Hello guys,
first of all English is not my native language, so please excuse any mistakes
Your forum here is very helpful, and since I found it 2 months ago I am reading a lot here and also I watch and read a lot of reviews to understand the whole universe about rackets. I do think, I kind of understood now the dynamics between Power, Spin & Control and how techn. specs like racket weight, string pattern, string tension, frame stiffness and so on can influence these elements. However I am still very confused when it gets to actually decide which rackets I should take to demo.
Since I am here in Western-europe, Tennis-warehouse let me only demo 2 rackets once at a time, and I honestly don't want to spend too much money on demoing.
Therefore I would like to get the best tips on how to demo rackets the right way. Specs on paper are one thing, but in practice I would also like to know on what to look out for.
The thing is, that just 2 weeks ago, I joined a tennis club in my city which has an Babolat Pro Shop in their building and we can demo rackets there for free. So I am gonna demo all Babolat rackets for sure, however after my first experience (Pure Aero) I already had some very slight issues with my elbow just after 2hours of playing, which I never ever had before with any tennis playing!! So I guess, the stiffness of Babolats rackets will cause this strange feelings in my right elbow. With my current racket I never had problems in ellbow area, the only thing I sometimes feel (mostly on the day afterwards) are some light wrist issues.
About me:
I used to play regularly (in a club) in my teenage years, from 11-15 years and also played tournaments in this time (not! on a professional level). I used to have 2-3 different kinds of Fischer racquets before I bought my last and still current racquet somewhere in 2009, I guess.
Since 2009 till mid 2019 I was playing less than 10 times with it, in total!!
I just started recently in September 2019 again after having been on an ATP tournament which activated my motivation again, and since then I play regularly around 3-6hours / week.
I still do have some issues especially with my backhand and my serves but I also take lessons to improve myx technique in that.
Since I restarted to play again (September 2019), I did not participate in any competitive matches, so the only ranking I can give myself is watching YT videos on this USTA ranking and I think 4.0 would fit me pretty well at the moment.
I am 27 years old, 193cm tall, 92kg (I am rather atheltic/muscular (the only sport I did while my long tennis break was weightlifting/powerlifting).
Because of the rare usage of my old Wilson stick, I still play with it and I tried different strings on it.
I play a two-handed BH, I would call myself a aggressive groundstroker who also likes to go to the net a lot (even though my volleys suck a lot atm).
I cannot find my exact model on the Racket recommender here on TT, but it is a Wilson ncode npro 98, weight: 305g, 18x18 string pattern and 27in long. I cannot find any information to its stiffness or other specs.
When I let my racket string 3-4 months ago, the stringer told me that he would increase my grip (with some additionally rubber grip under the basic grip) a bit and I additionally use overgrip. Because of all that I think my racket added quite some weight up to 338g now with strungs in total.
I first had some nylon strings on it at 23kg tension and before Christmas I wanted to try natural gut. I got the Babolat VS also at 23kg. I won't restring gut again, not only because it's way too expensive but also I kinda have a hard time get the spin on my balls and therefore a lot of balls go too long now. I will go next with a co-poly string, to see the differences in spin.
As said before, I still feel quite comfortable with my old current racket, therefore I was looking something which has similar specs. This Racket Recommender Tool on TT seems amazing, however often it confuses me a lot, when rackets with certain specs on paper perform totally different in the analysis.
I want to demo additionally to Babolat rackets around 6 other sticks to see what I really like.
Helpful would be if I could test from each racket category (spin focused vs control focused).
Since I am still quite happy with my current Wilson stick I definitely want to try the new v7 Blade 98 (probably in 16x19), as well as the Clash (98 or 100 no idea).
I read a ton of good things about Yonex rackets (couple of months ago I was not even aware of this brand). My own "research" says I should test here the Yonex VCORE Pro 97 model (310 or HD).
The Prince rackets seem to be a good option for a lot of players and I was putting the Prince Textreme Tour 100T into my test program.
When I tested the Babolat Pure Aero last week, I felt already on warmup (playing only small fields) that the racket (string were 25kg) has more power. On my FH I struggled a lot to keep the ball in the short fields. BH felt pretty well. However I struggled a lot on serves with racket. I used the racket during a training lesson, so I did not play a lot of calm groundstrokes, but more at the run shots.
