Federer's racquet head speed - no comparison to his previous years

drakulie said:
Not that I have seen, nor witnessed. As I said before, I saw him 3 times this past weekend, from a few feet away, and took hundreds of photos (high speed), and video (high speed). He is using the same take back as he always has.

Lastly, as I said before you are comparing a "soft practice hit", to a match play FH he rips for a winner.

The most telling sign in comparing the two vids you compared are his legs/feet. Notice in the practice video you provide, his feet don't leave the ground, and he has very little knee bend. Whereas, in the match play footage he has extreme knee bend and explodes completely into the ball, launching his feet off the ground.
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Drakulie, I am more than aware that I'm comparing a "soft practice hit" with a match play forehand. However, like I said countless times before, he is using that same "soft practice hit" forehand takeback during his real matches.

I'm here to discuss the aspects of his forehand takeback, not his footwork. I don't wanna discuss his footwork right now. Besides, the fact that he was going for a blazing winner (with extreme knee bend and all -- like you mention) in that 2005 video doesn't change the fact that his forehand takeback used to look different back then. Nowadays, even when he goes for winners, he still uses the same darn "shortened" takeback that you can witness in the practice video.

I know that you saw Federer practice in Miami. Maybe in your eyes, it looked like the same forehand as always. That's fine. I mean, you're more than free to think what you want. It's a free country. I'm just here to make an observation of what I personally noticed and I don't think it's a minuscule thing that nobody else but I can notice it.
 
if there's one thing that's really changed in Federer's strokes, it's his serve. he doesn't bend his knees and arch his back anywhere near how he did it circa 2004.
 
080825 said:
Why always blame Roger's foot speed and not give the credit to the shot-making ability of his opponent? Age of 27 should be one of the best years for most track athletes. So why should Roger lose his speed and agility? In tennis, when you are out of position to prepare your shot, it is usually caused by either a bad shot you made previously or an excellent shot pulled out by your opponent.
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Agree, in the AO final, at the begining of the match he was moving as if he was stepping on fire, but in the final set he slowed down quite a bit, but then a few sets of running corner to corner chasing Nadal's forehands will do that to you, no?
 
080825 said:
Why always blame Roger's foot speed and not give the credit to the shot-making ability of his opponent? Age of 27 should be one of the best years for most track athletes. So why should Roger lose his speed and agility? In tennis, when you are out of position to prepare your shot, it is usually caused by either a bad shot you made previously or an excellent shot pulled out by your opponent.
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Not foot speed, footwork. Sure he still has the ability to get into place to hit a good shot, but with his poor footwork of late he's not using that ability very wisely.
 
I agree with most of the other posters here that Fed looks noticeably slower now than just 2 years ago. he looked sluggish at last year's Aus Open (mono?), but his footwork was certainly horrendous in the Djokovic match last week.
 
...and I just realized I've gotten off-topic.. racquet head speed may be a little slower, but that's not the biggest difference I see in his game.
 
I don't think it's opponents hitting better shots, it's definitely footwork.

Looking back at his matches of previous years, opponents were still crushing the ball to the corners and whatnot, but Fed was gliding to them and hitting great shots.

This year he has barely been moving for shots hit to the corners. He has been noticeably slow moving side to side and is stretched out of position a lot to where he is hitting struggle shots rather than getting in place. These are slow shots to the corner too.

It's the footwork, not the opponent. imo
 
LanceStern said:
I don't think it's opponents hitting better shots, it's definitely footwork.

Looking back at his matches of previous years, opponents were still crushing the ball to the corners and whatnot, but Fed was gliding to them and hitting great shots.

This year he has barely been moving for shots hit to the corners. He has been noticeably slow moving side to side and is stretched out of position a lot to where he is hitting struggle shots rather than getting in place. These are slow shots to the corner too.

It's the footwork, not the opponent. imo
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Do you also notice that he actually sweats now? I don't remember seeing him break a sweat when he was dominating.
 
