A New Year's Serve

[don_budge]

Tom Okker's Dunlop Maxply? Is it longer than standard issue?

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

Tom Okker (The Flying Dutchman) and Marty Riessen (The Northwestern Hoopster) enter the stadium...Okker carrying four Dunlop Maxply’s and Riessen carrying just two Wilson Kramer’s. No luggage...no overnighters. Both players all dressed in traditional white. At .20 a classic tennis point...return of serve to the Riessen backhand followed up with a crosscourt forehand wide to the forehand. A reply to the backhand which is in turn answered with a drop shot. Riessen sensing the invitation to the net slides the ball deep into the backhand corner with a combination of underspin and sidespin and Okker puts up a high defensive lob followed by another lob until he is in position to change the momentum of the point where he immediately goes on the attack.

The next point that we are treated to is an Okker first serve to the Riessen backhand which draws a short ball upon which Okker seizes the initiative and slides a low sliding ball with sidespin into the Riessen backhand who in turn lobs...into the teeth of an Okker smash.

Next is a slow motion view of the lovely free and relaxed classic serving motion of Tom Okker. See how he makes that initial move with half a back swing to loosen himself up for the free flowing serve to follow. That is what is referred to in golf as a waggle. It is a preview of the swing to come. Nice slow backswing, the tempo of which is dictated by the movement and turning of his shoulders with the whole body engaged...a beautiful long follow through to match his swing on the other end. Is it a platform or is it a pinpoint? I will let you be the judge...but I think it is a platform with back leg swinging through. Now this might sound a little strange...but is his racquet longer than regulation or standard size? I swear that it looks like it is...or is it just that he is so diminutive?

One more thing...Okker hits a couple of forehand volleys in the purest of classic tradition. The racquet goes directly towards the ball in flight and never breaks the plane of his body going backwards in his backswing. No muss...no fuss.

He has elements of the modern forehand? Hardly...it is the other way around.

[bottle]

Attention: Rotorded Back-footed Servers

And welcome to the first day of Wailing Baby Rotorded Back-Footed Camp here in the quaint mountain town of Ocelot-in-the Ozarks. Could we ask for a bluer sky?

At 9:30 a.m. in the Hutchens Lean-to there will be a webinar with Kim Rightfultosh of Alice Springs, Australia. You won't want to miss this one. Kim will discuss the role of arm-bending in the serve. I wouldn't want to give Kim's thunder away. Nevertheless, Kim will help us all with prioritization. With which shall we concern ourselves more: Degree of arm bend or upper arm twist?

At 10:30 a.m. the staff will help the campers implement Kim's central ideas out on the Silver and Magnesium Courts.

At 11:30 a.m., the second webinar will be conducted by Vunku Ramanathan from Bangkok, Thailand, also in the Hutchins Lean-to. Vunku will show us a video emphasizing how good overheads can bring us toward serves with a more sensible design employing that rotor range which we all do have. Staff will then accompany all campers out to the Gold, Platinum and Titanium Courts to try the new knowledge out.

Everybody must report to the mess hall at 12:30 p.m. Lunch will last for one hour, but at 1:30 p.m. sharp everyone must assemble fully dressed at the Titanium Court for our featured event of the day in which Joe Mephistopheles from Adelaide, Australia will show us his provocative ideas about passive upper arm twist morphing into pre-loaded twist, with all of it dependent on pressure from the coiled rear leg. Again, the demonstration will include a webinar in which campers are urged to share their questions. All computer equipment will be located under the taut canvas in the far triangle of Titanium Court. But not everyone should stay there all the time. Groups of campers will be drifting toward the unoccupied sections of the court to try the new concepts out.

At 3:30 p.m. Don Brosseau of Los Angeles will explain exactly what he means by raising elbow all the way through a serve.

From 4:30 p.m. until candlelit dinner at 10 p.m. unstructured tennis will be held on all 16 courts, so think about choosing a doubles partner right now.

[stotty]

Wow, Stotty. The topspin forehand you identified in the clip has some different things about it than in the break-down you earlier posted and in my MASTERING YOUR TENNIS STROKES book as well. The loop is small, the initial elbow move is to the outside, there's big flip at the bottom-- and I'm sure I'll see more if I keep looking.

Sometimes, Tom Okker in neutral stance stays down, it would appear, so that
body presses forward to balance the loopy tricks he uses to generate big racket head speed.

Lately, in my experiment, I've been opening wrist as I pull the racket back toward my body. But then, on a few service returns last night, I don't know what I did other than hit a good shot (does a very good night where the tide lifts all boats count toward analysis? Maybe not).

Maybe, if you're a design freak like me, you just get a good approximation going and then get a little romantic waiting for unseen magic development.

One thing is for sure. If you get romantic too soon, you're cooked.

I'm also a big believer in the asides that occur in natural conversation, e.g., Don telling me he liked the idea of wrist going back gradually in a forehand.
That set me to exploring a whole new area, with some interesting new permutations of strokes, but certainly didn't put an end to various fooling around with flips from mild to harsh.

A lot of tennis, it would seem, doesn't have to be an either/or.

