I suppose they do. Especially on these boards, where mountains are made of molehills and bones vulture-picked on a regular basis.
But, I know that professional customizers frequently recommend adding mass to the head/tip to slow down a swing. This is often recommended for juniors that are swinging out of control.
Adding weight anywhere in the head will raise the swingweight. Raising swingweight, according to nearly everyone who's swung a racquet and cares about such things, and the only studies that have been done on racquet specs and swingspeed, will slow down the swing.
However, there's also the line of thought that players with grooved strokes will swing any racquet at pretty much the same speed. From there you could conclude that a heavier stick is better, as you'll swing it the same speed anyway, so why not swing a heavier and more stable stick.
I've also seen comments about lead at the tip helping the frame "come around" quicker, like it's picked up momentum earlier in the swing and is now carrying that momentum into contact. There might be something to that. A physicist could probably tell you, but then he'd likely be hectored off the boards by people lacking curiosity.
The thing is, most of what we know about the interaction of racquets and players is anecdotal, speculative or theoretical. There isn't much experimental science behind it, so all statements should ideally be made in non-dogmatical terms. But most of us aren't in the habit of qualifying our speech or writing. In my opinion, that's why we end up with train-wreck threads, like this one.
I think this is a really good and accurate post on all counts.
You are right about folks w. at least semi grooved strokes tending to swing the racquet at the same speed no matter what the swingweight. I;ve encountered this typically when teaching someone using a higher swingweight racquet. They tend to swing the lighter racquet at the same speed as their heavier racquet and then complain that the racquet lacks plow, is unstable, feels flimsy, no power, and etc. These people tend to want to learn to hit w. more top. I try and get them to use their technique to SWING FASTER, thus creating more batspeed for spin and control and juice.
Conversely, when someone uses a lighter racquet and experiments w. a heavier one, they try and swing that one at the same speed as well. They can reap benefits by doing this...a more penetrating ball, more power, a heavier ball, etc. the problem is, that consumes more energy if they are using good lower body and core technique...if they have good technique, their arms dont get tired...they lose their legs and wind.
There also is merit to what you said about weight in the tip tending to help the racquet head pull through once you get it moving. this tends to work from the backcourt, but not so well at net, so perhaps that is a big reason why the pros arent using very headlight racquets these days..they dont volley much.
Also I think the racquet then typically gets weight added in the handle so that the racquet isnt so much hammer weighted, and that tends to help them quite often w. their serves and return of serve....
So polarizing a racquet seems to help the serve, the return of serve, and groundstrokes provided the right swingweight for the player is acheived....there really isnt much of a transition game or net game these days to be concerned with setting up a racquet to help that way <more headlight>
Adding weight to the throat doesnt result in anything close to the above IMO, and is a very inefficient use of additional weight <in general>
