A New Year's Serve

[don_budge]

Doubles tactics...

I played doubles last night with three different partners, one of whom said to his partner, a nice compliment to me, "Stay away from his backhand!"

Here's a little idea on how to use that dandy new slice backhand of yours. With both opponents at the net, on any given ball hit to your backhand in doubles...hit the ball low and slow just over the net precisely between your two opponents. Mix it up with some nicely placed lobs once they start leaning on the net. Their responses might surprise you. Balls hit right down the middle in doubles tend to give the opponents a little brain fart...a moment of indecision. Lobs over their heads are particularly annoying. It's best to destroy their morale and the fabric of their teamwork if you can...get them to give each other a little stink eye.

"I thought you had it."

[bottle]

Walk Plain, Daddy

I really think that the smallest challenge in tennis, some very specific fine point, can and should receive multiple views perhaps on the same day or another.

I played doubles last night with three different partners, one of whom said to his partner, a nice compliment to me, "Stay away from his backhand!"

All I was doing was hitting slice service returns, but a few of them I got hold of just right.

My best partner, a player far superior to me by virtue of his huge Luxilon-aided topspin, revealed backhand slice in his repertoire as well.

It wasn't chopped but it was too violent. Just deciding that gives me a next step to try in the continued development of my own.

I don't know how many people have followed my discussion of backhand slice in detail. A few have.

These would recognize that I went from three distinct items in the backswing to two. Today is the day, however, when I reduce my backswing to a single thought.

Here's the plan: A unified backswing followed by a disciplined loop and an easy, barely descending roundabout swing starting from high up on the upper body.

But how does one manufacture ease? One doesn't. Anyone can be violent and sometimes the result can be good, no doubt enticing the person much too much to try for more of the same.

But in the case of this particular shot, relaxation is key and Ken Rosewall the model. So how can we relax more? Ease up on grip? Why not? Hand pressure can naturally increase at contact. Swing the racket head from fingers in both directions, becoming aware only of it? Why not? Swing so smoothly that the ball doesn't even cross the net? Again, why not? Won't a person be wise to explore every threshold?

[bottle]

That's the exact word that the incipient Hollins Mafia used in its mostly positive evaluation of my 1962 M.A. thesis in writing.

"Quirky, unpredictable talent" were the consensus words arrived at by a panel consisting of Southern literature expert Louis D. Rubin, Jr., AFTER THE LOST GENERATION author John Aldrich, the indomitable critic Irene Chayes, Russian literature great guy Jesse Zeldin, poet John Allen and John Moore (Irish literature mogul and ghost editor of PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK by Annie Dillard).

These English Department denizens were covering their collective butt in case I were quickly to perish in obscurity or eventually have a huge succes d'estime through selling $60 of electronic books in The Kindle Store at Amazon.

[don_budge]

Just call me...

"Young man," he said, looking straight up two or three feet at my chin, "you have psychological problems, don't you?"

Quirky.

[tennis_chiro]

A classic

I skipped English at school. I somehow came across a copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk & White in my thirties and took it from there. It's never too late to learn...the thing is you have to want to learn...didn't want to learn at school...did want to learn later in life. I loved The Elements of Style. It served as a great starting place.

Strunk and White is as much a classic as Gonzales' service motion. I think I still have my original copy from freshman english at Harvey Mudd. I probably should pull it out and review it!

don

[stotty]

I skipped English at school. I somehow came across a copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk & White in my thirties and took it from there. It's never too late to learn...the thing is you have to want to learn...didn't want to learn at school...did want to learn later in life. I loved The Elements of Style. It served as a great starting place.

[bottle]

~

I liked your in-depth criticism of Nadal's serve and might split with tennis chiro on his more favorable view of it-- if I were less self-centered and not almost solely concerned with MY OWN SERVE.

I've employed both your roller coaster image and tennis chiro's figure eights to good advantage. Used to have a straight back or almost straight back take away like Richard Gonzalez or Nadal but abandoned it.

The down and up of roller coaster figure eight is so much better for the nerves.

