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I have managed to improve my groundstrokes, but what stubbornly refuses to change is my serve backswing. When I go through the motion in front of a mirror, I manage to change it and get a good drop. I have done the new swing at least a hundred times a day, for weeks. I get on the court, video the movement, and practically nothing has changed! I start with a very loose grip. Then my autopilot (muscle memory) takes over and bingo, same old movement occurs! Yes Kyle, I have the toss more to the left. If I practice it without the ball, looks great, just how I want it. Soon as I am on the court, it is a Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyl siruation. Dr Jeckyl takes over.
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Here's a little story about muscle memory. Sometimes I am amazed how quickly the brain forgets let alone muscles. If you learn to do things correctly when you are young chances are you will not forget or at least it won't take long to get the skill set back. Did you ever have a good drop when you were young Phil or is this something you are trying to pick up later in life?Originally posted by gzhpcu View Post
I had or am having some rather interesting yet perplexing muscle memory issues myself. After taking a job here in Sweden I had to postpone my pursuit of perfection in the game of golf. Recently I terminated my job and I started picking up my golf clubs and started fiddling around with them again. What I found was that I had completely lost the feel for the short shots...chipping and pitching. You have know how idea how maddening it was/is. I don't know if I am over it yet.
Well the worse it got the more determined I was to fix it. Trust me...it got worse. And worse. I could not make solid contact with a ball on a short shot to save my life. It nearly drove me insane. I used to have all kinds of touch and feel for this part of the game probably because of my tennis background. I should note that I took my first golf lesson on my 40th birthday.
But I kept at it. At times just trying to resign myself to hitting millions of bad shots before the problem corrected itself. At times screaming at the heavens...asking what it was that I had done to deserve such a cruel fate. Then pausing to reflect that if my worst problem in life was my short game then that paled in comparison to some of the real problems in the world. I would go back to work...hitting bad shot after bad shot.
It seems like such a simple thing, particularly for a spin doctor like myself who has made a life of hitting shots. Perfecting techniques until it is only a "feeling" but I had lost the feeling. I couldn't find it for the life of me. I came to the conclusion that it had to be a question of technique so I just gave up and told myself that I was a total beginner and started from scratch. Once I got to the point of resignation it was just a matter of researching the technique and putting in the work. Once you slip into the hell of hitting these crazy shots it is hard to erase from your memory.
Variations of my misery were blading the ball (hitting the back of the ball), hitting it fat (sometimes hitting as much as six inches behind the ball in the ground), chilly dipping (this is where your shot is so shittly it sort of pops up into the air and you hit it a second time with your club as it follows through). This is what I was doing on every single shot. Every once in a while I would hit it soundly...by accident.
Little by little I was getting the ship to stabilize then it would all go south on a moments notice. Back in the rut of madness. I could chilly dip sometimes three times in a row which I have concluded is nearly an impossible thing to do. But I kept on trying. Little by little getting my mind back in the game. Giving up on every being the perfectionist that I was and just went back to being a beginner.
Finally yesterday it all clicked. I saw a few videos on youtube and was able to assimilate the tips into a feeling on the practice range. I was hitting these shots perhaps better than I ever had. What is the most important thing was that I could "feel" what I was doing. The process I went through nearly drove me insane...not kidding. But I am not the kind to give up. So I didn't. I am not certain if this is a permanent fix at this point. I certainly hope that it is at least the beginning.
In the end the only thing this old world understands is hard work. I have not begun to fight (work). -
don_budge, I don't give up easily either. In the section "Your strokes" in 2006, I presented the problem. Would you believe it, but I am still at the same point. Tried doing what John suggested. Worked on it with Kyle. It works perfectly when I do practice swings without the ball, but the moment I am on the court playing, the old autopilot takes over. Looked at endless YouTube videos. Will try again when I go play today...
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The Moral of the Story...
The moral of the story Phil is simple...YOU CAN DO IT! It is a matter of a couple of things and perhaps the most important is patience. By being patient you learn to relax. You won't be able to pull off this "feeling" if you are in the slightest bit up tight. You mention that you have concentrated on a loose grip. Now you must loosen up from the mind on down. Starting with the mind. See in my example how the thing was making me so upset that it was impossible to find the necessary relaxation in my body to accomplish a very simple yet efficient motion.
The fact that you can do this motion in the mirror is an indication that this is without a doubt doable. Did you hear me...without a doubt. This is perhaps the most important thought to hang on to. Tell yourself that there is no way in the world that you are not going to accomplish this. It is only a matter of work, information and mental state of mind.
What it is going to take are a number of physical cues that you can eventually sequence together, practice individually and then mindlessly put together. When I hear that your mission is racquet drop then that automatically says to me...backswing. Everything turns simultaneously in the same state of relaxation and then the racquet must drop if it is in the correct position and you can relax through the initiation phase of the motion.
Your problem and my problem are very similar. Something happens in the brain if the body is unsure of the technique at the moment when you go to fire. Once that ball is up in the air and you must swing at it you resort to the old method of hitting at it. The service motion and the golf swing motion are very similar. Particularly because on the serve you are starting from a static position and you can virtually tee the ball up with a good toss. You did mention the toss as well. So now you have two clues or two things to work with. Coordination of the toss with the backswing. I suspect that ninety percent of your problem lies in this and this problem is going to make it difficult for you to relax. It is a self perpetuating cycle.
