A New Year's Serve

[don_budge]

yes...and yes again!

O tell me, swami, what do you see?

Swami: I see, my son, Federer's shoulders turn as he run. I don't see him hold partially turned shoulders at a single setting the way some players do. No, it's all gradual and smooth. However far away the ball he'll be slightly turning the whole way.

Me: O thanks, swami. I think I became temporarily confused on that point.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

Note: Feel free to disagree. First, body and racket turn as a unit. Then independent arm swing starts with both hands on racket: The path is up and around. Then down and around as hitting hand alone holds the racket. Then arm straightening as body pauses before its change of direction. In four of these five videos left arm pointing is integral to shoulders turning. In one of them shoulders may be still while left arm points-- or not. It's close.

Yes, yes....and yes again. Why disagree...when you are absolutely right? The backswing...especially on the forehand and service motion is utterly important. Your observation about the shoulders turning cannot be over emphasized...to beginners or cagey veterans. The backswing for the forehand and the serve is so dependent upon the shoulders turning and rather independent of arm motion that it is the fundamental concept about swinging something...be it a tennis racquet, golf club, baseball bat or even an ax as one student of mine suggested.

Of course there is independent arm motion...but it is subtle and entirely in synch with the shoulders...which are entirely in synch with the hips...which are entirely in synch with the legs...which are entirely in synch with the placement of the feet. In golf they say...never let your arms get ahead of your shoulders. One might say the same thing in tennis, or baseball, or wielding an ax.

Even on the run Roger Federer effortlessly morphs from his ready position into the backswing before he effortlessly morphs into his forward motion...it all adds up to a wonderfully blended swing with impeccable balance producing splendid swings from less than perfect position. His ability to synchronize his whole body into his swing on the forehand side is unparalleled. Others do a great job in their renditions and interpretations, but there is something just a bit more sublime about the way the Swiss Maestro executes.

Pardon me for interrupting...I couldn't resist.

[bottle]

The Swami Speaks

O tell me, swami, what do you see?

Swami: I see, my son, Federer's shoulders turn as he run. I don't see him hold partially turned shoulders at a single setting the way some players do. No, it's all gradual and smooth. However far away the ball he'll be slightly turning the whole way.

Me: O thanks, swami. I think I became temporarily confused on that point.

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/roger-federer/

Note: Feel free to disagree. First, body and racket turn as a unit. Then independent arm swing starts with both hands on racket: The path is up and around. Then down and around as hitting hand alone holds the racket. Then arm straightening as body pauses before its change of direction. In four of these five videos left arm pointing is integral to shoulders turning. In one of them shoulders may be still while left arm points-- or not. It's close.

[bottle]

Match Play Report

The court judge, after accompanying me to the indoor Friday night tennis social, announced that he had reversed his earlier opinion: Forehand improvement, yes, but no improvement in serve, in fact some deterioration.

To me, this was great though remediable disappointment, and I decided immediately to make my serve crazier, more uninhibited, less self-conscious but most of all absent of any concern over amount of arm bend at reverse of gross bod.

This seemed appropriate to a tennis venue on the exact border between the lean streets of Detroit with darkened houses abandoned or blackened by flame and the gross bods of Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

This decision retained openness to my heretical opinion that right-angled arm in "trophy position" is mere convention with no causative connection to excellence, a purely arbitrary constant no better or worse than any other to give the universal chaos of the most complicated stroke in tennis some shape.

[bottle]

Two for Two, the Court Reporter Says

Forehand and Serve. Remember, he told you when there weren't improvements.

[bottle]

The Bubble Returns

To save time (birthday rolling around), I've got to perform mastectomies on both my forehand and my serve today.

On forehand, I am taken with the inverted boot image that now exists in forum parlance.

On serve, it is "needled elbow" that obsesses me. As recently as yesterday, speaking on Tennis Channel, Jimmy Arias opined that Argentines in general have trouble with their serves, and that Juan Del Potro, big as he is, would have a still much better serve if he had only learned to needle his elbow when he was a kid.

"Needle the elbow" is of course my own language with faint connection to the Biblical bookie's admonition that a rich man has as good a chance of making it to heaven as a camel does of passing through the eye of a needle.

The language that Arias uses is different but his partiality toward both halves of arm pressing together is the same as Ivan Lendl's and mine.

Before I go any further, I should postulate that Jimmy Arias and I have had a shaky virtual relationship ever since he infuriated me with his statement a couple years ago that nobody with a rating of 4.5 or less should use windshield wipers.

It's raining outside, I thought, and all the 4.5's are crashing into trees.