In the Stotty-identified topspin forehand here I see Okker generating racket head speed from leg extension and not staying down at all.

Yes, he's playing a higher ball than in the photo sequence. The loop is more shallow. I would love to know what 10splayers thinks about that particular forehand in terms of the flip.

Any interested viewers should slide to 1:16 on the clip.

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

[bottle]

More and More Ben Hogan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCR09QQ5ls4

Suggestion: Turn the noise off.

The hips bring the right angled right arm out toward side fence. Which suggests baseball to me.

I guess the baseball swing is at a low outside ball.

The swing goes mildly down and out before it goes up.

Is there a flip or isn’t there?

The trouble is half the people define flip as arm rotation and laying back of wrist, and the other half define it as arm rotation only.

I’m in the second group in my designed shot, which is called ABBREVIATED LOOPING HOMUNCULUS WITH LONG ARMS.

The angled right arm, identified by Hogan as “intial move” of forward swing is passively moved by the hips into a position where the forearm is parallel to the ground.

I'm sure that no one will ever do better than the Gary Player on Ben Hogan clip Steve posted once and I posted many times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ywZ4b6vjFc

But go ahead, get confused, watch the following clip, try to convert from golf to tennis and good luck. Notice the belch near the end of the video. It's very important. Here's my question: How can anybody find anything of significance if they don't authorize themselves to get lost first?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=ODCzUcP6GLk&NR=1

[bottle]

Tom Okker vs. Ben Hogan?

Wow, Stotty. The topspin forehand you identified in the clip has some different things about it than in the break-down you earlier posted and in my MASTERING YOUR TENNIS STROKES book as well. The loop is small, the initial elbow move is to the outside, there's big flip at the bottom-- and I'm sure I'll see more if I keep looking.

Sometimes, Tom Okker in neutral stance stays down, it would appear, so that
body presses forward to balance the loopy tricks he uses to generate big racket head speed.

Lately, in my experiment, I've been opening wrist as I pull the racket back toward my body. But then, on a few service returns last night, I don't know what I did other than hit a good shot (does a very good night where the tide lifts all boats count toward analysis? Maybe not).

Maybe, if you're a design freak like me, you just get a good approximation going and then get a little romantic waiting for unseen magic development.

One thing is for sure. If you get romantic too soon, you're cooked.

I'm also a big believer in the asides that occur in natural conversation, e.g., Don telling me he liked the idea of wrist going back gradually in a forehand. That set me to exploring a whole new area, with some interesting new permutations of strokes, but certainly didn't put an end to various fooling around with flips from mild to harsh.

A lot of tennis, it would seem, doesn't have to be an either/or.

In the Stotty-identified topspin forehand here I see Okker generating racket head speed from leg extension and not staying down at all.

[tennis_chiro]

Riessen a two sport athlete

Nice view of Okker's forehand in slow motion at 1:16 on this short clip.

Also, a succession of shots in slow motion, including serve, two sliced backhands and a forehand volley at 0:53.

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

He is playing Marty Riessen. Is Marty well-built enough?! Physique like a god.

Riessen played Div I college basketball at Northwestern. And he played tennis like a basketball player relying on his athleticism and a serve and volley game.

don

[stotty]

Okker

Nice view of Okker's forehand in slow motion at 1:16 on this short clip.

Also, a succession of shots in slow motion, including serve, two sliced backhands and a forehand volley at 0:53.

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

He is playing Marty Riessen. Is Marty well-built enough?! Physique like a god.

[bottle]

Pre-load of Pre-Launch of Two Boats Friday Night

We could have gone anywhere in the world but chose Stockholm Harbor because of its Vasa precedent.

The Vasa was a richly decked out Swedish warship that was built top-heavy and had insufficient ballast and tipped over and sank on 10 August 1628 outside of Stockholm after it only sailed one mile.

The well-preserved shipwreck is in a museum where it has been seen by 30 million visitors since 1961 .

We or rather I don't want any kind of a repeat, and so I have chosen Stockholm Harbor to remind myself that any last minute modifications in design to the two boats must be very precise.

I've opted to bring over the little virgin from Copenhagen Harbor to perform the double christening on adjacent ways or tracks. This little virgin has a two-handed backhand, and in fact both of her arms are very strong from her tough harbor life. I have no doubt at all that she can easily smash two bottles of champagne to either side at once.

The ATP Forehand is all but ready to sail. It only needs some conformation from famous tennis teaching pros that wrist must be laid back first before the final flip despite what Roger Federer does.

The Abbreviated Looping Homunculus with Long Arms also is ready to sail. It only needs some counterpoint to its circular windup, which means that one can stay low in one's knees just as the Dutchman Tom Okker does except when he's straightening his back one.

In other words, forward swing rather than leg straightening will counter the racket butt as it slides into its harbor.

The continental player will slowly swing the racket tip forward as if it's a long nail hammered through an old board.

This will create space for the racket head to suddenly change direction and plummet down to the foot.

