Federer's Head Position

[kenknight]

I was looking at the Federer Forehand articles and was reminded of the issue concerning Roger's head facing sideways for so long, and why it's turned so much.

A lot of players keep their head still, but none completely sideways.

But what about Roger's eyes? Most people have a dominant eye that is proven to send information to the brain at least 10 times faster than the non dominant one.

So for Roger, if his left eye was dominant, it'd make much more sense to turn his head further sideways than normal to give his left eye better vision of the contact point.

I guess. That's just my two cents on a possible explanation. On another note, if his right eye is dominant, or if he's one of the rare people where both eyes are equal, turning his head a little more might reduce the mishits. But I'm not really qualified to give someone like Federer technical advice.

Would that explanation be plausible though? For a dominant left eye?

[tennismaverick]

That makes total sense to me. How did you come up with that explanation? It would account for many differences between players. There are probably other neurological differences that also make a players swing unique but this has got to be a major one.

[johnyandell]

An ingenious concept, but we don't know about Roger's eyes for starters. And even if that were true wouldn't you see players with their heads further on one side than the other?

[tennismaverick]

You make some good objections so I decided to do a search on the subject. There seems to be a lot research done in this area and eye dominance plays a huge role in someones success in a specific sport. Clearly if you are a rifle or archery marksman, being dominant aligned (right handed and right eyed dominant) is a huge advantage. In fact, if you are not then you should switch to be good at these sports. Billiards is another sport where this is enormously beneficial. This isn't true in all sports. If you are cross-dominant (right handed and left eyed dominant) you have an advantage in baseball hitting but not pitching. Baseball hitting is similar to tennis except in tennis you hit from both sides. The first hyperlink below is a study of tennis and clay pigeon shooting eye dominance. It is really interesting. The conclusion is eye dominance plays a significant role in aiming but you also need your non-dominant eye for depth perception and judging the speed of the ball. The practical application to tennis was not determined in concrete instructions on how to hit the ball. But this article and many articles like it, leave no doubt that eye dominance will effect how a person hits a tennis ball. Exactly how and how to improve your tennis game based on this information was not determined in the few articles I have read. But I might go to the library and try to find more information. Of course, next time I am on the tennis court I will experiment with different styles, according to my eye dominace (I am cross-dominant) to see if I can tell anything. The problem with tennis is it is much more than an aiming sport.

I have read that Agassi has the most accuracy out of any tennis player and he is cross dominant according to one article I read. Can we learn anything from his style? Is Federer cross dominant? Maybe being cross dominant is an advantage in tennis forehands but not tennis backhands or vica versa? Maybe having both eyes equal is the best thing? Unfortunately, according to the little research I have read, this trait is genetically predetermined and efforts to change it don't amount to much. So how do you adapt your style to your eye dominance? Maybe someone has already done a study on this but if not then someone should.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...n+tennis&hl=en https://<br /> <br /> http://www.p...smednov97.html

http://www.psychedonline.org/Articles/Vol3Iss6/EyeDominance.htm

[johnyandell]

Really I know less than nothing about it. But that doesn't mean that it might mot be important, and it is an interesting topic. I guess learning which you are could have implications in learning tennis. Not sure it could ever be as important as a strong turn move regardless of your eyes, but... you never know. So let us know what you find out.

[CraigC]

Eye Dominance

Several years ago, I worked with one of my players on use of the eyes. We experimented on passing shots using a patch over the front eye( eye closest to the incoming ball). THe purpose was to teach the eye farthest from the incoming ball to deal with the ball, while allowing the eye closest to the incoming ball to deal with the volleyer position. After about 15 minutes, we would remove the patch and let him use both eyes to hit passing shots. I have no idea whether we got a measurable change in dominance. However, he became much better at reading the volleyer movement and today hits a hell of a passing shot.
Now, the question is, is it because of the month we spent working on passes, or the month we spent working on eye training? WHO KNOWS? What really matters is... it worked.
I know this doesn't apply to the current discussion but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.
Cheers,
CC

[mntlblok]

Where Federer is looking

If you really want to have some fun with what Federer does with his head, go to the Andy Plunkett "Your Strokes" article, scroll half way down to where Roger is on the left side of the page in a red shirt, and note where he looks at impact time (and after). He ain't looking at the impact area. He's looking a couple of feet *behind* the impact area. Splain that. :-)

Kevin