Chas Tennis
G.O.A.T.
Watching Medvedev at the AO, he seemed to have intense and very quick head movement to look at the ball during forehands.
Here is a big forehand, that appeared awkward in some way, but was a very strong shot.
His ball watching was very locked on. See 27 sec for the best clip. To single frame on Youtube use the period & comma keys. You can go full screen and come back down and the video stays on the same frame.
Video starts at 27 sec. Compare any two frames from the clip at 27 seconds. To compare one frame to another always select the video with the alt key + left mouse click, otherwise the video starts playing. Compare impact frame to each frame leading to impact.
This video shows his separation (hips line to shoulders line), the timing of his hip movement and the amount of shoulder horizontal adduction or ISR he has done leading to impact. He does not appear to accelerate his off arm straight out and pull it in. Significant power on this forehand appears to come from abdominal muscles that turn the uppermost body (line between the two shoulders). Look at the rotation axis located neck area/spine as the head stays still. The hips do not appear to lead his uppermost body in the turning when the forward swing first starts.
Using the court sign as a reference, his body does not move forward very much during the forward swing.
Comparison of the frame before impact to the one after impact show wrist flexion in the forward direction.
This high camera view - 45-45-45 degrees to trajectory vs a ground level camera - tends to show all stroke motions. This high camera position works for the serve also if a high vantage point is available.
I have not looked at other forehands to see how typical any of these observations are of his usual forehand drives.
Does he look through the back of the racket strings at impact? See thumbnail.
Is he jammed? The camera angle at 23 sec shows that he is moving the rotation axis back (neck area) to make room to swing. That is how it looks to me.
Here is a big forehand, that appeared awkward in some way, but was a very strong shot.
His ball watching was very locked on. See 27 sec for the best clip. To single frame on Youtube use the period & comma keys. You can go full screen and come back down and the video stays on the same frame.
Video starts at 27 sec. Compare any two frames from the clip at 27 seconds. To compare one frame to another always select the video with the alt key + left mouse click, otherwise the video starts playing. Compare impact frame to each frame leading to impact.
This video shows his separation (hips line to shoulders line), the timing of his hip movement and the amount of shoulder horizontal adduction or ISR he has done leading to impact. He does not appear to accelerate his off arm straight out and pull it in. Significant power on this forehand appears to come from abdominal muscles that turn the uppermost body (line between the two shoulders). Look at the rotation axis located neck area/spine as the head stays still. The hips do not appear to lead his uppermost body in the turning when the forward swing first starts.
Using the court sign as a reference, his body does not move forward very much during the forward swing.
Comparison of the frame before impact to the one after impact show wrist flexion in the forward direction.
This high camera view - 45-45-45 degrees to trajectory vs a ground level camera - tends to show all stroke motions. This high camera position works for the serve also if a high vantage point is available.
I have not looked at other forehands to see how typical any of these observations are of his usual forehand drives.
Does he look through the back of the racket strings at impact? See thumbnail.
Is he jammed? The camera angle at 23 sec shows that he is moving the rotation axis back (neck area) to make room to swing. That is how it looks to me.
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