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Laugher (July Third)
It's truly a great laugh that anyone reading this can go to Stroke Archive,
click on "Roger Federer" and see entirely different stuff from everybody else.
Go ahead. Take your own notes. I'm confident they'll be nothing like mine.
To limit the experiment let's just do Section I, "Forehand Center."
Terms: "Mondo." A simultaneous last instant laying back of the wrist and winding it down. It's only "last instant" however in the sense of being the last element in Roger's feeling for the ball. "twin elevators." At the University of Bonn in Germany there used to be a pair of elevators right next to each other going in opposite direction and never stopping. It was a series of platforms actually, a negligence suit lawyer's dream. I don't know if it still exists. The designer apparently figured that students have good enough reflexes that no one would ever get crushed. If someone did get crushed, I'm sure it was a professor.
1. moving left. not that much knee bend. solid through early leg thrust! arm way back and still back on right side at leg thrust. the hand is way the hell out by opposite right fence post by contact.
2. way back. hand mid-ribs! on thrust with racket butt pointed at ball. solid through easy thrust. The rhythm is backward from what I thought. The thrust is part of finding the ball, not hitting it! AFTER THRUST is when the stroke gets speedy. This is quite a discovery.
3. He finds the ball with the racket butt BEHIND HIM. The stroke gets fast from there. This time he makes a right angle with the left leg but never comes up on the right leg. That suggests lowness, doesn't it? And yet the racket is incredibly high-- it's only one shade under shoulders line high. Where he usually thrusts, this time he rolls the right knee forward as he Mondos.
4. This time he leaves the right leg bent but straightens the left-- rearwards!-- for contact.
5. Ask the right questions before you look at it. Does arm go out toward right fence or is it merely swinging around? A center of the court shot with little travel involved. The knees are evenly bent-- far less than right angled--either one. Thrust and Mondo have found the ball. The thrust started before the Mondo. And may not be violent at all. There actually were two slow elevators passing each other in opposite direction: the arm extending on a mild backward slant down and the knee extending the leg up. And he was completely WOUND with racket a second head behind and just above human head. So much for the theory that he did last winding as right arm extended. Maybe I saw that once or a couple of times, who knows where.
6. Pre-look. Be ready to preserve the twin elevator idea any time you can since it's a cool move that feels good. In every sequence so far, slow leg extension has been part of the "find the ball" rhythm-- astoundingly different. But there may be no change in the upper body speed at all-- upper body is close to being concluded by the time he finds the ball-- not entirely but close. KNEES ABOUT EVEN LEVEL. YES, TWIN ELEVATORS LIKE IN THE STUDENT UNION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN.
7. This will be from the rear. What to look for? Legs. Straight left leg to stretch the hitting foot way out. Right foot is natural-- not unit turned in the horrid, artificial splaying that everybody loves so much. Twin elevators.
8. Left leg right angled. Right leg not so bent as that. Two elevators with Mondo at end of their passing one another. END OF ENTREME SHOULDERS WINDBACK OCCURS WITH RACKET STILL HIGH. I see two speeds in the upper body rotation this time.
9. When he doesn't have to move much or motors to his left his legs end up bent to about the same mild level. The twin elevator phenomenon is always accompanied by a considerable amount of upper body rotation, as much as 90degrees, and when legs are thrusting like this the hips can't be rotating very much, so this low gear movement must be coming from the gut.
10. THIS IS A VERY GOOD ONE FOR SHOWING HOW SHOULDERS AND ARM STAY SOLID THROUGH THE TWIN ELEVATORS PHASE; AND, ARM INDEPENDENCE IS PRESERVED FOR VERY QUICK RIGHT TO LEFT TRAVEL.
11. Compare this with poor old Dick Enberg's goofy statement, "Oh my, look how far Roger gets under the ball." In this sequence, he hardly gets under it at all. This is a rather famous clip in that the name "INDIAN WELLS" appears directly behind Roger's shoulders and head. From start of twin elevators to end of followthrough his head moves from the first "I" to the "S" at the end, with a pause in the middle when he is at his highest.
12. I remember when Tyler Weeks, owner of the Vic Braden tennis school in Utah, said no one knows where the slow part of Roger's forehand leaves off.
I certainly didn't know, but now I do, and this sequence tells me better than any other. But the exact same transition from slow feel to fast whip occurs to varying degree in every single sequence.
13. Again, the essential transition is apparent at the end of twin elevators and Mondo. What surprises me is how far the racket still is back at that point. That means less sidespin and more topspin and more weight on the ball to the exclusion of none of the three.
