A New Year's Serve

[lobndropshot]

I agree it is important to say every day out loud "I am a rotorted server." Nothing affects your whole game like being a Rotorted server. Which is why I am submitting my application to become a lifetime member of the RSA. May I join?

[bottle]

"I Am A Rotorded Server"

I'd like to confess to this meeting of the Rotorded Serving Association (RSA) that I am a rotorded server, something that maybe or maybe not one should say every day, i.e., somebody who can't get the racket tip very low. My Don Budge modeled serve (http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...DB1stSRear.mov) has nevertheless been coming along well.

If I try to explain this, will I curb my progress? Possibly but I'm not superstitious so I'll take that risk.

A significant factor, I believe, is my decision to concentrate on lengthening the arm in three melded steps: First arm straightens at the still elbow then hand continues at end of the straight arm, then straight arm becomes even longer due to rotating backward with the two shoulder balls.

As shoulders and arm in line with them rotate backward, but near end of this part, the hips start their rotation forward. Then shoulders spring fast to pass the hips, and let's not even talk right now about what the arm does then and before and after.

The combination of shoulders going backward and hips going forward is a good time for one to alter the tilt of the shot by thrusting out the turning hips toward the net.

One adds to this the important notion of gliding forward as one tosses. At first I only did this as hitting arm straightened but now continue with it through straight arm taking its solo.

[bottle]

Observation

Reader, I gave you a pretty good thing in # 3139 if you can understand it and learn to use it well. Of course you probably are using something else that you think is just as good and maybe better. We won't debate. We'll just play against each other.

Bottle, I gave you a pretty good thing in # 3139 . Look at it this way. Using a similar research method, you came up with two good forehands, first The McEnrueful and second The BAM! No one with whom you actually play, Bottle, would assert that either is a bad shot.

So this third shot, The Clarabell, besides going faster than the others will be an excellent shot too.

[bottle]

Maximizing Roll in a Clarabell

The Clarabell forehand, unlike its elbow hurling companion the BAM! forehand, can from identical forward preparation administer its topspin in upper arm then lower arm sequence.

My stuck or thing in this thread is speculation. Without almost constant speculation, in my view, one doesn't play good/fun tennis.

Today, in self-feed, I wish to try purposeful destablilization and restabilization of the elbow caused by roll from the forearm just as the elbow drives inside out.

After contact, I expect the elbow roll to destabilize once again.

I'm thinking of the same preparation one uses for the BAM! version of a high lob.

The elbow of 3/4 length arm stays back as the racket tip topples or bowls quite far forward under the hand thus opening the racket face.

Now I start acceleration with a vigorous, destablilizing twist from the elbow. I used to have a ping-pong slam like this, unreliable and hit or miss. The savagery of it however was good and is the part I would like to preserve.

Rolling forearm chimes in for contact which ought to retard the spinning elbow (if we are believers in any kind of kinetic chain theory).

Design features: Racket tip to topple under with elbow held back. (This is when mondo happens.) Racket head to pry/slam forward with elbow held back. Forearm roll-- more controlled and taking strings in a more vertical direction-- to chime in as elbow, finally releasing, adds push to the ball.

This is just a scheme du jour. But one's more fanciful schemes sometimes lead to best result. What I like, before I go to the court, is the almost vertical racket tip position pointing down. This is enabled by an inside positioning of the racket quite close to the bod.

Report: This shot goes too fast to be useful as one's staple forehand for somebody of my age except maybe on a rare day. Used judiciously, however, it will interest me a lot.

[bottle]

PetraKordian: To Try

Front foot step with shoulders still turning back. Roll of arm to straighten arm and close racket and bring tip round a bit. Step with rear foot along baseline while hitting the ball.

This is a sequence, not a simultaneity, a sequence I want to explore. One question: Does step of the rear foot twist the body or does body twist drag the foot or both?

Report: Yes, not moving rear foot until arm has rolled seems to work well. And the main hit one then puts on the ball-- a combination of lengthening and twisting body-- might bring into mind two different skiers of the past who both were number one in the world at different times. Franz Klammer would angulate all over the place while Jean Claude Killy was always right over his feet. I have no doubt at all on the question of which method is easier to do.

