Forehand Technique - The 5 Power Sources

by usta norcal manager of player development, dan mccain

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• fh
• 5
• power
• sources

[federerownz]

theres no way to have as much control as federer does by using your wrist, ive seen numerous slow motion videos and i cant see how people think he uses his wrist, his arm is fully extended at contact and continues to go forward to point where hes forced to follow through around his body and catches the racket with his left hand next to his left shoulder. sometimes he catches and sometimes he doesnt depending on shot hes trying to hit.

[prebek]

@XizelSF You're right, I just think of it this way: suppose you put a small brace on Federer's wrist so that he couldn't bend it. I think his forehands would be pretty weak. Now suppose you took the brace off Federer's wrist and told him to hit his forehand without any body rotation. I think he would still get pretty nice pace with his arms and wrist alone. This is why I think the wrist is the most important part of his forehand. I could be wrong, of course... just my opinion.

[XizelSF]

@prebek How does the wrist generate power in doing so? His effortless power comes from body rotation and weight transfer, longer levers with longer arms and using a straight arm forehand with a far out front contact AND extension, as well as a heavy racquet with gut. Natural gut at low tension is the benchmark for power generation. The wrist can add some nice topspin, but power?

[prebek]

@Tony07UK I think the wrist should be bent back at a 45 degree angle in the middle of your swing, and by the end of your swing it should be bent forward at a 90 degree angle. Does that make sense? That's just my opinion of how Federer generates so much power with such a seemingly effortless swing.

[Tony07UK]

@prebek Why should the wrist be mentioned? Explain what you think the wrist should be doing.

[prebek]

What about wrist action? I guess you could argue that it's part of number 5 below, but I'm surprised the word "wrist" wasn't mentioned. In my opinion 70% of Federer's forehand power comes from the wrist.

1. Shoulder & Hip Rotation

2. Forward Momentum & Weight Transfer

3. Loading

4. Leverage

5. Racquet Speed

[denclis1]

great video!

great audio...Dj Krush on the dub-ble

[soax91]

great video! can u tell me the name of the soundtrack?

[phantom5691]

nice. federer technique just LOOKS better than anyone else

[funtly]

Excellent video. This will allow me to put more weight into my shots. I don't bend my knees enough, so I lose the extra loaded power generated from step #3.