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

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More Extreme: Accordion Lowering through Both Legs of the More Than Sign

Here is the more than sign (>). Why did we think we only wanted to lower during lower leg? So we could move the head and two eyes downward fast in order to miss the shot?

Why not start lowering of the bod from recognition through the entire > with the > representing all of one's downward racket work?

This seems much more like something our ancient friend Elaphe Vulpina would do (https://video.search.yahoo.com/video...=yhs-fh_lsonsw).

We bend the knees and take body angle from the hips at the same time. Could we be traveling meanwhile? Why not? That way there could be an even more spread out feeling of a descending elevator on the move if self-regard was good, or of a descending dumb-waiter if self-criticism was our mood (or mud to rhyme with good).

And so I am an accordion squeezing down. The temptation then is to open out while playing Alexander's Ragtime Band. Don't do this at least until the ball is gone.

A roll from forearm only combined with solidly connected hitting shoulder rolling down is all one needs to actually brush the ball upward. Yes, shoulder going down makes racket go up because of its position.

Or even greater than that (>) roll down the shoulder during the bottom leg of > which leaves only roll from the forearm to brush the ball upward.

It all sounds more complicated than it is. Minimize wrist layback as early as waiting position although there should be some. Minimize backward rotation of the shoulders during the upper leg of > although there should be some.

That leads to backward rotation of the shoulders during upper leg of > and forward rotation during the lower leg of >, a simple idea.

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Groucho Blub-Blub-Blub

Yes travel while gradually sinking lower and lower like Groucho Marx.

Think of the conning tower of a submarine with surface speed converting into underwater speed.

Blub-blub-- down we go. But does the strong upper body shift right? A good way to lose balance.

Does the butt shift left? Do both upper and lower body shift somewhat in opposite direction?

Does one even need to know the particulars? What version of (>) produces the lowest COG (center of gravity) and best balance and most streamlined body compression for the flick?

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Snake and Ants

Following Tom Avery's advice to think about two things only, we've got our cues for today's short angle, Elaphe Vulpinus (https://video.search.yahoo.com/video...=yhs-fh_lsonsw), and Terpsichore (an inner voice we like to hear).

For instance, so what do you think of me
They call me Terpsichore
I'm the goddess of song and dance
I put the ants in the dancers' pants.

The poem of course may make us think not of the tennis stroke we plan to hit but rather the red-haired movie actress Rita Hayworth, who at 26 years old played the part of Terpsichore and sang the above ditty in a film called DOWN TO EARTH.

Think not of Margarita Carmen Cansino (Rita Hayworth) nor explicate her stage name.

We must squelch the tendency since this is not free association time. On the contrary, we pour all energy into a single objective: A perfect crosscourt forehand short angle all zing and no weight hit from the deuce court in doubles off of an opponent's short slice serve out wide.

Again, we hit the ball short into the opponents' alley, but now we've gone too far, we've allowed the mind to wander from snake and poem.

For return to the sobering reality of DOWN TO EARTH we condense. Again and again we condense until we think only snake and ants.

Note: Nothing hayworth comes easy. You know this, reader, and so do I. We have to make decisions. Do we want to hit our short angle open, closed, neutral or semi-open? Do we even care to do the same thing twice?

We do. Semi-open allows us to pull the left foot up only a few inches sometimes or even not at all as in the replacement step of dance. This leaves left leg to act as outrigger to improve balance. And puts all focus on right leg going slowly down in two melded stages.

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Forearm Roll

I think I want to try a few John McEnroe forehand backswings (bowl down and up) now that I've learned to make the distinction between forearm only roll, probably like Guga, and upper arm roll like Roger.

This is not abandonment of the (>) configuration worked out in the writing of this book, just something else to try.

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Evidence

Thought I'd better back up my generality about Guga's forehand since the need for evidence is what I used to teach in writing classes, even when I taught in
prisons in Massachusetts. I could have been killed for that but wasn't.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/high_speed_archive/pro_men/gustavo_kuerten/gustavo_kuerten_v1/gustavo_kuerten_v1.html?GKFHWideFront-0193401-0001-001.mov

Note how Guga's elbow stays pointed down at contact even though he is cranking on the ball.

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Bowl-Back Short Angles, Cont'd

Short ball hanging high: Don't hit the short angle. Hit a broad angle with a McEnrueful or with what Peter Burwash called a "lolly" in TENNIS FOR LIFE-- two shots much the same in that they get crunched. Burwash wanted a beveled racket up higher than the ball. Me, I'm not sure about the beveled part. So long as I'm making these shots with composite grip I won't change. Arm presses down and in. Pivot then with handle of centered racket pointing into navel.