[bottle]

Probably a good choice. If I were doing it all over I'd do more politics, history and economics in the hope of becoming more "engaged" with the world I live in-- sooner. I don't reject anything concerning English syntax and literature but think these subjects could have been approached from a different direction. They would mean more if the person were more engaged and had significant life experience. This idea isn't mine but rather Gore Vidal's . A gay man, sure, but so was Whitman, Auden, Tennessee Williams, Tilden, probably Melville, etc., etc. A lot of brilliance in that group. The point is, Vidal wrote great historical novels including BURR. He seems to have understood Aaron Burr better than anyone else who ever lived. And wasn't bad on people like Jefferson and Washington, too. But he wrote novel novels and plays and everything. Rejecting its best intellectuals is what America does too often. The New York Times wouldn't mention his name because it thought he was "queer." So he wrote mysteries under the name of Edward Box and The Times, not realizing the new author was he, praised these books to the sky. I remember how my old teacher, William Golding after my encounters with him at Hollins College ("Young man," he said, looking straight up two or three feet at my chin, "you have psychological problems, don't you?" He nicely changed his tune after he read the one big thing I'd written which I cared about) said stuff, extremely laudatory stuff about Gore Vidal in one magazine or journal or another. That was when I started to take Vidal a bit more seriously, and I've never regretted that decision. Anyway, Anne Golding was a perfectly lovely lady, and I certainly don't think William Golding was gay, but here's another point: He wasn't a homophobe either. Being a homophobe or anything phobe is self-destructive behavior. Oh, where was I? English teachers! Had a few good ones. A pox on the rest of them (the majority). Woulda, shoulda, coulda? Would have, should have, could have? Or would of, should of, could of? The latter is more charming, the former more "correct." Take yr. choice.

[don_budge]

Conspiracy?

Mr. Arrogant won that day. I don't think he would have on another (or "would of," as don_budge likes to say). But the old black guy, who didn't have an arrogant bone in his body, became a tennis hero of mine.

Very funny bottle...are you and tennis_chiro conspiring? I dropped out of the only English class I had in college...in fact I didn't even bother to drop, I just stopped going after the first class and got an "F"! Thank God for the EDIT function on this forum!

On the other hand...congratulations on the backspin backhand. That should be a welcome addition to your repertoire.

[bottle]

An Upbeat Report

I thought I had good slice but this is best ever.

It's so easy to say something like that-- too easy. But the present experiment has shown steady progress throughout, and I'd like to think I have the humility and gratefulness to accept that.

If I didn't try to develop this shot for long enough before, it was because I thought the slice I already had was sufficient for my needs-- what a mistake. And how often does EVERYBODY sell themself short through making a mistake like that?

Since this forum is a place where people can share "real experiences" along with instruction and ideas about instruction, my thoughts on slice right now are influenced by two brothers, two black guys in Winston-Salem, one that I hit with and the other that I just watched (when I lived in W-S, NC-- now I'm in Detroit).

The first, Nathan, is a very good teaching pro. After I hit with him a couple of times (always for free-- I never bought a lesson), he advised that I should hit slice on my backhand side all the time. There was nothing conceptual about this. He just could tell from hitting with me that my slice was working and would bother a lot of people.

So what was my slice? Oh, a shot where one sends barrel of the racket smoothly toward the net then changes direction of this slight momentum through suddenly clenching one's shoulderblades together. In my version, the bent arm is allowed to straighten passively propelled only by the clench.

The shot is zippy, low, quick to get off from simple straight back preparation that allows you to imagine you just can see a ring on your middle finger.

It carries a lot of sidespin, too, very good when you want it, maybe not so good when you don't.

The new shot, the one I've discussed here so much, includes a much bigger
backswing and control of everything, but this backswing, I think, after the editing I carried out today, takes hardly any more time than the straight back, abbreviated version I've used for years. Best is the way grip change turning over the racket blends into moving teeter-totter.

Great depth, control, pace, consistency, low bounce, diversity-- what more does anyone want from their backhand slice? And I can chop the ball, also, if I want, with CHOP probably more disrespected (stupidly) in modern tennis even than backhand slice.