Now, two years later, I've calmed down and almost agree. The Scott Murphy article "The Classical Forehand: A Living Model" did most to bring me around. I wish only to add to my forehand arsenal, however, not replace it. And have no intention ever in this lifetime of relinquishing my Federfore so long that I'm sure that-- Eureka!-- it continues to evolve.

And so, today, I re-introduced the "bubble" I took out. That "bubble" refers to the little sideways move of the elbow I noticed in rear view videos of Rog. That little move is how he closes the racket an extra amount, I asserted, and I still think so, but oh, dumbo me.

The elbow doesn't just move toward the right fence. No, it's freewheeling and continues to circle around toward rear fence. I was wrong ever to think that Roger's backswing was an example of solid arm-and-bod construction.

On the contrary, just as there is a section of Federfore foreswing if not foreskin in which arm moves faster than body, there is a longer section of backswing in which the same can be said and I say it.

To review, Roger pivots his racket along with his body. Analysis: solid arm-and-bod connect.

He might bound toward ball a while that way-- more often not-- but sooner or later the shoulders will continue to slowly turn as a function of Roger's pointing at right fence.

This is so different from Del Potro or Popp. Somebody must, not verbally or in a forum post or private email but cosmologically and internally deep in silent thought concede me this point. Del Potro and Popp point at the right fence but not to turn their shoulders.

What's the desire here? Shoulders that rotate in unit turn. Shoulders that continue to rotate from left arm pointing at side fence, while arm, bent, describes the shape of an inverted L.L. Bean calf-high hunting boot: i.e., the elbow gently rises up that glutinous sole, and then, as the shoulders rest, extends backward/downward with all arm motion still in the slot. Keeping the arm motion continuous is important. But during pointing of the left hand the right hand goes back faster than the shoulders.

On serve, I wrote myself a note: "Look, do whatever you have to in order to needle the arm early."

So, gravity drop of right arm may be the best combination of downward and sideways vector-- whatever coils arm immediately for a throw that feels dramatic beyond belief-- the top of a pitcher's windup.

Rotation of upper arm, now "purified" as it were, becomes a non-complicated event of timed sequence.

[bottle]

Stick to Your Own Kind

Went to court, where the final judgment was: "Don't mess with your toss. Think of billiards. Are you dead stick? No, there was no pause between your drawback and your stroke whatsoever on the day in the Winston-Salem bars when you upset that baldy bouncer guy. So put no pause at bottom of your downswing for your toss, either.

"But preserve the tweak where you drop the racket at 80 instead of 90 degrees and a longer service tract in general.

"Just make up for the extra tract with extra speed of motion. That way you can follow all the ideas of Post # 1367 without destroying any basics and should do no worse than expected in geezer doubles tomorrow at dawn."

[bottle]

Shake It Up!

I am now ready to extend my runway downward, sideward, upward, crossward and downward before my arm even needles and circles to align racket with right edge of body preparatory to zinging up to the ball and departing from it crossward to outside and returning downward and crossward to my left side.

I am further now ready to delay toss until the upward arc of the "upward, crossward and downward" section of this airplane pathway past cargo trucks in Chicago, Atlanta or Amsterdam. I'm going to do that and still say I have a down-together, up-together serve.

How? Easy. By, while tall body sways forward, letting toss arm drop naturally and pause as hitting hand steadily runs through its newly lengthened path down and then up to right as single motion during this phase.

And I'll call the whole service racket tract my runway instead of the brief path from racket-aligned-with-right-edge to ball.

Hope, my hope is for something no one will ever see in a big airport. (Hope is my partner.) That is even acceleration at least to right edge alignment, followed by uneven acceleration past the ball and easy deceleration after that. Am I that good? If not, I'll try something else.

One strange feature of this schema: Flying straight arm so far out to right that bending it will return racket on a collision course with one's head. Twisting upper arm within its rotor socket will counter this tendency and increase the underestimated though effective leverage of hand measurement to back of head.

A threshing heels serve in my view emphasizes forward hips turn while minimizing shoulders rotation from the gut. (Translation as you touch your leading shoulder: "Stay closed here.") The threshing heels themselves play arm against the body. The hips rotate forward as a single movement broken but intellectually only into two parts: 1) internal and 2) rear leg driven.

If you were lucky enough as I was at outset to have good teaching pro instruction in this non-fly service mode, you probably recall crossing an imaginary bridge with your body, with leg then coming round to catch up and receive your weight.

At some point, however, Jim Kacian, USPTA, alluded to my right leg and said, "Go. Go with it!"

I'm now more than ready to use both legs to increase the power, speed and effectiveness of my secondary hips turn.

