Your Ideal Spec.....
As a racketaholic tennis nerd Im very interested in the specs of our rackets, their shape or mold, headsize, balance, weight, swingweight, length, flex etc etc.
Although most players dont even know their ideal specs as they still have their Walmart racket they bought all those years ago, for a lot of us this is essential info in terms of the way we play our game.
For example my main weapon is my serve so I extend my racket half an inch and this really helps. I also use extreme grips on both sides which essentially means I dont have to change my grip it stays the same for my backhand and forehand hitting on the one sideof the racket face. With these extreme grips I mold my handle so its raised at the tip so the flat of my fingers sit cushioned against this on the larger underside bevel and my pinky sits on top of the molding.
Headsize is very important as a 'big' server I like small headed rackets but with my extreme grips this has to balanced out as i would probably shank a lot if its too small.
Swingweight is also key I like the tip of my racket to swing round fast it suits my topspin, hitting out in front shots so I add about 8g to the top of the hoop. Ive recently experimented here by bringing down my static weight and adding more lead to raise my swingweight, with great effect, getting that heavy solid feel still with an easier manouverable racket.
Molds are important, essentially all the best rackets ive found are infact very similar and it is no surprise that the pros tend to have very similar rackets across the board, with a paint job of the latest model as cosmetic. Funnily enough the two top players have the extrems of this with the small headed pro staff of Federer and the large headed Babolat of Nadal. The biggest difference ive noticed is in the throat shape, falling into two catagories: long hole and short hole,.....another nerdy thread altogether.
Well my ideal spec is somewhere around this....
95" headsize, 350g, 360+ SW, 7pts HL, low flex, 27.5" length, so I need a racket that comes under these specs before I start modification. I also like a shorter throat hole, seems more stable and I like a thin aero beam rather than a box beam.
Then comes strings which for me have to be polyester, with a really flexy frame (mine is 49ra) I like stiff tight strings and after hundreds of stringjobs I still cant find anything better than Luxilon Alu Power and I string at about 57-60lbs fresh every match.
There's a lot more, come to think of it I should of just picked up that Walmart racket and saved myself a lot of headaches!!
Here's my Vantage bc20.....
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Mark / The Mayor on
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That is so cool - look at that tapered grip.
Just today I shopped for 4 new sticks to demo. I did this online and was blown away by all the options and the difficulty in finding exactly what I think I want. I will post more here later since I have a lot to share, but quickly this is what (methinks) I like:
27.25" long
11 oz
stiffish, like 63
98" head
and - this is the hard part - relatively even balanced.
I didn't find a single frame out there with this exact spec.
M
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Permalink Reply by Meags on
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easy if you are willing to extend the racket yourself. Very easy to do with a piece of polysterene, some superglue and duct tape. I;ll show you how to do it.
Pacific xForce
Dunlop Biomimetic 300Head YOUTEK Instinct
Wilson BLX Tour
Prince EXO3 White
O3 Shark Hybrid
Volkl Power Bridge 10 Light
Wilson Pro Open BLX
Yonex RDiS 200 Lite
Yonex RDiS 300
Mark / Mr. Mayor said: That is so cool - look at that tapered grip.Just today I shopped for 4 new sticks to demo. I did this online and was blown away by all the options and the difficulty in finding exactly what I think I want. I will post more here later since I have a lot to share, but quickly this is what (methinks) I like:
27.25" long
11 oz
stiffish, like 63
98" head
and - this is the hard part - relatively even balanced.
I didn't find a single frame out there with this exact spec.
M
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Permalink Reply by Tim Prapong on
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My ideal specs are 27" standard length, 95-98 sq.in headsize,
345-350g weight, 8 pts HL, around 330 swingweight, 57-58 flex, 3/8 gripsize, Babolat Skin Feel grip, 59-61 lbs string tension.
The closest racquets I've had are: Head Pro Tour 280 China version, Head Radical Tour Zebra.
Second string contenders are Volkl Powerbridge 10 Midplus (63 stiffness), Gamma G325 (10 pts. HL). I had to mod these racquets with lead.
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before settling with the Vantage I was very happy with the Radical Tour 3rd Gen modded up. TBH its the same mold as the pt57's the pros are using today and perfect for modding up. Great racket, infact Ive just added half an inch to one of mine to see how it plays.
