Roger Federer and the Evolution of
the Modern Forehand

Part 1

Page 2

By John Yandell

Printable Version

Preparation

Fortunately, I had more success understanding most of the other elements in Federer's motion, starting with his preparation. Basic preparation is one thing that he definitely shares in common with the other top players. (Click Here to see these same elements traced across the grip styles.)

Like the other players we've looked at, Federer begins his preparation with a compact unit turn. His feet and shoulders start the motion by turning sideways, and there is little independent movement with the hands or racket. As we saw, the unit turn completes about half of the torso rotation in the backswing, rotating the shoulders until they are about 45 degrees to the net.

Completion of the Turn

The completion of the turn is also virtually identical to the other top players. Roger straightens his left arm and extends it across his body, until it points at the sideline, roughly parallel to the baseline and titled up or down at a slight angle, depending on the ball. His shoulders are turned somewhat past perpendicular to the net, and his chin is turned over his shoulder, looking toward the on coming ball. These are the classic pro forehand preparation checkpoints.

Backswing

When we looked at the pro backswings we saw that they were tremendously varied and complex. We found 4 factors to look at in assessing the differences. (Click Here.) Applying these to Federer we can see that in most respects his backswing is very compact--as compact and possibly more compact than any top player. In one dimension, however, his backswing is actually one of the largest, if not the largest, of any player we've looked at.

Like most players, Roger keeps both hands on the racket during the unit turn. This continues as he starts his backswing. Like Roddick, Safin, or Guga, Federer's backswing has an inverted racket motion, meaning he turns the racket over from top to bottom in the early phases of the backswing.

His racket begins on edge and is pointing basically forward in the ready position. But as the unit turn progresses and Federer begins to raise his hands, he rotates the top edge of the frame downward about 90 degrees. At this point it almost appears that he is going to show the face of his racket to his opponent. As his hands start to separate, the racket face continues to turn over, until the top edge of the racket has rotated another 90 degrees or so. This means the top edge of the racket, which was pointing upward in the ready position, now points down. The racket is basically on edge and perpendicular to the court, just upside down from where it started. Again this is similar to what we saw with Guga and Safin.

Size of Backswing

In the backswing article we found that the 4 factors defining the size of the motion were: (1) the height of the racket hand, (2) the height of the racket tip, (3) the side to side motion of the racket out to the player's right and then back to the left, and (4) the movement of the racket backwards away from the player.

On the first 3 points, Federer is probably more compact than any player in the modern game. He reaches the top of the backswing with the lowest hand position in the game. The top of his hand is at about shoulder level, much lower than Roddick or Hewitt, and even lower than Agassi. The only player who may be as low is Tommy Haas.

The height of his racket tip is also quite low. The tip is tilted forward toward the oppnent, making the tip height lower than any player but Roddick, who literally points the tip straight ahead with the shaft parallel to the court surface.

Because he keeps both arms bent and relatively close to his torso as he takes the racket up, Federer has very little side to side movement, about the same as Guga with a similar inverted motion. This is in contrast to players such as Agassi and Tommy Haas who take the racket noticeably out to their right at the start of the motion, and then have to bring it back to the left toward the torso.

Closed Racket Face

But as Federer continues to take the racket backward and then downward, his motion begins to look different. His racket moves back further away from his body than virtually all the other players. As he does this, he straightens his arm out, and he keeps it straighter much longer than anyone else we've studied.

Most all of top players close the face of the racket at least somewhat as the racket starts down. Some players such as Roddick and Tommy Haas close the face until it is literally parallel with the surface of the court. Federer does this as well. But a lot of confusion has arisen over the years over the significance of this closed face position.

In the case of other top players we have found that the angle of the face never remains fully closed when the racket reaches the bottom of the backswing. The angle has to change so that the player can establish the double bend hitting arm position before racket starts to move forward to the ball. In fact, we saw that as the racket started forward, the amount that the racket face was still closed was a direct function of the grip, not the backswing.

The Hitting Arm Position(s)

So is it the same for Federer? No, it's significantly different. Basically everyone else we have looked at to date has one basic hitting arm position. Federer has three. There are times when he finds the double bend position, with the elbow tucked in toward to his side, and the wrist moderately laid back. When he does this, he can looks quite similar to the classical players.

But there are other times when his hitting arm is completely straight at the elbow. When he does this, the other component in the arm position, the laid back wrist, increases substantially. And sometimes, he seems to be somewhere in between the two positions.

Understanding that Federer sometimes hits with his arm completely straight helps us make sense of his backswing. We saw that he straightened his arm out more as the racket moved back, and kept it that way longer than other players. Why? Because this gives him the option of keeping it straight on the foreswing. He can either stay in the straight arm position, or let it fall into the double bend at the last moment--or choose a position between. If he let the elbow fall in all the way any sooner, he wouldn't have the same options.