Of course if you use the word "chip," then people think it's okay, not understanding that CHIP AND CHOP in tennis are exactly the same, call it CHIP-CHOP?

I don't know the other guy's name. I just know he was one of the oldest tennis players one might ever see in Winston-Salem, and he was playing a tall, strapping, globally ranked senior, very whitebread, who had just returned from international competition in Europe.

It was a juried tournament for seniors; I, for instance, could not have played in it but may catch all of these guys in the eighties depending on what Tuesday's MRI says.

The old black guy sliced every backhand until Mr. Arrogant came in. And then he whipped a topspin passing shot past the punk. What a great way to play, I thought. But Mr. Arrogant didn't share my admiration. I can't remember his hateful language to his cronies during changeovers. I'll only say this. Mr. Arrogant was so arrogant that one couldn't tell whether he was racist or just plain arrogant.

Mr. Arrogant won that day. I don't think he would have on another (or "would of," as don_budge likes to say). But the old black guy, who didn't have an arrogant bone in his body, became a tennis hero of mine.

[bottle]

~

I'm sticking with everything in the previous post at least until I get to the court. And have decided, from the four films, that Trey Waltke's hand is even, while at its highest point, with Waltke's chin.

I'll try, very simple, to let grip change put hand at level of the chin. Teeter-totter then will occur with hand at the same level but proceeding around.

I may keep hand at a pretty high level during the forward swing, as Waltke does.
That means forward roll will be more of a feathering and less of a gravity-assisted downward chop with the elbow. Bend knees more to be able to do this?

Once forward roll along with straightening of the arm is concluded, the L-shaped arm-racket combination does resemble a 19th century New England or Tolstoyan scythe, one of the most subtle instruments ever devised by man.

Such a scythe, with its two handles, works well with a 3/4 golf swing, but wouldn't be adaptable to 2/4 (a purely horizontal baseball swing) or 4/4 (a purely vertical golf cutter (swing) replaced by weed whackers anyway). In the latter two instances the blade tip would be too high and too low, and this information could have relevance.

[bottle]

Chunk the Backswing, then Mime the Impossible

Taking guidance from John M. Barnaby stressing the advisability of eliminating needless motion from every tennis stroke, I look at # 850 and see where, speaking of the elbow, I say, "it spirals slightly upward around the body," also "it rises altogether just a few inches."

Fine, there's nothing wrong with that unless it implies three steps: 1)grip change, 2)spiral, 3)moving teeter-totter. Why three steps? Why not two?

Writers call this "editing." Most often it involves paring or removal. After four or five decades of doing it there's no longer an agonizing reappraisal.

Combining grip change and spiral would pare something. All I'd have to do is make a trip to the magical auto parts store and purchase a windshield wiper and not necessarily a new one but rather a used discard from the forehand pile.

Now we're ready to go fast and slow, medium speed and everything in between. Whether there's an Arco blade in our wiper or some other brand doesn't matter. Time to change reference: Think of the old man of the sea, Santos, arm-wrestling. With elbow on the table he pries his forearm mightily.

To say he puts all of himself into it would be understatement. So the elbow comes up a little and follows the motion. This would be little you-I's grip change, but only if the you in little you-I is coming along with me in development of Trey Waltke's variation of Rosewallian slice.

Let's digress. Have faith-- we'll come back. Ken Rosewall didn't write a great article for us on how to hit slice like him, something that's been passed down from decade to decade. No, he spoke with his racket only. Besides, he twists his arm backward real late sometimes and that's hard to do while still maintaining a firm overall stroke. Possible, no doubt. Will try it sometime? Of course.

Simplicity says however to work with Waltke's variation. So we're back with two motions only, 1) a grip change that turns the racket over and lifts the elbow a few inches while carrying it around, 2) the moving hydraulic teeter-totter described in # 850. A key is floating the hand, declaring the hand center or fulcrum of the seesaw, keeping the hand at a single moving height while racket tip (one boy) goes down and the elbow (the other boy) goes up.

Very complicated. So what. Life often is. To make it simple we chunk the whole backswing into a single thought.

