If it's down to timing and sneakiness then no-one (who we seen on TV often at least) comes close to Federer. His court sense is second to none. When it comes off it's awesome - he just happens to play opponents who are great movers and who are often ready for it. Guys who are a notch below like Fish, Roddick, Tomic, Del Potro etc are just cannon fodder for them though.
He seems to benefit also from his forehand grip and take-back. He starts what looks like his normal forehand takeback when hitting a drop-shot. Most others don't have that level of disguise.
Do you admire any other player apart from Federer?
As a coach would you not be teaching players to pick the best parts from
different players rather than creating Federer clones.
While we're on your favourite subject, here's a wee question for you.
I used to argue with my dad about natural talent.
He would say that people like Federer have natural born talent and I would ask is it possible to train a normal person to have world class skills.
Say you take a 10 month old baby and start showig Federer forehand videos and mimicked the action and carried on with intensive but not physically damaging training throughout childhood.
Would you program Federer esque skills into the child.
Dad would say no, you can't beat natural ability then I would say but why do you get so many father son or siblings sportsmen/women (Williams sisters prime example, they couldn't both have been incredibly million to one naturally talented) at world class level.
That's too much coincidence to have so many related world class sportsmen/women.
Surely there must be a huge environmental influence but how much does environment matter if you push it to extremes?
