Roger Federer Slow Motion Serve Analysis 

Thanks for watching everyone please consider subscribing and checking out the links in the description!

hey i was really surprised the way you imitated roger's serve! especially the way as you prepare to hit the ball, your elbow comes inwards 7:28- 7:29. the only people who i ever saw have this feature is you and roger! do you have any tips on how you made that movement work! thanks!

Just a couple of comments to add to some good points already stated by others here. First of all, I really enjoyed you video, I´ve copied Federer´s serve myself for years because I find it the nicest and most fluid, but most importabtly the most efficient, so we've probably gone through similiar challenges. So here are my observations: I think you have modelled the serve well in general, with in my opinion a few shortages. First, you iniciate the ball toss at the same time than the right arm movement, while Roger (like McEnroe used to do in a very exagerated way) iniciates first the arm movement and then the toss. I´ve found that It helps with balance and the serve´s groove, since the toss movement takes a bit less than the right arm´s, if it waits a bit to start, it´s easier to syncronize both of them at contact. Secondly, (this is not only in Federer´s serve), you need to do a pendular movement that goes from leaning back to leaning forward, while keeping the body straight (this is indeed Federer´s trademark). You don't do that leaning back enough, and a sign of that is that while doing the toss you right foot should be taking all the weight while the body keeps straight and the left foot is barely touching the floor and is used only for balance, and in your case it seems like your left foot is taking part of the body´s weight too soon, almost from the beginning. If you do put all the weight on your right foot, when you release the ball, your right foot, body and tossing arm should be a straight line, and your right arm, while extended, is providing balance to that straight line Then, while flexing the knees, you iniciate the leaning forward and the weight transfer to your left foot. This was one of the hardest thinks to automatize for me, and to realize the fact that the movement in Federer´s serve is mostly vertical. But it´s totally worth it, once I could do it, I was able to serve at significantly higher speeds with much less effort. Finally, you do a good job at keeping an eye on your rival until the ball release, and you also keep your head fairly straight, but if you want to do just as Federer does, you need a bit more of both, look at your rival for a bit longer and keep your head a bit more straight (the later is in part a consequence of the former). Unfortunately, neither one of us will be able to totally emulate his serve, but by trying to do it I know I´ve become a much better server.

Nice analysis. Whats your opinion on the back foot driving first? I was a front foot believer but I think Fed drives his back leg first to throw the hip around and kick back.

I apologize, but one thing more. If possible make a video of kick serve at the deuce syde courty, please!

I do not know if I am right but in 5:56 it looks like Federer remains one eye at the opponent court and the other at the ball.

Good work. Love the video and the analysis. You do a pretty good impression of the Fed serve....but....the ball toss. Fed's ball toss is practically the same for every serve (from what I have seen). Kick, slice and flat, the toss doesn't change, or it is so little that it can hardly be detected. I believe that he hides how, and where he is serving by combining ever so slight changes in posture and it is the combination of these very small changes (feet position, shoulder turn, maybe grip and maybe an undetectable change in the toss) that allows him to be so effective with hiding his serve. Your toss, in the example that you showed, was very much over the left shoulder. Well that's just how I saw it, and I'd pay quite a bit to have your serve!

you were wrong about roger keeps his eye on opponent until the ball leaves the hand. See 7:13 he's already looking at the ball when he started to toss. XD

I would like to be able to give more than just one like!

At 4:33 you talk about a item that I asked in another video. I am glad!

Great modeling. I would just add the leg drive or jump should initiate the arm drive a bit more (this will drive the arm back and down deeper for more power) and Roger is exceptional at contracting his obliques to generate that quick coil contraction. I think you did a great job.

Awesome on you mentioning his purposeful longer eye contact on opponent. You possibly be the first one to caught that uniqueness of his. 👍

He’s left eye dominant. Could explain

I like Feds starting position, almost pointing the racket down like FAA. I’ve been tinkering with this. It allows me to create more leverage under the ball and using my lower body for more upward pressure.

Good video. I have copied Fed's serve more or less. I also watch my opponent until I release the ball. I think only people that toss parallel to the baseline can do this. If you toss at 45 or to a lesser degree at 90, the arm swing blocks your view. I think your serve is pretty good though a few differences I see. I would say that you don't have enough of a take back and your shoulder over shoulder is not as good as Fed's. You don't open your chest toward the ball like Fed does because you don't have his tilt back. Also, you don't bend down enough so your jump is not as high. Your toss is a little more toward 11:45 and Fed's is roughly 12. I think it would be harder to hit flat on your toss though oddly Tsitsipas does it like that. But I think over time, this would cause shoulder problems. This toss would be great for a kick serve though you hit a good slice serve. I like the analysis. Thanks.

