Roger Federer Forehand in HD *Slow Motion*

[Angler180DC]

Having seen Fed play live, I just don't think rec players should try to copy his forehand motion. While it is a great penetrating effortless shot, he hits with little margin over the net takes it very early and has footwork that no rec player can duplicate. It kills me when so many teaching pro's reference the Federer forehand. Then 10 minutes later they will say, okay hit the ball higher over the net to give you more margin.

[drumsfightingandstuf]

Hey Ian, could you put up some video of your own forehands? The pros are fun to look at, but some times I feel like their games are so far removed from amateurs that emulating them isn't always best. I've seen some short footage of your forehands and it seems like a good, effortless, yet powerful shot.

[am476]

Most vids I've seen of him show an eastern grip. One interesting thing I see here and from what I've been learning as I try to switch my own grip from western to semi western is how footwork changes with grips. Here, we see Roger hit with a relatively closed stance compared with what you see with western grips and a very open stance. I'll have to see more videos of eastern or continental forehands to see of this is a consistent observation, but I definitely had to change my own stance to a l

[riquered]

@am476 mmmmmmm i dont think stances have anything to do with the grip, here fed is practicing so he has time to change his stance if he needs to get close to the ball, but in match play rallying from the baseline he has an open stance, i will provide a couple of clips upon your request so you can see

[h4xxx0Rz]

Was Paul Annacone with Roger at Cincinnati?

[ARTZY64]

Really nice, Ian. Yeah, I've seen other 'practice' vids of Fed using more wrist action... like the very last stroke here where he 'leaves the racquet head behind' (reverse body action) and snaps through instead of keeping the wrist locked like most of the other shots in this vid... kind of 'old style' I'd say. Like you've said before, he has quite a few 'looks' in his forehands.

[memodid]

haha the guy behind federer,the one of the black shirt haha do a funny face 0:37

[riquered]

hey ian, feds swing path looks very horizontal and not that much vertical, is his topspin generated more cause of the pronation of his forearm and keeping the raquet face close and the accelaration of the racquet??? thanks for your quick answers, by the way im a huge fan of your podcasts, love the song in between topics, whats the name of it? :)

[EssentialTennis]

@riquered You're right, most of these shots are relatively flat, with the exception of the swing he takes at about 24 seconds into this video. You'll see his racket drop lower on that one in relationship to the ball. To be honst with Roger practices at tournaments like this he's super relaxed, doesn't really hit at full pace very much, that's probably the biggest reason why he's kinda just driving through these smoothly.

[EssentialTennis]

@riquered That music track is just a generic Apple loop within Garageband! Once in a while you'll actually hear it on TV commercials as well :)

[riquered]

check out the second forehand and also the last one, starts with an eastern grip and the racquet twists in his hand and then he ends up with a semiwestern grip, loose grip? he does this 70% of the time, what are your thoughts ian??

[EssentialTennis]

@riquered Huh, that's a good catch, I think you actually might be right about the grip on the 2nd shot here, not sure about the last one. Those were off center hits, the ball hit pretty close to the frame which is what causes that quick twist, which in turn does shift the grip in his hand if he's relaxed enough (which we all know he is, haha). In my opinion this definitely isn't any kind of purposeful "technique", just a few forehands that weren't hit cleanly.

[riquered]

hey ian can you also upload some footage in regular speed? thanks in advance

[EssentialTennis]

@riquered I definitely will be!

[jimmons2002]

Thanks for posting Ian. Did you get to see Roger play Blake? or perhaps that outstanding Nadal Verdasco Match?

[EssentialTennis]

@jimmons2002 Unfortunately I was driving back home yesterday during those matches! Had a great time filming these guys though....more coming soon!

[jimmons2002]

Awesome.  So smooth.