Under the heading of "great accordion backhands I have known" I then place Vic Braden and Petr Korda with the same distinction between them as Klammer and Killy. Some who already think I am nuts will doubly think so for my putting Vic Braden's backhand at such a high worldwide level. I'll tell you what though, it was one of the best backhands I've ever seen, as Vic self-fed it on and off over a period of six hours.

[bottle]

A Tennis Firewall against Learning New Strokes

In self-feed yesterday I hit all kinds of Clarabells. They were honking all over the place.

Today in doubles competition I never hit a single Clarabell. Because I was too busy hitting BAM! forehands in which the racket tip topples under the hand which momentum initiates a big push-rich lift.

The topple needs to be precise to deliver one's desired result of trajectory, pace and spin. One sees different rates of success with these shots on different days; always however there seems a great option available of a topspin lob.

In any case I got involved in the technicalities of perfect "topple under." Many players some of them very good never get involved in the technicalities of anything.

Technicality in this subject can destroy the technicality of something else. So that some poor player gives up too soon.

I'll master my Clarabells. I'll remember the shape of them first off the court and then on the court and then in competitive play.

[bottle]

Knee the Ball

Anyone trying to hit the PetraKordian one hand backhand will find that Petr Korda's racket work is simple enough for easy acquisition.

Learning to knee the ball by sending the knee along or parallel to the baseline will prove a bit harder.

[bottle]

A Comparison of Clarabellan Honk

Honk in the case of Donald Trump has a clear context. Donald, like the original clown on the Howdy Doody Show honks but never says anything.

When one applies the word "honk" to a forehand in tennis, however, one means an entirely different thing.

And so, my Clarabell, named after Clarabell Trump, may turn out to be a good shot.

I know the tennis here, anathema to so many of my friends and relatives, will off-put some, but think of these two strokes-- the BAM! and the Clarabell-- in the following but no other way.

The BAM! can hit the ball in one direction. The Clarabell off of same preparation can hit it in another.

[bottle]

Are there any Tennis Players for whom Abduction is Better than Windshield Wipe?

Seems like a good question to me.

Abduction in anatomy (but not in astronomical pornography) is a lifting straight up of the arm so that the hand gets farther away from the bod.

Suppose that the arm is at 3/4 length. And that the racket has already achieved the perfect setting for what is about to come, namely topspin from abduction or from windshield wipe.

One will achieve one's better forehand, at that point, through simple choice, n'est-ce pas? nicht wahr?

[bottle]

Report

Now, having tried various versions of my Clarabell, I see that shot mechanics are going to carry the racket around and back toward the body.

But one can crank or wipe with all the vigor one can command. The fullest cranks will carry the racket tip up and sharply down.

The racket will return toward the body but low, not around the shoulder.

The form of any windshield wipe improves, it seems to me, when one has done something first to bring the racket tip around.

On a see see, e.g., one could use 1/2 arm length, key the forearm around level while mondoeing the hand.

That process however might take too long. Using 3/4 arm length instead, one purposefully twists the elbow, which though a risk is a shortcut.

The advantage is a quicker setting of strings in required position.

Similarly, in any kind of a Clarabell, one can hit the shot from 3/4 arm length too.

Earlier I tried to dismiss this maneuver despite its opportunity for more consolidation in one's game.

Today however with a more extreme version of wipe the 3/4th arm length self-fed Clarabells did not appear to be mediocre.

[bottle]

Clarabell is Having a Baby

Names are important. Titles are important. Words are important in describing a tennis stroke. Drawings can sometime get into secret places where photos and film cannot. Words can sometime exceed drawing. But one should draw on it all.

Me, I've got on the forehand side my McEnrueful, a solid body shot. And my BAM! going straight forward. You never have to worry about how inside out some swing is the way you do in golf or the swinging tennis strokes. The BAM! starts with a subtle keying forward of the racket tip both down and around. Much of this small move resembling a chip shot in golf is a function of 3/4 arm length. As I add to my store of useful terminology-- some of it personal since tennis is a personal game-- I see "half or right-angled arm," "three-quarter arm" and "straight arm" as increasingly potent distinction.

