monologuist
05-09-2006, 03:07 PM
Whenever I play in tournaments, my adrenaline gets pumping so hard that I tend to take the ball too early for most of the first several games. The errors start piling up, and I often find myself in a hole early on in the first set. This past weekend, I tried something that I've never tried before :
I have 4-6 of the same racquet ( Yonex Ti-70 Long ), and I usually bring at least 4 with me to tournaments. I usually have them all weighted and balanced almost identically, with just the maximum amount of lead tape that I can normally handle on the head that I don't get tired through the course of a match and that maintains satisfactory maneuverability for my game...
But this time I brought one racquet with about 6 more grams of lead on the head..a modest difference, but definitely noticeable in terms of raising the swingweight. After starting out my opening match with the usual errors and hitting the ball too early, I switched to the heavier racquet. I ended up losing the match anyway, as my opponent was a lefty, and I just have a hard time adjusting to decent lefties fast enough to turn the match around in a best of 3 match. But I will say, that the switch to the heavier-weighted racquet really helped my timing, as it forced me to slow down my swing. The initial adrenaline rush had pretty much worn out by the start of the second set, but I still had no problem handling the extra weight for the rest of the match for whatever reasons.
I'm thinking of doing this from now on for tournaments; since I have several of the same racquet, taking one that is weighted heavier than the rest and one that is weighted lighter than the rest for different situations. Of course, I also am working on finding ways to control my nerves and adrenaline internally, so hopefully I won't have to rely on this method of slwoing myself down...
Just wondering if :
a)anyone else here does this
b)if there are potential pitfalls/concerns with switching to a heavier racquet mid-match if you're swinging too fast from nerves/adrenaline
c)any pros do this?
I have 4-6 of the same racquet ( Yonex Ti-70 Long ), and I usually bring at least 4 with me to tournaments. I usually have them all weighted and balanced almost identically, with just the maximum amount of lead tape that I can normally handle on the head that I don't get tired through the course of a match and that maintains satisfactory maneuverability for my game...
But this time I brought one racquet with about 6 more grams of lead on the head..a modest difference, but definitely noticeable in terms of raising the swingweight. After starting out my opening match with the usual errors and hitting the ball too early, I switched to the heavier racquet. I ended up losing the match anyway, as my opponent was a lefty, and I just have a hard time adjusting to decent lefties fast enough to turn the match around in a best of 3 match. But I will say, that the switch to the heavier-weighted racquet really helped my timing, as it forced me to slow down my swing. The initial adrenaline rush had pretty much worn out by the start of the second set, but I still had no problem handling the extra weight for the rest of the match for whatever reasons.
I'm thinking of doing this from now on for tournaments; since I have several of the same racquet, taking one that is weighted heavier than the rest and one that is weighted lighter than the rest for different situations. Of course, I also am working on finding ways to control my nerves and adrenaline internally, so hopefully I won't have to rely on this method of slwoing myself down...
Just wondering if :
a)anyone else here does this
b)if there are potential pitfalls/concerns with switching to a heavier racquet mid-match if you're swinging too fast from nerves/adrenaline
c)any pros do this?