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

[gzhpcu]

Bottle, I still don't get the difference between your two threads...

[bottle]

That's good. Perceptive. Except one's a short angle and the other a long angle. And as Donald Trump would point out, one has more hits than the other.

[gzhpcu]

And as Donald Trump would point out, one has more hits than the other.

But only because one was started a lot earlier...

[bottle]

True. I yield that debater's point. And I'll end Short Angle as soon as I master that shot to my satisfaction. The word "angle," however, has a meaning that I picked up from my first newspaper editor. And continued to honor when I became a writing teacher (as if writing can be taught). Teachers of the essay, say those working for George Soros in the city formerly known as Constantinople, spend considerable time and energy in teaching "angle," i.e., show foreign students preparing for graduate work in the United States how to limit a subject, although the current buzz-word of a verb seems to be "de-limit."

I'm not sure of the difference between "limit" and "de-limit" but I recognize the need to limit, to find an angle when a topic is complex which is all the time. "A New Year's Serve" is fairly focused as a topic, as reflected in its title, especially if new serves are loosely permitted to suggest additional strokes or any other significant departures in tennis. But "Short Angle" as topic is much more limited and focused than that.

Personally, I prefer A New Year's Serve as a thread because it seems more expansive and gives me more freedom to write what I like. But I adore Short Angle as a Zen-like effort to give me one certain shot that I crave, part of the doubles one-two taught by Luke Jensen: short crosscourt in the alley (from deuce court for the right hander) and a follow up volley to the exact same spot.

Pretty specific, no? Can you imagine a 600-page book all about that two-shot combination? I can, but of course, unlike you, I think I'll get there, will one day not too far in the future be able to hit that combo almost any time I want.

[bottle]

Alternate "Reverse Forehands" with Elbow Bend, Forearm Roll, Elbow Roll Sequence

If on successive self-feeds one assiduously alternates these two shots one should soon (better) appreciate the contribution of arm bend to either.

Maybe one will prove so adept at reverse forehand see see short angle that one will never use forearm roll and elbow roll again.

That would be a great simplification, and how can simplification be bad, but me, I don't think I will prove as adept as that. In the meantime I will play with the shot I practiced.

[bottle]

An Unexpected Form was The One that Worked Best

In the geezers' two-hour carousel today I only hit one good see see short angle. It's "see see" because it's something to behold and because see see stands for cc, which is the acronym for crosscourt.

My other methods for hitting the cc are in transitional disrepair. That doesn't mean I won't work through the transition since these shots are not just in disrepair but are in a promising stage of development.

The method I successfully used in competition today was my Keystone Pipeline, a lowering of racket tip followed by a circular pendulum of the shoulders backward and forward.

This shot in all its deep court placements was working well for me today and so I decided to hit it more and more rather than dilute it with anything else except for two or three McEnruefuls for clean, fast putaways.

There must be some sort of unconscious roll involved in my Keystone since this shot keeps coming down in the court.

For the see see I used the same formula only extended arm out front instead of out to side and reduced shoulders turn in both directions as well.

Was this a topspun shot or a flat bunt? To tell the truth I'm not sure right now since I wasn't observing very well, just was surprised and pleased at the rare result (server on the other side of the net didn't even get to it). And this certainly is a shot with a minimum of moving parts.

[bottle]

Cont'd

So I expect to explore it further in self-feed. Rather than try to imitate Martina Hingis, I shall go with this alternative at least for a while.

With all of my Keystone shots, I must admit, I've started concentrating on making takedown of the racket tip that starts the shot as smooth and deliberate as possible.

I see this as an Oscarian feeling for the ball, don't understand by now why the "feeling" has to be in a specific spot related to the contact about to happen. I see it rather as a timing beat that corresponds to what a majority of tennis players in the world do with their arm once their body is completely turned.

In delaying the shot instead of "whipping shoulders around" and then linking the backward and forward turns I've created a new paradigm for myself closer to my billiards shots.

