Racquet recommendations for a 7 year old girl

[seleswannabe]

Hi - hoping to get some guidance on buying a new racquet for my 7 year old daughter. She has been playing on and off since she was 4. She plays 1X a week with other kids her age and her ability at our club. They use regular yellow balls, the coach does about 1/2 feeding drills and 1/2 rallying games over a 1.5 hour period.
Here's my dilemma: She is about 95%ile for height and weight for her age - very muscular and lean. She is quick and strong but needs work on her stroke technique. I keep getting pushed to put her into a 26 inch frame (currently using a hand-me-down Head aluminum 25 inch) but I am afraid it will be to long/heavy for her. I see other kids her age with the bigger frames and they seem to be too heavy? I don't really have the luxury of trying out frames and to be honest she would probably pick the one that was the most asthetically pleasing anyway

Any thoughts on the size, and beyond that specific racquets. If it helps, she will be doing 4, 1 week camps this summer and moving to two days a week (1.5 hours each night) next school year. Thanks for any help you can provide!

[TennisCoachFLA]

Originally Posted by seleswannabe

Hi - hoping to get some guidance on buying a new racquet for my 7 year old daughter. She has been playing on and off since she was 4. She plays 1X a week with other kids her age and her ability at our club. They use regular yellow balls, the coach does about 1/2 feeding drills and 1/2 rallying games over a 1.5 hour period.
Here's my dilemma: She is about 95%ile for height and weight for her age - very muscular and lean. She is quick and strong but needs work on her stroke technique. I keep getting pushed to put her into a 26 inch frame (currently using a hand-me-down Head aluminum 25 inch) but I am afraid it will be to long/heavy for her. I see other kids her age with the bigger frames and they seem to be too heavy? I don't really have the luxury of trying out frames and to be honest she would probably pick the one that was the most asthetically pleasing anyway

Any thoughts on the size, and beyond that specific racquets. If it helps, she will be doing 4, 1 week camps this summer and moving to two days a week (1.5 hours each night) next school year. Thanks for any help you can provide!

Would you send her to fight a kid wearing head gear if she had no head gear? She should not be rallying against kids with bigger racquets. And by all means she should NOT be hitting regulation balls with a 25 inch frame. Try it sometime, it is no fun.

If it was my kid and she was that big and strong, she would be using a 27 inch racquet. But at least let her use a 26 inch.

[NLBwell]

A longer racket will help her smooth out her strokes. Too light/small a racket leads to "flippy" strokes. Since she won't be able to make last second snaps at her strokes, she may win less, but that isn't really the point at this age.

[ninaz]

Originally Posted by NLBwell

A longer racket will help her smooth out her strokes. Too light/small a racket leads to "flippy" strokes. Since she won't be able to make last second snaps at her strokes, she may win less, but that isn't really the point at this age.

agree, both my daughter started using PD plus team when they were 6.5.

[seleswannabe]

Good information. I am just a club player, so this is the insight I need. They have a couple of 26 inch prince racquets at our club that I will have her try. Thanks!