Did Roger commit a big mistake by not focusing enough on his upper body strength as an athlete in the 00s ??

Did Roger commit a big mistake by not focusing enough on his upper body strength as an athlete in th

  • Yes

  • No


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topher

Hall of Fame
Murray focused a fair bit on upper body strength as I recall, not sure it worked out for him.

Tennis seems better suited to being lithe/toned and having strong core and legs. Besides Roger has wide shoulders so he naturally should have good upper body strength I’d think.
 
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Deleted member 780630

Guest
Why would he have needed to? Besides the forearms, the strength that's needed in tennis primarily comes from the lower body and core. He already had a GOAT tier wrist and he did focus on his lower body strength, hence the GOAT footwork and movement.
 

Milehigh5280

Professional
No, but this makes me wonder if a middling player should go the Bryson Dechambeau route, bulk up and try to win with sheer power. I don't think it would work, but I would love the see someone try
 

Bambooman

Hall of Fame
The weird thing about Fed is that he has sort of withered looking arms and wrists. There is no hint of any sort of power lurking there.
 

SumYungGai

Semi-Pro
No, but this makes me wonder if a middling player should go the Bryson Dechambeau route, bulk up and try to win with sheer power. I don't think it would work, but I would love the see someone try
Serena was the Dechambeau of women's tennis. This may work in the women's game, but not the men's game. Have you seen how hard they're already hitting? Plus they move very well.
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
Why would he have needed to? Besides the forearms, the strength that's needed in tennis primarily comes from the lower body and core. He already had a GOAT tier wrist and he did focus on his lower body strength, hence the GOAT footwork and movement.
1.jpg
 

Dolgopolov85

G.O.A.T.
Yes and no. Djokovic doesn't rely on upper body strength either. At least in the sense that neither needs upper body strength for the key element of the game, which is how early they take the ball.

BUT the difference is Djokovic hits a double hander. I read somewhere that when Fed remodelled his one handed backhand under Ljubicic, he did a lot of shoulder strengthening exercises. So it seems that the lack of power against high balls to his backhand, especially from Nadal, may have held him back in his peak years. And in either of 06-07, he conquers Nadal on clay and he wins the CYGS. So he missed a trick there.

But he also missed a trick in not adapting sooner to the rise of Nadalovic and moving back to an all court game that he used to play up to 2003. Being the oldest of the three, he was always going to lose physical slugfests against them and that he either won miraculously at times (RG 2011) or came close (USO same year) doesn't negate the difficulty of it.
 

Amen786

Semi-Pro
Hitting through any court was definietly not his problem, ever (except for 2018 onwards on slow courts)
If anything, he should have hired a sport psychologist to have helped him closing out important matches' points, sets & matches. Because out of all 6+ grandslam winners, he is the one with maximum amount of sets & matches lost despite having outplayed the opponent in important matches.
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
Recall the boxing trainer of Ray Mancinii mentioned the more he trained with weights the slower he got
 

BeatlesFan

Bionic Poster
No. He provided the new template.

Carry only as much weight as you need. Size/bulk doesn't help and actually hurts.
Wait a second, Federer didn't create that template. 99% of tennis players in the 60's, 70's and 80's were all skinny and nobody was bulky aside from Roscor Tanner and a couple others - Pat Cash was heavier too. Connors, Mac and Borg were all 5'10, 155 pounds. Nobody in tennis had an Andy Murray or Fucosovics type of muscled body back then. They looked like this:

EDZP0xDWwAE4eaJ.jpg
 

Rosstour

G.O.A.T.
Wait a second, Federer didn't create that template. 99% of tennis players in the 60's, 70's and 80's were all skinny and nobody was bulky aside from Roscor Tanner and a couple others - Pat Cash was heavier too. Connors, Mac and Borg were all 5'10, 155 pounds. Nobody in tennis had an Andy Murray or Fucosovics type of muscled body back then. They looked like this:

EDZP0xDWwAE4eaJ.jpg

I get that, but in the 90s guys got a lot bigger.

And Fed is a lot more muscular than those past greats too.
 

Sunny014

Legend
well, you said he is unbeatable in 00's...so no

He never won on clay and Teenage Nadal could overpower him, towards the end of 00s his body started looking weaker than in his peak.

Wait a second, Federer didn't create that template. 99% of tennis players in the 60's, 70's and 80's were all skinny and nobody was bulky aside from Roscor Tanner and a couple others - Pat Cash was heavier too. Connors, Mac and Borg were all 5'10, 155 pounds. Nobody in tennis had an Andy Murray or Fucosovics type of muscled body back then. They looked like this:

EDZP0xDWwAE4eaJ.jpg


Roger should have cared because we are not in the 70s or 80s or even 90s anymore.
Tour was getting grindier, while he was still beating everyone from the baseine in his peak, when Nadal the youngster arrived then Federer should have known that more strength shall be needed, after his bout with Mono he should have focussed on getting very strong for 2009 season, the field had become very stronger, Nadal, Novak, Potro, Berdych, Tsonga, all had arrived and they were stronger physically, if Fed had to cope up with them then he had to get stronger.

I guess Federer was mentally gassed out after chasing Pete's 15, he lost perspective, instead of quickly changing racquet and increasing his body strength he was focussed on doing nothing in 10-14 period with that piece of trash Annacone.

That is why he is today looking so fragile in the slams race, I am sure he has a lot of regrets on what he could have done that time.
 
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Amen786

Semi-Pro
He never won on clay and Teenage Nadal could overpower him, towards the end of 00s his body started looking weaker than in his peak.




Roger should have cared because we are not in the 70s or 80s or even 90s anymore.
Tour was getting grindier, while he was still beating everyone from the baseine in his peak, when Nadal the youngster arrived then Federer should have known that more strength shall be needed, after his bout with Mono he should have focussed on getting very strong for 2009 season, the field had become very stronger, Nadal, Novak, Potro, Nadal, Tsonga, all had arrived and they were stronger physically, if Fed had to cope up with them then he had to get stronger.

I guess Federer was mentally gassed out after chasing Pete's 15, he lost perspective, instead of quickly changing racquet and increasing his body strength he was focussed on doing nothing in 10-14 period with that piece of trash Annacone.

That is why he is today looking so fragile in the slams race, I am sure he has a lot of regrets on what he could have done that time.
Once again I am telling you.
Fed's problem was between the ears, not between hands and legs
 

DjokoLand

Hall of Fame
Federer was arrogant in his prime but I don’t mean as a person. He during 04-07 was simply just so much better than any other and got into the mindset that he was better and can just play his game and always win. Then along came Nadal who started bullying his BH with top spin and I always feel Fed didn’t do enough to tactically try find a solution as he had the mindset he was better.

So when I see threads mentioning Fed should/could of done something different that is my answer. I don’t blame Fed as he was the best so I don’t blame him but I feel his success hurt him in the Nadal match up
 

Patogen

Rookie
Power != strength. In tennis, power comes from timing, and timing comes from neat footwork. With Roger's style, you need strong legs, strong core, strong forearm on the dominant hand. He's got it all.

Nadal is pretty skinny too btw. Even skinnier actually. I have no idea if he was/is clean or not, but people pointing at his left arm and talking about "bodybuilding physique not achievable naturally" were always psycho.
 

SonnyT

Legend
Federer, Djokovic and Medvedev all have unimpressive upper body. They all depend on timing, rather than overpowering the ball.
 
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