Optimum Racquet Balance for Performance II - MgR/I Data for ATP Pros

[newyorkstadium]

Travlerajm, I am 6 ft 4 with an eastern forehand. I have a racket with a 4 5/8 grip (natural size) and one with 4 3/8. What is my mgr/i for these rackets?

What would it be if I changed to a semi-western grip? What would it be for a two-handed backhand?

Many thanks

[Alain]

HI,
I have 5 Volkl PB10 mid . My prefer MGR/I° is 20,90 and the best swingweight with this racquet seems to be for me 325: better manoeuvrability with lesser weight possible .
Two of them SW are 331 with higher balance (+0.2) and weight( +2g) than the others and MGR/I° is 20,70 .
I used paper glass to sand the bumper ( from 3 to 9 o'clock) and decrease it easily 2g .
Now the result is the same for the 5 racquets: 339g strung , Balance 31,7 , swingweight 325 .

Sanding the bumper, MGR/I° has increased from 20,70 to 20,82 .
Now just adding 5 g surgrip, the MGR/I° is 20,90, SW 325, 344g, Bal 31,4.

Question: is it acceptable to increase MGR/I° sanding the bumper ( 2 g is very easy) when you accept or need to decrease mass, balance, and SW or do you always prefer to increase weight at 7" to increase MGR/I° ?
Or are you always wrong sanding the bumper (increase flutter at the top of the racquet ?) .
Because for some racquets ( Becker London for example), if you don't sand the bumper you need to add a very high mass at 7" to increase MGR/I° to 21 ( 15 to 20g) .
For a Babolat APD you will probably need 20g at 7" to obtain MGR/I° 20,90 .
For a Volkl PB 10: 8 g at 7" and a 5g surgrip will increase the weight at
356g and MGR/I° 20,90 .If you decrease the bumper for 2,5g you will obtain the same MGR/I° with only 345,5g which is more acceptable.

Thank you

Alain

[travlerajm]

Originally Posted by Alain

HI,
I have 5 Volkl PB10 mid . My prefer MGR/I° is 20,90 and the best swingweight with this racquet seems to be for me 325: better manoeuvrability with lesser weight possible .
Two of them SW are 331 with higher balance (+0.2) and weight( +2g) than the others and MGR/I° is 20,70 .
I used paper glass to sand the bumper ( from 3 to 9 o'clock) and decrease it easily 2g .
Now the result is the same for the 5 racquets: 339g strung , Balance 31,7 , swingweight 325 .

Sanding the bumper, MGR/I° has increased from 20,70 to 20,82 .
Now just adding 5 g surgrip, the MGR/I° is 20,90, SW 325, 344g, Bal 31,4.

Question: is it acceptable to increase MGR/I° sanding the bumper ( 2 g is very easy) when you accept or need to decrease mass, balance, and SW or do you always prefer to increase weight at 7" to increase MGR/I° ?
Or are you always wrong sanding the bumper (increase flutter at the top of the racquet ?) .
Because for some racquets ( Becker London for example), if you don't sand the bumper you need to add a very high mass at 7" to increase MGR/I° to 21 ( 15 to 20g) .
For a Babolat APD you will probably need 20g at 7" to obtain MGR/I° 20,90 .
For a Volkl PB 10: 8 g at 7" and a 5g surgrip will increase the weight at
356g and MGR/I° 20,90 .If you decrease the bumper for 2,5g you will obtain the same MGR/I° with only 345,5g which is more acceptable.

Thank you

Alain

Alain,
If you prefer a lighter racquet, there is nothing inherently wrong with shaving mass off the bumper to reach your optimum MgR/I value.

I personally prefer the extra stability of a higher swingweight, but others may value maneuverability more than I do.

[travlerajm]

Originally Posted by newyorkstadium

Travlerajm, I am 6 ft 4 with an eastern forehand. I have a racket with a 4 5/8 grip (natural size) and one with 4 3/8. What is my mgr/i for these rackets?

What would it be if I changed to a semi-western grip? What would it be for a two-handed backhand?

Many thanks

You will need to experiment for yourself to determine your optimum MgR/I value for each type of forehand. I refer again to this post for assistance with the tuning process:
http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showp...8&postcount=17

[swfh]

Currently have a mgr/I value of 21.26. How can I get it down to 21?
Current setup
Dunlop 4d 300 tour
360 g
32.9 cm balance
345 swingweight

Thanks.

[travlerajm]

Originally Posted by swfh

Currently have a mgr/I value of 21.26. How can I get it down to 21?
Current setup
Dunlop 4d 300 tour
360 g
32.9 cm balance
345 swingweight

Thanks.

Assuming your SW has been measured accurately, try adding 5g at 12 o'clock.

[swfh]

Originally Posted by travlerajm

Assuming your SW has been measured accurately, try adding 5g at 12 o'clock.

Any way I could do it by getting more head light?

[travlerajm]

Originally Posted by swfh

Any way I could do it by getting more head light?

Sure. After you add the 5g to the tip, then add more mass than that to the butt.

