Engineers - Solutions for creating ridiculous angles and dip

[fanatic456]

How is it possible for Fed to create so many ridiculous angles and get dip with such ease? He's also able to use much more of the face of his racket without it resulting in a mishit. It's a very forgiving racket. Admittedly, he is one of, if not the most skilled players out there. But, obviously, the racket has something to do with it. I would like to get some insight into how this may be achieved in a racket from an engineers point of view. Any engineers on these boards have any ideas?

[jonolau]

I would boil it down to fantastic spatial awareness, great peripheral vision, and excellent eye-hand coordination.

The psychologists would be better able to answer your question. In Applied Psychology, they have done tests to study how athletes of racquet sports are able to use their peripheral vision to track and anticipate arm/body movement of opponents, and prepare themselves accordingly in reaction. These athletes also have good spatial awareness so that they can quite accurately judge where the ball is in midair relative to their body even without having to look at the ball.

[LowProfile]

Use more of the face of the racquet? Slow-motion of Federer's shots show that the only part of his stringbed that he uses in any particular shot is the ball-sized section that where makes contact on each shot. The illusion of him dragging the ball across the strings for increased spin is obviously only an illusion at slower speeds. The ball is in contact with the strings for far too short a period to be able to be in contact with more than one part of the string bed at once.

Now if you mean Federer's ability to use different parts of the stringbed for different situations and shots, I would say that it's due to Federer's extraordinary coordination and ability to track the ball.

[nViATi]

Originally Posted by fanatic456

How is it possible for Fed to create so many ridiculous angles and get dip with such ease? He's also able to use much more of the face of his racket without it resulting in a mishit. It's a very forgiving racket. Admittedly, he is one of, if not the most skilled players out there. But, obviously, the racket has something to do with it. I would like to get some insight into how this may be achieved in a racket from an engineers point of view. Any engineers on these boards have any ideas?

LOL forgiving? You sir are drunk.

[Kevo]

Watch his eyes and head. Watch his feet. Watch the balance and the path of the stroke. It's lots of things put together that allow him to make those shots. I can hit a few of them in a match, but I'm not anywhere close to the consistency of performance that Federer is at. It takes a lot of practice. Don't be fooled into thinking that it has that much to do with his racquet.

[kabob]

Other than the fact that Federer's racquet has a more open stringbed in the center crosses than the stock nCode drill pattern, his racquet does not help his ability to generate spin and dips. It's all technique.

[Vantage231511]

There are some things that are inherent in the human that are not explainable. At least not as purely scientific as you would like. For example, Guillermo Vilas used to generate ridiculous amounts of topspin, especially for the days of wood, that if you ran a calculation would be in the neighborhood of the "bumble bees shouldn't be able to fly" category. Nadal is the same. Certain people have an inherent hand-eye-feel that is just better. I have a great serve, and can place it better then anyone in my area. But for many years I have never been able to slice it like Johnny Mac. There is a lefty here that has a hugely inconsistent serve, but every single stinkin' one comes with wicked spin.

I guess to sum it all up, if you want to be like Fed, go get a bucket and start hitting balls until you get the desired effect, then practice reproducing that a million times.