Reto Staubli

Reto Staubli, a former swiss top ten, travels frequently with Roger Federer on the road. He is an excellent hitting partner and a childhood interclub friend from the Swiss leagues.

Roger describes him in his own words:

"It's great fun, and obviously I'm also benefiting from training with such experienced players." Those were my words eight years ago in response to a question from a journalist from the Basler Zeitung the first time I got to play an NLA (Swiss national league) match for the top team at my tennis club, "Old Boys" in Basel.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to play with big names such as Vaclav Roubicek, Patrick Mohr, Sandro della Piana and Reto Staubli.

Reto Staubli? Would that be the Reto Staubli who has been accompanying you to various tournaments - most recently Wimbledon - as your sparring partner, I hear you ask? The very same! We've been good friends ever since those interclub days.

Even then, Reto was supremely composed and in control. As number four in the team, his were one of the safest pairs of hands in terms of delivering the points. That was to be the year that we won the championship.

Source: Federer's Newsletter

More about his first club, OldBoys

Fed Mojo (aka Federer's Serve) Analyzed

I ran across this excellent scanned image of a very detailed article on Tennis Magazine. These material are copyrighted and only used for display purposes. If you want to hold on to them, please contact the publisher and/or author. Rafael Font de Mora, the author is a respected coach, and he runs the ITUSA Tennis Academy. That said, see the entire action of Federer Serve.

1. When preparing to serve, first visualize the delivery you wish to hit. (Federer already knows which serve he'll use as he steps to the line.) His weight is off the front foot, and he has a slightly open stance for a serve. His front toe is angled to ease his hip and shoulder rotation. But this is more a matter of style, not fundamentals.

2. Federer keeps his weight on his back foot as his tossing arm goes out to the side of his body, facilitating shoulder and hip rotation. For his serve, it's imperative that he not let the toss get behind his body. Your toss can often determine the success of your serve. Federer's weight begins to move forward as his arms goes up. His racquet and palm are facing downward, which keeps his shoulder muscles relaxed and enables him to achieve a whip-like motion.

3. This is Federer's power position. His tossing arm is fully extended and his body is prepared to explode into the serve. His shoulders are tilted, and he's leaning forward. Notice, too, how the hitting elbow is in line with his shoulders. This will give Federer excellent throwing action. His flexed knee and hip and shoulder rotation make his serve extremely difficult to read. From this same service position and toss Federer can hit his flat, kick and slice serve to any area of the box.

4. To push off into the serve, Federer has his weight completely on his front leg. As his legs thrust upward, the racquet drops down behind his back with the face perpendicular to the ground and away from his shoulders. This will help him generate power. His non-hitting arm also drops down for the racquet to come through. And Federer's balance is perfect. Recreational players tend to break the sequence at this point by losing their balance.

5. Federer makes contact with the ball slightly to his left. Any inconsistency he has with his serve is due to letting the toss drop too far. Here, all his power has propelled him off the ground as he gets full vertical extension into the court. Good extension and natural forearm pronation are both crucial. Federer doesn't pull his head down prematurely, which is another common mistake. His tossing arm tucks in, slowing down his torso, which creates a whipping action at the top of the motion.

6. After Federer makes contact with the ball, the momentum of his swing carries him into the court. His eyes are looking forward, and his head is up for balance. His hitting arm has fully pronated while his other arm continues the stabilization process. This allows his shoulders to face his opponent head on so he can react quickly for the return. Federer, like all big servers today, lands on his front foot, which lets him either follow the serve to net or get set for a ground stroke.

Original Scanned Image as published on Tennis.com

More: Also see Federer's Serve Motion here [flash file].

Look to the stars

On Apr 25 2005, I wrote on Federer Tracker:

Last weekend was Tennis Festival at Roger's club in Basel, Old Boys' Tennis Club. Rogi won an exhibition match against Marco Chiudinelli. Highlights in a video clip here and pictures here [Thanks eve]. Enjoy !

Added: The song 'Look to the stars' is played in the background of the video clip above. It had became very popular with several fans liking it very much.

The song is from a very popular swiss musical, Space Dream. They are now producing Space Dream II. 'Look to the stars' is from the Space Dream I. And you can listen to the song (mp3) here or here. Also, more picture albums here, here and there.

And the lyrics of the song:

My name is Rodin, I come from far away.
But don't worry, I'm not here to stay.
Come from a planet, Hexxor it's called.
Where I come from, every life comes from...

...the stars, look to the stars, look to the stars.
When you're deep in doubt or full of fear:
Look to the stars.

We live in worlds apart miles away.
We have the same roots, we are the same.
Deep in your soul you'll feel the connection.
For your answer look up to the...

...stars, look to the stars, look to the stars.
To find the answer, the reason why:
Look to the stars.

We have good and bad, we believe in a god.
But there's one difference:
We don't fight wars.

It's the end of a a nation when men kill men.
When we've got troubles, we ask the stars
So look to the stars, look to the stars, look to the stars.

You are a woman, but you feel like a girl:
Look to the stars.

My name is Reachel, am I really awake?
Is it a dream? Is it a fake?
Many strange things happened to me.
So much pain I had to see.

Who is this man, he confuses me so.
He's a stranger but with him I want to go.
Can I trust my eyes? Are we kindred souls?
My feelings are so strong - that can't be wrong!

