Lead tape placement qns

[jzn10nis]

Originally Posted by Kcraig

Does adding the weight at 7" have just a minimal effect on SW--mainly anything above 3/9 is where the bigger jumps in SW come into play, with 12 obviously having the biggest boost with less weight being added?

It depends on how much weight ur adding. Less weight, less effect on SW. But it should have similar effects of counterbalancing to adding weight at buttcap. Also, XFull states that he likes the power that he gets when adding the weight farther up compared to adding weight at buttcap which I find ironic b/c the TW customization and reverse engineering tool tells me that I get more power potential(very small amount) when adding weight at buttcap. This is specific to my setup, although I tried other specs and it holds true thus far. Plug in your numbers and see which option benefits you more. And yes, weight at 12 have the biggest boost in SW with less weight added.

[xFullCourtTenniSx]

Originally Posted by Kcraig

You def do deserve the name "DR LEAD"

So does that mean that any living creature that ingests me shall die of cancer and that my ex-girlfriend shall die of cancer as well due to overexposure (as well as other things I shall no mention)?

COOL! (Hey, I know most of you hate SOME of your ex-girlfriends as well.)

Originally Posted by Kcraig

Does adding the weight at 7" have just a minimal effect on SW--mainly anything above 3/9 is where the bigger jumps in SW come into play, with 12 obviously having the biggest boost with less weight being added?

I'd consider it a steady increase (either linearly or exponentially; not fully sure cause I'm too lazy to check) as you go farther up and away from the buttcap.

[mawashi]

Originally Posted by xFullCourtTenniSx

So does that mean that any living creature that ingests me shall die of cancer and that my ex-girlfriend shall die of cancer as well due to overexposure (as well as other things I shall no mention)?

This is kidda appropriate, why don't you delete you current profile n get a handle like Dr. Lead !

mawashi

[xFullCourtTenniSx]

Originally Posted by mawashi

This is kidda appropriate, why don't you delete you current profile n get a handle like Dr. Lead

Cause I don't want to be overwhelmed by customization requests!

I'm sure there are more experienced experts on these boards, but I'm always willing to help and provide whatever knowledge I have. (Perhaps this is why these experts don't come here often or do not let such information become too widely known?)

Plus, I feel like my equipment is far more valuable to me than my racket work, though others may disagree. It's merely my standpoint because my racket will get the job done on court far better than my knowledge of adding lead (unless of course the racket needs some work done). Haha.

Though, if announcing my abilities in this field will hook me up with Priority One and get me a job with them (as well as them teaching me everything I don't know, such as custom handle molding for one), I would do it in a heartbeat! Sadly the hours aren't great, but I'm more of a night owl anyways. All the fun stuff happens at night.

[mawashi]

Originally Posted by xFullCourtTenniSx

Cause I don't want to be overwhelmed by customization requests!

Of course what else do you expect will happen

Originally Posted by xFullCourtTenniSx

Plus, I feel like my equipment is far more valuable to me than my racket work, though others may disagree. It's merely my standpoint because my racket will get the job done on court far better than my knowledge of adding lead (unless of course the racket needs some work done). Haha.

There's only so much lead can do

Originally Posted by xFullCourtTenniSx

Sadly the hours aren't great, but I'm more of a night owl anyways. All the fun stuff happens at night.

Wait when exactly do you play tennis then?

mawashi

[Kcraig]

[quote=xFullCourtTenniSx;4090686]So does that mean that any living creature that ingests me shall die of cancer and that my ex-girlfriend shall die of cancer as well due to overexposure (as well as other things I shall no mention)?

COOL! (Hey, I know most of you hate SOME of your ex-girlfriends as well.)


LOVE IT--LOL

[jzn10nis]

Yeah, you should claim the title "Dr. Lead." There's many misconceptions and such regarding lead tape and it's nice to know that there's a "go to" guy in the forums if one has questions.

[TW Professor]

Originally Posted by Kcraig

For some reason I can never get the TW Customization worksheet to work for me and it always says "unable to create request"--not sure what I am doing wrong as all the fields are filled in??

[

Kcraig: Try it now. I found a coding mistake that might fix your problem. Please let me know if it works.

