The Head Speed Pro: Do That Wiggle Wiggle
Honestly, I’ve never jived much with Head’s Speed line. All the way back to the first Speed in 2009, it was never for me. Since then, the Speed has gone through many different beam designs and head shapes. For 2022, we arrive with the 3rd iteration of the thicker, 23mm flat beam we saw with the introduction of the Graphene 360 Speed. I’ll admit that the 360 was my favourite Speed Pro to date. While I enjoyed the higher, 330+ swingweight of the 360+ Speed Pro, the upper hoop felt unstable, hollow and too flexy. Surely the hollowness and instability could be cured with a little weight at 10 and 2, but with such a high swingweight already, it should have been cured from the factory.
Potential Energy
With a swingweight of 326, the Speed Pro can hit a big ball. While I preferred the higher swingweight of the previous version, I think the more accessible 326 will be preferable to more players, promoting more sales of this frame. With the 326 swingweight, the Speed Pro does swing pretty quickly, so its easy to max out that mass x acceleration equation to deliver large amounts of force.
Where the Speed Pro falters is in its flex. The Auxetic flex adds a wonderful ball-pocketing, grape-popping flex to the hoop. While it feels nice, its not efficient at returning energy. There were many balls that I hoped to just block back, but the flex robbed a huge amount of the energy return, meaning, the energy I hoped to redirect into the ball was largely dissipated in the flexing of the racquet.
Typically, racquets with a lot of flex tend to be heavier, but at 310g unstrung, the Speed Pro really forces you to swing as fast as you can to deliver a powerful shot. While the thicker beam and decent swingweight make it feel more powerful than other flexy-featherweights, its certainly not a powerful racquet.
Potential Energy: 113
Similar Performers:
Wilson Blade v8 16x19: 109
Head Boom Pro: 123
Head Gravity Pro: 133
Stringbed Performance
Much like many of the tighter 16x19 racquets we’ve been testing lately (EZONE 98, Extreme Tour), the Speed Pro really balances spin production and directional control nicely. The 18x20 string pattern in the Speed Pro is relatively open for a 18x20. That, compared with the 23mm beam mean that spin come easy out of this 18x20. Both slice and topspin balls are very confidence inspiring.
Flat shots come with just as much ease. I certainly preferred the Speed Pro on my backhand side, which is a much flatter stroke in comparison to my forehand. The direction control with this stringbed was immense. I felt like Djokovic with my two hander, able to change the direction of the rally at will.
Stringbed Performance: 95
Similar Performers:
Head Gravity Pro: 87
Wilson Blade v8 16x19: 94
Head Boom Pro: 116
Weight Distribution
This is the most conflicting section of the review for me. While the Speed is called the SPEED, I feel like this racquet should feel fast through the air. And it absolutely does. The tip comes around every quickly one forehands, backhands and serves and its effortless to generate a high racquet head speed.
The problem lies is the layup of the racquet. Its too flexy for a like weight distribution. With a medium-low twistweight of 14.31, the Speed Pro doesn’t have a wealth of torsional stability from its weight distribution. Normally I like this, but in a racquet that exhibits so much flex, off-centre shots simply feel weak and unpredictable.
Players above 4.0 seeking to get the most out of the Speed Pro will certainly need to add weight to the this frame to suit their games.
Weight Distribution: 115
Similar Performers:
Wilson Blade v8 16x19: 113
Head Boom Pro: 122
Head Gravity Pro: 137
Final Thoughts
My first hits with this racquet were may favourite. I loved the impact feel. It’s rich and unique. The Auxetic Speed Pro is really all about that flex. Unfortunately, for me game, the flex is a massively limiting factors. Over time, I lost appreciation for the unique hitting feel, as it was simply over shadowed by my struggles with the racquet’s off-centre instability and borderline frail feel when faced with heavy shots.
