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The Roger Federer Peculiarity (Tennis Grip)
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Wisconsin
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TEACHING ROGER FEDERER'S FOREHAND (Using the Jtennis method).
Below is a critique of an article in Tennis Magazine concerning teaching the Roger Federer forehand. The article has missed the basic characteristic of the Federer forehand. Contact: ...... for individual lessons on the Federer "twitch."
JOHN YANDELL VERSUS ROGER FEDERER
Introduction:
In the May 2008 issue of Tennis Magazine its editors suggest that there are four secrets to Roger Federer’s forehand. John Yandell, the originator of ...... provides the four secrets in an article called MODERN CLASSIC beginning on page 56.
There is only one secret to Roger Federer’s forehand. It is still a secret.
The Article: Modern Classic (by John Yandell)
Yandell suggests that the four secrets to Federer are: (1) The Grip (2) Stance and Torso Rotation (3) Extension and (4) Wiper Finish. If the USTA is correct in suggesting that stroke production evolves to accommodate the grip, secrets 2, 3, and 4 are simply commentary on stroke production that is driven by a particular grip. In theory, secrets 2,3, and 4 are open secrets based on Federer’s grip.
The Yandell/Federer Grip
Yandell relates Federer’s grip to an eight-side handle with bevels one through eight going from the top of the handle clock-wise to bevel eight on the top left bevel of the handle. Yandell locates the hand on the racket by suggesting that a particular point on the hand (the base knuckle of the index finger) locates on the intersection of bevels 3 and 4. Yandell notes that Federer keeps part of his hand off the end of the grip.
The Problem with Secret One (Federer’s Grip)
People, including Federer, do not hang onto a tennis racket with the base knuckle of the index finger, or the heel of the hand, or the famous “V” between the thumb and index finger. These are simply points on a hand that gripping gurus suggest should be aligned with certain points on the handle.
The points on the hand and the points on the handle are then converted, for whatever reason, to geographical points on a world map and called Eastern, Western, Continental or semi-this or modified-that.
Points on a hand or handle do not make a grip. Fingers on the hand grip the racket. And more importantly some fingers don’t grip the racket depending on the individual player.
Fingers that grip are dominant fingers. Fingers that don’t grip but more or less go along for the ride are blocking, bracing, or indexing fingers.
When a hand goes onto a racket, the base knuckle of the index finger will always be someplace. In Yandell’s explanation of Federer’s grip he says it locates on the intersection of bevel 3 and 4. He says the base knuckle shifts downward toward a sem-Western. He than names it a “modified Eastern.”
The problem with conventional gripping theory is that when the base knuckle of the index finger is shifted to the right or to the left the name of the grip changes. The theory is that every grip can be characterized by a change of location on the handle. The individual is than labeled with the geographical grip that a reader has become familiar with in conventional wisdom gripping terminology. Yandell dismisses the suggestion that Federer plays with a semi-Western grip and suggests that Federer’s forehand grip is a “modified- Eastern.”
A CONTRARIAN APPROACH TO FEDERER’S FOREHAND GRIP
Federer hangs on to a tennis racket with his thumb (primarily the thumb metacarpal) and with his ring-finger (the middle pad). These fingers are dominant. The other fingers can be called blockers, bracers, or indexers. Pete Burwash, in trying to explain the peculiarity of his grip has called them non-dominant digits. Burwash suggests that the middle, ring, and little fingers are dominant when he puts his hand on a racket. Neale Fraser,who has a sterling reputation as player and coach, says that the dominant finger is the little finger coupled with an assist from the butt of the hand. Fraser called his grip the “Australian grip,” while Burwash failed to name his. Burwash has suggested he has given up teaching grips.
The base knuckle of the thumb (thumb metacarpal) presses into bevel 1 while the ring finger reaches around the grip and pulls the grip into the palm by placing the middle pad (middle phalanx of the ring finger) on bevel 7. The hand extends down onto the butt cap which becomes part of the gripping surface (the heel of the hand is off the end of the racket).
It is unusual for gripping gurus to locate a point on the hand (base knuckle of the index finger) on the intersection of two bevels as Yandell does. But Yandell is probably correct in this. What is happening is that the base knuckle of the index finger (the distal end of the ring metacarpal) braces on the lower part of bevel 3 while the bottom pad of the index finger (lower end of the proximal phalanx of the index finger) braces on bevel four. Normally when the base knuckle of the index finger can be found on bevel 3 the grip can is called Eastern….or in this case, modified Eastern (as Yandell says) since it’s on the lower half of bevel 3.
Yandell does not mention nominal grip size or the size of Federer hand. Federer has an exceptionally large hand (long fingers/palm) and uses a small grip size. A recommended grip size to hand size used to be l to l. Federer uses a grip size that is exceptionally small compared to his hand size. This probably better accommodates his gripping techniques and, in fact, my have driven him into his gripping peculiarity with the thumb and ring finger dominant.
The use of Eastern, Western, or Continental gripping terms are obsolete. In Federer’s case they should be replaced with: The Federer Peculiarity (or The Federer Twitch). It’s doubtful if Federer’s stroke production (Secrets 2, 3, and 4) can be replicated without knowing the Federer Twitch (Secret 1).
Robert Firlus
604 Tremont St.
Mauston, WI 53948
04-15-08
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