Federer's Impossible Shots: W'01

I found a DVD of the Sampras-Federer Wimbledon '01 match. It's by far the most impressive match I've seen. I can see how this was the real launch of Federer's career, ultimately leading to the Wimbledon '03 triumph.

In the match, he made a backhand shot that knocked me off my feet. Sampras was at the net an hit a deep crosscourt volley to Federer's backhand. Federer tracked down the shot, moving away from the net and with his back to the net, got down low, the racquet handle moving around his right knee, the racquet almost touching the ground. He flicked the racquet around and hit a sharped angled cross-court shot that Sampras couldn't even touch. It looked like Federer made the contact with the ball behind his back.

Watching Federer: Backhand

As I'm looking at photos of Federer's backhand, I can see that his head is down and even turned back, and he's watching the ball from the corner of his eye, almost as if trying to avoid seeing it. I also read in the Tennis magazine that it used to be even more exreme, that on a backhand slice he almost looked back towards the fence. When I practice backhands, I sometimes try to turn my head down and a little back, and not following the ball, and strangely enough, it seems to work. It's very hard psychologically to turn away from the ball in this way, and in a match I forget to do it. Somehow I need to drill it to such extent that it's in the muscle memory and I don't have to think about it.

Lessons

Last week I had my first lesson with Dan in a new series. I think this is the fourth series of ten I've done with Dan so far. I asked Dan to make this series much more focused on specific goals, with more structure, and homework. I want to know that if I took an exam at the end, I would be doing better in X, Y, and Z. In the first lesson, Dan decided to focus on consistency, and had me hit 10 baseline shots that must land between the service line and the baseline. For every three shots that landed short, he punished me with 10 push-ups. I can tell you I was sore the next day from all the push-ups. Since the lesson, I drilled with the ball machine, focused on loopy shots, getting under the ball. We'll see how it goes today when I have the second lesson. Push-ups are good, but I want to do them on my own terms.

Backdated post

I'll backdate this post.

Federer Backhand

Notice how his head is still down, just the eyes following the ball. I found it next to impossible the look at the contact point this long.

Volley: I think I saw it move!

Finally, something that feels like progress today. I hit volleys for an hour this morning. Many were deep and with power, and I netted many fewer than usual. On the forehand side, I noticed that I move the racquet towards my belly button as I hit, which helped me hit with power. The backhand volleys still have more underspin, less power, and land somewhat short. After I shanked several backhand volleys, I noticed that I hit the back and top portion of the racquet rim. I started to try to make sure that I aim with the lower forward portion of the rim, with some success. What this basically means is that I move the racquet down in a slicing motion too early. Also, it helped on both sides when my body was quiet - no jumping - and when I thought of flexing and pushing off with the back leg just a little. I enjoyed controlling the ball and aiming it at sharp angles, or down the line. I'm yearning for the day when I can say my volleys are solid - that's the word that best describes the feel I want. Three to four hundred volleys every morning for the next few months should get me closer.