[Kcraig]

Originally Posted by TW Professor

Kcraig: Try it now. I found a coding mistake that might fix your problem. Please let me know if it works.

Thank you Thank you Thank you--wonderful and now I will get NOTHING DONE at WORK! Thanks for looking into this for me.

[JackB1]

I tried adding some weight to my Radical MP at 7" up the handle and didn't like how it felt. I felt like I could feel the "concentration" of weight in that one spot just above my lower hand while serving. It didnt bother me as much for forehands or backhands.....just serve. Would it be better for me to lay the lead tape legthwise along the bevels to make the weight feel more "distributed"?
or wrap it up and put it inside the handle? I am trying to make the racquet more headlite than stock and also add a little heft.

[ahile02]

Aight guys, I got a quick question

I'm just starting to get into the customization thing. I just bought lead tape today. I have my Speed Pros, with the leather grip replaced by Babolat Syntec, and I wanna get a little more plowthrough/stability/power, while maintaining its spin potential its giving me. Right now, it's really whippy and I'm generating uber amounts of topspin with it, with a little heaviness to the ball. However, I can't quite get enough pace to make my shots more heavy, which is what I'd like to do, while still maintaing its manuverability. I feel like I'm whipping the racquet against the ball and it's not plowing through quite enough.

Where should I start out? I just added 2 grams at 12. Should I counterbalance it, or would that just let the racquet remain whippy? How much more weight should I add at 12, or wherever so that I can increase power/plow through while still retaining manuverability?

Thanks alot!

[xFullCourtTenniSx]

Originally Posted by JackB1

I tried adding some weight to my Radical MP at 7" up the handle and didn't like how it felt. I felt like I could feel the "concentration" of weight in that one spot just above my lower hand while serving. It didnt bother me as much for forehands or backhands.....just serve. Would it be better for me to lay the lead tape legthwise along the bevels to make the weight feel more "distributed"?
or wrap it up and put it inside the handle? I am trying to make the racquet more headlite than stock and also add a little heft.

Are you saying it feels a bit sluggish on serves? There could be two reasons to this. Either you have too much lead in the head, or the counterbalance is a bit high for you. Based on what you're saying about feeling the counterbalance weight, I think you should lower it, and maybe reduce the amount. How much did you use?!

Originally Posted by ahile02

Aight guys, I got a quick question

I'm just starting to get into the customization thing. I just bought lead tape today. I have my Speed Pros, with the leather grip replaced by Babolat Syntec, and I wanna get a little more plowthrough/stability/power, while maintaining its spin potential its giving me. Right now, it's really whippy and I'm generating uber amounts of topspin with it, with a little heaviness to the ball. However, I can't quite get enough pace to make my shots more heavy, which is what I'd like to do, while still maintaing its manuverability. I feel like I'm whipping the racquet against the ball and it's not plowing through quite enough.

Where should I start out? I just added 2 grams at 12. Should I counterbalance it, or would that just let the racquet remain whippy? How much more weight should I add at 12, or wherever so that I can increase power/plow through while still retaining manuverability?

Thanks alot!

I say try a depolarized setup. Lead at 3&9. I find 12 to just add to the whippiness and spin. But doing that, you can hit your topspin drives harder, because of the added safety of the spin. Though if you want the racket to be generating the power, lead it up at 3&9, try it out, then counterbalance if you like it.

[Kcraig]

Ended up refiguring my lead setups after my initial hit--now I only have 6g at 22.75" on a 27.25" stick which is pretty much 2.5/9.5 on the stick. See specs in sig. When using the TW calculator, the plowthrough def increased from stock specs and are now about equal to the pstgt which I loved the plow feeling.

FullCourt--as you mentioned in your response to JackB1--I think I too was sluggish in serving in my original setup of 6.75g at 10/2 and because of the 8g I had at 7"--too much counterbalance and when I weighed the stick it was 12.45oz--which is a little too much for me and 338 SW. Turns out that my 16g gut/16g poly strings weigh a little more than other strings I had in there before (17gpoly/16g syn).
Will try this new setup again if it EVER stops raining down here!

[Cengusiento]

WHAT AN AMAZING THREAD!!

