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What was the first three tennis racquets you ever used and learned on?

First: an aluminum Bancroft that my mother bought from K-Mart. It had a red 'B' stencil I retouched every now and then. I played racquetball on the handball courts at my high school with it! 

Second: Dunlop McEnroe Graphite Comp frame. My first graphite frame. Great feel and flex. Had fiberglass.

Third: Donnay Borg Graphite Mid. It had a straight throat and a "bullet head" frame.

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Hmm, is it graphite and heavy? Alot of old school guys would like that, like Lendl Jr. here on this site. Those racquets hit very flat.

Ahhh... the old Pam Shriver special!

I started on a Jack Kramer Jr. and I can't remember what I moved to after that.  At some point early I had a ProKennex Silver something.  Then in HS I had a Prince Ceramic.



Lendl Jr. (4.5) said:

I started with a Price Classic, then the Prince Pro.  I then played awhile with the Prince woodie.  

Silver Ace, maybe.

You tell em mike!

 

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Tim Prapong said:

Yeah, I totally forgot the categories thing. Thanks, Mike!

Mike Dong said:
Moved this to the tennis equipment discussion.  :)
It must've been. A very nice thin beam racquet!

Mark / Mr. Mayor said:

Silver Ace, maybe.

Wow! Prince was much bigger back then. Everyone had one or tried one.


I was playing tennis first time in my life 28 years ago while I was 8 years old and I was starting with a wooden racket... I was playing for one year and after that for more than 20 years I was not touching any racket. After I came back first time I bought a cheap Wilson from a Carrefour Hypermarket :) I was using that racket for almost 1 year without a specific performance and I was playing no more than 10 times in one year. And finally when I decided that I want to really come back 3 years ago a friend of mine bought me from US a Head Liquidmetal Radical Midplus ( http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Head_Liquidmetal_Radical_Midplus/de... ). I was playing for another 2 years with that one but I felt that somehow was not fitting my style (it was very hard for me to use Liquidmetal as far as spin generation was very hard and I was somehow beginner) so last summer I sold it and I bought a Babolat Aero Pro Drive Cortex and clearly this one become my racket of choice til now when I moved to Aero Pro Drive GT (currently I have both Cortex and GT versions stringed with the same strings and tension :) ) ..

 

 

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What an interesting progression of racquets. You went from that strange wood racquet (lol) to finally ending on the Aero Pro. I know what you mean about the LM Radical MP lacking in spin. It is one of the more bland Head racquets.

I took 12 years off myself, playing racquetball mainly. Forehands in tennis has become alot more like racquetball. Much more wrist usage and whip effect. I love the game again.

Yes you are right, extremelly strange but except my childhood period that I was extremely serious about tennis I become interested again when I got the Liquidmetal and I started playing weekly some doubles games with some friends... Cortex was chosen for better speed and later I saw that the spin helps my forehands to jump the net and reach the target... I played with a trainer one year and I learned how to hit a top spin forehand properly (but anyway initial steps in proper hitting were done on internet following another web site with very good tennis lessons) and a one hand backhand in a safe way... Let's say that I was playing ping pong a lot before starting tennis so I was familiar with all type of effects and spins...

 

PS- by the way I have a serious background in kayak (national vice-champion for juniors when I was 18 years old) so this helps a lot the arm speed and hitting power...

Amazing how the internet has allowed me to change my game also. I can get endless youtube clips of whatever player and rewind and replay them to death. Plus, many lessons are downright free!

Ping pong shots, especially corner crosscourts, defensive lobs, bolo shots all are based on quick generation of spin. I always think Fed and Nadal's ground game looks like larger sized ping pong strokes.

Kayaking is definitely great for strength. I wish I had more strength in my arm, but have to rely on coiling more.

My only shots available 3 years ago were: forehand (quite flat and because of missing spin somehow unreliable), sliced backhand (from ping-pong) very good and stable but hard to make points on it, and service :) quite hard to win something just with this shots :) currently I can do more on field but anyway, the nice thing in tennis is that you have to fight more to learn other things and in the same time you should train to keep your current shots at proper level...

Tennis is endless discovery of all the possible techniques for me. You find out there are multitudes of styles possible on just one particular shot.

I've been working on understanding the Nadal and Federer forehands, then the Berdych and Soderling form. Sometimes, I go back to Agassi, Borg and Sampras fh forms for fun.

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