You can amuse yourself by going through all the forehands in the Stroke Archive and counting the incidents of each variation. Basically I found in the high speed footage it was about evenly divided, about one third of each variation, or something close to that.

It would be great to say what the purpose and/or advantages of each of the three position. But it's not that simple. I also found that the various hitting arm positions could all be mixed with different levels of body rotation and different levels of hand and arm rotation.

This is what makes his forehand so complex, confusing, and probably, so effective. It's very difficult to isolate the exact effect of the hitting arm on a given shot because the same hitting arm position can be combined with a different pattern of shoulder or a different pattern hand and arm rotation on a different or even a very similar ball. Now you starting to understand why Federer could actually have 25 variations.

Let's look at the double bend arm position first. When Federer uses it, we can see that at contact he can look almost classical--elbow in and wrist laid back, although there is a difference in the torso position at contact as we'll see below. After contact he can continue on to a classical finish as well, with the racket staying more or less or edge and crossing the body to reach eye level. Basically you can see this combination from almost anywhere in the court, and also, more commonly on his forehand returns.

But Federer also routinely produces a range of very different finishes from the same double bend hitting arm position. It's actually far more common for him to combine the double bend position with some degree of hand and arm rotation as we will see below. And all of these options can also be combined with various amounts of body rotation as we will also see.

Straight Hitting Arm

At the other extreme, we frequently see Federer hitting with the hitting arm completely straight from shoulder to wrist.. Instead of tucking the elbow in, Federer straightens it completely out. Instead of a moderate wrist position, he lays it back a full 90 degrees and sometimes it appears, even slightly further.

When does he use the straight hitting arm? Most typically when he is hitting the ball inside out or inside in. Federer tends to use this straight arm position on inside balls and when he appears to be really going for it--and also when the ball is higher and he is off the court in the air. But you can also see the same thing on some balls in the center of the court. You'll even see it on short balls.

This change in the hitting arm position has a dramatic impact on the shape of the swing. First it moves his contact much further in front of his body. Second, when he straightens out the hitting arm, he appears to hit much more through the line of the shot. You can see this very clearly in the animations. There is a characteristic position he often reaches where the arm and racket form nearly a straight line and point almost directly in the path of the ball.

In teaching we commonly use the phrase "hitting through the ball" or "hitting through the line of the shot" to indicate that the racket path is moving for a longer period along the intended path of the shot, or at least moving for a longer period closer to that path. In reality, the racket never moves in a straight line, but is always moving on a curve. It moves outward from the body on a curve from the player;s left to right on the way out to the contact. After contact the curve moves back from right to left on the way to the finish. (More on this in future articles in the BioMechanics section.)

"Hitting through the ball" is a powerful teaching key, but what it really means is that this curve is flatter or less severe, so the path of the racket and the ball are closer for a longer period. When Federer straightens out his hitting arm, the arc of his swing appears to curve much less to the left after the hit than other top players. The movement of the racket across the body happens later or more gradually than with the traditional double bend hitting arm position. Again, the arm and racket can actually form something close to a straight line, pointing in the direction of the shot.

In addition to the bend at the elbow, we know that the other critical component in the hitting arm position is the angle of the wrist. We have seen that for the other players we've looked at, the elbow is bent and the wrist is laid back 60 to 90 degrees, depending on the grip. With Federer's grip his wrist lay back with the double bend is at the lower end of this scale, which is what you'd expect with a conservative grip. But when he eliminates the bend at the elbow and straightens out his arm, the angle of his wrist lay back increases significantly. If you look at the side view, you can see that it appear to be 90 degrees or even a little more on some balls with the arm fully straightened at the elbow. He can also maintain this extreme position for an extended period after contact.

As with the double bend, it's impossible to correlate this hitting arm position to either a characteristic finish, or a specific level of torso rotation. (Believe me because I learned this the hard way.) Sometimes Federer comes through with the racket close to vertical like a classic eastern. But he can also hit through the ball with the straight arm and still turn the hand completely over at the finish. Sometimes this hand rotation happens with the racket extended significantly outward from the torso. But on others, he breaks the swing off as sharply or almost as sharply as he does from the double bend position.

On some balls we see Federer using a classic hitting arm position, and on others the extreme straight arm position. On other balls he can also be between these extremes, with the arm partially straightened out. And, once again, this can be paired with the entire range of shoulder and hand and arm rotation. You'll also see him change arm positions literally from one shot to the next. And this is on similar incoming balls that he hits from nearly identical spots on the court. Watch the animation The first ball is hit with a double bend, a neutral stance, which we would consider classical elements. But they are paired with extreme shoulder and hand and arm rotation. The second ball is hit open stance with a straight hitting arm, but far less body rotation, and a classical finish.

Part 2