If one has done the full threshing of heels, left leg again goes from flat to up on toes this time to allow an extending pivot without which you may destroy your leg. Yes, you will destroy your leg if you pit the full force of your hips against a flat, locked foot.

Rear leg can nevertheless be a prime driver. Get good purchase with your rear tennis shoe and use your quad! Assumption: Late body bend or archer's bow and a toss a two full feet in front of the baseline.

Big questions: Will I actually change my serve to fit the above description or simply try to learn from it? Would I teach this stuff to an innocent child or a decrepit bearded senior? Am I really prepared to fiddle with my toss in such a major way as another birthday rolls around?

I certainly plan to run the experiment on this day after election day. The result may be declined service performance in early morning seniors doubles tomorrow, but this is the normal price for significant departure in tennis technique, I would have to say.

[don_budge]

Flop...

A fuller flip, in theory, would make timing more difficult, and make the shot more risky. The trade off, one would think, would be greater power. The flip is the very last event in the chain before contact with the ball...the last build up of energy to be unleashed.

A more minimal flip would equal less risk and more reliable timing, but perhaps less power. In the article, Karsten is attributed as being a rock solid player who makes few errors. I wonder how powerful he his compared to fuller flippers?

A fuller flip would be a flop...the kiss of death to stability and repeatability under any kind of pressure on the forehand side for mere mortals and the average tennis student. Laying the wrist back in the early part of the backswing a bit more has some nice benefits though...encouraging the hinge to allow the door to slam. I don't like the term "flip"...it's too flippant. Too haphazard.

The dictionary describes flip as "turn over or cause to turn over with a sudden sharp movement" which is I hope not the case. The role of the wrist is a deliberate and measured response to the weight of the racquet head as related to the movement of the body.

The more that we see the rest of Karsten's game the more we will understand the reasons for the mechanics of his forehand...I think. I suspect that his backhand and volley technique somehow mirror his forehand technique.

[stotty]

Flipping...

A fuller flip, in theory, would make timing more difficult, and make the shot more risky. The trade off, one would think, would be greater power. The flip is the very last event in the chain before contact with the ball...the last build up of energy to be unleashed.

A more minimal flip would equal less risk and more reliable timing, but perhaps less power. In the article, Karsten is attributed as being a rock solid player who makes few errors. I wonder how powerful he his compared to fuller flippers?

[bottle]

To Flip or Not to Flip

Karsten Popp's forehand, as we've seen in "The Traditional Forehand: A Living Model" by Scott Murphy, contains the modern element of mondo or flip but not much of one. Stotty of Great Britain was among those pointing this out.

What determines how much one flips-- if one has decided to flip-- and can one still not flip, say on a service return, once one has adopted the flippant attitude?

Is amount of flip decided by fate, a broken arm, natural flexibility or simple willpower? Eric Matuszewski of Princeton asserted some time back that Roger Federer's wrist is extraordinary in its ability to bend backward and even suggested exercises to increase the ordinary player's range.

This to me was similar to rotor flex in the serve. Can you hold upper arm parallel to court and with a right angled forearm make it twist back to parallel with the court? Me neither.

Always, I've thought, the next time you junk a car, you can just stay inside. Perhaps the compactor can pulverize the adhesions in your shoulder and your wrist and your car all at the same time.

Another thing Matuszewski said was also of great interest: That mondo or flip consists of two simultaneous elements, layback of wrist and winding around of forearm.

Where I'm going with regard to closing the racket from an eastern grip: Instead of long arm from beginning of Karsten Popp or "bubble" in wind-back of Roger Federer, modify waiting position by carrying bent elbow farther to right. Then use the simplified backswing of Popp. Then use the timing element of arm extension like Federer. Then use the flip of Federer, driven passively by gross body, I would argue.

The difference in flip for a person limited in wrist range will be that he compensates with more winding of the forearm. This will naturally happen because of lower backswing. Racket butt will make as if to bonk the rear fence.

But is this a good idea? Worth a try-- my opinion always. Does a fuller flip help timing? Probably depends on what else you're not doing.

[bottle]

The Drawing

Here:

[bottle]

To Needle or Not to Needle

One can, from drawing number four here decide whether Don Budge's elbow already has "needled" on the left side of his body when viewed from behind.

Certainly the angle between the two halves of his arm is less than 90 degrees. Certainly Don Budge has just twisted his upper arm like an axle. Awfully early for that, some would say. And certainly the two halves of his arm have squeezed together at least somewhat.

Somebody might still call this "trophy position" but not I.

