Muscle memory

[klacr]

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.

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.

I've faced your serve as you have mine. It's a good serve. 100%, not 99%, but 100% of players your age would love to have your serve.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[klacr]

I don't know about all of that myelin stuff. But you did make it interesting with your illustration. Somehow we all start at that beginning and we are the road to find out. It's rarely if ever a straight route from A to B. You learn to navigate on the run...fly by the seat of your pants. My dear old tennis coach used to tell me that to groove your strokes you can imagine rubbing your index finger on a block of wood and over time there would definitely be a groove in that wood. I can still see him rubbing his finger along the groove on the inside of his hand. Hear his voice. I have never met a better tennis coach than Sherman Collins, formerly of Dearborn, Michigan.

So we beat that path to the destination and somehow find we have missed the mark. What to do? Well you just go back...back to where you took the wrong turn. You need a guide at some point probably. He can show you the way or you can embark alone again and risk more valuable time.

Phil's problem is a technical one. It probably is a matter of his tossing the ball to high and this hinders his motion when he should be letting the racquet head fall behind him...but he instinctively knows that the timing is off. So he waits and then he hits. His swing was interrupted by the timing of his toss. Just a guess. I have seen the video. Phil...why don't you post it again. Or better yet take a flight up here to Sweden. We can fix this. I know that I can and you know that you can. So what's the problem?

Good luck at any rate. One thing you need is perseverance. All of this talk about creating neuro-pathways is just a fancy way of saying practice. But you have to practice the right thing. I wrote of my golfing problems. I'm on the right path now and I have convinced myself not to let the other guy outwork me. But I got the right information from a couple of youtube videos. I didn't necessarily get lucky finding them as I know what I am looking for. I have been there. At the destination...but somehow I left home and got lost. Gee...that sounds like my life as well. Hmmm.

Good posts...seano.

Phil knows the way. And he has done it many times before. Big part of it is relaxation and letting things go where they may. Phil has entered into the paralysis by analysis zone. Sometimes, we need to go back to basics and...

Show me the way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLgeTtYwQ7o

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

Thanks guys...

[ferli001]

I just want to say thank you for these posts and Phil, you are not alone. I feel so discouraged because I so want to rebuild my serve and I have been practicing the swing path, the drop, and checking the positions with video -- and I will go out and hit a hopper only to find out that I have videotaped my old motion. I have never encountered such difficulty and it is SO frustrating. But I am stubborn --and I guess not alone. I think I am going to start all over again -- but I just wanted to say to Phil -- I get your frustration and I hope to read soon that you have had a breakthrough !!

[gzhpcu]

I just want to say thank you for these posts and Phil, you are not alone. I feel so discouraged because I so want to rebuild my serve and I have been practicing the swing path, the drop, and checking the positions with video -- and I will go out and hit a hopper only to find out that I have videotaped my old motion. I have never encountered such difficulty and it is SO frustrating. But I am stubborn --and I guess not alone. I think I am going to start all over again -- but I just wanted to say to Phil -- I get your frustration and I hope to read soon that you have had a breakthrough !!

Thanks. Guess we are in the same boat. Funny how one thinks one has changed a motion, than video shows otherwise. Lets keep ourselves informed of progress in this thread. Good luck...

[don_budge]

The Path of Least Resistance...LYIN', MYELIN, SMILIN'

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.

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 a 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.

So changing in mid-stream might have a brain fart effect. Once you have grooved that movement whether it is desired or optimal or not...to try another path is going against the grain. Beating about in the bush. Well...nothing new there. Except the supposed science. Forgive me for being sceptical. Actually I'm not. I just don't care. I care about one thing...the optimal movement and how to get there.

So what happens if you create this movement after years of practice and for whatever reason you abandon it and then try to recover it years later. I can see the bushes overgrown with weeds and rubbish. Trying to hack your way through it again. I think I get the picture.

But I wonder...if you learn something while you are young is it so much easier to recover it somewhere down the line if you just so happen to get away from it for a while? But if you have learned something while you are not so young (I took my first golf lesson on my fortieth birthday) and abandon it for nine years...what gives? Are you doomed to be a total beginner? What about the habits you acquire in the second half of one's life?

So it is fascinating to dream about these things while I am in the process of rebuilding my golf game. Golf might just technically be a game that is even more reliant on repetitive movements than tennis. Everything is initiated from a static position. But initially let me say this about trying to recover movements from the gold mine that have been dormant a good while after learning them at an advanced age.

It just might be to one's advantage to lay off for a while if you are trying to change some movement that you have "grooved" as my dear old tennis coach said. You guys that talk in terms of "MYELIN" might just say that a layoff might just weaken said goop on your given movement and if approached properly from the beginning once again you may well be able to easier incorporate a change into your swing. It's worth a try. So far you guys have proved one thing...persistance is a good thing but what if it can work against you? Stubborn older fellows sort of stuck in our ways.