LanceStern said:
Looking back at his matches of previous years, opponents were still crushing the ball to the corners and whatnot, but Fed was gliding to them and hitting great shots.
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What opponents were crushing the ball in the corners? All his oponents were scared sh*tless of him and were making tons of mistakes simply because they didn't believe they can beat him. Federer was the only one doing the crushing.
 
Right, Roger's movement in AO really surprised me a lot, he must have had done tons of footwork drills everyday during the off-season. As for the 5th set, I didn't feel he slowed down a lot. He might. It was like long distance running, there would be a period of time the runner felt extremely exhausted and had to fight it off. Roger might experience the low point. However, I think there were many other factors. IMHO, the most important one is psychological. Roger knew it was "do it or die", after he lost the first or the third set. He became extremely focused. However, when he got two sets all, he felt kind of released and the uncertainity of what to do kicked in his head. On the contrary Rafa had been struggling to manage his stamina through the first four sets, he stepped on the gas as hard as he could at the beginning of the last set. That was a lesson learned from Wimbledon 2007: the urgency to finish the deal before it is gone. When I saw Rafa got the break and started to focus only on holding his serve to save energy, I knew it was over.
Anyway, I don't feel Roger declines in any physical perspective from 2006.
JediMindTrick said:
Agree, in the AO final, at the begining of the match he was moving as if he was stepping on fire, but in the final set he slowed down quite a bit, but then a few sets of running corner to corner chasing Nadal's forehands will do that to you, no?
Click to expand...
 
^^From watching the AO, one thing I noticed was when Roger was on the move, and made to run/react quickly (no time to think), he played much better, than when he had time to think about it. He seemed to be a like a deer caught in headlights. :shock:
 
Well I think changes in the racket can be a part of it. One of the things I noticed about Federer when I first saw him, was that he seemed to be able to hit an approach shot from around the service line and low, and really smack through it, and it would still come down inside the baseline. Another thing I noticed one of the very first times I saw him, was that he seemed ro be struggling a little bit with getting enough depth on his slice. This was with the PS 85. It would be very interesting if somebody could give some information about changes in his string tension from say, 2004 to now. It might confirm my (conspiracy) theory.
Offcourse I realize there are other factors at play also.
 
Even you take physical aspects out of foowork, I still can't agree with you. Because "foowork" you called is permanently integrated into a player's DNA and becomes a second nature after years and years training. It interlaces with a player's ball-striking mechanism and routine tactics. If you don't have a physical problem but feel hard to set your foot right for the shot you want, it has a lot to do with your opponent:
1. Your opponent's shot put you out of comfort hitting zone.
2. The uncertainty of how to construct the successive shots accordingly cause you to hesitate in footwork setup.



tudwell said:
Not foot speed, footwork. Sure he still has the ability to get into place to hit a good shot, but with his poor footwork of late he's not using that ability very wisely.
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One way to tell is the sound of the balls off his racket. And after seeing some of all the clips that are linked in this forum, I do believe it has a lower pitch now than say 2006 and earlier.
 
That's why Roger has so many fans. He is a player playing with instinct. He developed a perfect package with his supreme shot-making ability and intelligence. But he has been relying on it for too long. Other players start to figure out how to bring it down. Now he is asked to change his tactics, it will be hard for him.

drakulie said:
^^From watching the AO, one thing I noticed was when Roger was on the move, and made to run/react quickly (no time to think), he played much better, than when he had time to think about it. He seemed to be a like a deer caught in headlights. :shock:
Click to expand...
 
Povl Carstensen said:
One way to tell is the sound of the balls off his racket. And after seeing some of all the clips that are linked in this forum, I do believe it has a lower pitch now than say 2006 and earlier.
Click to expand...


^^^Good observation. I have also noticed his hair doesn't have the same bounce it use to have two years ago.
 
He may lower the tension to counter hard-hitting youngsters. But I don't you can trust your hearing because they record matches differently.
Povl Carstensen said:
One way to tell is the sound of the balls off his racket. And after seeing some of all the clips that are linked in this forum, I do believe it has a lower pitch now than say 2006 and earlier.
Click to expand...
 
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