Thank you xFull for all your time dedicated to post your comments.

I'm a fan of testing and customizing rackets, so I'm enjoing the thread a lot as you supose.

I've a question about the method you link about leading up (depolarizing) a racket. Why it is better to take a thin beam racket (instead of a thick beamed one) to depolarize it?

And one question more, I've been played for a long time with a wilson nblade (currently using a babolat PD GT), and I've seen you did it too. I've interested in your experiences customizing this impressive racket (I've also played with kblade 98 and found it nothing special), and how good you think this rackets is, in terms of weight distribution.

Thank you very much

[JackB1]

Originally Posted by xFullCourtTenniSx

Are you saying it feels a bit sluggish on serves? There could be two reasons to this. Either you have too much lead in the head, or the counterbalance is a bit high for you. Based on what you're saying about feeling the counterbalance weight, I think you should lower it, and maybe reduce the amount. How much did you use?!

I only went around the handle twice with 1/2 lead tape, so it wasn't much.
Maybe 4-6 grams? But when I was serving, I could feel that "concentrated" weight right above my right hand and it just felt awkward to me. I guess I would get used to it, but it felt like it made it harder to serve accurately.
I know its supposed to feel "different", because it IS different, but I guess maybe I added too much at once. I should probably go in smaller incriments so it isn't so noticeable.

[xFullCourtTenniSx]

Originally Posted by Cengusiento

WHAT AN AMAZING THREAD!!

Thank you xFull for all your time dedicated to post your comments.

I'm a fan of testing and customizing rackets, so I'm enjoing the thread a lot as you supose.

I've a question about the method you link about leading up (depolarizing) a racket. Why it is better to take a thin beam racket (instead of a thick beamed one) to depolarize it?

And one question more, I've been played for a long time with a wilson nblade (currently using a babolat PD GT), and I've seen you did it too. I've interested in your experiences customizing this impressive racket (I've also played with kblade 98 and found it nothing special), and how good you think this rackets is, in terms of weight distribution.

Thank you very much

Well, it's probably something to do with flexibility and not shanking the ball. The thing with depolarizing a racket is it puts a LOT of power into the racket (assuming your technique is solid and can handle the extra heft). So the only way you can reduce the power is with increased tensions, slower swing speeds (hence SW2's general popularity), and by making the racket more flexible. It's what they did to Taylor Dent's racket. It had so much mass and power that it would rocket the ball off the strings. So Wilson made it incredibly flexible (this was when he switched to Wilson). Remember the old wood rackets? There's a reason that they're lack so much power even though they weigh 400+ grams - they're incredibly flexible! If they were as stiff as a graphite racket, then they'd be incredibly powerful, and I'd love playing with them as much as, if not more than, any stock graphite I've hit with or ever will hit with.

Sampras sort of went the other way of Dent, stringing his racket at 75 pounds (+/-5)!!! Though Dent does string at pretty high tensions, his tensions are much lower than Sampras'. Both rackets are well into the SW2 categories, but I think Sampras' was also farther into that range as well. They could handle the heft, so their rackets gave them incredible amounts of power and control.

I've tried depolarizing a thick beamed racket, and it worked pretty well except for one thing - it was hell to put heavy spin on the groundstrokes. But I don't like anything with a thick beam anyways. But that racket was quite an odd one to begin with...