That's the process. Develop desired pattern. Meld the parts into one motion. When you've got it, try it fast, slow, medium, at every possible speed. Tennis is the game of emergencies, so prepare thyself for all weathers.

Enough on backswing. Use similar hydraulics under forward racket head path. How much though and where? And what can we mime to make ourselves ready?

Well, don't be an angry mime like a mid-level touring professional who has just muffed an easy shot. Those mimed motions always involve one hand only along with the self-destructive anger. More bad shots are on the way.

One hand only can't be correct here since we don't want to practice wrong movement with either hand ever. And left hand movement is minimal in this stroke. If balance were way off, you might lift both wings like a phoenix bird, but left hand in the ideal just releases racket, falls down to behind rear hip, doesn't counter backward by more than a few inches.

So, from end of backswing with racket head having just dropped beneath rear shoulder, pinch racket on trailing edge to guide it through as much of desired trajectory as you can while keeping body faced toward side fence.

To do this, tell the left hand that he is an actor playing a role that has nothing to do with his real life, so after his brief scene on stage he can just retire to the blue room and go comatose like a sloth.

One knows the desired racket trajectory, doesn't one? It's an almost level swing with the slightest downward grade scything through contact-- can you do that with left hand (on strings) only? Barely.

For scythe's rise to end of followthrough you'll need right hand on handle of a real or imagined racket.

To repeat this motion please remember, reader, you're miming the path of the racket head, not of the left hand unless maybe you're doing a two-hander or two-hander one-hander experiment.

The point is to master one-arm hitting arm hydraulics under the desired racket head path. So as you execute the beginning of a perfect forward racket head trajectory with your left hand, you hold a real racket with proper grip and watch what your relaxed right arm now must do.

Once that's learned, memorize and drill.

Finally, you chunk the whole stroke so it's a single thought.

[bottle]

Top of the Backswing to You

I've been to the court, where I dropped and hit 200 balls (two baskets).

Today I'm only looking at first looped video in the Waltke article, which is repeating over and over in front of me as I write in longhand.

And I'm only thinking about the backswing.

It's clearly a shallow rise.

The elbow rises altogether just a few inches.

But how does it rise-- by one or two methods?

By two, I submit. 1) it spirals slightly upward around the body. 2) it twists up a bit at the end.

This conclusion explains to myself how the racket head drops lower than Trey's rear shoulder while his twisting hand seems hardly to change level at all.

The same conclusion forces me to doubt if not change my previous opinion that the hand never pauses just changes direction. Could two opposite things be true at once?

In any case, there's a unit of transition at the top worth emulating for anyone who seeks precision every time.

I'm thinking today that twisting hand floats at one level. To make it do that, one may need to raise elbow straight up as the hand twists and the elbow twists, too!

This is subtle stuff to be worked out at the court through fiddling with hand, bent arm, and racket. Words, however, may take one closer to best experiment.

And if I'm getting somewhere in my lucubration, the best final cue may be a teeter-totter, a seesaw with hand as pivot point.

I hate to muddy up such a pure and possibly helpful image, but BIG WRAP of racket head around the body is adding to the power potential of Waltke's shot, so maybe elbow is winding farther around the body while it does the other stuff. Later, one can possibly miniaturize and abbreviate and put the whole stroke out front for the purpose of sticking a backhand volley. You then could have no roll to block this volley and yes roll to stick it. Hand moving less has got to sound good for any volley and maybe even for the other strokes as well.

The basic roll in slice idea seems good in view of the twisting forward combined with arm straightening about to occur. Elbow forcibly dropping as it twists forward creates a powerful mechanism below the relatively level racket head path.

[bottle]

~

The thinking about what happens at top of the backswing is now a light year away from before.

The hand rises gradually up and back until it changes direction without a pause.

The turning over of the racket that occurs at the very top of the gradual hand rise, and is mere continuation of something started earlier, wraps the racket tip farther around the body-- as hand goes up.

[bottle]

~

A day later and it seems, viewing the same films, that Waltke's hand actually is still going up and back as the racket tip twists down (or "drops").