Look to the stars, look to the stars, look to the stars.
When you're deep in doubt or full of fear:
Look to the stars.
Look to the stars, look to the stars, look to the stars.

Find the answer, the reason why:
Look to the stars.
Look to the stars, look to the stars, look to the stars.

You are a man, but you feel like a boy:
Look to the stars.

Entire lyrics credits to golyr.de.

Tony Roche

Tony Roche, 59, (in 2005) a great Australian tennis player of yesteryears and French Open Champion in 1966, is now acting as a part-time coach for Roger since the beginning of 2005. It was after much insistence and perseverance from Federer that Roche, now home-sick after several years of travel as a coach for Ivan Lendl and Patrick Rafter, had accepted this position.

Peter Lundgren

1996 - Lundgren took over Larry Stefanki as the coach for Marcelo Rios, who's game Federer very much admired. [Link]

1997 - Federer and Lundgren first met

November 2000 - Lundgren became Federer's coach

When Peter Carter didn't want to travel with him, they both thought that Lundgren would be a good coach for Federer.

By Lundgren's own admission, his seven-year partnership with Federer had
become routine and, while he was initially shaken by the player's decision
to end it, he fully understands it. "This is what happens with the kind of
relationship we had, we were so close," he said. "We did everything
together. We ate together, we went out together, we even played PlayStation
together. Now it's good for him to carry on with something else and I'm
happy to be doing something else."

An indepth interview with Roger on Peter Lundgren

Another interview

Some Pics:

Of all the places to play tennis..

Federer's fascination for playing tennis on weird places (see Dubai Helipad), he spent the last weekend on the River Elbe. Hmm.. actually Federer and Haas played on a floating tennis court on the water front on River Elbe.

Federer: "It was a lot of fun and very enjoyable to play with Tommy. You could feel the waves, the court was definitely moving. It was windy, a nice fresh breeze and the surface was definitely a lot quicker than clay. We got used to it though and got some good rallies going in the end. They said 10 to 15,000 people watching from the harbour. That was fantastic."

Get more pictures from Getty & more info on ATP tennis.

What's out there?

There are several fansites on the web for Roger. Below are a few of my favorites. My criterion were: frequently updated, easy to read, not too many ads. Hope you like them too !

Articles

Roger Federer profile at Tennis Server - Great articles on Roger New!

New York Times articles - Good read

Fansites
Go Roger - Excellent site, one of the best out there
Roger - one and only- Nice picture website from Silvy (fightclubber), a great fan
Roger Federer Fanclub - Swiss based fanclub for Roger

Man with Golden Racquet - A fanlisting

Earlier websites with older info
Federer Express - One of the earlier sites for roger
Federerfan - Nice pictures from 2000

Blogs
Pro Tennis Fan - Updated blog on tennis players
Federer Express Blog - A popular blog on roger

The Fed-X-Press - New blog with frequent updates

Commercial sites
Tennis Rulz website - Updated frequently, many ads though ;)

Other Languages
Czech - Federer
Dutch - Federer.nl
French - Rodgeur Blog - Rogerfederer1981

Persian - ARA's Federer
Russian - Federerfan

Upcoming Players
Novak Djokovic - Novak-Djokovic.com [Official]

Interesting Tennis Columns
Nina's Tennis Diary

More quality websites on Roger at Federer Bookmarks.

More On Playing Artful Tennis Pushers

The last time we talked about the psychology of playing pushers and how important it is to respect the skills they are bringing to the table.

If you're struggling in a match and all you're thinking is how embarassing it is or how you should be wiping the pusher off the court, then the pusher has won the battle of the minds.

Instead, you should be relaxed, enjoying the challenge, and focusing your thinking on how to outsmart the pusher.

From a technical point of view, the pusher usually gives you a ball with less pace than you're used to. And, for most players, this throws off their timing and they end up being out of sync.

When faced with slow balls, most people plant their weight too early and lock into this position thus freezing the hips. And, then when they swing, they don't have any power left in their lower bodies and they end up with less powerful arm swings.

And, because the swing doesn't feel smooth, the frustration level grows and the whole thing just gets worse and worse.

So, first of all , keep your feet moving until the last second and then plant your weight on the back foot and begin your swing. This will solve many of the problems with a slow ball.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. author of INSIDER TENNIS STRATEGIES The Ebook guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level.

Playing The Artful Pusher

The question I probably get asked the most by aspiring tennis plaers is how to beat a pusher.

The answer --it's not easy and I'm going to explore this in the next few blog entries.

The first thing though is that you have to get over the idea that because you hit the ball harder than the pusher you are therefore a better tennis player.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

You hit with pace - the pusher usually hits with precision. Isn't precision as important if not more so than pace?

You lose your cool - the pusher maintains his. Isn't controlling your emotions an important part of winning tennis?

You get sucked into patterns you don't like - the pusher controls the patterns. Isn't being smart tactically part of winning tennis?

So lesson 1 -- GET OVER YOURSELF. The pusher may be a better player than you are.
Don't get overconfident just because you hit the ball harder and don't lose your cool when you are forced to hit the shots you're not used to.

Next time we'll explore some of the patterns that pushers like to use.

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of INSIDER TENNIS STRATEGIES The Ebook guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take yout tennis to the next level.