The Straight Armed
Forehand:

Part 3

By Jeff Counts

In this series of articles, I have looked at the double bend forehands, followed by two articles on the straight armed forehands. (Click Here.)This included an exploration of Rafael Nadal's forehand, which I believe breaks new technical ground. (Click Here.)

Nadal's forehand is different in many respects: His longer pulls to contact. His extreme inside out approach to the ball. His tighter, more explosive wiper movement. His inimitable "reverse" finish. All these technical exaggerations add up to one of the most explosive combinations of power and spin the tennis world has ever seen. While the "traditional" straight armed forehands of Philippousis and Srichaphan seem to be interesting adaptations of the core forehand model, with possible advantages (and possible disadvantages), I suggested that Nadal really seems to have taken the straight armed stroke to places we haven't seen before.

As fascinating as Nadal's straight armed forehand is, however, there remains an even more intriguing forehand. It's a forehand that, remarkably, can adapt from a bent arm to a straight arm depending on the particular ball, or somewhere in between. It's a forehand that uses a version of an Eastern grip, yet taps into the exact same technical innovations that the extreme Western striker, Nadal employs. It is, of course, the forehand of Roger Federer.

Before I start looking at Roger's forehand, I will get my particular bias out of the way and say that I think Roger's forehand is the greatest tennis stroke I have ever seen. His forehand is a technical marvel that blends grips and styles from seemingly incompatible places. And perhaps even more remarkably, he can alternate between a straight arm and double bend, between extreme wrist layback and modest wrist layback, depending on the context of the shot.

But I see something more in this stroke than the pure wizardry of the various technical combinations. This is the remarkable ability to transfer energy through his body to the racket and ball. By integrating different pulls and stretches, coils and uncoils, rotations and lifts, Roger seems to transfer energy from the very bottom of his feet all the way through the tremendous wiper finishes across his body. Yes, all forehands work that way to some extent, but when we sum up all the parts of Roger's stroke, we see why he is at a different level.

So I am going to get the microscope out and look at all the pieces that make his forehand possible. But I do think there is a definite limit to how much of what Roger does the average player--or even the high level player--can actually replicate. In the end, Roger's forehand is as much about creative genius and inborn rhythm as it is technique. Still, it's worthy of study, I am sure you will agree, and every player can learn something about one or more elements that may make a magic addition to his or her own forehand.

I love to compare and contrast strokes of the top players to get a feel for how the components go together. So let's start by comparing a front view of Federer's straight arm forehand to the same shot hit by Mark Philippoussis. At first the appearance the two strokes may look remarkably similar, but if you watch the sequences for awhile, you start to get a sense of the different timing of these two forehands. Before we get to the technical differences, try simply to feel the overall rhythm of the two strokes.

The difference with Federer is similar to the feeling you get watching Nadal. This is how the stroke is unleashed from the inside out motion.Compared to Philippoussis in these two examples the finish is certainly different, as Roger breaks sooner at the elbow and finishes much tighter into his body. But the main point is that Roger's forehand seems more explosive because of his sequential use of his body segments as he moves through the kinetic chain. Let me explain what I mean.

Can you identify the technical differences in these two forehands?

Body Coiling - On Two Planes

First look at the exceptional way Roger coils his body. He does this by coiling both vertically and horizontally. If we look first at the horizontal plane, watch how far his upper body has rotated in this first frame. While Philippoussis' right shoulder remains hidden from view, you can clearly see Roger's right shoulder and his upper back due to the extreme upper body rotation. Although Roger is getting a lot more upper body coil than Philippoussis, notice how both players have rotated their shoulders farther than their waists. By rotating your upper body and shoulders farther than your waist, you turn your upper body into a loaded spring, a spring that can unwind into the ball. A mistake many players make is they simply "turn sideways" without creating this coil, or stretch, between the upper and lower body.

More body coil - on two planes.

Is this tennis - or martial arts?

A chain of stretches and coils. Legs to torso to arm to wrist all coiling and uncoiling in a chain.

But Roger doesn't just coil horizontally, he coils vertically as well. All top players drop down to some degree before springing up, but notice how much lower Roger gets than Mark. His front knee is at a 90 degree angle, and this will allow him to really spring upward. This is what I mean by a vertical coil.

What is most interesting to me is what happens when Roger combines these two coils.

