips with two hands and then with one hand to see how small and easy the differences are. Often but not necessarily the change happens even before the next backswing. I contrast this with the old flying change method I finally rejected in favor of Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber although I don't know what Philipp does with his thumb and don't know whether he's read Der Struuwelpeter (all about what happens to little boys who suck their thumbs-- a quick-moving red-clad tailor with long hair and long scissors rushes into the room and lops them off).

First trial will be the Federerian 8.5 but with the McEnrueful pendulum since pendulum is the backswing I most often use in my normal forehand game.

Another difference from normal will be the mondo or flip I use when hitting a (looped) Federfore.

A further abbreviation I'll choose to go along with the modified three-count cadence is no turn of racket head to the inside and up after the first down and up to outside.

Again, I'm trying to get at something worked out on the court. The most provocative feature may be the grip change system I have implemented in the past year, departure as I suggested-- a mild twiddle using both hands to place thumb on 7 (topspin backhand), 7.5, 8 or 8.5 .

From there it's not a big deal to try 8.5 with the pendulum and other novel forehand combinations.

Past year's pendulum habit will dictate a slightly bent arm through the down and up backswing. But the slight bit of possible straightening left over will get squeezed out during the dip and rise.

Shoulders turn shall be smaller than normal McEnrueful and designed only for maximum comfort.

Reader, if you dare to try this, don't forget the possible kick-back.

In a sense, this shot is nothing more or less than a flip and a flick and all gravery I mean Tom Avery.

Addendum: Whether simple or unbelievably complex (I won't care which once I've grooved the shot and don't need to know the difference), this shot may spawn another, a reverse short angle to opposite tee.

In that case the mondo-flip lays back the wrist a bit more.

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Final Note (Perhaps) on the Remarkable Tom Avery Video

The man's voice tells us to concentrate on two things only: lowering of right leg and use of the wrist.

So turn off the voice. Now the man's body tells us to try kicking back with the right leg as wrist does its thing.

Also, there is a lot of right wing banking down but almost none up until after the ball is gone.

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Sit and Hit on Steroids

To say that the 904-page shot evolving here is an example of Vic Braden's sit and hit would not go far enough.

In the old TENNIS FOR THE FUTURE, the best by far of Vic's books, one dropped the racket, i.e., lowered it while settling one's butt onto a real or imaginary chair and stepping out.

Body then performed a connected hit coming up.

The idea of starting arm movement coincident with hitting step in the special short angle proposed here is still present-- only the arm goes much farther than low point.

We are discussing the second of three beats.

1) is unit turn and any movement to ball or vice-versa or SIM. 2) is down and up to describe the body; front foot flat and rear foot pivoting up on toes to describe the hips; racket down and out front to describe the arm; mondo or flip to describe roll down and layback of wrist. 3) is vertical racket brush combined with optional kick-back with sole of rear foot toward the back fence.

Obviously 2) involves too many thoughts and words. Fine. Poor molten taffy, Gorilla Glue, or West System epoxy cement on the whole mess and let it harden and coalesce.

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Questioning the Central Assumption of All Tennis Players

"Don't think" is of course the central assumption.

But there have been tennis thinkers and tennis books willing to challenge that notion, e.g., TENNIS FOR THINKING PLAYERS by Chet Murphy and THINK TO WIN by Allen Fox.

But why restrict the question to tennis? Baseball, another hitting sport, produced LAU'S LAWS ON HITTING by Charley Lau Jr. as well as the earlier classic THE SCIENCE OF HITTING in which the numbers loving author Ted Williams estimates that hitting is 75 percent of the game.

Williams, after his own playing career, seems to have raised the batting average of every player he coached or encountered some by as much as a hundred points.

In tennis we shouldn't forget that Don Budge modeled his backhand on Ted Williams' swing.

I suspect that, had I known Ted Williams in person when he was alive, I would have found him overly abrasive. Regardless of that, he is superb as an athlete, author and scientist.

Ted Williams' science, like all science, is based on detail but is expansive enough to include home made homily such as "To be a good hitter one must practice one's hitting aside from playing baseball games." Another, in partial answer to why the batting averages were so high in a given era was that baseball teams did not fly but rather took 10-hour train rides that gave the players and coaches more time for conversation in which the most common topic was how to hit.

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Should One Crowd the Ball to Hit One's Short Angle?

My goal right now is to hit this shot like Tom Avery as much as possible except in using basic John McEnroe backswing combined with Roger Federer forehand grip.

In an ordinary McEnrueful, the down and up bowling goes slightly to the outside to allow space for rhythmic continuance inside and up.

Once one buys into the formula of closed racket to open to square in the forward stroke, one may wish to connect dots to a previously rejected idea.

Bowling in two directions close to the body closes racket rapidly behind one and opens racket rapidly in front of one. In an otherwise normal forehand this would lead to a scoop-- not good.

Here, though, one hits the ball with a rolling vertical brush. If one crowds the ball then, one shortens the distance to racket getting square, with the downside being that the racket tip doesn't get around as far.

One relies heavily then on hip and shoulders turn to establish the precise short angle aim.

