The Upward Swing: Federer’s Serve in High Speed and High Def

What can we learn about the upward swing from our new footage? The racket path on upward swing on the serve is one of the most intensely debated technical issues among players and coaches. What can we learn about it when we study our incredible new high speed, high definition footage of Roger Federer? The debates and misunderstandings about this part of the service motion are understandable for many reasons. First the entire upward swing occurs in a mere 1/10th of a second. In that split second interval, the racket head speed basically triples. (To see more about the duration of the phases of the serve in a quantitative study of Pete Sampras, Click Here.) Second there is a very complex interplay of movements that creates that speed in that fraction of a second, movements that include the upper arm, the elbow, the forearm, the shoulder and the wrist. These body segments are all moving at the same time, and also changing shapes and positional relationships with each other. ‘ How can we understand the complex interplay of movement in a fraction of a second? You can forget about seeing all that accurately with the naked eye. Even high speed…