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:cool: Who was that great teaching pro from Saddlebrook I finally met in Speakeasy, Winston-Salem, NC? Why can't I remember his name? He'd send the ball two miles up in the air and it would come down in the court every time without hitting the three-year-old tots whose parents were watching from the sideline. Graydon Brown...Creighton Green...Brownie Slate, something like that. We talked some tennis since Brad Gilbert had said the best instruction occurs off of the court. If you're BH poaching in doubles and hyper-turn the UB and the service return is coming very fast, we agreed, you may need only a mild straightening of the arm from an elbow completely still relative to your speeding body. What, though, if the return is soft and weak? That's when you're apt to see a little bloop come back over your head to an awkward place in the court. Whoever he was, Graydon Slayton, he believed that conventional instruction is energy-starved. "No you don't need any change of grip," he insisted. He cranked up my arm so the back of my hand was facing my right ear. He cranked up my arm again so the palm of my hand was facing my left ear. "This is the heaviest blow that the human body can administer," he intoned in a low, barely discernible, faux-oriental voice. "When the netman comes back from the hospital, use this again. The time after that he'll run off the court if he's educable and then you can try your bunt."
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Not sure about the heaviest human blow or who that pro was. Definitely you need a continental grip to hit the inside out backhand volley--otherwise you push it with your hand not your shoulder. And straightening out the arm is 5% of the deal at most--it's the shoulder. -
Lost Pro
I can't find his name, he didn't like the setup in W-S, went to Spain, came down teaching tennis in Washington, D.C. No change from continental grip.
Yes from shoulder for any powerful volley whether fully karated or not. I'm struck, though, by how often the elbow goes sideways and not out toward the target. (I've been studying the three BHV's of Jack Kramer in this website.)Comment
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Don't look at the elbow--look at the hitting arm shape formed by the arm and racket. It's an open U and moves from the shoulder.Comment
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Elbow Good
The elbow's always good as a cue because if it's moving, things are moving on either side of it (Barnaby). But, I only have one real reservation here.
If I volley roundabout with your U, I may be crossing and smudging the ball more than I want. Anyway, by coincidence I did it yesterday. And the ball went to the right of the similar volley I'll describe in the next paragraph. But if I volley out front in linear fashion with your U, racket pitch is going to be changing (opening) all the time. Rolling the elbow down in this linear arrangement may also be a not-so-good option.
The secret of not temporizing, I think today, is to conclude slight roundabout elbow travel and last micro-instant arm-straightening at the exact same time, as in the three Jack Kramers. I like your earlier figure of only 5 per cent of additional pop coming from any arm-straightening, but think the figure for better directional control it provides may be 35 per cent. In any case I don't take neuroscientists, shamans or website proprietors out with me on the court, or words for that matter, either. On the other hand I had a problem with mushy inside out poach BHV's when this thread (broken once, I believe) started, and now I don't. The lousiness of thought and conversation in tennis is greatly exaggerated.Comment
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Afterbirth
Yeah, I know. Punch the U from high to low in linear fashion. I still don't think that volley would be as good as Kramer's though both preserve one
pitch setting from beginning to quick end.Comment
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