In billiards, people speak of "pendulum" and mean a linear pendulum. But there are clocks with circular pendulums as well.

Reader, please forgive me for the home made nature of my current staple forehand.

It was created out of necessity, a need to keep up with my faux granddaughter Cate, a 10-year-old who has won three age specific tournaments in the UK since we arrived there for a summer visit.

Well, she lost two tournaments, also. Everybody at different levels wins and loses, right?

On backward body turn I started by stressing muscular straightening of the arm but I've stopped that. I just relax it and let it go where it wants.

Does it whirl straight? Does it stay a little bent, a lot bent? Does it use the Hingis sequence for administering see see spin, which is arm bend, forearm roll, whole or elbow roll?

I don't know. Perhaps this ignorance is how I was able to hit one spectacular see see yesterday morning in geezer tennis.

I think that happened once before where shot was hit with the same form. Two points make a straight line, no?

[bottle]

Delete One Moving Part from Keystone Plan

The moving part to be deleted is constriction of the arm at the elbow. Shot begins with keying down of racket tip to left. Shoulders then turn to right as bent arm extends to hitting length (still bent), which position it will hold until after contact.

To review with a little more information: 1) tip down, 2) shoulders turn with just enough independent and horizontal movement from arm to clear right hand away from left, 3) one turns shoulders toward ball while performing half mondo (wrist is straight, forearm cocks). Elbow travels around turning body to pass ahead of it. Forearm rolls strings up ball.

[bottle]

Right track, wrong timing. Combine items 1) and 2) to make a new 1).
The new 2) then includes turn of shoulders into shot along with some independent push of elbow also around toward the ball. The new 3) then consists of forearm roll and followthrough.

[bottle]

A Skim To Grab On To?

First Move inverts elbow while sliding it to side.

Second Move half mondoes due to change of direction of both the shoulders and the independent elbow.

Third Move cranks up the ball from the forearm. (The elbow stays pointed down during this vertical brush.)

Desired cue gloms into Second Move. It happens during second part of Second Move (sorry!). During first part of Second Move the half mondo occurs. During second part of Second Move the racket strings are therefore neither completely closed nor completely squared.

The kinesthetic cue: A splash stroke used to drive water into the chest of the coxs'n from the four-man position in an eight-oared crew.

One imagines a lake, river, salt water bay or Olympic rowing trench. One skims from the very top of its surface.

[bottle]

Arm Stability in The See See

Backward and forward, one rolls from the forearm in The See See. Backward and forward, one rolls from the shoulder in The Federfore.

These aren't rules of which there already are enough in tennis but rather likelihoods of hitting a successful shot.

Using the easy and lubricated pattern most recently described, one turns up the elbow and keeps it fixed and turned up with arm in a still bend through contact.

The precision that comes from arm stability is the goal.

Acute target placements also are brought about by this arm position. If hitting the ball into the net (doubtful but possible), go east, young man, in your grip. Conversely, if hitting the ball into the sky...

[bottle]

Next Iteration

# 236 did not work well in singles competition. But I hadn't played singles in more than five years-- just doubles ever since I moved to Michigan-- so perhaps the result was less than pure science.

Now I want to try something else. Clearly, there is more than one way to hit the see see, but there are countless ways that won't work more than once in a while.

Perhaps if I collated all of my different tries at this shot I would find some solid conclusions to illumine my way.

Actually though my experimentation is more primitive than that.

I tell the story of a particular see see and hope it then will work, i.e., will surpass all other tries in its repeatability.

"Changing anything (in tennis) takes a long time," my singles opponent observed in our postmortem conversation.

True.

And the search for this particular shot-- the see see-- will most likely conclude with a return to something tried earlier but with some stupid little change that will make the big difference.

Perfect double bend of the arm is something I once gave a good shake to. Let's say I hit these shots for a total of one year.