Go back to the drawing board and start practicing this backswing and toss together. Hundreds of times for weeks if necessary. Just as you have been.
When I was going through my insanity I at one point told myself that if necessary...I was going to be an infinite number of monkeys in a room with an infinite number of typewriters and sooner or later I was going to type out the King James version of the Bible.
Try to synch the backswing and toss...toss the ball exactly where you are going to impact it. You don't want to have to rush to the ball or have to wait for it. You want the right side (the racquet) of your body totally compatible with the left (the toss).
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My guess is that when you put the ball in play you tighten up on your grip in the transition between the backswing and forward motion. When the impulse to hit over rides the will to swing (stay relaxed). Trust me...I know the feeling. If that grip tightens at that point, your forearm is also going to tighten and then it is going to be unable to drop. So after you "shadow" practice backswing and toss a million times...practice transitioning and maintaining a relaxed state of mind and physique through the transition from backswing to forward motion. Once you get to this point and you are able to "drop" and toss you will begin to get the "feel" of what it is you are trying to do. You want to concentrate on feel...and not thought. Thought has a nasty habit of interfering with the bodies "chi". The meridians of energy throughout your body. You might even resort to some acupuncture.Comment
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I know the feeling. The insanity. Please Dr. Jeckyl...God make him go away. But yeah...I think Jeckyl wants to hit and Hyde is imploring him to swing.Originally posted by gzhpcu View Post
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Thanks don_budge. I have never once in life given up, like you. My conclusion is similar to yours: my grip tightens.Comment
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Phil,
don_budge is right...You can do it! And I know this for certain because I have seen it with my own eyes when I worked with you. Your serve is quite the weapon.
Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca RatonComment
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Kyle, thanks, but it is a question of aesthetics...Comment
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Interesting fact: (at least to me)
Muscle memory is actually the myelination of the nerves needed for a particular muscular movement. The more you perform the particular movement, myelin (fatty-like tissue) forms around the nerves involved. The more the nerve fires, the more myelin wraps around it. The more myelin, the faster the signal travels to the muscle, creating neuro-pathways. Thus making for a decrease in wait time and an increase in processing speed of the brain.
Changing strokes is so difficult because you need to form new pathways and built up the myelin around the nerves for the new movement, while not having the brain send the signal down the old pathway. That's why it's so important to start new players with the proper technique and develop the most efficient pathways.Comment
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So imagine trying to change a serve backswing after 50 years.Comment
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A visual image of what it's like to change a neuro-pathway, imagine you're inside a tennis court with a fence surrounding it. Outside the fence, the grass has grown so tall you can't see anything. There's a building in the distance, through the years you have beaten a path to the building. Unfortunately, it's not a direct path, now you need to find the most efficient way to get to the building. It's a process to beat down the brush to find the most efficient way. Often times, not quite sure where you are going and getting lost.Last edited by seano; 06-20-2018, 02:22 PM.Comment
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This is all true, but tends at the same time to give experimentation a bad rap. No one knows for sure what's a tweak and what's an overhaul. Does every tweak require an overhaul? Could the tweak maybe glom into an existing pathway? Then you'd only have to myelinate one little branch at one end? Ask a neuroscientist (he won't know).Originally posted by seano View Post
Since myelin goes around all kinds of pathways, I suggest putting some of it around a pathway of relentless experimentation. A good reason for doing this is that the person or persons providing the early childhood indoctrination inevitably were stupid. Or if that's not charitable enough, they didn't know all that is known now. And if they're still alive they certainly don't know what's coming and seldom seem to wish to be in that number.
A funny and rather unpredictable wrinkle or should I say branch pathway in all this is that one may have laid down some interesting tracks in early bouts of experimentation twenty years ago. If so, can one come back to them now that they are more pertinent? Also, while I am no more than an innocent in matters of neuroscience, I was a gandy dander for the New Haven Railroad and therefore know that switches are important. And would therefore like to know more about the switches in a neuronal track. Or are the only tracks that matter in tennis really simple ones from here to there? Somehow I doubt that.
Whatever the truth (I think I prefer the German word "die Wahrheit"), this field is so new that even its experts don't know much. I just think that trying new stuff is always good and "empowering" and from what I have managed to pick up, the best way to produce a new layer of the good grey goop no matter one's age.
Moral: Changing a stroke is not so difficult if you have extensive experience in changing strokes.Last edited by bottle; 06-20-2018, 09:31 AM.Comment
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Kyle, I have a friend who is an ex-ATP Challenger Circuit player. He is head pro at a nearby club here near Lugano. Also worked with him on improving my serve and he said my serve is fine, did not find the lack of more racket drop a problem.Originally posted by klacr View Post
But I see the video and I see no improvement over 2006. I know it can be done, because I can do it in front of a mirror. Will keep at it.Comment
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Perserverance? I have been at since 2006....
. Keep thinking: tomorrow I will solve it, in an endless number of tomorrows... like Scarlet O’Hara at the end of Gone with the Wind... “Tomorrow is another day...”
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