Roger Federer's Warm Up

[johnyandell]

Would love to get your thoughts on my latest article, "Roger Federer's Warm Up"

[doctorhl]

Your take on Federer’s warmup style is great and is not always recognized by the teaching/ coaching community. I have often watched Federer groundstroke warmups and tried to duplicate his minimal movement and lack of muscular effort in warming up. I felt like I could duplicate the movements, but my ball flight did not appear to come close to his speed and flight path using a similar minimal effort. Even though his body weight, arm/leg length and height are considerably greater than mine, the obvious difference is motor skill. This rear view clip really shows how long the ball stays on the strings, particularly the backhand.and how heavy a ball he hits, even at warmup slow speeds. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P9LzWVbck0o

Federer obviously does this to “dial in” and feel his strings, a particularly important “ dial in” when it is windy or changing court surfaces. It seems that his warmup fits in with his style to gradually raise his game intensity. Nadal’s warmup style is somewhat of a contrast, which fits in with his playing style of coming out of the gate pretty hard. I often wonder if some developing juniors copy a muscular aggression style that is a mismatch with their body anthropometrics, conditioning commitment. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx33JI5Q4l4

[stotty]

I have watched Roger practicing a handful of times. He's ridiculously relaxed and even towards the finish of a practice he never fully loads his game. Only when a match starts does he go into full crescendo.

I watched Connors practice once. He was the complete reverse!

[jeremy93]

I noticed too that he doesn’t set his feet near as much on the groundstrokes. He will just kind of walk through it when he could easily move over and set his feet

[johnyandell]

Correct