Weed Racquets

[dak95_00]

I was a PIAS sports the other day and they had what must've been close to 10 Weed racquets. Some were new w/ plastic on the grip. All were giant. All were strung w/ Weed SG16 in black and all had circular vibration dampeners. Some had the covers too.

I would've picked one up as an oddity but they wanted $39.99/racquet and that is out of my price range unless it is something I'd use. They had different varieties: 100% graphite, graphite/boron, graphite/ceramic, etc.

If someone was interested and made it worth my time and effort, I'd go and get it for you.

[Hannah19]

I've had a Weed 3/4 Open also as an oddity.
Took it out for a hit but that lasted 30 seconds......
I went straight back to my trusted MAX 200G.
What a disaster. Could be the crappy string job but balls went flying everywhere ending up at court 11 whilst playing on 3...

[dak95_00]

I really can't imagine that you are supposed to swing a Weed racquet. I think you are supposed to charge the net, hold the racquet out, let the ball hit it, and direct the ball in a direction away from your opponent. Swinging that enormous beast will cause the ball to be directed up to 8 courts over.

[coachrick]

Weed ain't got nuthin' on the WonderWand!!!

[dak95_00]

What's a WonderWand? Never heard of that.

[coachrick]

Originally Posted by dak95_00

What's a WonderWand? Never heard of that.

Early '90s, B-I-G racket...mine is back home(550 miles away) or I'd take a pic. The online pics I found don't show it in relation to other rackets, so it's hard to get the perspective.

As I recall, 'they' had a plan to introduce a full line of giant rackets, but I only remember one or two. A really good player/teaching pro in Atlanta was the rep for a while...guess it didn't take off.

I'm not sure what its 'claim to fame' was relative to the Weed. I know mine is super light, even though it's pushing 135sq in.

[coachrick]

Originally Posted by Hannah19

I've had a Weed 3/4 Open also as an oddity.
Took it out for a hit but that lasted 30 seconds......
I went straight back to my trusted MAX 200G.
What a disaster. Could be the crappy string job but balls went flying everywhere ending up at court 11 whilst playing on 3...

Originally Posted by dak95_00

I really can't imagine that you are supposed to swing a Weed racquet. I think you are supposed to charge the net, hold the racquet out, let the ball hit it, and direct the ball in a direction away from your opponent. Swinging that enormous beast will cause the ball to be directed up to 8 courts over.

One of my stringing clients in Atlanta played the Weed for a couple of years. He was 6'2" or so with really long arms and giant, sweeping strokes. He made full use of the size of the Weed with his slice serve and groundstrokes(and I MEAN slice!). We followed the proportional stringing advice for a couple of times but ended up using a skinny Kevlar/syn hybrid at more conventional tensions(still low, just consistent through the string bed).

The Weed was around when the Star 3 machine was so popular...drove stringers nuts when the Weed wouldn't fit on the otherwise fantastic machine! Time to go back to the Star 2 or my Major SPII for those!

I don't recall the specific model of Weed this fellow used...it was the only Weed 'type' that I was aware of at the time.

[Fearsome Forehand]

Weed Whacker?

[streamwalker]

for all of you that are interested in Weed rackets...they were originally STEEL rackets of 135 sq" ...HUGE and the largest patented at the time...He filed for a patent just a few months after Howard Head filed his infamous size Patent for Prince ( about 1975 winter )..and grabbed the greatest bonanza of all !!!!!...rackets between 85" and 125" were suddenly ALL his no matter the design or technology...often referred to as the greatest " rip off in tennis history ! " Howard then sold his interest in Prince with every racket maker paying fees to build any racket between 85" and 125" and he walked away with $64 million and moved to Vail and opened his Sports Rehab center or what ever...Many companies fought this unfair patent and every one of them lost their claims in court ...Sometimes Justice is NOT JUSTICE especially when so much money is involved.... The WEED racket was designed and made in Boulder , Colorado near my home by a BIG former football player....the original steel WEEDS are valuable and I sold a PROTOTYPE to an ENGLISH collector a few years ago at a modest price because nobody seemed to know the value of it at the time, but for a museum, it would be a VERY desirable piece indeed...The newer ones are not my expertise.....Tight strings...!....remember Head as he should be...an innovator and inventor, a VERY sharp entrepreneur indeed ! and one of TENNIS' biggest glutton and pain in the *** !

[Steve Huff]

I've strung WonderWands. The thing about those rackets is they have a dense string pattern (20 x 21 I think). They are big of course (135 sq in) but for a SOS racket, they probably have some control.

[Don't Let It Bounce]

Streamwalker's tale is also the story of how midsize rackets came to be. Everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon of rackets larger than 70 sq ", but few companies wanted to pay the licensing fee to Prince, so they came out with rackets just outside the patent range and called it a better idea.

When those rackets were well-received, Prince responded with ads in which Howard Head said, "Don't you think we tried midsize, mumbo-jumbo sized, whatever sized, before we settled on the ideal head size for a tennis racket?" And then a couple years later Prince came out with its own mids!

That same decade, I recall most of the top-ranked players in the highest age divisions were using Weeds.

[jaggy]

I have never even seen one and I am a long time tennis afficianado in all respects

[Virginia]

I have two of them (different models) - they actually play very well, though somewhat unwieldy.

[dak95_00]

Originally Posted by jaggy

I have never even seen one and I am a long time tennis afficianado in all respects

Try to imagine a Wilson Sledge Hammer racquet but the head is round and bigger and you ought to have an idea. They are grip, small throat area, and big head and that is a WEED.

[Capt. Willie]

I have a pair of 3/4 Weeds. This was the smaller (if you could call it that) 125 sq. in. head size. The other Weeds were 135 sq. in. and had a more rounder shaped head. They are very powerful but control is a major problem. I would play with them once in awhile for fun but must admit I haven't used them in quite some time. And while this may look like one of those Granny sticks, it weighs in at over 12 1/2 oz.

[tailofdog]

Originally Posted by coachrick

Early '90s, B-I-G racket...mine is back home(550 miles away) or I'd take a pic. The online pics I found don't show it in relation to other rackets, so it's hard to get the perspective.

As I recall, 'they' had a plan to introduce a full line of giant rackets, but I only remember one or two. A really good player/teaching pro in Atlanta was the rep for a while...guess it didn't take off.

I'm not sure what its 'claim to fame' was relative to the Weed. I know mine is super light, even though it's pushing 135sq in.

They are now renamed Vortex!

[PeteD]

I had a relative who used one . . . he was always getting tennis elbow