So I am not sure if I tested this racket the best way possible, the only thing I know is that I had some strange sensations coming up in my right elbow right after 1hr of using it. This gave my a warning that this stick quite probably is nothing for me (at least with this string combination).
first of all English is not my native language, so please excuse any mistakes
Your forum here is very helpful, and since I found it 2 months ago I am reading a lot here and also I watch and read a lot of reviews to understand the whole universe about rackets. I do think, I kind of understood now the dynamics between Power, Spin & Control and how techn. specs like racket weight, string pattern, string tension, frame stiffness and so on can influence these elements. However I am still very confused when it gets to actually decide which rackets I should take to demo.
Since I am here in Western-europe, Tennis-warehouse let me only demo 2 rackets once at a time, and I honestly don't want to spend too much money on demoing.
Therefore I would like to get the best tips on how to demo rackets the right way. Specs on paper are one thing, but in practice I would also like to know on what to look out for.
The thing is, that just 2 weeks ago, I joined a tennis club in my city which has an Babolat Pro Shop in their building and we can demo rackets there for free. So I am gonna demo all Babolat rackets for sure, however after my first experience (Pure Aero) I already had some very slight issues with my elbow just after 2hours of playing, which I never ever had before with any tennis playing!! So I guess, the stiffness of Babolats rackets will cause this strange feelings in my right elbow. With my current racket I never had problems in ellbow area, the only thing I sometimes feel (mostly on the day afterwards) are some light wrist issues.
About me:
I used to play regularly (in a club) in my teenage years, from 11-15 years and also played tournaments in this time (not! on a professional level). I used to have 2-3 different kinds of Fischer racquets before I bought my last and still current racquet somewhere in 2009, I guess.
Since 2009 till mid 2019 I was playing less than 10 times with it, in total!!
I just started recently in September 2019 again after having been on an ATP tournament which activated my motivation again, and since then I play regularly around 3-6hours / week.
I still do have some issues especially with my backhand and my serves but I also take lessons to improve myx technique in that.
Since I restarted to play again (September 2019), I did not participate in any competitive matches, so the only ranking I can give myself is watching YT videos on this USTA ranking and I think 4.0 would fit me pretty well at the moment.
I am 27 years old, 193cm tall, 92kg (I am rather atheltic/muscular (the only sport I did while my long tennis break was weightlifting/powerlifting).
Because of the rare usage of my old Wilson stick, I still play with it and I tried different strings on it.
I play a two-handed BH, I would call myself a aggressive groundstroker who also likes to go to the net a lot (even though my volleys suck a lot atm).
I cannot find my exact model on the Racket recommender here on TT, but it is a Wilson ncode npro 98, weight: 305g, 18x18 string pattern and 27in long. I cannot find any information to its stiffness or other specs.
When I let my racket string 3-4 months ago, the stringer told me that he would increase my grip (with some additionally rubber grip under the basic grip) a bit and I additionally use overgrip. Because of all that I think my racket added quite some weight up to 338g now with strungs in total.
I first had some nylon strings on it at 23kg tension and before Christmas I wanted to try natural gut. I got the Babolat VS also at 23kg. I won't restring gut again, not only because it's way too expensive but also I kinda have a hard time get the spin on my balls and therefore a lot of balls go too long now. I will go next with a co-poly string, to see the differences in spin.
As said before, I still feel quite comfortable with my old current racket, therefore I was looking something which has similar specs. This Racket Recommender Tool on TT seems amazing, however often it confuses me a lot, when rackets with certain specs on paper perform totally different in the analysis.
I want to demo additionally to Babolat rackets around 6 other sticks to see what I really like.
Helpful would be if I could test from each racket category (spin focused vs control focused).
Since I am still quite happy with my current Wilson stick I definitely want to try the new v7 Blade 98 (probably in 16x19), as well as the Clash (98 or 100 no idea).
I read a ton of good things about Yonex rackets (couple of months ago I was not even aware of this brand). My own "research" says I should test here the Yonex VCORE Pro 97 model (310 or HD).
The Prince rackets seem to be a good option for a lot of players and I was putting the Prince Textreme Tour 100T into my test program.
When I tested the Babolat Pure Aero last week, I felt already on warmup (playing only small fields) that the racket (string were 25kg) has more power. On my FH I struggled a lot to keep the ball in the short fields. BH felt pretty well. However I struggled a lot on serves with racket. I used the racket during a training lesson, so I did not play a lot of calm groundstrokes, but more at the run shots.
So I am not sure if I tested this racket the best way possible, the only thing I know is that I had some strange sensations coming up in my right elbow right after 1hr of using it. This gave my a warning that this stick quite probably is nothing for me (at least with this string combination).