Do you believe any of the pros were taught to model their strokes as per other pros from the start ot that came later after they had other things such as footwork, micro adjustments, point of contact, and many other things in place? Federer’s fh itself has evolved and is not the same as the one he used against Sampras at Wimbledon. You coach high level kids if I am not wrong? What is your general advice?
The problem with rec play and emulating a pro is that most of the times emphasis is only on a static form and not all the other things. Casual or not you can see tons of bad habits on curious’s wall hitting session. I am guilty of the same. This is why things break down when in a match for most rec players. Plus when you start moving and you are thinking more about form than instinctively hit, your stroke starts to break down.
Your perspective might be a bit different having coached high level kids who were putting effort into the other prerequisites too and already had certain key things in place.
I was coaching some high-level kids in the late 90s thru the 00s. Since then, mostly intermediate level adults or kids wanting to play on their HS (varsity) team or their Jr HS team. Also, couple of young competitive badminton players who wanted to play college tennis.
Semi-retired now. The only high-level players I've worked with in the past couple of years have been those who needed help with their serve mechanics.
With high-level students, not necessarily emulating a single player for any given stroke. More a composite or commonalities of some of the top pros. In fact, have gotten a few students away from emulating one specific pro. Some of them overly enamored with the reverse finish because of Nadal. A couple, with big serves (115+ mph) had been emulating Stanimal. And, like Stan, has started to develop shoulder problems.
When high-level juniors or semi-pros are emulating specific players, they are often doing so on their own. Many of these players are excellent mimics. They can pick up the mechanics or footwork patterns of pro / elite players often without much outside instruction.