Interactive Forum March 2013: Forehand Timing: Grigor Dimitrov

[stotty]

Give it a wait... or go to a coffee shot...find a different connection...

Still no luck today either...not at home, nor at my club.

Must be a problem at your end I think.

[John Yandell]

Agreed we'll take care of it...

[stotty]

Agreed we'll take care of it...

Clips are now working my end...thanks.

[stotty]

The Clone

Amazing, isn’t it? How similar that forehand is to Federer’s? Although, I reckon if Federer were playing the same shot would have his arm more dead straight on contact than Dimitrov. Other than that, it’s the same shot...so how come it’s not as good...work that one out?

I do feel the way Dimitrov and Federer prepare for their forehands is the best way. They can prepare in the quickest possible time for the fastest incoming balls. Djokovic can get caught with that upside down racket face business...not often but sometimes.

Interesting this whole cloning/mimicking business. I read up on it a little. Apparently there are three reasons why someone would do this.

1. Number one is the most favourable reason: It’s a smart thing to do to copy someone who is already very successful.
2. Idolization/admiration of the individual being copied.
3. Insecurity. (which for me is closely linked to number 2).

It’s not just Federer’s forehand Dimitrov has copied. The backhand and serve look incredibly similar also. On the serve he has less rotation than Federer but, that aside, it’s eerily similar (adding that missing rotation might actually help his serve.)

Dimitrov has clearly done this all himself. Who needs a coach, just copy! This is how Gonzales learnt. Gonzales went one better by stealing bits and pieces from many players...smarter...take the best from everyone. But Dimitrov must have gone to great lengths to do this. He must have visualized it, dreamt it, and above all watched Federer avidly. So you have to put it down as idolization.

Funny, Dimitrov had a spell coached by Peter Lundgren. Lundgren had a similar fascination with Borg, and mimicked him in every way he could. Go to 1:03 on the clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edkYi3wlmd4

[stroke]

As licensed coach pointed out, his arm is not straight like Fed. I do think the straight arm that Brian and Rick Macci teach is a big part of the effortless power. Also, his head is not as sideways at contact as Fed. With Fed, it appears at contact on the fh, he could look through the back of his strings and see the ball with his head position.

[gsheiner]

Although it's just a feeling or perception which I can't prove because we don't see the actual contact point of Dimitrov's forehand, I sense that he releases his wrist earlier than Fed and thus loses the explosiveness. Here is a federer rear clip which just gives me a slightly different feeling than Dimitrov's clip.

fed forehand

[rwiener]

Great video and wonderful discussion of timing. This video really complements the lesson by Rick Macci in this month's issue on the ATP style forehand. Shows a wonderful model of the ATP forehand in action. Along with Dimitrov's terrific form, I was also struck by how much sidespin one can see on the return after it bounces just before Dimitrov makes contact. It looks like the ball is breaking quite a bit to Dimitrov's right after the bounce. In discussions of spin, we sometimes forget, whether a player comes over or under a ball, there is always some amount of sidespin mixed in. Really good players use subtle mixes of spin to control sideways movement along with pace, height of bounce and depth of shot. So it was fun to notice the sidespin in the video. I also noticed that Dimitrov appears to have a pretty conservative grip similar to Federer's. Hard to tell for sure, but it looks like a weak semi-western at best. He's a fun player to watch. Thanks for this clip!

[John Yandell]

Good observations:

Conservative grip for sure and yes the sidespin component is a factor in most balls. That's one thing we would like to be able to do, separate out the sidespin and topspin on more balls.

[stotty]

Monte Carlo 2013

Dimitrov looked really good against Tipsy yesterday.The second set was a real display...great serving, forehands, dropshots.

He's a great shot maker. I really hope he's going to come through.