Traditional tennis instructions tells us to "take the racket back" to prepare. This was followed by the better phrase "unit turn". But watching Roger simultaneously coil his upper body and sink down to the ground is something more. He shows how far the pro forehand has really evolved. This double coil is a move that has much in common with martial arts roundhouse kicks. Or figure skating twirls. Or any sport that stores potential energy in a winding/sinking, unwinding/lifting fashion. So the sequence is coil/sink. Then uncoil/lift.

All the energy that Roger generates from coil/sink - uncoil/lift initiates an amazing chain of kinetic events. The next link in the chain - the one that receives the energy from the coil/sink - rise/uncoil is the lifting upward and outward of the arm. We saw this unique move in my previous two articles on the straight armed forehands, and Roger is using the exact same move. Watch how the energy of his unwinding body gets transferred into his straight arm, which lifts radically upwards and outwards towards the ball.

As he starts to lift his arm outward and upward, another link is created, a link which is identical to what Nadal does. As Roger lifts his arm upwards and outwards, his wrist starts to lay back in a more extreme fashion than the other players. Just like Nadal, as he starts to lift his arm upward, the butt cap of the racket shifts from pointing at his hip, to pointing far out to the side of the incoming ball.

So when we look at this entire sequence, what we see is a series of coils and uncoils - moves and countermoves - that create stretches of the body and pass energy from the body's core outward to the arm. Specifically, the stroke starts with a push upward from the ground with his legs and an uncoiling of the upper body. As he opens his shoulders to the net, his straight arm lifts in the opposite direction of his opening torso - out towards the ball. And as his arm lifts upward and outward to the ball, his wrist rotates backwards - away from the incoming ball. All this energy being passed from the body's center to the periphery is going to be released, in an almost whip like manner, into and through the ball.

Extreme Inside Out Approaches

But before we get to Roger's remarkable move into and through the ball, I want to go into more detail about how he is able, just like Nadal, to attack the ball from this extreme inside out angle. The straight arm lift, combined with the extreme layback of the wrist, allows both players to come into the ball from an extreme angle. Let's take a look at just how extreme this angle is compared to Philippousis and Srichaphan - the two players I looked at in my first article.

In the image below, I took a frame from each player where their wrist was laid back the farthest, and the racket was furthest inside of the incoming ball. As you can see, both the degree of wrist layback and the distance inside the ball is remarkably greater for Federer and Nadal.

Extreme wrist layback and extreme angles into the ball.

Shoulder rotation and arm lift are the "big" moves into contact.

So the obvious question is - why? What purpose does this wrist layback and the extreme inside out angle serve? One popular answer is that it lets Federer and Nadal use their wrist, like a rubber band, to whip into the ball. While I think that the wrist adds another link to the chain, I think we must always view wrist motion within the context of the hitting arm structure and torso rotation.

My theory is that the wrist layback, and the extreme inside out approach to the ball allows Federer to "speed up" the chain, and to create a faster, tighter wiper motion. Once the wrist "catches up" to the hitting structure, the entire structure - from shoulder to forearm to hand to wrist, rotates in a fast, powerul, torquey wiper motion.

The "Big" Forces of the Body

Watch how Roger is using the "big" forces of his body to connect with the ball. First watch how his shoulders rotate all the way into the ball. As the right shoulder comes forward to contact, you can see his left shoulder move backwards. In fact, on contact his left shoulder is actually behind his right shoulder. This is because his contact point is so far in front of his body.

The amount of torso rotation into the ball is the first "big" force. The second "big" force is the straight arm itself. Watch how his hitting arm lifts all the way into contact at the same time as the torso is rotating.

The inside out wrist motion occurs in conjunction with these two forces. Notice just how long Roger holds back the wrist. Like Nadal, the butt cap of the racket gets quite close to the ball before we see the wrist move outward and forward to contact. He has the extraoridnary timing to hold back the wrist, to let it accelerate, and to do all of this in perfect sync with the bigger elements of the stroke.

In this amazing high speed clip on the right, you can see the "big forces" at work and how the wrist is used within this much larger context. Watch how Roger's torso rotates all the way into the ball. Watch how his arm lifts upwards all the way to the ball. And finally watch how, milliseconds before contact, the wrist moves the racket "inside out" to the ball, catching up with the rest of the hitting structure. The entire hitting structure - from shoulder to arm to the palm of the hand to the racket itself are all beautifully positioned behind the ball. This has be be one of the most explosive contact points the tennis world has ever seen. Note that is is remarkably far in front of the body, and also, well out to the side of the body.

