Micro cracks in racquet?

[aceprojesus]

Let's say you slam your racquet against the court but don't see any noticeable cracks or damage. Will it affect the playability of the racquet? Are there micro cracks that build up that will make it less powerful or stiff?

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

The fact is, EACH time you restring your racquet, the graphite fiber will give way a little. However, you really need to string the racquet a lot of notice a difference, and most simply don't string their racquets as much, or care to notice the difference.


Slamming the racquet against the court... Yeah, you slam it enough times and hard enough, eventually it's going to crack and greatly affect playability. Why is that even a question? Are you that unappreciative of your racquets?

[UCSF2012]

Nobody knows. No one's ever looked at it under a microscope. We just speculate based on intuition.

Every time we walk on concrete, does it break a little microscopically? If we blow air on it, does it break a little less? Does the racquet crack a little microscopically when we hit a tennis ball on the strings? Perhaps the force to bounce the racquet on the ground isn't enough to deform it, just enough to have it compress and rebound microscopically.

Microfractures expand. Perhaps if the racquet doesn't crack over time, there was no microfracture there to begin with.