How I Get the Most Out of My Racquets
If you aren’t customizing you tennis racquet, you are wasting the $300 you just dropped on a new racquet. Either you bought he racquet without trying it, or you got to demo a bunch of racquets before making your choice. Now you have a choice. Play with the racquet stock, or customize the frame to suit your game. Sure, there’s a ton of different options racquet and string options are the market, but you can this to the next level, but changing the weight, balance and feel of your racquet. There’s an infinite uniqueness of our techniques, your game styles and our physicality on court, so why are we just accepting that the tennis company knows best?
From left to right, a Yonex R-7, a Wilson nCode 6.1 95 16x18, a Flexpoint Head Prestige MP and a Yonex VCORE 95. Beckett Chung. TennCom Media, 2021.
What You Need to Know
The first thing we need to understand is our racquet. What are the specs? The strung weight, the balance point, the stiffness and the swingweight. Of these, they are only a few things that we can actually change (without resorting to extreme measures).
Weight: Measured in grams or ounces ( I recommend grams haha), this number describes how heavy your racquet is when you hold it still.
Balance Point. Measured in centimeters from the buttcap, or in points/inches from the middle of the racquet. Head heavy, head light and even balance. Most tennis racquets are head light.
Swingweight: This describes how heavy your racquet feels when it is swung. Measured in km*cm^2. It is possible to do this manually, but I recommend finding a shop with an RDC (Racquet Diagnostics Centre). One of few dynamic measurements, relying on how much mass is in the racquet and where that mass is distributed.
How Do I Make Changes?
Weight. We can easily increase weight. By adding things like lead tape, an overgrip or tungsten puddy, we can increase the mass of the racquet. The only feasible was we can decrease weight on a strung racquet is by choosing thinner gauge strings or by choosing thinner/removing grips.
Balance Point. We can shift the balance point by adding weight towards the tip or towards the handle of the racquet.
Swingweight. Any time you add weight you increase the swingweight. The closer to the tip of the frame that you add the weight, the more significant increase in swingweight you will experience.
Now What?
Know that we know what factors on the racquet, and we know how to change them, we can start changing the racquets specs to suit our style. Everyone plays tennis bit differently. We have unique techniques, influence by our favourite pro’s, our coaches, and our physical attributes. This means we should all consider widely different needs from our racquets. But how do you know what swingweight is right for you?
Guide to How to Customize Your Racquet
Measure your racquet’s strung weight, balance point and swingweight.
Find your max swingweight. Add 2-5g of lead to 12 o’clock on your racquet and measure your specs again. Save them for later. Play tennis with the new specs. Note any changes in hitting sensations. You should feel easier power and better stability as long as your prepare your swing early to account for the heavier frame. If you aren’t too tired at the end of the session, repeat. Keep adding weight until you find yourself too tired before your normal hitting session is over. Once you have you final specs, note them for future use.
Diagnose stability. Do you need more stability on off-centre hits? If yes, you need to increase your twistweight. Remove 4g from 12 o’clock and place 2g each at both 3 and 9 o’clock. Measure swingweight again and add weight at 12 o’clock until you reach your max swingweight from the previous step. God for a hit and take notes on added stability, as well as loss of maneuverability.
Test stability vs. maneuverability. Every time you add weight to gain power or stability, you are sacrificing maneuverability. Depending on your playing style, you may prioritize maneuverability (eg. Nadal who needs a very high swing speed) or you may prioritize stability (eg. Djokovic who needs to be able to redirect opponent’s pace and take the ball early). You may choose to have no added weight at 3 and 9, but you may choose to have the bulk of your weight at 3 and 9. It’s all preference.
Diagnose recoil. Once you have your swingweight and twistweights dialed in, we need to investigate recoil weight. If you racquet feel unstable, even when you contact the ball in the centre of the stringbed, adding weight in the handle is the solution. This will be especially noticeable on shots with less exaggerated swings, like volleys, returns and slices. Add weight to the handle until you reach your desire stability.
Re-evaluate static weight. At the end of this frenzy, you have have add a lot of weight. This weight you have to carry around with you through your hitting session, and it may be causing you to tire. If you are getting tired by the end of your hitting session, remove a few grams, proportionally remove weight from the various areas. Say you add 3g at 12 o’clock, 6g at 3 and 9 o’clock and 9g in the handle, I would recommend removing 30% from each area, meaning 1g from the tip, 2g from 3 and 9 and 3 from the handle.
Enjoy and tinker. If you are just adding weight for the first time, you may start getting stronger from playing tennis with a heavier racquet. This is good news! You’ve become stronger, fitter, faster, and increased your max swingweight. Try adding a bit more weight in the tip and see if you get even more power than before. If you’ve had to scale back your tennis, maybe you aren’t as strong as you used to be, meaning it’s time to remove some weight. As we change, our tennis changes, and our racquet should follow suit.
Epilogue
Comment down below on your current racquet specs. I’d love to here what you are working with and I’d love to hear some weird experiments you’ve undertaken.
