So the most copied shot in the history of tennis has to be roger federer's forehand and i get so
many emails sent to me with videos of players who have tried really hard to copy federer's forehand
but unfortunately it never really looks like federer and it's not only that the
federer forehand is difficult to copy at the recreational level even at the elite level you
rarely see a player with federer's forehand style the closest one that comes to mind
is grigor dimitrov but other than that i'm not aware of any player who has the federer forehand
and the reason is that the federer forehand has some really unusual characteristics that are very
difficult to recreate unless they come intuitively to a player and look guys i understand that you're
trying to copy federer's forehand it's one of the best forehands of all time and it's
absolutely beautiful to look at it has so much style and the way he hits it so of course people
want to copy it but interestingly i've been able to observe several technical flaws that players
have developed when they try to copy federer's forehand so let's get started with some of these
technical problems that you can get if you try to copy what federer is doing and it starts off
in the preparation stage so when federer takes his racket back he will have his non-dominant hand go
to about the back shoulder so the dominant shoulder will be aligned with the non-dominant
hand a lot of recreational players will not be able to come out of a turn that's this large
players will copy this particular style their hand will go back here and now because there's such a
large turn they're unable to come out of this turn quickly enough and they will make contact late
with the dominant shoulder behind so if you find yourself making contact late it might be because
of this federer style turn so the easy fix is not to allow the non-dominant hand to go past
the middle of your body so if this is the middle of your body when you're turning do not allow the
non-dominant hand to go past this point you're gonna stop right here and now the timing is gonna
be much easier and you'll be able to make contact with the dominant shoulder in front and let's get
to the biggest problem players face when they try to copy federer's forehand that is the racket drop
and here's where a lot of problems start at the recreational level so first of all let's talk
about federer's racket drop so here's an eastern grip and what he does is highly unusual he will
drop the racket with his strings being flat to the ground most players who have an eastern grip
will not do that they will have the racket go back in a more neutral position so what federer does
is highly unusual he closes the racket and fully extends his arm and now because his racket is on
the hitting side of the body he will have a very pronounced wrist lag only because the racquet is
going from this side to this side and you got to remember that at the high level the acceleration
of the forehand is so fast that the wrist will actually lag like this the racket will go behind
the hand a little bit that's how much acceleration is there and that's exactly what happens on
federer's forehand he closes the racket here and now as he accelerates the racket flips back
this way and roger's wrist lag is not different from any other high-level player so let's compare
someone else with an eastern grip juan martin del potro so he will have a more of a neutral position
of the racquet head but when he accelerates his racket will go back into the same position that
roger achieves and here's the problem that i've been observing at the recreational level when
players try to copy the federer racket drop they will not be able to get enough acceleration in
the stroke because this type of take back doesn't come natural to them so the racket
will never go into this position they will drop the racket to the outside like roger does and the
racket gets to about right here once the stroke accelerates forward so if this is you if you're
dropping the racket like a roger and the racket is lagging only to about right here you're getting
less range of motion than if you had more of a conventional tape back ala wawrinka or djokovic
where the racquet will go further back and then naturally drop into this position and now you're
dealing with a lot more room for acceleration if you're dropping the racket like federer
and it doesn't come natural to you and the racket only goes to about right here there's not enough
room for the racket to accelerate now this of course works beautifully for players who have a
naturally shorter take back so for players who drop the racket here like roger does you will
find that they accelerate fast enough that the racket will whip back in the proper position so
my recommendation is that you don't try to copy this particular portion of federer's forehand
because while this comes natural to him and he's always done it so do what feels natural to you do
not even think about how the racket is dropping let this part of the forehand occur naturally
and what i have found with my students is that if they allow the racquet to go back naturally
this type of backswing will usually fit their genetics and the racquet will have enough room to
accelerate and the wrist lag will be sufficient so the next problem recreational players face who try
to copy roger federer's forehand is the keeping of the head down at the moment of contact so if
you watch federer's forehand in slow motion you will see that he drops the racket and then as he's
making contact he will keep his head down towards his strings and the vast majority of other elite
players does not do this particular thing why because we actually cannot see the ball touch
the strings at the moment of contact and not even roger can see the ball so what most players do is
they will have their head facing forward right at the moment of contact and some actually have their
eyes closed if you ever take a look at dominic thiem's forehand when he's making contact his
eyes are actually closed and i'm not advocating that you don't watch the ball watching the ball
is one of the most important things that you need as a tennis player but you're going to watch the
ball for a very long time until you strike it and the actual strike occurs so fast that you
can't see the ball so the question is should we keep the head down or should we keep the head up
and not worry about it when we make contact well i think if you do it naturally your head will not be
