The Fed Forehand

I've been watching the slow-mo videos of Roger Federer at Hi-Tech tennis. Pretty good stuff.

I was also watching Will's lessons on the forehand at Fuzzy Yellow Balls (FYB).

Here are a few observations I've made.

Once Roger starts to make his arm come forward, his arm is fairly straight, his wrist is bent back, and the racquet and arm makes roughly a 90 degree angle. If you draw a line through Fed's shoulders and to his arm, they almost form a straight line.

The key, I suspect, to Roger's (and many other pros) power is that they use their bodies in the shot. Thus, the entire torso spins and the arm comes along for the ride.

As Roger's shoulders becomes parallel with the baseline (he starts more than perpendicular, to the side), the 90 degree angle he had been maintaining up til then becomes relaxed. He starts to basically flip his hand forward so the 90 degrees becomes more like 110-120 degrees. He does this mere moments before impact, about 1-2 feet away.

It looks like he is starting to move his palm forward to add that little bit of wrist flick to the shot. However, rather than flip through the ball, Federer does the windshield wiper move and moves the arm in a forward-ish rainbow arc until the racquet ends up on his left side.

Note that I haven't even talked about Fed's legs. He's leaned down on his right leg and straightens up on impact. He bends down more than most players I've seen when making this shot.

I would say, in order to master the Fed forehand, you want to imitate his upper body first, than work on the lower body once the upper body motion is satisfactory.

It helps, if you get the chance, to practice in front of a mirror, so you can see what you are doing. Shadow stroke a bit, and you will see if you are doing the right thing.

To me, the keys to the Fed forehand are: making sure the arm and racquet are 90 degrees with the wrist laid back, making sure the shoulder and arm are moving together, as you move forward. Once your shoulders are parallel, begin to flip the wrist forward to impact, and begin the rainbow arc, until the forearm has flipped to the left side of your body.

Again, something I need to try out on the court.