It is clear that upper arm rotation is a hallmark of modern forehand as well as modern service design.

In a perfect double bend the arm-- at the elbow-- forms a right angle. This gives any forehand hit this way a certain optional characteristic different from the other likely arm configurations.

When arm is less or more than a right angle, some of the upper arm rotation goes into altering pitch-- unless of course one uses a straight arm and can bend hand back all the way to a right angle of its own as in the freakishly good body of Roger Federer.

This is a configuration that would form a perfect arc from down to straight up to straight across-- the internal wipe on the vertical windshield of a classic Model T Ford.

But double bend configuration (the second bend at the wrist to occur via mondo that also twists the forearm down against solid elbow pointed straight down at the court) can mimic the perfection of Roger's wipe albeit with less power.

The unique if optional characteristic of right angled arm is that one can employ the very traditional image of a farm gate that revolves on a perfectly vertical pin times two (upper and lower hinge).

The double bend arm structure only provides one vertical pin but that is enough.

When one rotates upper arm while keeping elbow otherwise still and upper arm perfectly vertical, the rotation all goes into moving the racket tip in a horizontal arc and whatever the racket pitch is, it stays constant.

This information is crucial in that the most constant error in all the different tries at see see is that one does not get far enough around on the oncoming serve to make the acute angle required along with sufficient spin to lift the ball up and down quick over the net.

Another given here shall be reduced body turn.

We shall mimic primarily with bent arm the unit turn of an Ed Faulkner forehand. That would be where left hand stays on the racket while remaining solid with the body as body guickly takes it back. (One sees this procedure in every demonstrated attempt of Rick Macci to begin an ATP3.)

Mime of this with arm only can be made with arm bent (squnched) even more than a right angle.

The arm can then open to a perfect right angle, with this change the basis of a very small but fluid and comfortable loop.

The racket head will also drop to accomplish this. Some would call that drop a hitting drop at the bottom of which a full mondo will occur (wrist bend back and forearm turn under both).

One goal will be to brush the ball with racket tip under hand.

This iteration will also reject a tenet of most of the experiments held so far, viz., "hit the ball with straight wrist in order to sharpen the angle of the departing ball."

Now, the right angled arm configuration combined with hitting drop will get the hand very quickly around so long as the elbow is permitted to stay back and be the farm hinge.

With racket head so quickly achieving desired aim point one can crank from forearm only and this will produce enough spin. Then one can relax the elbow to let it straighten a bit. This is very different from cranking with whole elbow once the ball is gone a la Hingis.

Reduced body rotation can provide a little easy weight but not a lot.

[bottle]

Farm Hinge: Elbow in against Body?

What other plans do you have for this kind of backswing whether body or arm dominant? Will you want to start with elbow out a little or in close and even touching?

Out a little in my case. Elbow can then come in to carry out the see see option during the hitting drop. Or one can keep elbow out yet establish vertical pin of farm hinge by simultaneously bending outside leg.

see see: SEE the ball buzz sharply into the alley. SEE the reaction you get whether it's a slack jaw or a mad dash. SEE the other geezers-- more than one of them-- forbid you ever to hit this shot. ("I've already had enough knee replacements, thank you.")

[bottle]

This Might Be The End Of The Book

This shot works as well as any I've tried. Of course today's experiment was only in self-feed. I move now to an indoor fall league of geezers as in the summer league but geezers so good that one hesitates to call them geezers.

This shot, the one described in posts # 237-8, is commensurate with my ability, not 100 per cent but not less than 50 per cent either.

So-- did I find what I sought-- not The Holy Grail but the best I should hope for?

Probably.

If so, Jonnie boy Simon & Schuster CEO Mr. Karp, I'm sorry you don't want to publish this book, but on the other hand I did see a picture of you one time with a racket, and the manuscript might help your game.

Jon, there isn't a tennis player in the world who wouldn't benefit from a better short angle see see.