Quote:
Originally Posted by Jet Rink
Gnosis - you are a gentleman and a scholar. I'm teaching my kids with wood racquets for exactly the reasons you outline here and I concur mightily (and have done so probably too many times here before) that pros should use a standardized wood racquet. It works in MLB, why not in pro tennis?
I know, I know... here it comes.
Jet
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Kids might benefit from a smaller headed, head light racquet in the 11-13 oz range. I'm not sure it has to be wood. But, I'd like to hear from the top coaches on this issue. Guys like Yandell, Bolletieri (he'd probably oppose it), Van der meer, etc.
Have the lighter, bigger, more powerful racquets brought more kids into tennis? Actually, I don't think that's the case. The 70's were huge for tennis, but now you have to watch the AO at 2 a.m. in the States. American tennis is not on the ropes, but we aren't experiencing a Renaissance. Neither is Australia or England, two of the historically strong tennis powers. Of course, you can't be 300 lbs and play tennis, and all three countries are facing varying degrees of fitness erosion.
My personal view is that kids enjoy a challenge just as much as adults do, so they might benefit from both the old technology and the new, integrated into a comprehensive training program. You want them disciplined enough to be able to hit with a small racquet head, but they need to compete with the best modern equipment, especially strings.
-Robert