The BAM! forehand then is the subtle chip whose momentum melds into smooth elbow push and return of knuckles to the ear. If ever there were a forward emphasis shot this is it. "You had good energy in that forehand," Ken Hunt said yesterday after I ripped a winner. He is my favorite hitting partner ever, and I had the great good fortune to be paired with him. We won every one of the first ten points and might have continued that way if I hadn't pointed this out, but we played together a lot and never lost a game. And when the competition was over, Ken said, "John, you were hot today."

But working on new shots should never stop. And the Clarabell has room to develop. I picked that name because I thought this shot would honk without saying anything. But now I see it may be more subtle than I thought, unlike the hotel guy Clarabell Trump in whom I don't see any potential to develop past his sclerotic labels.

The Clarabell is hit with half length arm. Another way of putting this is that the arm is right-angled at the elbow. One assumes this pose early without the burden and superfluous motion of a loop.

Keying of the racket forward as if upper arm is the spoke in the hinge of a farm gate is the time when the hand mondoes back and down.

One cranks with whole arm then as elbow finally pushes forward like Manny Pacquaio.

Up until now, my design idea has been to combine this with a Federer like follow-through to left shoulder. But why not just maximize the crank out front instead and save BAM! as an entirely different looking forehand?

Mondo and crank seeming like equal motions now balance one another, but I haven't tried this symmetrical shot, the Clarabell junior, yet.

[bottle]

Progression: Footwork in one's PetraKordian

Time to watch the guy's feet-- easy to do once one channels one's determination (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA).

We taught ourselves to look at the 16 topspin backhands in this clip while ignoring the 16 forehands (unless one's forehand is similar to Petr Korda's).

So we became selective in watching just the backhands. Now we become selective again in watching the feet in these backhands.

A first thing to notice: Petr Korda is not playing Andre Agassi on grass. He is having a casual hardcourt hit with his son. Everything therefore is relaxed preference. And Petr steps way across.

He does not step toward the net. Or even step on a 45-degree angle to the net as Arthur Ashe advised in his writing for kids. When left to his druthers Petr steps almost parallel to the baseline.

In SECRETS OF A TRUE TENNIS MASTER, Welby Van Horn discusses step-outs of this extreme nature-- probably an emergency for most players. His take on these shots is that one should slide back foot over in the middle of one's production so as to replicate on the fly the more classical arrangement of both feet lining up on a perpendicular to the net.

Well, we've arrived at a point where we think the PetraKordian is a wonderful since easily produced shot. And it's been helping me a lot in my small competitions. But also, I am puzzled that this shot won't travel as fast as one of my forehands.

We look around for a reason. Was the step-out too early? But Petr's step-out definitely is early. One could even say he steps out while the shoulders are still turning backward.

No early hips turn in forward direction during or even before step-out then. In fact I have trouble seeing forward hips turn at all. I do see a lot of "accordion," i.e., the body thrust upward.

And now I see the rear foot extending from way behind him ("behind" in a direction along the baseline) to way in front of him (again along the baseline).

Whether Petr is relaxed and grounded as when hitting with his son or hopped up when playing Agassi, Lendl or Rios, this along-the-baseline transfer of rear foot whether big or small seems to take place almost every time.

It happens both when he is grounded and when he is up in the air.

I can't see the hips wriggle in this shot one sees in the backhand accordions of Vic Braden.

Today I therefore concentrate on sliding foot to turn extending body like a slow-twisting while lengthening cylinder.

Note: One needs to watch Petr's front foot, both in this video and any other. It points on a 45 degree angle-- easier maybe for a slightly bowlegged person than for a pigeontoed one. But that allows space for the body rotation about to occur. In some of the tournament sequences where Petr is really pressed he seems to get front foot across right at the very end and then spring up while turning in the air for an end landing much the same as when he hits the more grounded stroke. Angle of foot point wouldn't seem to matter so much then. An alternative to either of these possibilities would be a big pivot on the toes of the front foot-- more dangerous for a tot or old guy? What if he didn't get up on toes, kept foot flat? Ouch? Call the ambulance? Or was the shot too mild and relaxed and limited and wuss for that.