Short ball hanging medium high: Bowl-back preparation followed by arm swing parallel to court followed by forearm roll. In backward direction, the bowling racket went down and up, right? The higher it bowled the more closed it got. Then it was on a plateau (no further change of pitch therefore!). Then the forearm brushed strings up outer back of ball. Minimal turn of shoulders in either direction. All brush, little weight. A kind of fire-escape-on-industrial-building look to the entire shot-- up, level, up again. So ball had better be pretty high in the first place. If shot seems superb, one may wish to sink to manufacture the height in which to hit it.

Short ball lower than that: Hit reverse short angle instead, bowling forward as well as backward, but make sure to change grip first. Change grip by twisting racket into loosened hitting hand. That's the way to do it. Because we want arm to feel the same for varied forehands although hand of course will not feel the same since it is on a new part of the racket.

Short ball practically on court: Keep composite grip and cross ball from right to left to hit a deep approach down the line.

Note: Am putting (>)-configured crosscourt short angle on hold since won't have a chance to try it for some months. Still, am betting on this shot for acute angle from ball only a foot above the court.

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"Big Unit" Backswing

"Big Unit" is nickname for Randy Johnson, the dominant baseball pitcher.

His wind-up, it seems to me, looked as if a sidearm was coming but then melded into a more regular three-quarter overhead hurl.

The pattern of early squeezed arm behind oneself like Big Unit's is something I've been trying to apply to rotorded or physically limited point down serves.

But why can't one use the same counter-cocked arm configuration at body mid-line or out front?

A working premise of these shots is that the extensor muscle (triceps) has somehow become anesthetized and therefore can't work.

Another is that the arm is completely relaxed and therefore can centrifuge straight during two phases of conflicting rotation, i.e., external and internal for a serve, or internal and external for the forehand version.

If one uses immediate hand separation left hand can go up as bent arm goes down while its elbow twists up.

Now we have more upper arm twist available to us than before. The forward stroke maximizes twist in both directions with overlap in muscular impulse that produces some slowdown then extra racket head speed.

From a design standpoint I like left arm and right elbow going up together, then left hand coming down before it gets out of the way.

This shot feels good in the living room. Another short angle to try with the idea in mind of eventually choosing the best one.

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Get Crabby, Lobsterman

Do it with your claws. I'm thinking of a baby crab or a baby lobster, and one of the others nicked off a claw, which grew back but small.

Does that actually happen in nature? Whatever the case, we've got just a lobster now with one huge claw and one small or nonexistent one.

So, reader, you want to hit a sharply crosscourt short angle, and you just used The Big Unit windup. Very little turn of the shoulders in this case but some. Small claw up, big claw down (SIM).

Small claw comes down as big claw winds up. This leveling is the beginning of short angle success.

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Down and Up with Half-Mondo

New variation here. The idea is to assemble them all, covering every possibility. Something good just HAS to emerge if one makes this an important subject and never gives up on exploring it which is after all a lot of fun.

A simple down and up forehand backswing like John McEnroe's is perhaps easiest to manage in all tennisdom.

The trouble for a tall player is that this boldly bowled pattern may leave racket too high for what comes next.

On the other hand the best crosscourt short angle I ever hit in an actual match was performed exactly in this manner.

Racket went down and up like a traditional pendulum. Then it came forward level and around the ball before the decisive brush.

To that I now add half of a mondo or "flip." Cancel any part that suddenly lays back the wrist-- which can stay pretty straight. Retain the part that winds the racket tip down from the forearm. Thus the racket goes up while its tip stays low. This happens smoothly during rising part of the backswing rather than abruptly during the beginning of the foreswing. That way one can prepare early and be cooly deliberate rather than "hot" and avoid rushing the shot. Longer smoothness has also been added to forward and now lower level part.

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Strong Opinion

I do not want a big stupid loop for such a delicate shot. Others can spend decades training their normal loop for this shot and then call their loop brilliant.

To # 99 I add instruction. I have forehands in which arm rolls from the shoulder but this is not one of them.

Here the hand rolls from the forearm. So keep the elbow stable and pointed down through both rolls-- the smooth roll that goes backward and the quick brush that goes up the outside of the ball.

After contact, from the shoulder, let the elbow roll.

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Self-Feed and Hit to Your Own Side of the Net

Self-feed is a necessity for the strict quality of cute and acute cross-court forehand short angle that I seek.

You work on this shot and get it good enough to impress the passers by but then you're in a match. What happens?

You get the good chance to hit this shot and it goes in the correct direction but on barely too broad an angle and lands slightly out.