[stotty]

I saw Okker play at close quarters at an indoor event in London in 1977. His forehand was a great shot, relative to its time and wooden rackets. He hit it hard and with a lot of topspin. He could moonball very effectively. It was the flowing looseness of the shot that I remember most. His backhand was very flimsy and was a weakness.

I also saw him play Borg in the 1978 Wimbledon semi-final. Okker should never won the quarter final against Nastase to reach the semi. Nastase messed around and gave the match to Okker on a plate. Nastase didn't want to win because he didn't want to face Borg again. You could sense it. Nastase had become phobic about playing Borg, understandably...Borg was impenetrable while Nastase was neurotic and full of holes.

Great though Okker's forehand was, Borg's was better; Okker missed some forehands; Borg missed virtually none. Okker lost 6-4, 6-4, 6-4...easy...but it wasn't quite the route the pundits thought it would be.

[bottle]

Continental Topspin

My scheme for when the snow melts and I get to a court keeps evolving, and that evolution contains my hope for something more than a little interesting.

I'm glad that Greg Lumb, like others (myself included), is pointing to the frame where Okker's racket is almost perpendicular to the ground.

But anybody can do that, even a Sharapova hitting through the ball so much that it splats.

But to do that for topspin with a continental grip like Okker's, and to do it just where Okker does it (not farther back toward rear fence) and make it part of an organic whole and single image presents a special challenge.

And people don't like a special challenge. They prefer to cop out by saying something profound like "Continental grip sucks."

My present idea is, from continental grip cheated left, not to take racket down and up like John McEnroe, but to spiral it mildly upward toward side fence and then draw it back with a cocking at the wrist.

Now we've reached the frame that Greg Lumb pointed to. We've done this but hardly in a direct way. How we've reached this closed position is just as important as the closed position itself in view of what's about to happen.

I see this proposed stroke as continuous loop but not upright loop. I stress that this loop has in it large sideways components.

My proposed stroke also is a dive-bomber right to the end of its followthrough, but of course I haven't tried it yet.

Could be lousy. Could be great, in which case I'll be very happy.

[bottle]

But...

[tntenniswhiz]

Extremely glad you posted this comment, 10splayer. I concur. I was going to post a thread with this photo sequence challenging posters to determine whether Okker is flipping or not. It's very deceptive, isn't it?...not made easy by the fact he is wearing a tracksuit top. I thought Okker was flipping at first but slowly came to the conclusion he wasn't.

I found Okker a tough one to diagnose...the hardest one yet actually.

When he starts attacking the ball it looks like the typical WTA forehand, maybe Sharapova like, racquet perpendicular to the ground?

[tntenniswhiz]

Extremely glad you posted this comment, 10splayer. I concur. I was going to post a thread with this photo sequence challenging posters to determine whether Okker is flipping or not. It's very deceptive, isn't it?...not made easy by the fact he is wearing a tracksuit top. I thought Okker was flipping at first but slowly came to the conclusion he wasn't.

I found Okker a tough one to diagnose...the hardest one yet actually.

When he starts attacking the ball it looks like the typical WTA forehand, maybe Sharapova like, racquet parallel to the ground?

[bottle]

Brosseau on Serve: Make Elbow Go Up All The Time

Okay.

[bottle]

My Adaptation

Analyzing this shot is fine intellectual pursuit, and I've tried to do it periodically, and was very surprised the first time I met somebody else doing the same thing.

This guy was a good competitor and beat me the one time we played singles, but was playing at less than his true potential because of his insistence on his Okkerish experiment.

Friends through his relatives later told me about his great success in Florida in USTA seniors tennis.

The first reason I'm excited about these present experiments of my own is Steve Navarro's idea of using Ben Hogan's right hand in the Gary Player video for a continental forehand.

Using that, I become an adapter of Okker, not an imitator. Okker is just the take-off point.

First difference is that in frame 3 the arm should be bent and the wrist laid back (or "up").

First very important similarity is that hips and shoulders start rotating very early-- the "baseball" section of Ben Hogan's forward golf swing.

I feel that the bent right arm smoothly turns out to acceleration point as identified in one key photograph in Percy Boomer's golf book.

One doesn't need to own the book-- in fact a girl stole mine-- but one would be smart to ask, "Where exactly in this desired tennis stroke does slow smoothness end and abrupt acceleration begin?"

The answer probably comes from the present Rick Macci Tennis Player video, which is about a completely different stroke delivered with strong eastern grip or more.

The patting of a mangy mutt suggests some gentleness. In desired stroke here, the gentleness is the gentle baseballing.

Me, I plan to own and use both strokes. For topspinning a real low ball, I don't think you can beat a continental forehand, and I've seen it done.

Well, what happens immediately after the "baseballing?" The arm suddenly straightens so that racket head whirls inside of hand and nearly squashes your right foot.

In a nano-second the swing trajectory has changed from baseball to bowling or golf.

In another nano-second, well, take it from Tom Okker's actual words: "The top-spin forehand is hit with the racket strings looking down at the court. Arm and wrist are firm through impact, as in the flat forehand, but they roll over together as the racket meets the ball in order to cause the strings to brush up and over the ball and impart the desired top spin."

All I can say right now is that there is a hell of a swoosh.