I've only occasionally hit with my friend's nBlade 98. But I must admit, it was quite a pleasing experience. It really lacked in power, which was it's main downfall in my eyes, though that could easily be fixed with some added weight. If Wilson produced that racket at maybe 1-2 ounces heavier, I might actually switch from my K90s. It had a nice feel, was pleasantly flexible, and overall it felt like I could do a lot with the ball. The slices were pretty amazing, and due to the lack of weight, I could really get the racket through the ball quickly (though I didn't generate that heavy of a shot). The thing I loved was the absense of a trampoline feeling on contact. That could be because of the string tension (of what it was I am unsure of), but it is something you rarely find in a majority of tennis rackets. That dead feeling is really what you're looking for when trying to rip on groundstrokes. That "lively" or "pocketing" feeling on the strings tend to go against you if you're not making contact perfectly in the center, and things will tend to spray a little off target. As a result, with those rackets I generally will use more spin (as well as stringing higher to deaden the feeling as much as possible), but with this racket I could easily hit flat and not worry about the ball flying on me. It already had that dead feel on it, which is something big hitters will truly appreciate. It was like a Yonex racket, but with far more feedback, a better feel at contact, easier to swing, and far more controlled. It's probably the lightest stock racket I can use, and it's at an ounce lower than my minimum weight category! As for it's weight distribution, it's hard to say for sure since it's so light, but I'd say a lot of weight is in the handle, which makes it so easy to swing. And for customizing it, I think it's a perfect candidate for a depolarized setup. That dead and perfectly flexible feel (not too flexible, nicely firm, but not too stiff) will do very nicely with a heavy setup. I really don't think a polarized setup will be as nice because I think this stick shines when you really want to take big cuts on the ball, though it's low weight gives plenty of room to polarize it exactly to where I'd want. It might do well with a polarized setup, but I don't need added depth control, because it's all there already. Depends on you style though I guess. It's the only light racket that I've truly enjoyed hitting with and felt like it's performed well for me as it is in stock form. Granted, power was a bit lacking due to mass like I said, but the control and feel were priceless.

[Djoker_69]

Originally Posted by TennisTypeR

Just a question about racquet customisation. Why do some people place lead tape all around the racquet head instead of putting them at specific positions(3&9, 12 o'clock.etc). What effect does it have on the racquet?

it changes weight, balance and torsonnal stability

[Cengusiento]

Thank you very much xFull,

I totally agree with you in your comments about the wilson nBlade.

Now I'm in love with the news PD GT, but I'm going to depolarize my old nBlade for sure, and see what it happens.

For me, the only downside of the nBlade is exactly the lack of torsional stability, that when combines with the low stiff rating it makes difficult to punch high agressive inverted drives (it twist a lot and I couldn't find a clean shot).

[(K)evin]

Originally Posted by xFullCourtTenniSx

Well, once we reach a certain point in our games, we have pretty dang big groundstrokes. Most rackets are in the SW1 category (the lower swingweights). Moving them up to SW2 status (high swingweights) adds control to our swings, as well as giving power and spin. No matter what, adding weight will pump up the swingweight (albeit to different levels based on WHERE you put it).

So basically, everyone that plays tennis on a high level and uses custom weighted rackets is eventually going to end up playing with ridiculously high swingweights (okay, ALMOST everyone; Verdasco is one of the exceptions). The difference is HOW they want to get there. Some people want rackets that are insanely stable and plow through the ball, giving insane amounts of power and control for anybody good enough to swing it around (like Sampras, Roddick, and Courier). Others like the rackets to be very easy to whip around, allowing them to use heavy amounts of wrist action in their shots and allowing them to generate unprecedented amounts of spin (like Rafter, Nadal and Federer).

To get insane amounts of stability and plow through on the ball, you need VERY high levels of mass on your racket so that you can barely feel the ball's "weight" on contact (you can still feel the ball extremely well, but you might notice a more muted response than before thanks to the added stability). But the more mass we add, the higher the swingweight. So if we do it wrong, we won't get as much mass as we want, and we'll already reach our ideal swingweight in the SW2 section. So these people will put the weights lower on their racket (closer to the center of the racket; 3&9, as well as around the throat or top of the grip for counterbalance). That way, they can put more weight on their rackets to reach the amount of power and plow through they want without exceeding their ideal swingweight specification. This is what we call a depolarized setup. It's what most pros used. 95% of pros (if not more) prior to the year 2000 used this kind of setup. A wood racket is essentially a depolarized racket, so 100% of people prior to graphite rackets used a depolarized setup.

Others like their rackets to be less hefty, while still having that nice, high swingweight. To do that, they want every bit of mass they add to increase the swingweight as much as possible, so that they add very little mass to the racket, but get that nice spike in swingweight. They will end up putting the weight near the top of the racket (under the bumper guard) and some inside the buttcap for counterbalance. But since at this point, people don't care too much about balance, most of the added weight goes under the bumper guard (I hear Nadal adds 9 grams under the bumper and 2 in the buttcap while all of Federer's added racket weight is under the bumper, which I'm guessing is 2.5-4.5 grams). These rackets have lower static weight and become more manageable and spin friendly. Also, since the weight is mainly distributed towards the ends of the rackets, it spins on it's axis better, allowing for even better access to spin and racket head speed. This is what we call a polarized setup. Nowadays, a lot more people are using this setup thanks to the lighter rackets out there. Also, this is the reason why we will see some pros with a ridiculously low racket mass.

