Rafael Nadal's Forehand

[lukman41985]

Great article John! It, and the rest of the issue, was definitely worth the wait. Glad to hear Vegas went well. I would love to take you up on next year's offer to go to Indian Wells. Let's do it!

But back to this article. So Federer's forehand averages 2700 rpm and Nadal's forehand averages 3200 rpm--20% more spin on Rafa's forehand. Which had me thinking, well what kind of spin.

If I had to guess, Rafa's forehand, on average probably has more of a topspin component to it than Roger's. I'm saying this because Rafa uses, as you said, the reverse finish so often whereas Roger tends to windshield across the ball. I think the reverse motion increases the topspin component on the forehand because it is a more vertical motion.

So Rafa's ball bounds forward much more than Roger's, in my mind, not only because of the 500 rpm's of extra spin, but also because of the higher topspin component.

The article didn't mention that, so maybe I'm wrong.

[johnyandell]

You could be right! It's very hard for us to see the sidespin and topspin components in the groundstrokes--much easier on the serve. So we haven't tried to get into that yet. We need to look at a lot more players to get enough events. One more mystery to pursue over time.

[lukman41985]

Sergi Bruguera

So Nadal generates as much spin as Brugera. The Spanish Spin Kings, let's call them (or not...). But here's something interesting. Check out Bruguera's hitting arm position. Straight, just like Rafa:

Quick question John, how do the Nadal and Bruguera forehands compare in terms of average velocity?

[johnyandell]

No idea. Wasn't measured then and I haven't seen anything on Rafi.

[vmiller]

I was thinking about the straight hitting arm and the Brugera picture supports my idea.

You rotate your arm for topspin. If you rotate your arm just at the forearm, you're range of motion is limited by the elbow and wrist, but if you rotate from the shoulder, you add another joint and more range of motion, and you drive the rotation from a stronger muscle group. It's much easier to rotate from the shoulder with a straight arm!

I was warming up for a match the other day (shortly after reading the Nadal article), and was hitting easy balls with a lot of topspin, and I cought myself straightening out my arm just before brushing up for contact. That's what got me thinking.

What do you guys think?