[swfh]

Originally Posted by travlerajm

Sure. After you add the 5g to the tip, then add more mass than that to the butt.

Thanks a bunch. Will test it out and see how it goes.

[ART ART]

Giving a few more points to travlerajm, I have made a few more new tweaks in my racket, specs:
Mass: 354grams
Balance: 32,2cm
SW:338
MgR/I: 21,06

It works very very good, very good timing on both wings(one hbh), with very good control/power/spin.

Once again it seems that MgR/I works well, but with static weight beeing above 345~350grams, to have good stability/power/spin, without having a huge swingweight to deal with.

Again, thank's for sharing it travlerajm.

[Love Anet]

Very interesting. Thank you travlerajm for this wonderful info. I feel enlightened about racquet tuning. Before this, I would just get dozens of racquets and demo them and choose the one that felt good. I am happy to report that the ones I have chosen have passed the MgR/I test and vice versa for ones I didn't like.

About swingweight I understand that high weights benefit professionals but I think it's worth noting they train hours every day, developing strength and advanced technique to make swinging them easier for them. They also have balls coming at them at a much greater speed. My feeling is that really heavy racquets may possibly be detrimental to performance for club players if swinging them becomes difficult and that sufficient stability can be achieved with slightly lighter racquets given the slower paced balls they have to deal with.

Somewhere in the threads you mentioned you were writing a book on this subject. I was wondering how that is coming along and would like to express my enthusiasm at obtaining a copy when it is complete. Cheers!

[Crisp]

I'm not sure that I understand this whole MgR/I concept but I would like too. Could someone direct me to exactly where it is all explaines eg. What the formula stands for and how to work it all out etc?

[newyorkstadium]

Trav, using a wristband means dropping the mgr/i, which mean making the racket less headlight. Isn't a more headlight racket better?

If so, I could just keep wristbands in my pocket. Although this is a pain in the ***, as there is less room for tennis balls in my pocket.

[travlerajm]

Originally Posted by newyorkstadium

Trav, using a wristband means dropping the mgr/i, which mean making the racket less headlight. Isn't a more headlight racket better?

If so, I could just keep wristbands in my pocket. Although this is a pain in the ***, as there is less room for tennis balls in my pocket.

No. Using a wristband does not drop the MgR/I value. And it does not make your racquet more headlight. Adding a wristband slightly slows down the rate at which your hand drops from the top of the backswing to the lowpoint. While it doesn't speed up the racquethead, it increases the relative speed of the racquethead compared to the hand. Thus, adding a wristband has the opposite effect of dropping MgR/I, even though the actual MgR/I value is virtually unaffected. What is affected is that your optimum MgR/I target value goes down.

[newyorkstadium]

But, you have to drop the MgR/I if you wear wristband's for optimal timing, don't you?

With this, you have to making the racket less headlight. Isn't a more headlight racket better?

[travlerajm]

Originally Posted by newyorkstadium

But, you have to drop the MgR/I if you wear wristband's, for optimal timing, don't you?

Yes. That is correct.

[newyorkstadium]

Originally Posted by Love Anet

Very interesting. Thank you travlerajm for this wonderful info. I feel enlightened about racquet tuning. Before this, I would just get dozens of racquets and demo them and choose the one that felt good. I am happy to report that the ones I have chosen have passed the MgR/I test and vice versa for ones I didn't like.

About swingweight I understand that high weights benefit professionals but I think it's worth noting they train hours every day, developing strength and advanced technique to make swinging them easier for them. They also have balls coming at them at a much greater speed. My feeling is that really heavy racquets may possibly be detrimental to performance for club players if swinging them becomes difficult and that sufficient stability can be achieved with slightly lighter racquets given the slower paced balls they have to deal with.

Somewhere in the threads you mentioned you were writing a book on this subject. I was wondering how that is coming along and would like to express my enthusiasm at obtaining a copy when it is complete. Cheers!

I am interested in this as well. I struggle to reach sufficient swing-speed with heavy swingweight. I am only 22 and fit and healthy. Also, don't wristbands slow down you swing-speed, so it is harder to yield high swingweigh rackets?

Do you still plan on publishing a book? I too would be very interested in reading it.

Thanks

[newyorkstadium]

Originally Posted by newyorkstadium

But, you have to drop the MgR/I if you wear wristband's for optimal timing, don't you?

With this, you have to making the racket less headlight. Isn't a more headlight racket better?

[travlerajm]

Originally Posted by newyorkstadium

With this, you have to making the racket less headlight. Isn't a more headlight racket better?

No. To reduce MgR/I, you don't necessarily need to make the racquet less HL.

To be clear, making a racquet more headlight by adding mass to the handle will increase MgR/I. And reducing MgR/I by removing mass from the handle will make the racquet less headlight. Making a racquet more headlight while keeping the mass and swingweight the same (e.g., by removing mass from the top of the handle and replacing it at the butt), will decrease MgR/I.

[newyorkstadium]

How do you remove mass from the top of the handle?