Federes backhand

[stickman]

I been a federer fan ever sence i picked a racket, in fact he was the first person i ever saw play. And have been copying him ever sence.

However as i watch all his matches over and over from the aussi open... i keep seeing the same thing, he really struggles to hit the ball cross-court when he is moving... It's depressing to watch!

He is still out playing everyone on his forehand... But that backhand is just down right bad at times. I thinks he likes to hit it, but deep down hes dosent have that much confidence in the shot. Which is why he runs around and hits so many forehands... Maby? Kind of a roddick syndrome to me?

Has anybody else notised this? Novak's back-hand is at a totally different level in my opinion... Does anyone have any ideas as to what the problem is?

[llll]

one hand vs 2 hands
jmho
if you had rogers forehand wouldnt you want to hit it if given a choice??

[stickman]

Of course... however that dosent change the fact that he cant hit the backhand on the run...

Or that he try's to change direction all the time because he knows he cant hang...

There are so many point's were he try's to change the crosscourt rally, only to have his opponent rip that ball crosscourt, and then right back to his backhand. And watch him hit the thing short and down the middle or mis-hit the thing completly...

I think he would be much better off hitting the backhand crosscout every time and just wait to get around and hit a forehand instead of changing the rally so much...

[stroke]

I really think Roger's one handed BH is one of the best one handers out there. I suppose there would be an argument that it is not as good as someone like Wawrinka, Gasquet, or Kohlschreiber, but Federer does seem to be able to take the ball early with a topspin BH better than even those guys. I do agree that if Roger does get into an extended BH to BH rally with someone like Djokovic, he is more likely to make an error.

[stickman]

He can hit all the shots, spins, placements. But really only if he dosent have to move much...

He cant drive it cross court well on the run....

I think that may be one of the major strenghts of the 2 hander... easyer to drive crosscourt on the run?

When he is set up, it appers great, when moving ... not so much.

Cant really explane it?

[stickman]

Iv'e been looking at some of his old matches and have notesed he is using more hand and arm rotaion on most of his backhands now-a-days, than before...

Maby he altered his technique to deal with nadal's heavy topspin?

He used to drive his backhand a lot more, it appers know he is giving himself a little more margin and adding some more spin to the ball?

Just an observation... I think he needs to go back to driving the ball more... His backhand down the line is not the same as in years past... He used to stick that shot now he loops it a little bit more... cant rember the last time he hit a backhand down the line winner? He used to hit a few a set...

[GeoffWilliams]

He has a bad habit. He lifts his front hitting foot, so that the heel of the hitting foot goes up in the air, and his leg locks and straightens out, as he places his weight forward on the shot. That habit is a sign of no confidence in the shot, and it lifts your head out of a grounded position, which you really need badly on the 1hbh shot, to be grounded firmly, heel down, as you hit the ball, and not lifting up in the air, without your weight into the shot first. It also lifts your dominant shoulder up in the air, which takes coil/power out of the shot as well, as your weight out of the shot. He needs to look at that habit, and delete it. Sometimes he does it right, and stays down through the contact, and sometimes he does it badly.

[bottle]

Thanks for this invaluable post. I love it when somebody who's good at something (Geoffrey Williams) will talk about it this way and at least give
the rest of us a shot at excellence, too.

The recent discussion at this website about how stingy the very top pros are about what they do wasn't news to me-- I'd heard it from a lesser-ranked but
still very good touring pro before-- but it leads to some interesting thoughts.

Where do we go for best technical information other than to the professional
information givers (for a price), who, when they're not giving you their sharpest (and yes, extremely helpful) insights, will give you their best canned
response, something they've said so many times to their tennis students that
it's gone stale and doesn't work well any more.

So where do we go? To enthusiasts. Period.

[jryle1]

I don't agree with you Geoff on his back leg kicking back on the backhand..maybe the front knee straightening but the rear kicking back is a common contact move as observed by David Bailey and he does it A LOT on the forehand, especially when approaching the net...

[jryle1]

Look at the first three vids of Gasquets backhand in the hi-speed archive, the one of Gonzo as well and you will see the back leg kicks back. Maybe I mis understood what you are trying to say and apologies if I did but you can see they nearly all do it...and it's generally on a "high ball"...on a low ball they will drop the back knee so it's nearly touching the ground..

[bottle]

I re-read Geoff's post. There's nothing in it about back leg. It's all about front leg.

[jryle1]

Apologies then

[stumphges]

Isn't he raising up on the front foot to raise his cotact zone to deal with high balls?

[GeoffWilliams]

He's raising his hitting front heel off the ground, too early, which degrounds him, and raises his front shoulder and head up, and locks out his knee, rather than keeping it bent and grounded through the contact. Esp. against Nadal's high shots on the run. Got to stay grounded Fed! Bh, anyway. All of our power is derived from the ground first, and he's popping up off his contact point too early. Got to defend our contact point.

[mlogarzo]

As good as Federer's backhand is, as with every player there are some technical aspects that will have him struggling with certain shots and situations etc...

The number 1 thing i see with Federer and his struggles with the cross court backhand is the positioning of his front foot. He plants his foot more often than not facing the side fence which makes it difficult for him to really get his left hip through the shot for the crosscourt ball. No problem for a down the line backhand but he's unable to get that left hip through to get it more cross. Hence alot of his shots go more down the middle. By being so closed he will also make contact a little closer to him, rather than further out in front which is where he would need to make contact for the crosscourt ball.

SO whilst a top backhand, there are inherent weaknesses which can be exploited.