Roger Federer Forehand Analysis Part 3

Welcome to the third part of the Roger Federer forehand video analysis series. In the first part we looked at Roger's forehand grip as well as the unit turn with which he begins the swing. In the second video we then looked at how Roger drops the racket below the level of the incoming ball and then swings forward and upward to contact. Today in the third video I want to take a close look at the role of the wrist in Roger's forehand which I know many of you are very interested in. Now Roger does make great use of the wrist and that is the primary reason he has so much more racket head acceleration on his forehand than most other players on tour. First let's take a look at how exactly Roger uses the wrist on his forehand and then later I'll also talk about what that means for your own forehand. The first thing Roger does in order to make great use of the wrist is he gets into this position with the tip of the racket pointing to the right side. From here Roger's hitting arm is going to start moving forward and at the same time the tip of the racket is getting positioned so that it now points more to the left side behind Roger's back. This way Roger is creating a lot of pre-stretch in the forearm muscles which then gets released towards contact and results in a lot of racket head speed. Let's take a look at the key movement again. The tip of the racket is pointing to the right side. Now Roger pre-stretches the forearm muscles and then releases the pre-stretch towards contact. Now let's take a look at the same movement from a different angle. Here Roger is moving to the right side in order to hit an aggressive down the line shot. The tip of the racket once again points to the right side and now Roger lays the wrist back into an extreme angle so that the tip of the racket is pointing more to the left side behind his body. From this position the tip of the racket is now going to travel a relatively large distance in a short period of time which means that the tip of the racket is moving really fast. So that's the primary reason that Roger can generate more racket head speed on the forehand than most other players on tour. So what does this mean for your forehand? Should you go out and try to copy this the way Roger does it? My answer is that most of you definitely should not. This is a very advanced concept that requires a lot of coordination and what can easily happen when you try to copy this is that you start framing many shots because you struggle to get the racket face square at contact. Working on this movement as an average recreational tennis player would in my opinion be very similar to an average recreational basketball player spending his time working on a three-point fadeaway jump shot. In reality both should probably be working on fundamentals instead. With beginning tennis players I even focus on keeping the wrist relatively stable in order to make sure that they get the racket face square at contact and manage to get the ball over the net. In these images you can see that Roger's racket face is square or straight up and down at contact. If you enjoyed this video I'd like to ask you to click the like button below and also subscribe to my YouTube channel if you haven't done so yet because then you will receive all of the newest videos.