Wrist motion within the larger context of the stroke.

A Fascinatingly Unique Wiper Motion

Now it's time to look at Roger's equally fascinating wiper motion. Roger actually uses many different degrees of wipering. He can use less hand motion and more shoulder and torso rotation to drive the ball, a lot like the fuller wiper motions we saw with Philippousis and Srichaphan. But, more commonly, he can use quicker, more explosive rotational wiper. And it is this finish is unique to Federer in terms of the amount of wiper and the speed of the wiper he uses on such a high percentage of all balls.

Why can he do this? The answer is that because Roger attacks the ball from much greater inside out angles, and because he can release the wrist a good bit coming into the ball, the resulting wiper is naturally faster and more rotational. Look back now at the first comparison between Federer and Philippousis, focusing on the wiper. There are some subtle differences that are key. These differences show us how Roger is getting a faster and more rotational drive through the ball. The extreme inside out angle and wrist layback are what allow Roger to get a tighter wiper motion.

The line on the Philippousisis forehand a few frames after contact, show Philippousis' wrist is still holding back (Note the angle between racket and forearm). This is a core element in the basic forehand. The wrist holds back so the hand and shoulder can drive through and up the back of the ball. This is before the player wipes over. At the same place in the stroke, Federer's wrist is almost in line with his forearm. He seems to be able release his wrist at the same time he is rotating the entire hitting structure. Almost like in table tennis, this additional rotation adds more torque to the ball.

Roger's wiper motion is faster and more rotational.

Shortly after contact, Roger's forearm breaks at the elbow, probably due to the speed and power of his hand and arm rotations. The end result is a finish unlike any I have ever seen. While Philippousis ends in the "box" finish I talked about in windshield wiper article (Click Here), Roger's finish is in tight to his body. I find it fascinating that while Roger goes so far outward, almost sideways, to contact the ball, he finishes in so much closer and tighter to his body than other players.

This tighter finish occurs even when he extends far out along the line of the shot first--another remarkable element John Yandell has analyzed in detail in his own articles on Roger's forehands. (Click Here.) This tighter finish position is the natural result of the tremendous forces he is generating through the combinations of positions and movements described above.

When we look at this tighter finish, it is very important to note how the entire arm has rotated over from the shoulder. It is not just the wrist, or the forearm that is turning over. His use of this arm rotation on almost every forehand is one reason I think he can hit the ball so hard. The energy flows through a full wiper motion that involves the whole length of the arm. You can really see how the arm has come through the contact and also turned over by looking at the final frame. In this frame, note how Roger's chin is touching his shoulder as the rest of his arm is stretched across his body. The entire arm has been used to work the ball.

Great extension through the ball.

During and after contact there is a tremendous forward drive. When we look at super slow motion of Roger's forehand, you can really see how far the swing continues through the line of the shot before he releases the wiper finsh. Watch how he uses the palm of his hand and his shoulder to drive through the line of the shot,, but at the same as he rotates the arm. There is always a combination of drive and rotation - it's just that Roger can emphasize the drive or the rotation, depending on what he wants to do with the ball.

Even though I have studied Roger's forehand for several years now, and I still find it hard to "pin down". You can look at two different forehands (or 10!) and see significant differences in the straightness of the arm and the use of the wrist. He seems, incredibly, able to alter his technique based on what he wants to do with the ball. That makes it impossible to give any single, simple answer as to how he does what he does. There are so many interacting segments, combined with the timing of those interactions, that it is difficult to tease out cause and effect.

The complexity of these interactions are why we can't look at just one piece of the stroke and say THAT is the key to his forehand. I think the bigger picture is the overall flow of energy, from the wonderful body coil to the ballistic full wiper finish. It's a monstrous weapon, but unbelievably fluid and graceful. Roger's uncanny ability to store, manage, and release this flowing energy makes his forehand the greatest stroke I have ever studied. It takes a tremendously gifted athlete to hit a stroke like this, maybe the greatest player to ever pick up a racket. Yet all of these elements are present to some extent in every good "modern" forehand. If studying them helps you improve one or more of them an increment or two, then you have learned something from the great Roger Federer.