Roger is left-eye dominant. That’s why he can maintain that gaze whilst being so coiled. He’s got the best serve in tennis history for sure. The other tall guys are pretty one dimensional. The only one that comes close is Sampras. Great video.

I appreciate your analysis and the references to the body positions and racket movement are important but I suggest that the better way for average players to understand and better learn how to serve is to point to what should be the most important element of a serve which is...WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THE BALL WHEN YOU HIT IT ? The answer is that you should be trying to SPIN the ball UPWARDS and making it CURVE into the court in an arc...NOT HIT IT STRAIGHT DOWNWARDS from point A to point B like most casual players do. The best way to explain this is to have people look at he ball and think of it as the face of a clock and say that you are trying to hit the ball and SPINNING it from 8 o'clock to 2 o' clock. This makes the ball spin and curve in an arc .

Greetings, thank you for sharing this video! respectfully, if I may add, you forgot to point out a VERY important point .... if you would look at very carefully Rogers or Pete Sampras tossing left arm, you would see that their left tossing arms WILL touch the left knee as a " "reference point " BEFORE start going up to release the ball and placing it above their eyes level .... This "Reference point" allow the server to start the moving tossing arm from the SAME point/position every time they start their toss , and as result you would get the SAME "Toss height" EVERYTIME you serve even in front of 20.000 fans in the final of us open ....... When I look at your tossing left arm, it does NOT have that " reference point " . meaning it does not touch your left knee .... THE MOST IMPOTANT ELEMENT OF A consistent SERVE IS THE TOSS QUALITY **** it's very interesting that MECHANIC of ROGERS serve is identical to PETE serve, but different look. hope that help

You emulate him very well! Thank you for this awesome video!!👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 Federer is the Mozart of tennis.

Great deconstruction of the serve...

Bravo bro, your analysis is cristal clear! Your serve looks identical to Roger's.

Nice video Jeff! And nice serve too even if it's not quite Feds.

Roger got the perfect service motion every time. Smooth, swift, whipping pronation of the wrist, that’s where he creates lots of power and speed

It would be pretty unnerving having that Snow Leopard staring at you before he uncoil and strike. It appears the only mammal that can dominate Roger is 'The Bull'. Good observation. 👍

What do you think is unique to Roger's serve!?

Fantastic analysis bro

Great video, even without the comments, I'd say It' the best angle, best slow-motion video that I saw so far about Federer serve. The comments are all interesting too, thanks for sharing

What if Federer had been left handed !

One thing u r not doing what Roger does is that in d starting part Federer comes back n rest his body weight on flat rear leg .... From der he coils his body leans back and come on his both toes coz if u lean back only way to keep urself stable is to put ur lower body weight forward and that can't b done on flat foot u have to come on toes.... Den Federer jumps n execute .... One thing u missed to notice is dat Roger remains in air more den any Pro you compare with.... Notice how Federer lands on his tip of toe with his landing leg almost straight....while others land much quickly n on flat foot sometimes....here you r doing good job

I like your serve!

Roger is symmetrical

great serve

Good effort Jeff and the Federer serve

I'm surprised how many people think, yet when they executed they just can't the result yet they keep thinking their claim was correct. It is like the definition of crazy. What I'm trying to say is that, your analysis is almost 99% the same as every tennis youtubers out there, yet none of the videos can serve like Roger. What does that mean?

lovely footage!!!too good

If Federer used what I refer to as the Step-back Platform Stance he would have less knee problems and hit harder as he gets older. As I recently told one of his "tennis friends" Federer will be able to master the Step-back version easily and immediately feel less strain on his ailing knee as he turns more powerfully into the court. The Step-back Platform Stance is simple: With a right-handed server, for example, starting with the feet apart - the left foot steps back and the weight is shifted primarily to the back foot (i.e., right foot) and this is the where conversion from the force off the ground into rotation begins. When the feet are apart as in the basic Platform Stance the server has a moment of inertia (I). When the front foot is pulled back the moment of inertia is converted into angular frequency (f) as the server begins his/her turn into the court. A useful analogy is that of the spinning figure skater: when the skater's arms are far apart the skater has a large moment of inertia and therefore turns slowly. However, as the arms are pulled inward the spin-rate (angular frequency) increases rapidly. This is simply the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum (L) where L = I x f. The result is turning faster into the hitting zone. Getting older, but hitting harder.