People throw that expression around far too much without ever making the important distinctions under the label. To Vic Braden, trophy meant a specific trophy in which elbow was still low and close to body-- seen as extremely bad. To Scott Murphy, in one of his early articles, trophy meant a nice right angle set fairly low in which hand aligns directly over elbow-- seen as a good thing.

Whatever one calls drawing/position 4 here, upper arm is parallel to court but lower arm, i.e. forearm, is tilted toward side fence, and, personally speaking, I want to get there fast.

To me this discussion is significant since an elbow that is needled for longer than in most serves, with consistency of motion always the goal, is not as much of a crap shoot.

One difference however in drawing # 4 from the scheme I've recently been advancing: The racket is closed. The wrist may still be curled. The palm is beveled, not vertical. Worth a try. The real point may be how many inches there are between DB's hand and his head, equaling leverage. Quite a lot.

[bottle]

"You've watched me age before your very eyes."-- Barack Obama

If building on the needled elbow of post # 1360 one can ask what precise down-together, up-together configuration most comfortably fits this scheme.

Although I love the idea of a pure gravity drop 90 degrees to court, I am now ready to let vertical path veer about ten degrees to outside, to go down at 80 degrees. Setting of elbow when both hands lift together to prepare for initial drop accomplishes this goal.

This tweak winds the upper arm more naturally and less self-consciously as the arm coils the racket upward and around one's back. We've seen wrist arching then as well. Which means that one will twist the upper arm quite far (in my case as far as it will comfortably go) to achieve vertical palm if one thinks like me that vertical palm will help. With more spring to occur in this twist in the subsequent phase of the serve.

Which will be a continued body twist from down below during which scapular retraction also will occur. Tail end actions include extension of legs to increase the scapular retraction still more.

Two different phases occur in all such full exploration of some designated stroke, it seems to me. First is an opening of possibilities. Second is a closing of them down.

Admittedly I'm in first phase here. The prospect of hand (and therefore racket) whirling around the body at greater distance from it however excites me quite a lot due to the increased leverage this affords.

[bottle]

Perception in Learning a New Serve

The new serve, with some modification to the feet, occurs in this video:

https://www.tennisplayer.net/tp_player/don-budge/

Some might call this rear view film of the early J. Donald Budge serve a Model A Ford. But there can be very good reasons for adopting its basic scheme, not least that one doesn’t have be a phony in pretending that one is Michael Jordan, specifically does not have to overcome one’s own body weight in delivering the shot, which could be basic advantage over older ways but just as likely is the pure affectation of current fashion.

This serve, like any good serve, sends energy toward the sky, but in a slanted direction slightly closer to being parallel to the ground. To further understand this serve’s subtleties, one may like me have to take a basket of balls to a court—repeatedly—trying out the imitation until one reaches one’s own conclusion or two.

Then one returns to the video and perhaps sees, for the first time, some of the speculative discoveries one just has made—you’re looking for confirmation, you might say.

First is the way the racket rises behind Don Budge’s body—toward us, the camera or viewer, as it turns out, and therefore is a bit difficult to see.

In one smooth movement the elbow and wrist coil and the upper arm twists to take the racket head farther behind the human head. Palm is facing down at the beginning of this rise but by the end of it faces forward, so that a big long ruler pressed against the palm would form a perpendicular to the court.

Next, the arm forms a needle, i.e., the two halves of the arm glue themselves together and stay that way for much longer than in many serves. They are glued together on left side of body, glued together directly behind the body, still glued together on right side of the body.

[bottle]

More Spin: Expectation vs. Reality

Commonality between fiction and tennis: Reality gets pitted against expectation again, again and again.

The mood one wants when doing tennis experiment: Super-alive to possibility.

The tennis masses can have their cut-and-dried tennis knowledge since, invariably, it's insufficient.

Re Post # 1357: Increased racket head speed can come not from gut but from farther down.

Thus, one winds up as indicated but doesn't fire from the gut. Rather, one uses the transverse stomach muscles to form one's desired loop in the most natural and relaxed way. Very little force or range from the stomach gets used.

Now you sling your throw with threshing heels, but don't be in a hurry with them.

The threshing embraces contact, doesn't precede it nor coincide strictly with, say, last little effort of fingers and hand.

One benefit of this is that head will remain stationary or slightly rise but certainly won't sink at contact.

Note: Guess what. I penciled these words before I went to the court but decided afterward that I was mostly right.

But something must have happened at the court? Decided to 1) Join racket opening with shoulders still winding back. 2) Not fire the shoulders at all, just tighten the stomach muscles at same point where would have done that.

Real life result: Not exactly what I want but a significant increase in racket head speed which was part of the goal.