Why You Must Understand Swingweight
Beckett Chung strikes a backhand on the VT Advantec Review. Stephen Boughton. The Slice Tennis, 2021.
Swingweight is the most important spec. Article over.
Jokes aside, of the commonly available racquet specs, swingweight gives the best hints of how a racquet will play. This is because it’s a dynamic measurement that describes weight, balance and weight distribution. If you asked me to play a match with any racquet, and I had to pick one spec to control, it would certainly be swingweight.
Swingweight, in a nutshell, is a number that describes how heavy, or light, it feels to swing a racquet. The higher the number, the heavier the racquet feels to swing. The lower the number, the easier the racquet feels to swing.
Racquets with high swingweights (over 325) are often described as having “good plow through.” This is the sensation of the racquet’s mass winning the collision with the ball. You can think of it like a big semi truck plowing through a car crash with a Smart Car. The semi truck is so massive that it’s inertia carries it through the collision.
Racquet’s with loss swingweights (under 315) with feel very fast through the air and more maneuverable.
Dynamic Measurement
Swingweight is typically measured by specific machines that literally swing the racquet for a few seconds to measure how heavy the racquet feels when it is swung. The measurement is design to replicate the player’s swing on the tennis court, making it significantly more relevant to the game. While weight and balance are crucial, they are still just static measurements. You will never hit the ball on the tennis court without starting some time of swing. Even the volley, a notorious compact shot, is not without motion.
Effort Required
Let’s oversimplify things quickly. The equation for force is f=ma. Mass multiplied by acceleration. Thus, there are two ways to hit the ball harder. One is to swing faster. The other is to use a heavier racquet. Obviously, both items swinging faster and swinging a heavier racquet require more effort, but we need to think about optimizing that equation. Economics would call this returns to scale on effort.
I think we can all agree that we have a limited amount of effort to give on court. I get tired. You get tired. Nadal and Djokovic get tired. Our goal is to maximize our force on the ball for a given effort level. Theoretically, one would use an equal amount of effort in swinging fast as swinging weight. Of course, there is no way I can tell you for sure the optimal level of effort to spend swinging a racquet, but it’s interesting to think about.
Applications to Your Game
The typical advice regarding swingweight is to use the heaviest racquet you can swing over the length of time you usually play. For me, this means using the heaviest racquet I can over amount 90 minutes. If you play a lot of matches, you may want to feel fresh for longer, as you cannot solely control the length of a match. As of writing, the swingweight I feel comfortable with playing a match is 330. My puny arms can barely stand serving with much heavier anyway. When I’m just rallying, which is what I usually do, I like something much higher, around 350-360, because the effortless power I get is addictive.
This gives some insight into my body’s efficiency. I find it effortless to generate power with the 350 swingweight racquets, which suggests that I’ve reach a more optimized effort level. Of course the downside is that I get tired after about 45 minutes of decent hitting and I need to quit after an hour.
My advice is to experiment. Throw a bunch of lead tape a 12 o’clock on your usual racquet and test it out. You don’t even need to measure unless you are going to matching multiple racquets. Just go crazy and have fun out there!