Second Note: Splaying front toes toward the net is not as difficult as I thought when one is stepping along the baseline. One can simply turn heel toward the side fence and call this a dance step.

Third Note, after Self-Feed: Let's look for a cue to make the second step-- rear foot sliding along the baseline-- work to twist the reverse-telescoping bod. I go to the knee since knee travel can lift heel and then drag toes.

[bottle]

Hips and Shoulders Turn in a PetraKordian?

The PetraKordian, a shot which I named myself, is one of the most minimalist and interesting one hand backhands there ever has been.

I have attempted to adapt this shot to my own needs.

I love the attempt and love the adaptation even more.

My question is whether Petr Korda as original model turns his hips and shoulders in sequence or simultaneous or at all (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqpARpkF8WA).

Sometimes it seems to me when one wishes to learn from some stroke one does best just to go with what one sees especially when there is little or no available literature on the subject.

I don't see the body turn here I associate with Wawrinkan or Thiemic topspun backhands or with that version of Rosewallian slice where hips rotation easily straightens the arm.

Instead I see the elbow staying in place and somewhat turning in that place during the first half of the stroke.

The forearm and upper arm both actively muscle to close the racket face while bringing it around to a certain extent.

Then and only then does arm swing begin.

This arm swing can go through the ball, partially through the ball and up, or almost exclusively up.

The almost exclusively up version is the one that interests me most just at the moment.

If elbow stayed back for the roll, the arm is next free to move in any direction one chooses, it seems to me-- there is no existing momentum that one must glom into.

In the almost exclusively upward version-- interestingly-- the rising swing will travel of necessity on an inside out scimitar like path.

Abductor muscles make the arm go up. How can the rest of one's body supplement the power of this lift?

Through an expanding accordion in Alexander's Ragtime Band. Or according to the Alexander Technique-- whichever explanation one prefers. But if one is still bent over for contact one may or may not want to add scapular retraction too.

Post self-feed: No scapular retraction. Stay on the ball.

[bottle]

Find a Circus in Which to Play Doubles Tennis

The way things are going right now, once a week I'm playing with younger seniors who know each other's games too well-- kabuki tennis.

They are fast and can hit the ball fast. They are shrewd, can play at a difficult speed that tends to neutralize anyone's invention (should any one of the four players be so stupid as to go that route).

The circus of older players where I play two days a week is more fun although I need the heightened competition of the first group as well.

It's circus time today. Because of extensive gardening (professional) yesterday, there hasn't been time to try out the following idea in self-feed or any other form.

Practice a BAM! forehand in strict alternation with a see see hit with elbow held back.

Maybe I can do this for ten minutes after the competitive play.

The preparation for the two shots is identical. The elbow rolls up. The body may rotate a bit more backward then or not. The arm set at 3/4 length topples the mondoing racket under. All that is the same.

The difference then is that in the BAM! the elbow, held back until then releases straight ahead to add some push on the ball and create upward spin and return knuckles to opposite ear.

In the see see, the elbow will never release, at least not while one hits the ball. The toppling under racket will quickly discover the string setting that is desired. The forearm will roll, almost at right angle to the motion that immediately preceded it. The elbow will only release or roll or both after the ball is gone.

I've never hit this shot. A lot of completely new shots are available to anyone at any time in this game.

I have no idea if this particular breed of see see will prove workable for me or anyone else. For fun I'll hit it untried once or twice during the competition.

I suspect it will work in self-feed, don't know if it will be loose and adaptable enough to deal with different oncoming balls, intend to find out.

[bottle]

Listening to Don Brosseau

The experience can be amazing. Don (tennischiro) explains once again that body should be moving forward when one tosses. Suddenly my whole arm feels like a whip. And I have new inclination to relax my shoulder even more.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/donbudge/donbudge_sa.html?DB1stSRear.mov