Rick Newman Tennis Lesson 2: Serve

Rick Newman's Tennis Lesson 2: Serve

I needed a few weeks to recuperate from an ankle injury from hiking at Yosemite. Once I recovered, I also needed time to overcome a severe cold/flu.

Serving Lesson Notes

1. Relax the serving hand (it must be really loose; grip the racquet lightly)
2. Be sure to throw the racquet on the edge (closed) until just before contact with the ball
3. Racquet serve motion must be UP and OUT, with wrist pronation occurring much later after ball contact
4. The "snap" of the wrist is initiated by the server (it's not automatic). It's like a whipping motion on a bullwhip
5. The kinetic chain starts from the legs, moves to the shoulders, then to the serving arm, and lastly to the wrist
6. The ball must not be tossed too far in front, as it opens the racquet face
7. The server must be moving forward
8. The best potion of the racquet to hit for maximum power and leverage is the upper 2/3 of the racquet.

Here is a GoPro Hero4 Silver video recording of my serve:

My Own Learnings:

1. The wrist needs to be actively used in all tennis strokes. It should be used in the top-spin forehand and especially in the flat-serve for the "snap."
2. In the 1-handed and 2-handed backhands, I was not using the wrist actively.

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Review: Fiddler on the Roof at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts

The sorry state of the world gives us a new reason to appreciate the depth of feeling so powerfully, so ingeniously embedded in "Fiddler on the Roof," the much-loved and much-revived 1964 musical comedy that is touring the country and visiting San Jose from May 21 - 26, 2019.

The touring production, currently playing at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, certainly honors the show's ebullience of spirit, as embodied in the central character of the Jewish milkman Tevye, living in a Russian shtetl in the early 20th century, eternally wagging his tongue, shaking his fist and cracking wise at an indifferent God.

The score, by Jerry Bock (music) and Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), enters your bloodstream indelibly upon a single hearing, so rousing are its songs of celebration, so beautiful the melodies of its songs of love and loss — two sides, for Tevye, of the same coin.

Yehezkel Lazarov is responsible for Tevye's role. Mr. Lazarov unleashes his rich baritone with roof-raising force when Tevye's emotion is at its height, bringing home the character's indomitable will, often hidden beneath his self-deprecating humor and sorely tried by his rebellious daughters. Mr. Lazarov's way with a classic Jewish joke is assured but unforced, his performance affecting but not overscaled, in keeping with the production's emphasis on the musical's emotional underpinnings rather than the frosting of shticky comedy. 

The famous violin solo is heard, and the stage is filled with the people of Anatevka singing the electrifying opening number, "Tradition," which defines the central theme, the tension between honoring the past and accepting progress.

For Tevye, the conflict is a matter of daily headaches, given that three of his five daughters are approaching marrying age, and each proves unwilling to obey the longstanding tradition of arranged weddings. Tevye's wife, Golde, brings her performance a moving, careworn quality. Golde seems forever to be slightly stooped with work or worry and is plaintively dismayed at Tevye's ability to see both sides — or several sides — of an issue. (His constant invoking of the phrases "on the one hand" and "on the other hand" is a lovable running gag.)

Cast

• Tevye (a dairyman) - Yehezkel Lazarov
• Golde (his wife) - Maite Uzal
• Tzeitel (eldest daughter) - Mel Weyn
• Hodel (2nd oldest daughter) - Ruthy Froch
• Chava - Natalie Powers
• Shprintze - Danielle Ellen
• Bielke - Emerson Glick
• Yente (a matchmaker) - Carol Beaugard 
• Motel (a tailor) -  Jesse Weil
• Perchik (a student) - Ryne Nardecchia
• Lazar Wolf (a butcher) - Jonathan Van Mering
• Mordcha - Danny Arnold
• Rabbi - Michael Hegarty
• The Fiddler - Paul Morland

Musical Numbers

Act One

• "Prologue: Tradition"
• "Matchmaker"
• "If I Were a Rich Man"
• "Sabbath Prayer"
• "To Life"
• "Tevye's Monologue"
• "There's a Dream"
• "Sunrise, Sunset" (The BEST song of the whole show)
• The Wedding

Act Two

• Entr'acte
• "Now I Have Everything"
• Tevye's Monologue (reprise)
• "Do You Love Me?"
• "The Rumor"
• "Far From the Home I Love"
• "Chavaleh"
• "Anatevka"

Fiddler on The Roof Report Card

Positives

• Excellent fiddle playing
• Excellent stage decorations
• One of the BEST Musicals of all time!

Negatives

• Yehezkel Lazarov is not as good as Danny Bernstein (who plays Tevye on Broadway)

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Tennis Technique Improvement

Watching the Tennis Fundamentals video from Feel Tennis Instruction, Tomasz has reminded me about focusing my tennis technique on the following basic fundamentals:

Biomechanical Fundamentals

1. Stability (Priority #1)
2. Hip Rotation
3. Shoulder Rotation
4. Swing Style

Here are my favorite Serve Tips from Peter Freeman of Crunch Time Coaching:

1. Secret Power Source: 
2. Only when the tossed ball has reached its peak, begin pushing off with your legs and start your racquet drop (too often, racquet drop starts too soon)

Fix the Waiter Tray Serve:

1. Drill: Hold the racquet in a Continental grip
2. Drill: Hit the ball with your racquet's edge with a half-serve motion
3. Drill: Hit the ball with your racquet's edge with a full-serve motion
4. Drill: Thumb-in/Thumb-out: hit the ball with your thumb up and thumb down
5. Drill: Full serve

Serve Drills from Lisa Dodson of TheTotalServe.com

Forehand Improvement from Peter Freeman from his 30-Day Forehand Challange

1. Relax the grip. It should be loose until ball contact
2. When preloading the unit turn, the back must be visible
3. Step into the ball
4. Drag the back foot
5. Open-stance is too narrow (legs wider than the shoulders)

Hitting balls on the rise with Jeff Salzenstein of Tennis Evolution

1. Shorten the forehand stroke, starting lower with a shorter backswing
2. Shorten the finish

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