It's truly a great laugh that anyone reading this can go to Stroke Archive,
click on "Roger Federer" and see entirely different stuff from everybody else.
Go ahead. Take your own notes. I'm confident they'll be nothing like mine.
To limit the experiment let's just do Section I, "Forehand Center."
Terms: "Mondo." A simultaneous last instant laying back of the wrist and winding it down. It's only "last instant" however in the sense of being the last element in Roger's feeling for the ball. "twin elevators." At the University of Bonn in Germany there used to be a pair of elevators right next to each other going in opposite direction and never stopping. It was a series of platforms actually, a negligence suit lawyer's dream. I don't know if it still exists. The designer apparently figured that students have good enough reflexes that no one would ever get crushed. If someone did get crushed, I'm sure it was a professor.
1. moving left. not that much knee bend. solid through early leg thrust! arm way back and still back on right side at leg thrust. the hand is way the hell out by opposite right fence post by contact.
2. way back. hand mid-ribs! on thrust with racket butt pointed at ball. solid through easy thrust. The rhythm is backward from what I thought. The thrust is part of finding the ball, not hitting it! AFTER THRUST is when the stroke gets speedy. This is quite a discovery.
3. He finds the ball with the racket butt BEHIND HIM. The stroke gets fast from there. This time he makes a right angle with the left leg but never comes up on the right leg. That suggests lowness, doesn't it? And yet the racket is incredibly high-- it's only one shade under shoulders line high. Where he usually thrusts, this time he rolls the right knee forward as he Mondos.
4. This time he leaves the right leg bent but straightens the left-- rearwards!-- for contact.
5. Ask the right questions before you look at it. Does arm go out toward right fence or is it merely swinging around? A center of the court shot with little travel involved. The knees are evenly bent-- far less than right angled--either one. Thrust and Mondo have found the ball. The thrust started before the Mondo. And may not be violent at all. There actually were two slow elevators passing each other in opposite direction: the arm extending on a mild backward slant down and the knee extending the leg up. And he was completely WOUND with racket a second head behind and just above human head. So much for the theory that he did last winding as right arm extended. Maybe I saw that once or a couple of times, who knows where.
6. Pre-look. Be ready to preserve the twin elevator idea any time you can since it's a cool move that feels good. In every sequence so far, slow leg extension has been part of the "find the ball" rhythm-- astoundingly different. But there may be no change in the upper body speed at all-- upper body is close to being concluded by the time he finds the ball-- not entirely but close. KNEES ABOUT EVEN LEVEL. YES, TWIN ELEVATORS LIKE IN THE STUDENT UNION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BONN.
7. This will be from the rear. What to look for? Legs. Straight left leg to stretch the hitting foot way out. Right foot is natural-- not unit turned in the horrid, artificial splaying that everybody loves so much. Twin elevators.
8. Left leg right angled. Right leg not so bent as that. Two elevators with Mondo at end of their passing one another. END OF ENTREME SHOULDERS WINDBACK OCCURS WITH RACKET STILL HIGH. I see two speeds in the upper body rotation this time.
9. When he doesn't have to move much or motors to his left his legs end up bent to about the same mild level. The twin elevator phenomenon is always accompanied by a considerable amount of upper body rotation, as much as 90degrees, and when legs are thrusting like this the hips can't be rotating very much, so this low gear movement must be coming from the gut.
10. THIS IS A VERY GOOD ONE FOR SHOWING HOW SHOULDERS AND ARM STAY SOLID THROUGH THE TWIN ELEVATORS PHASE; AND, ARM INDEPENDENCE IS PRESERVED FOR VERY QUICK RIGHT TO LEFT TRAVEL.
11. Compare this with poor old Dick Enberg's goofy statement, "Oh my, look how far Roger gets under the ball." In this sequence, he hardly gets under it at all. This is a rather famous clip in that the name "INDIAN WELLS" appears directly behind Roger's shoulders and head. From start of twin elevators to end of followthrough his head moves from the first "I" to the "S" at the end, with a pause in the middle when he is at his highest.
12. I remember when Tyler Weeks, owner of the Vic Braden tennis school in Utah, said no one knows where the slow part of Roger's forehand leaves off.
I certainly didn't know, but now I do, and this sequence tells me better than any other. But the exact same transition from slow feel to fast whip occurs to varying degree in every single sequence.
13. Again, the essential transition is apparent at the end of twin elevators and Mondo. What surprises me is how far the racket still is back at that point. That means less sidespin and more topspin and more weight on the ball to the exclusion of none of the three.
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