Muscle memory

[don_budge]

Still no change. I do plenty of shadow strokes and all is well. Just as I want it. On court, serving, the old autopilot takes over... Am no longer in control of my body...

How about a video Phil. Let's have a look see.

[gzhpcu]

OK don_budge... here, this morning (it sucks...)

[don_budge]

Ok...not as bad as all that. But lend me a hand here. Let's go baby steps and one thing at a time. Can we try a couple of things?

[gzhpcu]

Sure, thanks...

[ferli001]

[QUOTE=don_budge;n72548]

if you want to play the game you must feel your way through it for optimal results. For good vibrations. We are vibrating too. We are energy beings. But to harness that energy we have to get out of our own ways and overthinking things sometimes has a negative effect on the result we seek. I can certainly appreciate your studies but I often wonder if this falls under "my need to know" line in the sand for teaching students. As I have said...I want to teach them how to feel. About everything. Not just their tennis or golf."

when I played golf I remember I would walk the course with a particular rythem that tried to "match" the feel of my swing -- to keep the same pace in the body n some sense. And like the "gravity" video I woud practice with my eyes closed just to feel the movement. I had a very fluid swing --so I was told and remember. I can still "walk" with that same pace now. Haven't thought about how this might translate to tennis -- I am wondering whether I could use breathing in the serve to replicate that "walk" ...

to get away from the thinking too much -- . I tried drawing my serve, describing it in writing. To find out what I don't quite understand -- about it. Its a beautiful stroke. And the art of letting go, trusting gravity, in order to find effortless power is life itself -- a fascinating paradox

more later

[doctorhl]

gzpcu: my unsoliticted comments on your service video: 1. Hand grip is too tight at the begiinining and this creates forearm tension, which acts as a brake on the centrifical force of the rollercoaster car(ala Budge’s Sampras loop video). Sometimes widening out the loops of the tracks at the beginning(keep elbow a little farther away trunk at beginning of movement helps you feel the car’s weight on the downward slope of the first loop. The centrifugal force will help your “racket drop. Increasing shoulder flexibility in a figure 8 motion will reduce drag on the car. As the car, however, starts moving faster, it starts to get to the station( contact point) before the ball. So the toss timing changes. But, try not to change the location of the station just to accommodate a gradual, later arrival of the car. Ball will just have to get the station later.

Adding knee bend and trunk rotation can both add to car speed, but the loops now are taller and wider, making simultaneous arrival of ball and racket at the station more difficult. Some players become tempted, then, to move the station location(contact ball before peak, at peak, or after peak).

Above all else, you need to be able to feel centrifugal force of the roller coaster car( racket head). Have you ever lost that racket head( or club head feeling with a strong wind at your back?). I’m now confused. Help me out Don....

[doctorhl]

Oops: I meant EARLIER arrival of car at the station as speed increases, thereby meaning a delay in ball arrival.

[doctorhl]

I even resorted to just chunking up the ball to toss it a few times to try and get that rollercoaster feel in my right arm.

[gzhpcu]

Doctorhi, thanks. Will try serving with 4 fingers to loosen up...

[gzhpcu]

This was indoors a week ago...

[doctorhl]

Do this without paying attention to service court.. Put a tennis ball in each hand. Chunk up the ball in your left hand. Throw and release the ball in your right hand( in a normal baseball throw fashion) at the ball you just tossed.Now, put an old tennis racket in your right hand and throw it at a tossed ball from the left hand. This is the feel of the racket arm. The racket arm can’t adjust to anything. The tossed ball will just have to arrive at the right time and height somehow. In the video, your right elbow is awfully close to your side at the early stage of the movement. I don’t think you throw a baseball that way. The tossing arm will have to do the adjusting to your natural throwing motion. Intuitively, this seems like the ball will fly over the back fence. Don’t worry about the racket drop. The natural throwing motion comes first. Then a little knee bend, shoulder rotation can be added. But add in slight increments(if at all) because the toss will have to be adjust to accommodate the swing.

[gzhpcu]

Doctorhi, thanks saw this idea on Youtube. Tried it, but still no luck. Maybe a brain translant is needed...

[doctorhl]

Gzhpcu: see if this helps. Compare this video motion(and associated drills) with yours. Focus on Nadim’s wrist angle and especially the closed racket face at the beginning of the downward motion of the backswing.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6q4uNyBQcPU&inf_contact_key=dedec8be7caba9bf90bc4873f8fc1ea77320a56d00cb420d390e24c3c8900a04

[gzhpcu]

Without the ball I do it right. Good drop, external/internal shoulder rotation.

[gzhpcu]