BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells) Filming Requests

I would love to see in slow motion the "knife": Federer`s slice backhand, especially from a high point. Its amazing how fast even his slice moves!

I would like to see a lot of rallies of Roger Federer. Especially his backhand(spin) in slow-motion, I prefer. I want to know exactly in which grip he's holding his racket with his backhand.
And I hope you guys will give me a good look of his serve(first and second + the difference) grip

Hi Jeff here (from NZ). I wondered if you'd be able shot a vid of the inside-out backhand.
We often see a inside-out forehand shot where a player (r.handed) plays a falt shot across the court to the apponents backhand. The shot is hit hard flat, and with your racquet angle low, almost hit with a slice.

A backhand inside-out shot would be a shot either down the line to the oppenents forehand or crosscourt (from the forehand side to the opponents forehand). The inside out shot whipps / spins the ball into a sideways motion so that it curves away from the opponent spining (curving to the right at first, then away to the left and off the court.

Cheers

blake's forehand and footwork

THIS IS AWESOME. PLEASE PLEASE GET A COURT LEVEL VIEW OF THE PLAYERS. I wanna get as much of a live experience as possible so get a court level view of them, from the back behind the player. this is the best angle to watch tennis and you really get to see the spin racket speed, and lets you appreciate the professional game a lot more.

SO PLEASE BEHIND THE PLAYER COURT LEVEL ANGLES PLEASE!
thanks

Could you look at Andy Murray's footwork, forehand and backhand?

Cafeteria footage... what do the pros eat? Beer and pizza or health food? Inquiring minds want to know...

Okay, okay, kidding. I'll add my vote for Justine's backhand and forehand. She's probably the only female on tour who's my height (and it pains me when the announcers talk about what a handicap that 5'6" is -- we're statistically average, tyvm!). :)

I would really like to see Roger Federer's footwork zoomed in. And I would like to see some rallies from the back perspective and court-level.

Hi,
I really liked your video about Federer's forehand grip. As you showed us he used an eastern forehand grip last year. But now it seems that he has changed it a bit more to a semi-western side. I am not sure as I could not see exatly in any video what grip he uses. So I would really enjoy any kind of slow motion Federer's shots when his grip would be seen. Thank you.

It would be great to see how the arm goes to full back scratching position in slow motion. I think all the pros do it correctly, so I dont have any preference (please film Baghdatis!!!!)
:)

Thanks

anything henin.

James Blake, Nadal and Monfils hitting running shots, or sliding

I think it will be wonderful if you can get the side ways view of djokovik's serve!

I'd like front perspective of a serve like Roddick's or Federer's so that you might be able to do a post on how a returner can read the serve. (And why Federer's serve is so hard to read).

Hi Will, i would suggest you the following:
1-Film the pros serving setting the camera viewpoint in the right and in the back of the players, then we can see angles, how their body bend both into the court and laterally, where they make the contact with the ball, how far they get into the court after the serve and so on.
2-Do the number 1 with their backhand and forehand, so we can see how they perform their strokes and the fundamentals and more like the distance where they contact with the ball and stuff.
3-Not sure if gilles simmon will be in the tourney but I would like to see his backhand, last time I saw it in a game, looked to me one of the most beautiful 2h backhand in the circuit nowadays.
Thank and cya.

Hi Will
I'd really like some great 2handed backhands from side. (Nalbandian, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray, Delpo, Davydenko, at least 1 of them) :)
thanks

Hi Will.
I'd like to see players serve skills. For example, Federer's flat serve/slice serve, Nadal's flat serve/slice serve something like that.
And I hope I can see players stroke in front perspective. Because I think I cannot see the full swing and full motions in back perspective.

I would like to see some back perspective serves but with enough room that you can see the ball toss in the frame and see the pronations of the players and maybe an explanation of how federer hits different serve with the same ball toss, and also an explanation of a pull forehand and push forehand (i think fed's is pull) and some nice close ups of rafa's forehand I wanna see the ball coming off the string the ball probably looks like a mini hurricane from the side view

Side and backshots of Henin and Gasquet's backhands
Side and frontshots of Henin's forehand.
Court level view would be best, because I think you get to see the angles and speed the best.
Many, many, many thanks to you from an aspiring player.

I would love to see some serves of the big guys like Isner, Karlovic, or Querrey. I think because these guys are so big, it's a little easier to see the arm action.

