why do pro's generally use old racquets w/paintjob?

[YEMntFtb]

Whats up with this, I can understand that someone might like a racquet thats older and use it a lot, but when there being endorced you dont have to pay for the racquet anyway, might as well get the newer model.

[drakulie]

It is like this- remember when your mom wanted you to throw out those old worn sneakers, ro underwear, or ripped jeans?
And you just could not bring yourself to doing it because they were so damn comfortable?

Well that's the reason. You get comfortable with a certain racquet and have success with it-you do not want to change it, because no other racquet feels quite the same-like those jeans.

[NoBadMojo]

like drakulie says..in addition, they know it will take them months to dial in all the shots they had with their last axe that they hit like 4 bazillion balls with...and then when they do, they may not be more effective than when they first tried to change. it's like your lover....maybe there will be one that excites you for that one fling, but you always come back to what you know to be sweet. and months on the pro tour must surely be an eternity. samps made like no frame changes since he became pro..ditto for courier, goran, edberg, many others i am sure..it's the archer not the arrows ....ed

[Steve F.]

If it ain't broke.... just paint it.

[BreakPoint]

What makes you think the newer models are any better than the older models? There are many people on this board (along with many of the pros that you speak of) that think the older models are much better than the newer models. In fact, I believe the consensus is that racquets in general just keep getting worse and worse as they introduce newer and newer models. The more technology these manufacturers try and cram into the new racquets, the worse the racquets become (think Rollers, Triad, Intellifibers, More Technology, Triple Threat, Hot Melt, Super Light and Stiff, Tennis Elbow Specials, etc.). Therefore, its no wonder that the pros, who depend on their racquets to make a living, generally stay with their older, tried and true, racquets. They use paintjobs as dictated by their endorsement contracts so that their sponsor manufacturers can sell their latest racquets to an unsuspecting public since they can't sell a discontinued racquet, can they?

[activentures]

..they don't make 'em like they used to!! (and i'm only young!). Rackets are largely made for the consumer market, and have gizmo's and gimic's to market accordingly. These days you are hard pushed to find a true players frame in the current range without hyper this or twin tube that. All your average pro wants is a stick, and a familiar stick at that. Just think of the money Wilson would have made if they could of persuaded Pete to play with a racket that looked different!

[drummerboy]

A classic racquet is a classic racquet and a period. New technologies are there just to make it more appealing to the customers. It is like with the guitars. You can't beat Gibson Les Paul and Fender Strat with any new guitars. The same thing goes for the racquets.

[ProStaffTour90]

We got some great similies going on in here guys!

Ripped jeans
Guitarists
One night stands

[Brad Smith]

While I agree older rackets are generally better, I think for the pros the reluctance to change is based on the intimate familiarity that comes with thousands of hours spent practicing and playing with one particular stick. I'm sure pros could play well with just about any stick, but they play best with the one they've used over and over again. As long as they can keep getting the same thing, albeit with a new paintjob, they stick with it.

[ProStaffTour90]

It's the same with Top snooker players, alot of them use cues that they have had since being teenagers, and some of them are poor cues, Alan McManus uses one which cost his mother about £8 when he was 12, he'd probably be able to play better in time with a better quality cue (Stephen Hendry has proved this as his orginal cue was broken in transit, he has switched and after a shakey start is now more or less back to his best and now acknoledges his new cue is better!)

So there is a huge mental aspect to overcome and like Brad said they could probably play well (in time) with a lkot of different racquets, but they just don't like to change them!

[AAAA]

The archer makes a difference but so does the arrow. McEnroe serves better on the seniors tour than when he was on the ATP tour because of the modern racquet he uses. He and other observers have said this many times.

[NoBadMojo]

thats just mcenroe making noise. he also is a proponent of going back to wood. he used a modern axe for alot of his career at the end i think. maybe you mean a modern game improvement frame? to counterpoint that it was documented that phillipousisisisisiss can serve within a small handful of mph w. a wooden racquet compared to his regular axe and even a tricked up 'modern' powerful wide body slamma jamma. he probably couldnt though when he reaches mcenroes age. mcenroes serve prob never really broke 100mph much back when he was playing on the reg tour..it was all about the lefty spin and mixing it up and disguise. what mcenroe is saying here is that a 'more powerful' frame can benefit the serve of a middle aged dude, and i cant argue w. that. all IMO of course. Ed

[AAAA]

The test only proved that Mark could serve using a wooden racquet within 10% or even 5% of his maximum service speed using a graphite racquet.

Compared to wood, graphite frames enhance consistency and increase average serve speeds because of the larger heads and higher achievable swing speeds.