down at the moment of contact and the reason why the vast majority of high level tennis players do
not keep their head down at the moment of contact has to do with torso rotation and the sequencing
of it so on a high level forehand the non-dominant side will lead the rotation so the rotation will
start when the racket starts to drop and now when we hit the forward phase of the swing meaning when
the butt cap of the racquet is pointing forward our chest is already going to be open and now
if you think about it keeping the head down here will be counterintuitive to this rotation
and even more so if we did this into the contact here this will inhibit the rotation somewhat and
what i've observed at the rec level is players will exaggerate this movement and they will keep the
head down way too long and because of that they're inhibiting their torso rotation so it's absolutely
unnecessary to keep your head down at the moment of contact because you can't see the ball anyway
and this might inhibit your torso rotation now if you've done this naturally and never thought
about it just like roger then it might be okay to continue doing this but if you're forcefully
keeping your head down just to be able to see the ball and some players try to even see the ball
through the strings as they make contact and this is definitely something that will inhibit your
stroke okay the next problem you're going to face if you try to copy roger federer's forehand is
your interpretation of federer's relaxation so if you ever watch federer practice you are going to
see him be very loose and relaxed and it's almost like he's not trying and some players love the way
that looks and they try to copy so they come to me on the court and they're hitting the forehand
like this with no intensity on their heels they're barely moving their feet
the arm is super loose and the stroke is overall very sloppy what you have to remember is that what
you're seeing from federer online is not federer practice yes there's some videos of federer's real
practice but you're seeing his warm-up sessions in the tournament where he's not really trying
a lot of players are like this they're not trying to get injured they just want to get
a hit in and they're not really trying that hard they're not playing at a full intensity but when
you see federer playing a match and when you see him practicing for real you're going to see
something completely different it's going to be a crazy amount of footwork there's going to be
high intensity and his whole body is going to be under electricity so what i see from a lot
of players is they unfortunately are copying the federer that's warming up before his match and
they come to the court and they're on their heels they're not moving their feet the arm is super
loose it's like a spaghetti arm and they're not getting any control in fact they're framing a
lot of balls because of that so federer of course is one of the best footworks the best
preparations and the best intensity of all time and this is exactly what you should be copying
move your feet pretend like your whole body is on the electricity and your forehand is going to
improve because of that also do not allow your arm to be too loose as you're executing the forehand
even federer if you watch closely especially if you take still images of his forehand you will see
that there's a lot of muscle flexion as he goes through his shot so even federer is applying a
lot of stability to his forehand and he's not as loose as you think he is all right on to the
next feather forehand problem at the recreational level that is the extension of the arm and there's
a lot of confusion around this subject so players who have a bent arm there's absolutely no reason
why you should try to straighten it because what will happen you will most likely going to try to
straighten the arm and now because this doesn't come natural to you you're going to straighten
the arm past the contact point you're most likely going to end up hitting through the ball this is
what i see from a lot of rec players they'll straighten the arm down here and now they're
consciously trying to straighten the arm through the contact and the arm will go forward like this
and then well after the ball has left the racquet they bring the arm back in so what happens to a
forehand like this most of the time as this particular part of the forehand happens in
isolation so players are so concentrating on this particular part of the forehand that they
stop moving the rest of their body they interrupt their rotation and they're basically straightening
the arm through the ball while nothing else is happening and now you're stuck with a stroke
that's heavily arm-dependent so what happens on federer's forehand yes he has extension of the
arm through the entirety of the stroke so he will straighten the arm onto the racquet drop but now
the rotation will lead the way and never stops so as he goes through his stroke the rotation
will continue and the racket will end up moving in a circular fashion and guys i totally respect
the fact that you're trying to learn the federer forehand i love when players try to improve their
game and this actually might have been helpful to your forehand to some degree but the reason
why so many people request video analysis that have modeled their forehand after federer
is because they're having problems with their forehand there's something wrong you just can't
quite get it right and this is the reason why i made this video i'm trying to help you so that
you understand that some of the things that are happening on federer's forehand are coming natural
to roger but are going to come unnatural to the vast majority of other players so the fundamentals
of the modern forehand are ubiquitous at the high level and those are the loop the sequencing of
the torso rotation and the contact that is made with the dominant shoulder in front so you take
any high level player and you will see those three technical characteristics however when
it comes to the other things that are taking place on the forehand those are stylistic
preferences of each individual player that usually matches their genetic predisposition and this is
exactly why you see so many different grips you see many different take backs and you also see
many different finishes so you have to develop the fundamentals of the modern forehand let those
stylistic characteristics develop intuitively when you do that something beautiful will happen you
will develop your own style that nobody else has and your forehand will be truly unique.