That may be the transition, the reality you have to work with.

So practice hitting the ball to a spot on your own side of the net. Then when you move to match play the shot should be just right.

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Two Speeds, Two Weights

This per usual is all about the sharpest of crosscourts, i.e., shots that fly along the net almost parallel to it.

Am not accumulating new shots for comparison and final choice right now but rather am still exploring the latest idea, my down and up with added down to transform the up into moderately low but level easement to my right.

That part, the backswing, reader, sounds complicated but is not. If it somehow confuses, please see my recent posts in this thread. A description sometimes will only work once.

All of these forehand short angles contain a soft section in the middle where racket slowly circles one's core.

For more weight, speed and longer flight path, do the soft section with arm alone. Shoulders can then chime in to add weight during the actual brush.

For less weight do the soft section with body alone leaving the forearm roll upward in its purest form of brush, a sharp but light shot.

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Arm Only

Now arm only, which begins paradoxically with a big turn of the shoulders. Opposite arm while pointing across can shoot upward on a slant to unblock view of the oncoming ball.

Slight shading toward backhand meant that racket was already in position. The arm makes exception to its fixity through allowing hitting thumb to rotate smoothly through two clock numbers. That takes care of the backswing.

Rest of the stroke: 1) Circle forward with arm. 2) Brush with forearm through contact. 3) Follow through by rotating elbow upward.

Let opposite arm remain where it went, way up in the air, the signature of the shot, but if anyone starts to read it, go behind them with a Manny Pacqiaou.

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS519US519&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=photos%20of%20manny%20pacquiao

http://www.tmz.com/2015/03/14/manny-pacquiao-home-buys-diddy-mansion-beverly-hills-house-photos/

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Reflections on an Arm Only Centenarian

Someone put a toy racket in Friborg Friendly's hand during his first year of life.

He grasped it with an uncommon strength which loosened the miniature handle in the place where it joined with the strings.

Then he tightened, loosened, tightened, loosened his little fingers.

He never walked onto a tennis court-- not for sixty years.

Then someone put a racket in his hand and said, "Come on, Fri, let's play tennis. Just try, Fri."

"I didn't know what to do. I'd seen tennis in a television set a couple of times," Friborg observed at his hundredth birthday.

We had a group. Fri wasn't much good at first, had to learn how to block a backhand, had a pitty-pat serve, was decent at the net.

But his forehand! It was a very effective short angle every time. We always put Fri on the deuce court side. Wouldn't matter where anyone else stood. Fri's forehand had no weight to it. It would spin softly in front of everybody never more than a foot from the net.

The shot looked like it came out of Fri's armpit. He was a great guy.

Note: Arm should be bent throughout for delicacy. You are right-handed, right? So line up the ball on a perpendicular from your right eye to the net. Like Fri, keep shoulder way back.

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Arm Only Shot Continues to Evolve and Transmogrify

The transmutations shall include:

1) A new name.

2) Conversion of straight down backswing into a full if miniaturized loop somewhat to the outside as Aunt Hepatitis said.

3) Theft of the very end of any forehand mondo for use in forward part of the loop.

4) Coordination of rise of opposite arm with loop and mondo bit.

5) Increase of thumb adjustment vs. unturning elbow from 2 to 3.5 number of numbers on a clock dial.

6) Self-feed in strict alternation with Manny Pacquiaos down the line. The rhythm shall be short cc, Manny, short cc, Manny, no shoulder, shoulder, rasp, punch.

7) The grip for both shots is diagonal (and bent) thumb firmly ensconced on 8.5 pointy ridge.

The new name of the arm only short cc shall be THE FLAG SHOT because of the way the left arm climbs toward the sky during a huge backward shoulder turn in all cases. Everybody on every side of any current issue always looks for comparison to Adolph Hitler so one more invocation of a "Heil Hitler" should not much matter. For the sake of gentleness however I recommend that the imaginary flag in one's left hand not be a swastika but rather the older but safer Jolly Roger-- a simple skull and crossbones appropriate to the Department of Homeland Security.

Under this black banner the arm-work circles round for the brush. Is it all loop or is there a modicum of forward swing? I cannot nor do I wish to say where one starts and the other leaves off.

Remember the strict alternation in self-feed with Manny Pacquiaos down the line. If you recall, reader, a main characteristic of the MP is fluttering of the left fingers to change it into a bar room sucker punch.

Technically, one could flutter all the time. The difference then would be that left arm slightly drops to begin the MP-- it stays up on the other hand to maintain flag position for a short cc springing from the armpit.