For better or worse, I've been thinking about this a lot. That sounds like diary but isn't. It is more the psychological realization that one is hitting the ball in a way significantly different from one's normal habit.

Additionally, if one pauses at the top of one's backswing a tad more than usual, one can then get arm and body working together straight off. The arm work, neither an easy drop and rise nor an act of violence, becomes precisely as vigorous a bowling forward as the backswing was a bowling backward.

This is the supposition that always comes first. Don't know if I'll have the chance to try this shot in the doubles match scheduled to start in 20 minutes. Probably not. But if I do I'll report back.

[gzhpcu]

Is this a branch of "A New Year's Serve"?

[klacr]

My goal right now is to hit this shot like Tom Avery as much as possible except in using basic John McEnroe backswing combined with Roger Federer forehand grip.

In an ordinary McEnrueful, the down and up bowling goes slightly to the outside to allow space for rhythmic continuance inside and up.

Once one buys into the formula of closed racket to open to square in the forward stroke, one may wish to connect dots to a previously rejected idea.

Bowling in two directions close to the body closes racket rapidly behind one and opens racket rapidly in front of one. In an otherwise normal forehand this would lead to a scoop-- not good.

Here, though, one hits the ball with a rolling vertical brush. If one crowds the ball then, one shortens the distance to racket getting square, with the downside being that the racket tip doesn't get around as far.

One relies heavily then on hip and shoulders turn to establish the precise short angle aim.

For better or worse, I've been thinking about this a lot. That sounds like diary but isn't. It is more the psychological realization that one is hitting the ball in a way significantly different from one's normal habit.

Additionally, if one pauses at the top of one's backswing a tad more than usual, one can then get arm and body working together straight off. The arm work, neither an easy drop and rise nor an act of violence, becomes precisely as vigorous a bowling forward as the backswing was a bowling backward.

This is the supposition that always comes first. Don't know if I'll have the chance to try this shot in the doubles match scheduled to start in 20 minutes. Probably not. But if I do I'll report back.

Watch the seams of the ball. As it approaches, pick up on the outside seam. Try to make contact there. For down the line you can focus on the inside seam. Be careful with adjusting the whole technique for one simple shot. Too much to remember and duplicate at will, especially in pressure situations. The sharper the angle, the more outside the seams you need to brush. Play around with that for a while.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

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~

I hit two of them in the alley for clean winners from the deuce court. Still, this and some of the other strokes to which I'd added tweaks recently hadn't been practiced and weren't yet ready for primetime. Just part of the price of invention and no comment on soundness of conception.

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Watch the seams of the ball. As it approaches, pick up on the outside seam. Try to make contact there. For down the line you can focus on the inside seam. Be careful with adjusting the whole technique for one simple shot. Too much to remember and duplicate at will, especially in pressure situations. The sharper the angle, the more outside the seams you need to brush. Play around with that for a while.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

But this is good sense. You know I hate good sense. And I hate to just abandon huge swatches of time on experiments performed decades before. I kind of love it when the experiment just naturally rolls around again. I'm a romantic, I suppose, and therefore am addicted by the two short angles that were successful this a.m. against good competition. No one else tried that crazy a shot.

If I get smart (that too can go in cycles), I'll think about the one thing you describe and thanks.

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Is this a branch of "A New Year's Serve"?

It's all the same to me and totally interchangeable. Hop Swiss. Did you see the Hogarth painting "The Shrimp Girl?" One of my favorites. Who ever has captured the look of vacuousness that well? But I'm NOT being sexist and would marry her in a minute, especially if she had shrimp and mussels in her hat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shrimp_Girl

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A Different Pleasure Principle

Every time I play now, I come away with a bunch of new ideas in tennis technique. Some are good, some are terrible, some may be good in the future.

Well, I've conditioned myself to do this. The ideas come in the night or early in the morning.

Then I go out on the court and hit, say, a sensational short angle service return from the deuce court.

I am immediately hooked and shouldn't I be? I didn't have a dampener on my racket and so remember the unique 7:30 a.m. sound after we played for an hour. What did I do? What was different from my concept?

Why did the other three players have to view that shot as a freak occurrence never to be repeated when in fact I had walked (well, limped) around for a whole week miming it in advance?

I think I should try to perfect this shot to make it more repeatable, which most likely can happen if I glom it into my already existing stroke patterns.

But why such effort? For fun. But also as balance for negative experiments, such as the time several months ago when I was returning a weak serve from the ad court.

A doubles opponent picked off my Domenic Thiem imitation backhand at the net and I resolved never to try that long backswing shot again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02B2yBNdYZo

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Pygmalion in Reverse: Make a Bronze Sculpture of Tom About to Flick

Our commission is sufficient to cover initial photography for all 20 members of this class.

The student will have the option of stopping our existing YouTube video of Tom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb_Rch1MOUQ) or of providing more sophisticated videographic work.

The point is freeze-frame. Without freeze frame this project cannot exist.

Specifically, the stop-frame is of Tom about to flick. Anything more or less will disqualify the student from further respect and she or he will receive an "F."