Emulating Roger Federer's forehand...wow, what a difference!!

Hi all.....this is my first post.
Sorry if its a bit long to read.....just have to get it out.

I'm from a table tennis background (10 years regional, national and collegiate levels)....that was a few years ago...before that mainly chess and soccer (both at amateur regional levels).

I just picked up tennis about 9 months ago at the age of 33 and I am being coached by my uncle. He has tennis coaching experience on college level, and is coaching me for fun, but is noticing I'm progressing very rapidly.

I really don't want to brag......but I consider myself a very quick learner, very agile, flexible, extremely focused and have explosive power. Now just constantly training myself now with my coach and whoever I can play with, spending about 8 hours a week (while working on my Phd) just seeing how far I can get at this age....To be honest I'm literally addicted to this sport and it feels like its activating parts of my brain that I never new existed.

What I'm also doing is studying slow-motion videos of different shots from different pro players.
And what I'm noticing is that its possible according to your abilities to actually incorporate different shots from different players.

After studying Roger Federer's forehand for more than 1 hour in slow-motion, until I was convince that I had completely memorized every frame....I have started to emulate the forehand since last week.

Me and my coach are in shock at the results, lol.......where do I start?

Three main points I have discovered about this forehand:

1. The rolling upward-forward motion that I am making after the unit turn and the arm swing creates incredible amount of speed on my shots....Its like the velocity equals the swing + the rolling through snapping motion (btw wrist is NOT actually snapping).

2. The combination of the unit turn coiling of my body + the swing + the roll through motion + the extreme velocity I am able to produce, is helping me keep the balls very low above of the net when I want it to. The control on the height of the ball is amazing.....Its like due to the velocity, the balls are just staying lower if that makes any sense.

3. When you are able to sync this entire forehand motion, it feels as if there is no strong effort being exerted, there is no tiredness in my arms or body, despite the extreme velocity of the balls I'm shooting. I can only describe it as some kind of sling shot affect....where I am like omg, how did I do that :0.

Now I know that one of the key in tennis is consistency.....So I will keep practicing this forehand until I can make it consistent, and hopefully make my own highspeed video-recordings of it in the coming months.

One of the difficulties I have found, is that because I am using a semi-eastern/eastern grip for this forehand, I need to learn how to shift from that grip to my back-hand grip, which I guess is a semi-western grip (punching motion).

Furthermore, I'm trying to emulate a Stan Wawrinka type of one handed back-hand (on the flat and top-spin shots). I have a kind of similar body frame as Wawrinka.... very muscular legs, short thick neck, lightly protruding chest cage (not barrel, but almost), despite being shorter than him. The back-hand starts with my really strong legs, which help me coil the unit turn and torso muscles, with posterior forearm muscles feeling really tens as a rock.

Does anyone have any tips on shifting from Semi-Eastern to Semi-Western grip when shifting from forehand to backhand ? Is it just an issue of keep practicing?

And has anyone successfully emulated some of the pro-players shots as I have mentioned above?

Hope I have not bored you guys...thanks.
 

NTRPolice

Hall of Fame
I think you should post a video of the forehand for examination.

Let me elaborate:

The magic of Feds game isnt his strokes. It's his ability to set up for the ball. Ever wonder why hitting balls fed from a ball machine is easier than playing in a match? Because when a ball machine is feeding the same ball, you know where the ball is going to be. Fed has the skill of setting up for top tier pro shots as though they were being sent from a ball machine.

Emulating a tennis swing is not the same thing as emulating a golf swing. Emulating a tennis swing means nothing if you cant setup properly.

To hit shots like Fed you're going to need to make sure that your arm is nearly extended at the point of contact. That sounds so simple, but it's not. That is the root of the shot, and the skill required is perfect spacing in your setup. If you cannot hit a proper 1HBH then you probably cannot setup for a Fed forehand because it requires the same setup skills as any regular 1HBH.

The reason why the 2HBH is taught to rec players (children is different) is because it's easier to get the racket to the ball. Your arms can be full extended, or fully tucked in, or anywhere in between and you can still hit a good shot. A 1HFH is the same thing. You cannot hit a decent 1HBH if your arm is tucked into your body; pulling too much across your body; your arm is bent; the ball is too behind you, ect.
 
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