Who was it that wrote..."the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half." Why it was Fyodor Dostoyevsky who wrote this way back in 1871 in his epic novel called "The Devils" or "The Demons". Loosely interpreted it has been called "The Possessed". My father gave me this quote among others once upon a time. A very wise and brilliant man in his own right. My father...The Father. You have to read the whole seven hundred plus page novel for the context. The character who uttered it came as a complete surprise to me when I came across the line unexpectantly reading the novel in the run-up of the Presidential Election in 2016. There were a couple of quotes from the novel worth quoting as well. But let's not get into that again.

Step away from you stubborn service motions and practice "letting go" of old things that you no longer need. Accept new thoughts and concepts of your existence and allow you body to be free of the old shackles that bind you in knots. Assuring you that your life is nothing more of the same repetitions of your youth.

So now...in the midst of my rebirth in golf. My reincarnation. At first I found one thing...I had forgotten everything. I had forgotten most importantly what it "felt" like to make a particular motion. Ok...that hurt. It hurt so badly it brought me to tears. Nearly on my knees...begging. You have no idea how it crushed me to not be able to perform a simple motion that at one point in my life I was rather good at. But never mind...this where perseverance paid off. I didn't quit. I thought of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If". I dearly love that poem. I believe that William Tilden brought it to my attention in his writings. It's a tennis player's creed mind you.

But the lines that kept coming to me in my hour of need were the most important for me at the time:

"If you can dream— and not make dreams your master;
If you can think— and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools"

"And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools". My God...were truer words never spoken? I just got down to work. Physically, emotionally, intellectually and even spiritually. This is what it means to be a tennis player or a golf player. These two recreational endeavours are God's gift to mankind so that we can challenge ourselves through all that we are made of. The challenge is a human experience. So LYIN',MYELIN...SMILIN'. It's all the same to me. I'm building with worn-out tools. I couldn't be happier with what I am doing.

[don_budge]

I just want to say thank you for these posts and Phil, you are not alone. I feel so discouraged because I so want to rebuild my serve and I have been practicing the swing path, the drop, and checking the positions with video -- and I will go out and hit a hopper only to find out that I have videotaped my old motion. I have never encountered such difficulty and it is SO frustrating. But I am stubborn --and I guess not alone. I think I am going to start all over again -- but I just wanted to say to Phil -- I get your frustration and I hope to read soon that you have had a breakthrough !!

Thanks. Guess we are in the same boat. Funny how one thinks one has changed a motion, than video shows otherwise. Lets keep ourselves informed of progress in this thread. Good luck...

I recommend you fellows take up golf. By working on new pathways and letting the old ones gather some "weeds" you just might find what you are looking for. In my teaching I talk about the golf swing actually being an upside down service motion. Instead of teeing the ball in the ground...we toss it and "tee it up" in the air.

I often say that I learned more about teaching tennis from learning, playing and teaching golf then I ever did from playing tennis. I aways say it tongue in cheek. But I mean it.

[don_budge]

How to Stop Flipping.

*I am going to show you a simple fix. But before I do I want to make a disclaimer. All the videos that I shoot are based on my own personal experience. I've have viewed over a thousand golf swing videos of PGA players, Senior PGA players and all levels of handicapped players and I have studied the golf swing inside and out so I know the biomechanics. But when I shoot a video like this I am coming from my own personal experience and opinion...so my videos are based on feel. What something should feel like. I know throughout all of the years I took lessons from some of the best instructors in the world..."some of them were underground"...I used to beg to say "how should it feel" and they couldn't tell me so just through trial and error I got this on my own. So I am going to show you a really simple feel...that's going to correct you flip through impact."

When I started to watch this fellow's video his opening statement really resonated with me. When he mentioned the word "feel" he had me and all he had to do was deliver the goods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU0-aO6XWwM

In fact the lesson this dude imparts on us could very well be a forehand lesson. "How does it feel?" versus "BryanGordon dipped in MYELIN". I have to go with feel in the end. Not to discount Bryan Gordon or Myelin. But there is a season...and a reason.

[don_budge]

The More I Practice...

*I am going to show you a simple fix. But before I do I want to make a disclaimer. All the videos that I shoot are based on my own personal experience. I've have viewed over a thousand golf swing videos of PGA players, Senior PGA players and all levels of handicapped players and I have studied the golf swing inside and out so I know the biomechanics. But when I shoot a video like this I am coming from my own personal experience and opinion...so my videos are based on feel.What something should feel like. I know throughout all of the years I took lessons from some of the best instructors in the world..."some of them were underground"...I used to beg to say "how should it feel" and they couldn't tell me so just through trial and error I got this on my own. So I am going to show you a really simple feel...that's going to correct you flip through impact."

When I started to watch this fellow's video his opening statement really resonated with me. When he mentioned the word "feel" he had me and all he had to do was deliver the goods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU0-aO6XWwM

In fact the lesson this dude imparts on us could very well be a forehand lesson. "How does it feel?" versus "BryanGordon dipped in MYELIN". I have to go with feel in the end. Not to discount Bryan Gordon or Myelin. But there is a season...and a reason.

