armandogomes
New User
Disclaimer: I'm not sure if this belongs here or if this belongs to Tennis Tips/Instruction category, but I guess here is a better place.
I started playing tennis a few years ago (3 calendar years but likely around 2.5 years with lockdowns and summer holidays). I find tennis interesting and I practise a lot. I go to tournaments. I'm a ranked player. I'm not an amazing player, sometimes I can snatch an occasional doubles tournament and, since I don't like to get my bottom kicked, I just want to get better and better. I always liked tennis, played like 10 times before starting playing regularly and, well, bad habits.
Here's the deal, my forehand sucks big time. It's not that I can't hit a shot but it's more quickly a liability than a strength. I've been working hard on it, though. The backhand, on the other hand, it's a strength. Sometimes I'd rather hit a backhand than a forehand because I'm more confident and, well, it hurts the opponent more.
I have a few guns in my bag: I started out with a Graphene XT Prestige MP (not-a-very-smart-choice-certainly but at least I could swap pallets until I knew for sure the size) then I snatched a Graphene Next Speed S (lighter, an open pattern that I feel helped and, again, pallet swap) and then I tried the Blade 98 16x19 CV. My doubles partner uses it, a lot of people seem to use it, so... if it works for them, it should work for me, no? (read "no" with Nadal's voice)
I guess not. See, my racquet is currently weighing ~317g (strung with RPM Blast 1.25). I bought an L4 but I'm playing with two overgrips only, it would feel like an L3, because somehow Wilson L4 feels way bigger than Head's L4. I feel it's too light. But that's not the reason why I'm thinking me and the blade don't match together.
In today's practice, I tried one of those tennis pointers (the wooden thing) with hand feeds. I kid you not, I was able to hit with that better than with the racket. My coach even suggested that I just switch the racket for the tennis pointer since I seem to hit better - it's was joke, but you get the point.
Then I thought: okay, maybe it's just because there's no spin in the ball, or the ball comes slow or whatever. So I asked my coach if he could just feed the ball from the other side of the court. He did. I was better with the tennis pointer than my racket. My lovely racket.
So, can the racket be "the" problem?
PS: as I said "in-between the lines", I'm trying to figure out what works for me. If it's the pattern (I've got an 18x20 Blade CV to compare, matched to a 16x19), if it's the total weight, the swing weight, the balance, whatever. Any suggestions on how I should start, would be appreciated.
I started playing tennis a few years ago (3 calendar years but likely around 2.5 years with lockdowns and summer holidays). I find tennis interesting and I practise a lot. I go to tournaments. I'm a ranked player. I'm not an amazing player, sometimes I can snatch an occasional doubles tournament and, since I don't like to get my bottom kicked, I just want to get better and better. I always liked tennis, played like 10 times before starting playing regularly and, well, bad habits.
Here's the deal, my forehand sucks big time. It's not that I can't hit a shot but it's more quickly a liability than a strength. I've been working hard on it, though. The backhand, on the other hand, it's a strength. Sometimes I'd rather hit a backhand than a forehand because I'm more confident and, well, it hurts the opponent more.
I have a few guns in my bag: I started out with a Graphene XT Prestige MP (not-a-very-smart-choice-certainly but at least I could swap pallets until I knew for sure the size) then I snatched a Graphene Next Speed S (lighter, an open pattern that I feel helped and, again, pallet swap) and then I tried the Blade 98 16x19 CV. My doubles partner uses it, a lot of people seem to use it, so... if it works for them, it should work for me, no? (read "no" with Nadal's voice)
I guess not. See, my racquet is currently weighing ~317g (strung with RPM Blast 1.25). I bought an L4 but I'm playing with two overgrips only, it would feel like an L3, because somehow Wilson L4 feels way bigger than Head's L4. I feel it's too light. But that's not the reason why I'm thinking me and the blade don't match together.
In today's practice, I tried one of those tennis pointers (the wooden thing) with hand feeds. I kid you not, I was able to hit with that better than with the racket. My coach even suggested that I just switch the racket for the tennis pointer since I seem to hit better - it's was joke, but you get the point.
Then I thought: okay, maybe it's just because there's no spin in the ball, or the ball comes slow or whatever. So I asked my coach if he could just feed the ball from the other side of the court. He did. I was better with the tennis pointer than my racket. My lovely racket.
So, can the racket be "the" problem?
PS: as I said "in-between the lines", I'm trying to figure out what works for me. If it's the pattern (I've got an 18x20 Blade CV to compare, matched to a 16x19), if it's the total weight, the swing weight, the balance, whatever. Any suggestions on how I should start, would be appreciated.