Get a shot rafa's ass...just kiddin....
I would encourage you to at least get the same angles as last year so that you can compare the development in each player.

Federer backhand/slice variation all day from every angle. You need to do a whole show dedicated to this....

When it comes to editing, I'd love to see more footage of rallies from the back perspective uninterrupted by footage of serves and drilling.

oh and justine henin's footwork

-Federer's footwork
-Ivo Karlovic's serve
-Justine Henin's backhand (if she's participating)
-Federer's serves
-Andy Roddick serves

Simultaneous from the side and from the back shots of Federer's serve and forehand.
Simultaneous from the side and from the back shots of Andy Roddicks serve
Simultaneous from the side and from the back shots of Andy Murray's and Djokovic backhands
Simultaneous from the side and from the back shots of Nadal's forehand
Simultaneous from the side and from the back shots of Henin's backhand
Simultaneous from the side and from the back shots of Gasquet's backhand
Simultaneous from the side and from the back shots of Hewitt's lob

ferrero and cilic please, maybe a few of verdascos running forehands

Hey Phil here!
i would like if you could film Soderling if you see him in the practise court.
that will be intresting.

henin's backhand

If possible, try to get some practice match footage instead of just the warm up. It would even be better to get actual match play but that would be tough and I assume you would have to have a permission for that as well.

yes, that's a great idea with the back perspektive cause it also shows best the footwork and the swing of the racquet i think. it would be great if you make a collection of the different swings (backhand/forehand) and of the serve from the back perspektive.
thanks a lot for doing this great job!
Fabian.

hey will, please get some videos from the back perspective (court level) like you did last year as it's the angle that best shows the ball speed and net clearance of the players shots. Plus, its an angle we don't see enough of on tour and with the fences at Indian wells so low you might aswell

We are going to get a ton of footage from the back perspective. I agree -- it's something we don't see enough of.

Yes, please: Rallies from side-angle, court-level to capture true height of ball arc. Almost all video makes ball arc seem artificially low/flat because the camera is too high.

Request #1: Serve from court-level behind server just slightly offset from directly behind path of ball. Would be great to compare first serve with second from this same angle.
Request #2: Rallies from side-angle, court-level to capture true height of ball arc. Almost all video makes ball arc seem artificially low/flat because the camera is too high.
Request #3: Rallies from court-level (or close to it) directly behind the player.

That's great that you guys are open to suggestions. I realize the court-level angle is probably tough to get, but you already do have a few nice ones on the site...the more the better!

Will,

the camera angle I would find useful on the serve would dead on from the side. That is, with the camera positioned on an imaginary extension of the baseline.

The advantage of such an angle is that it would show the lean or bow of the body that you discuss in your serve videos.

In none of the footage you have of Federer is it clear whether or not he bows his torso during ball toss--that is, does he lean into the court with his hips?

Thanks,

Bob C.
Toronto

Side angle is going to be tough w/ Federer and the other top guys. The fences rise near the baseline so we can't get a perfect side angle. 3Q is about the best we can do.

Will, thanks for the feedback.

I agree that full-body shots are generally more useful than partial.

If you do half-body filming, be sure to do whole-body as well!

Many serve videos on YouTube do not show the ball toss at its apex, but it is useful to see how high players toss.

I agree that more footwork videos would be great. However, footwork during match play is probably more useful than footwork in practice drills. (It may not possible to get match-play videos.)

If you do waist-down footwork videos, please do whole body as well. What the player's head, upper body, and arms are doing is important and also shows how they work together.

Looking at some other slow-mo vids, I've noticed they aren't always full body shots. Those are, of course, nice to see, but perhaps you could also take shots from the upper body (waist up). This would be good for a variety of shots: forehands, backhands, volleys. Of course, you are doing HD, so it may just be a matter of cropping the video.

For footwork, you might want to aim waist-down rather than just at the feet, or you can be in real tight to the entire body (but this will take some good camera work) and not worry about how the racquet swings (normally, the camera gives a lot of space so you can see the preparation and follow-through of the racquet).

Also, slice backhands! I'd like to see video of slice backhands, if possible filmed from the side.

For regular backhands, I'd like to see some taken from behind the player (or even forehands for that matter). For example, sometimes you wonder what Roger is doing with his 1-hander behind his back. Or you want to see how much body turn a player is making and a behind the back viewpoint gives you more information.

Overheads and lobs might be nice, though they don't practice this a whole lot.