"The more I practice the luckier I get." This little dandy was attributed to a golfer. Some say it was Lee Trevino. That's good enough for me.

Putting in three hours a day building my swing from scratch. Today was another big, big day. Winning. Winning in the sense that I am doing what I love to do. Never certain on what exactly the goal is but vaguely it is only to be the best that I can be. Visions of returning to tournament golf again. But that is only a dream. Laying the foundation. Trust me that these tools are worn out. But my mind is sharp and so much of this game is mental. I did it once before. This time I am going to do it even better.

"Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools"

I love the poem "If" by Rudyard Kipling. I find the words inspiring. Particularly knowing that many other men before me have felt the same way. They make me feel like getting fit for fight. Leaving no stone unturned. It's an intellectual challenge too. Knowing where it is that I want to get to and figuring out how to get there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU0-aO6XWwM

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.

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 a 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.

It's all about feel. Then it is about making it yours. You must own it. Repetitive motions. Over and over.

Muscle memory...it's all coming back to me. But I am fixing it along the way. Through the brush...to the destination.

[ferli001]

[QUOTE=don_budge;n72199]



I recommend you fellows take up golf. By working on new pathways and letting the old ones gather some "weeds" you just might find what you are looking for. In my teaching I talk about the golf swing actually being an upside down service motion. Instead of teeing the ball in the ground...we toss it and "tee it up" in the air.

LOL -- I love the image. I actually played D1 golf and the coach there told me to think of my swing as a tennis swing only lower. Instead of returning to play golf in my adult life I took up tennis. And so tennis IS my new pathway and I love it. Perhaps I can access a bit more of my experience as a golfer - - and tinker with the idea of teeing off in the air.

[gzhpcu]

Problem don_budge is tha golf is not for me, I just don’t like it. I like the continous movement in tennis. I feel it is more of a workout for the brain. The ball is in movement and so are you.

[don_budge]

Problem don_budge is tha golf is not for me, I just don’t like it. I like the continous movement in tennis. I feel it is more of a workout for the brain. The ball is in movement and so are you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU0-aO6XWwM

Perfectly understandable. I used to feel the same way. "Golf is an old man's game"...that is what I used to say. "I will never play golf"...I used to declare when I was young and competitive in tennis. It was my way of sort of looking down my nose at golfers. But after I said that I would never play I would add the disclaimer..."until I turn forty". You see...I left my self an out. That is exactly what I did too, as I have mentioned a number of times that I took my first golf lesson when I turned forty.

Somehow that Fyodor Dostoyevsky quote, "the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half" was like a warning to me. Even though my father hadn't given it to me yet. I only found the actual quote in the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel "The Devils" a couple of years ago. The context in the novel somewhat surprised me. The character who uttered it was a surprise as well. But life is full of surprises.

Do me a favor Phil...take a look at this video and there is something terrible "tennis like" in the lesson. The man is talking about keeping the palm fixed on the ball or the ground. Then he shows how he extends through the ball. Is this a good illustration of a forehand extension? Conversely since I am a left handed tennis player but a right handed golfer the action of the left wrist is scary similar to the action of the wrist in my backhand. These are the parallels that I am drawing on to summon "new neurological pathways".

Amuse me Phil. Go to a local golf course and take a lesson. Maybe two. You just might find that this is an interesting endeavour after all. Just going to the driving range is fun. But the real problem is it is time intensive. It's difficult. Who has time to go a practice three hours a day? Who has that kind of energy?

The key to a good racquet drop is the maintaining of relaxation between the backswing and forwards motion. The urge is to hit when you need to continue to swing. If you whole being is relaxed and you just lean back just a bit so that gravity takes the racquet head and "drops" it behind you. This is what I was alluding to in the upside down service motion comparison to the golf swing. It is at this point that you must let the club head drop into the slot and not start things to early with the hands and arms. This moment between the backswings is very critical in both motions. Somehow this is what I have struggled with in the past with my golf swing. ferli001 can attest to this in the golf swing and this may be what he is also looking for in his service motion. That moment in between. Sort of like when day becomes night. Twilight Zone. A magical moment.

[gzhpcu]

Thanks don_budge, I am still too young, but when I am 90, and if am still struggling with my racket drop, I promise I will give it a try...

[ferli001]

Don_Budge, thanks for me this is a good tip because I think one problem is that I am rotating/uncoiling before the racket dropped fully. I try to think/feel of the golf swing but its hard to square it with the loopiness of the serve motion. But the momentum --yes, sure! What I struggle with is the "bend in the elbow" --I don't get it. The windmill -drop leaves my racket hand so close to my right ear when I turn and go upwards. There is no space between the hand and the head as I see in every video and my racket remains behind my back. I have been experimenting with working backwards --finding the right side position at the start of the upward motion and turning back to find its "origin". Do you think this might be a good way to get at the "bend" -- ?

[gzhpcu]

fer1001, I am going to try this out as well: