Modifying the PK Ki 5 315 to be more like PD 2012?

[Ramon]

Originally Posted by levy1

What I am saying is he should modify the PD to the KI specs and then see how he likes the PD. He may not want to change after the mod.

The whole point of switching from the PD is tennis elbow. If you know of a way to make the PD arm-friendly with lead weights, you need to patent the idea. You'd be rich!

[levy1]

Adding lead to a racket sometimes helps with arm problems, especially with the PD due to a high RA, low swing weight.

Poster still has not responded with what string and tension they are using which might be part of the problem. At the stock TW swing weight of 308 and a 72RA some players are going to have arm problems. To what degree depends on tension and strings. For some poly is going to be a arm killer. Still you can work with the racket, I have several customers playing natural gut/poly crosses at 50/46. I have others playing full gut at 45. There are many answers to this but more info from the poster is needed. I play with the PD 2012 rackets at 324 SW, full gut at 60/59lbs with no problems.

[GrandSlam45]

I'm currently playing with Technifibre NRG2 @ 53lbs. As I mentioned, this is quite comfy as long as I hit the sweet spot. But the mis-hits is what kills me.

I've also experienced pain from serving with this racquet.

I don't think strings and tension would help this.. it seems to be a frame problem.

[Ramon]

Originally Posted by GrandSlam45

I'm currently playing with Technifibre NRG2 @ 53lbs. As I mentioned, this is quite comfy as long as I hit the sweet spot. But the mis-hits is what kills me.

I've also experienced pain from serving with this racquet.

I don't think strings and tension would help this.. it seems to be a frame problem.

I had an APDGT, and tennis elbow is also the reason I switched to a Pro Kennex. I hit my share of off-center shots as well. I even notice on my Pro Kennex that when I hit a ball on the frame it doesn't even bother me that much.

Soft multifilaments definitely help, but I'm glad I switched frames also. My elbow would have never healed this fully with my APDGT.

[levy1]

Originally Posted by GrandSlam45

I'm currently playing with Technifibre NRG2 @ 53lbs. As I mentioned, this is quite comfy as long as I hit the sweet spot. But the mis-hits is what kills me.

I've also experienced pain from serving with this racquet.

I don't think strings and tension would help this.. it seems to be a frame problem.

I agree. This is a soft setup.

[basil J]

I have used the KI5 off an on for over 3 years now and my impression is that this frame generates good power, a heavy ball and good comfort with a variety of strings. My favorites set up is to add 4/10 of an ounce to the handle, string it with BHB poly mains at 56#/Tourna multi crosses at 56# 17G on both gives me plenty of everything. Gut mains with a poly cross provides a bit more power, but scales down the control a bit. the technology takes away feel and often leads me to believe that I am not hitting with pace, when in reality I am. I like my melbournes as my go to stick right now, but the KI5 is an extremely easy to use players frame that I can just pick up and use regardless of how long it's been since the last time out I used it.

[GrandSlam45]

I agree with you about the subtlety of this racquet's power. The more I hit with it, the more I love it. I've been playing with a demo thus far, so I can't wait to buy one and modify it to suit my needs.

So you recommend adding lead to the handle, but not the hoop? Does this give the frame more power or better balance?

[Ramon]

Originally Posted by GrandSlam45

I agree with you about the subtlety of this racquet's power. The more I hit with it, the more I love it. I've been playing with a demo thus far, so I can't wait to buy one and modify it to suit my needs.

So you recommend adding lead to the handle, but not the hoop? Does this give the frame more power or better balance?

Once you get your racquet, there's nothing wrong with trying different configurations, like putting lead on the handle or the butt cap. I've tried putting lead in the butt cap before to counterbalance my lead in the hoop, but I didn't particularly like the results. That doesn't mean it won't work for everyone. Go ahead and try it, as long as it's reversible. I did put a heavier grip on my racquet (Wilson Shock Shield). I don't think it improved the way it played, but do like the feel of the new grip, so I'm keeping it.

When you look at the specs, the Ki 5 is 7 pts headlight, which means the balance point is 7/8" below the middle of the frame. This makes it more headlight than the vast majority of racquets they sell at TW. Contrast that to the Pure Drive, which is 4 pts headlight. It seems to me that the stock Ki 5 is plenty head light as it is.

[basil J]

Originally Posted by GrandSlam45

I agree with you about the subtlety of this racquet's power. The more I hit with it, the more I love it. I've been playing with a demo thus far, so I can't wait to buy one and modify it to suit my needs.

So you recommend adding lead to the handle, but not the hoop? Does this give the frame more power or better balance?

For me it, it puts the frame at about 12.1-12.2 oz, nice HL balance and makes it feel more solid. I tried lead tape on the hoop several different ways and ultimately liked it better on the handle.

[KenC]

Originally Posted by GrandSlam45

I agree with you about the subtlety of this racquet's power. The more I hit with it, the more I love it. I've been playing with a demo thus far, so I can't wait to buy one and modify it to suit my needs.

So you recommend adding lead to the handle, but not the hoop? Does this give the frame more power or better balance?

The hoop of the Ki5 is surprisingly stable even against heavy hitting 5.5s. So there is really no need to add lead at 3 and 9 to help torsional stability. If you want more power you can add a little lead at 12 to increase swingweight, but for TE I would think keeping a lower swingweight will be better for the elbow. More swingweight means the muscles (and thus tendons) have to deal with more moment of inertia, acceleration, and then deceleration. If you want to add lead, I would suggest putting some right in the throat area to increase plow thru, most likely right around the balance point as the racquet already has a nice balance. This will also help soften the impact the most. I would only put lead on the handle if the racquet is too light and head light for you. Lead in the handle really just increases the static weight, but the static weight of the 315 is fine as is. Only if you find yourself hitting regularly with heavy hitting ballcrushers would you need the extra mass in the handle.

I see you are still interested in getting more power out of the Ki5. Drop the tension a few pounds and prepare early to take a good fast smooth swing at the ball and transfer your weight into the shot and you will be amazed at just how hard the stock Ki5 can hit a tennis ball. The real challenge becomes how to hit the ball with enough spin and low enough trajectory to keep the ball in.

[GrandSlam45]

"I see you are still interested in getting more power out of the Ki5. "

I think this is mainly because I've been playing with Pure Drives since 2003, and recently then PD 2012 for the past 6 months.

I've grown accustomed to the "free power" and my playing style has evolved with this stick, so it's pretty much all I know.

So I will have to make adjustments and adapt to the Ki 5.

What a great stick though... I played 2 days in a row the last 2 days and experience ZERO arm pain. I've never been able to do that for the past 10 years.

[KenC]

Originally Posted by GrandSlam45

So I will have to make adjustments and adapt to the Ki 5.

I think you'll be just fine. Actually, I did something similar 3 or so years ago. I came back to tennis after a very long pause and didn't know what "modern" racquet to use, so I just bought the Pure Drive GT. In the beginning it was great to have all that pop but after 5-6 months of bi-weekly lessons and lots of practice my strokes adopted decent form and I found I had great power but very bad control. Demoing racquets I fell in love with the Pure Storm Limited GT for all its control but it was very low powered coming from the Pure Drive. It really is the polar opposite of the Pure Drive. But over time I found the right string tension and kept improving my strokes to where I was able to actually hit the ball even harder than I could with the Pure Drive and with much more spin.

That's probably why I am optimistic that the stock Ki5 315 will be just fine for you, since the power loss that you are experiencing isn't nearly as drastic as what I had to overcome.

[jonahnaturals]

Originally Posted by KenC

From another perspective, maybe you don't really want the PK to play like a Pure Drive. Pop isn't everything. Control is just as important as pop, as is arm comfort.

<begin rant> The Pure Drive is a missile launcher, but often you don't want a missile launcher. Unless your missile is very well placed, it just serves as good pace for the opponent to send back a missile. Hitting hard is not as great as it seems when your opponent can handle hard shots and sometimes use them to punish you. Now I am a low level 5.0 playing against higher level players in the 5.0 and above tournaments, I see that my power shots aren't that effective and had to stop driving shots with good pace right into my opponents preferred strike zone. Now I have to first move them around with deep shots that bounce close the shoulder or close to the knee so that my opponents can't easily attack my shots. In this case precise placement with a precise trajectory are more important than outright power. There lies the fault with the Pure Drive. That level of precision is really difficult to obtain with the PD.

That brings up another point. A lot of pop actually comes from your opponent's ball. If you are playing against 3.0 players who have little or no pace, you will need a racquet that has considerable pop to generate pace. But when you play against some 5.5 monster whose typical rally shots have excellent pace, you don't need a missile launcher to return with good pace. My severely underpowered PSLGTs generate a seriously heavy ball when I have good pace to work with.

So, pop is just a small part of the overall game. Yes, you may need it if you want to play at the 3.0-4.0 level and want to generate pace, but beyond that you start to see how important being able to control everything else really is. </end rant>

Your question should actually be inverted. How can we modify the PDGT to play more like the PK Ki5 315? Now that's a real challenge.

I'm looking for a like button on this post to say "Amen." Nicely said.