Trying to find new, creative ways to improve and hopefully even make a leap here and there has caused some interesting reactions.
For context, I've been on this for about 40 years, have looked at most of the famous and many others tennis coaches, and at least in the tennis world may be in the top 1% of overall package of skill and experience. In many other worlds of course I'm in the bottom 1% :)
So at least I'm telling myself what I'm doing and looking for here and now is a result and natural extension of what I've done and learned to date. I really don't want to feel stuck or even get worse over time.
Generally, I found it incredibly hard to find practice partners to even work on something very similar to the main thing. For example let's set aside some of our weekly time to practice approach and net play, going into the winter and thus onto the fast courts and the league matches. Maybe we should play a set of doubles together before it counts?
Before the pandemic, hitting barefoot or even on socks for a bit, to build up the previously weakened foot and maybe improve awareness and footwork, usually caused a stir. No carpet or clay has been harmed in the process! In terms of quality, I felt I was more balanced when rallying and even won sets against shoe-wearers. I always asked my partners, kept checking in, and made sure not to overdo it.
During the pandemic, I needed to find risk-free environments, and ended up doing a lot of open air self-practice. No good walls around, so a freeway underpass in an industrial area had to do. In terms of practice quality and progress, it wasn't bad at all.
Between the occasional folks who'd pass by, the reactions were split by a 1/3: ignorance, thumbs up and/or smiles, or shaking heads.
In other words, it seems whenever we try to do something new, different, creative, no matter how considerate and careful we are, we are likely to face headwinds.
For me, that meant to retreat a bit to "practice where no one is watching". A) to split what I wanted to work on, and B) to get to a level where I have have certain breakthroughs to reliably show, and bring that into the other split. In a sense this ended up being the "making lemonade" out of the "lemon" pandemic situation - being able to set aside some time and space for uninterrupted practice on my own goals and progress.
In light of the mixed reactions, I often had to think of the "Gandhi stages": ignore => laugh => hate => fight => win. This doesn't necessarily have to be the pattern that applies here, though it probably shows that trying something new may encounter some resistance for some time.
So I'd say if you're reasonably self-aware, consider external feedback from time to time, and think you're on the right track, stick to it. In that sense, maybe "disappear" for a while and come back stronger and with something different. Maybe folks will later ask you how you did it, and how they can do it too :)
For me, it helps to have overall vision, mission, and goals. If down the road folks are starting to teach kids 2 forehands, and 2 backhands, this whole thing may already have been worthwhile.