Tim Prapong said:My ideal specs are 27" standard length, 95-98 sq.in headsize,
345-350g weight, 8 pts HL, around 330 swingweight, 57-58 flex, 3/8 gripsize, Babolat Skin Feel grip, 59-61 lbs string tension.
The closest racquets I've had are: Head Pro Tour 280 China version, Head Radical Tour Zebra.
Second string contenders are Volkl Powerbridge 10 Midplus (63 stiffness), Gamma G325 (10 pts. HL). I had to mod these racquets with lead.
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Wow, nice set of sticks, Richard! They don't look worn at all.
I did want to try the third generation Radical Tour and was going to buy one from the "Racket24.com" in Berlin. But I changed my mind after he sold me a PT630 with a crack in it.
I do love my Radical Tour 2nd gen. and have four of those, but made them bumperless and added 24g on the top of the handle to get them closer to 8pts. HL.
I have to serve much more relaxed with this stick, than the PT280 because of the extra swingweight. Sometimes, I'd rather pronate more with a lighter head, and not have to become tired on getting the racquet head vertical into the trophy position.
But such great heavy serves come as a result, with the Radical Tours. Also puts some extra heft into my groundies. Some of partners complain about their wrists snapping back after a hard rally session. I will use my lighter PT280 if it bothers them too much.
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As you know I've been playing with the Wilson Htour and Ntour, Ntour 2, but want a larger head.
Here's what I have ordered on demo:
YOUTEK INSTINCT DEMO RACQUET HEAD (as you mentioned)
PURE STORM GT DEMO RACQUET BABOLAT
YOUTEK RADICAL PRO DEMO RACQUET HEAD
PRO OPEN BLX DEMO RACQUETS WILSON
From looking at the spec, I'm really stoked to try the Babolat, but you know - the perfect racquet is a mysterious beast. Just because the specs match, you can not know until you actually play with it.
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The pure storm is a very good racket and is closer to the quality of the older pure control. It does everything well and there is a softness in feel from the woofer system. Itsvbox beam makes it very stable but i was rather surprised at how underpowered it is. Also i found it to be less whippy and more tank like.
The older instinct ive used the tour version that gasquet uses. Great stick imo veryceasy to use. I would hope the newer lighter racket is just as good.
I know a few people enjoying the rad pro so that could be interesting. And the Wilson is on your spec too.
I always find demoing rackets i need to have the same strings in each so i know where i am.
Mark / Mr. Mayor said:As you know I've been playing with the Wilson Htour and Ntour, Ntour 2, but want a larger head.
Here's what I have ordered on demo:
YOUTEK INSTINCT DEMO RACQUET HEAD (as you mentioned)
PURE STORM GT DEMO RACQUET BABOLAT
YOUTEK RADICAL PRO DEMO RACQUET HEAD
PRO OPEN BLX DEMO RACQUETS WILSON
From looking at the spec, I'm really stoked to try the Babolat, but you know - the perfect racquet is a mysterious beast. Just because the specs match, you can not know until you actually play with it.
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I totally agree with Richard about the Pure Storm GT. I tried the Tour version that Sampras uses. It has a soft feel, but it is firm enough, and low powered. I had RPM Blast in it.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Dong on
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I just got my father 2 more Wilson pro open blx's. He really liked that one!
Mark / Mr. Mayor said:
As you know I've been playing with the Wilson Htour and Ntour, Ntour 2, but want a larger head.
Here's what I have ordered on demo:
YOUTEK INSTINCT DEMO RACQUET HEAD (as you mentioned)
PURE STORM GT DEMO RACQUET BABOLAT
YOUTEK RADICAL PRO DEMO RACQUET HEAD
PRO OPEN BLX DEMO RACQUETS WILSON
From looking at the spec, I'm really stoked to try the Babolat, but you know - the perfect racquet is a mysterious beast. Just because the specs match, you can not know until you actually play with it.
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Permalink Reply by patrick m on
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Since you are into tech stuff related to tennis you might enjoy an iphone app for finding swing weight for your racket, comes in handy and eliminates need for a larger device such as an RDC. I havent tried it but will provide link.for you here: http://www.appmaker.se/index.php?m=6&s=2
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I think I've seen another iphone ap which checks the tension according to pitch. Very ingenious.
The Babolat RDC machine I was told by Rackets Racquets shop in Arcadia, CA cost them $10000.
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