Now, which setup is the best? That's up to personal preference, as stated before. I love both (currently using/trying a slightly polarized setup like Federer). A depolarized racket is the more conventional type of racket customization (as it's been around longer) but it's a little more difficult to do (overall, but it depends on the racket as well). It grants extra forgiveness, stability, and pop so most people should generally look to have this kind of setup. It's the best for aggressive baseline hitting, as well as for serve and volleying. If you want to take the ball on the rise, or are an aggressive returner (like Agassi and Blake; both of whom use a depolarized setup), then you'll love the stability and power this setup gives. The other one is better for people who feel like they have all the power, forgiveness, and stability they need, but are lacking in some spin and margin for their shots. This is where a polarized setup can help, because it really adds a lot of spin to your shots and gives you extra margin over the net to safely stay in points. Nadal uses this setup to great effectiveness, employing heavy spin off the forehand and serve, constantly pulling his opponents wide and out of position. Rafter liked it because his big weapon was his kick serve and athleticism. A polarized setup added extra kick and action to his serves. He would kick a high one up to the opponent's backhand, then use his athleticism and feel for the ball to put away volleys. Though, this caused him to be less effective on grass, where serve and volleyers should dominate (as you can guess, almost all serve and volleyers use a depolarized setup). However, I must say that I found the polarized setup to be more erratic overall. It becomes difficult to control the racket sometimes (because the power and spin might not always be as consistent due to lack of stability), but most of the time you'll get good results if you like to use heavy spin.

okay so I understand this completely but have a question.

what does a player like stepanek hope to achieve with lead only on the 3 and 12 o clock positions and holding the racquet the same way everytime? is it like he is trying to hybrid the polarized and depolarized set up?

[xFullCourtTenniSx]

Originally Posted by mawashi

Of course what else do you expect will happen



There's only so much lead can do



Wait when exactly do you play tennis then?

mawashi

1 - I expect a physics Ph.D in the mail! (medical works too) Also, a call with a job offering from Wilson or Priority One would be equally satisfying. Sad to say though, if both offered me the job, I'd pick Wilson. Can't really argue with the people who actually make racket FRAMES (I'd sneak a few promising models home now and then and play around with them). I'd just hire Priority One after to do my grips. Haha.

2 - Hmmm... You actually gave me a great idea! I'll force heavy amounts of lead down my opponent's throat, as well as injecting it directly into their bloodstream. From there, I'll push for an hour or so and hope they drop dead, forfeiting the match. Haha. Just kidding!

3 - I play from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM. But the clock on the court lights changed, so now I'm looking at 7:30 PM (sometimes 7 PM) to 9:30 PM. If I go to UC Riverside's courts though, it depends on when I get there and how long I want to stay (12 AM latest). That's just weekdays though. Weekends are very different based on if I decide to play or not.

Originally Posted by Cengusiento

Thank you very much xFull,

I totally agree with you in your comments about the wilson nBlade.

Now I'm in love with the news PD GT, but I'm going to depolarize my old nBlade for sure, and see what it happens.

For me, the only downside of the nBlade is exactly the lack of torsional stability, that when combines with the low stiff rating it makes difficult to punch high agressive inverted drives (it twist a lot and I couldn't find a clean shot).

Yeah, aside from it's lack of mass, I felt the nBlade is essentially THE closest you can get to THE perfect racket.

Originally Posted by (K)evin

okay so I understand this completely but have a question.

what does a player like stepanek hope to achieve with lead only on the 3 and 12 o clock positions and holding the racquet the same way everytime? is it like he is trying to hybrid the polarized and depolarized set up?

O.O You sure he does that? Do you have pictures? I'm sure if he places lead at 3, he places the same amount at 9 as well...