Pince triple threat warrior Vs bandit

Z

zeocin

Guest
I just began playing tennis these days, and now looking for a new racket to replace my old one. My power is about average, and I enjoy controlling the ball instead of being very powerful. I'm currently considering TT warrior or TT bandit. The bandit is much lighter than warrior, so I assume bandit is more suitable for female? (I'm male) Which one is better for a beginner like me?

I know almost nothing about rackets, so I'm open to any suggestions here. Dunlop M-fil 300 has good reputation here, will this be good for me? Any other racket recommendations? Thanks!

My budget is no more than $100.
 
K

Keifers

Legend
I have both racquets and imo the choice would depend on your physique. If you can swing the heavier racquet for the duration of a match or hitting session and not feel too sore afterwards, go with that one. Both have good control, although I find the Bandit has a touch more.

Shoot me an e-mail if you might be interested in a lightly-used model (click on my user name at left).
 
Z

zeocin

Guest
Keifers said:
I have both racquets and imo the choice would depend on your physique. If you can swing the heavier racquet for the duration of a match or hitting session and not feel too sore afterwards, go with that one. Both have good control, although I find the Bandit has a touch more.

Shoot me an e-mail if you might be interested in a lightly-used model (click on my user name at left).
Click to expand...

Thanks! Do you feel bandit too light. Is it stable in returning the ball?
 
tennisnj

tennisnj

Professional
Although I do not know Keifers, I would agree 100% with his comments on the Bandit & Warrior. I used to play w/the Bandit exclusively, & I've recommended it to students @ all different tennis abilities.
 
K

Keifers

Legend
zeocin said:
Thanks! Do you feel bandit too light. Is it stable in returning the ball?
Click to expand...
The Bandit is a lighter weight racquet, for sure. But it's got excellent control and feel, and is just a very good frame all around. I can well understand tennisnj recommending it to his students -- imo, it's one of the best designs in Prince's Triple Threat line.

For its weight, it is very stable indeed. All racquets are most stable when you hit the sweetspot, of course. The Bandit has a pretty good size sweetspot. Beyond that, a lighter weight racquet can feel less stable when you're up against a big-hitter. And that will be affected by how strong and how skilfull you are.

Not able to see you hit, but I would recommend you at least give the Bandit a try. (You can always move to a heavier frame later, as you improve.)
 
Last edited:
ThePro101

ThePro101

Rookie
Bandit

I recommend the Bandit to all of my friends, male or female. I thinks it a fabulous racquet that both beginners and advanced players can use and really enjoy!
 
Z

zeocin

Guest
So seems bandit is more suitable than warrior for beginner. No one mentioned M-fil 300? :)
 
K

Keifers

Legend
^^^ I haven't hit with the M-fil 300, but I know its predecessor, the 300G, pretty well (one of my partners had one). You could demo both. (But I'm still guessing the Bandit would be the better fit for you.)
 
Z

zeocin

Guest
Keifers said:
^^^ I haven't hit with the M-fil 300, but I know its predecessor, the 300G, pretty well (one of my partners had one). You could demo both. (But I'm still guessing the Bandit would be the better fit for you.)
Click to expand...

Thank ya:p
 
J

JMBenson

New User
I agree with RScottDDS. The TT Warrior OS is a very nice racquet. Never played with the Bandit, but it sounds like you cannot go wrong with either one. Not a bad problem to have.
 
B

bp_2

New User
I recently just switched from the TT Warrior MP to the M-Fil 200 (I know you're considering the 300...).

The Warrior was a great racquet, and I really enjoyed playing with it. I did feel the need to add lead to help give me a little more stability on volleys. The Warrior has a nice amount of control from the baseline, and I could create a lot of action on my backhand slices. Serving felt comfortable; placement came easily and power was easy to generate. The headshape is typical of a control oriented Prince- slightly more circular than other frames. Other than that it's a solid control oriented racquet I would recommend for demo.

Like I said, I'm now playing with the Dunlop M-Fil 200 (16/19) and am very pleased. The racquet feels very well balanced, and I haven't felt the need to add lead (other than when matching sticks). Control is there but you can flatten your shots out and get some nice pace too.

Honestly I don't think you can go wrong with either racquet (again, I'm using the M-Fil 200). A small fracture did start to develope in the throat of one of my Warriors after only having it for a little less than a year... I do play with some heavy hitters and can generate enough power myself, and that may have led to the break. But that is the reason I decided to look for a new racquet. So if I had to choose I would go with Dunlop. I've been very pleased with the construction of the racquets and love the way the M-Fil 200 feels. Hopefully that helps you out a little! Feel free to ask any other questions if you want. Good luck with your search.
 
Z

zeocin

Guest
bp_2 said:
I recently just switched from the TT Warrior MP to the M-Fil 200 (I know you're considering the 300...).

The Warrior was a great racquet, and I really enjoyed playing with it. I did feel the need to add lead to help give me a little more stability on volleys. The Warrior has a nice amount of control from the baseline, and I could create a lot of action on my backhand slices. Serving felt comfortable; placement came easily and power was easy to generate. The headshape is typical of a control oriented Prince- slightly more circular than other frames. Other than that it's a solid control oriented racquet I would recommend for demo.

Like I said, I'm now playing with the Dunlop M-Fil 200 (16/19) and am very pleased. The racquet feels very well balanced, and I haven't felt the need to add lead (other than when matching sticks). Control is there but you can flatten your shots out and get some nice pace too.

Honestly I don't think you can go wrong with either racquet (again, I'm using the M-Fil 200). A small fracture did start to develope in the throat of one of my Warriors after only having it for a little less than a year... I do play with some heavy hitters and can generate enough power myself, and that may have led to the break. But that is the reason I decided to look for a new racquet. So if I had to choose I would go with Dunlop. I've been very pleased with the construction of the racquets and love the way the M-Fil 200 feels. Hopefully that helps you out a little! Feel free to ask any other questions if you want. Good luck with your search.
Click to expand...


Thanks! very informative:)
 
B

bp_2

New User
Yeah, I didn't realize I was beginning a novel... but I'm glad it helped a little. Basically, I'd go with the Dunlop (going by what I've enjoyed with the M-Fil 200). The Warrior is a nice racquet, but the Dunlop just feels better to me. All personal taste so you may want to give both a demo. For both prices you really can't make a terrible decision. Good luck!
 
Jonny S&V

Jonny S&V

Hall of Fame
zeocin said:
So seems bandit is more suitable than warrior for beginner. No one mentioned M-fil 300? :)
Click to expand...

I have hit with all of the 300 series from G on (although I use the Mfil 200 right now), I learned on the Warrior MP, and If you wan't 2 racquets from 2 different companies that are as similar, these are very similar. I hated the Bandit because of its lightness, so either the Mfil 300 or the Warrior are very good racquets, with the 300 having a slight emphasis on stablility and the Warrior a pure spin doctor with pretty good feel. Give the 300 a try, you won't regret. They are so similar you could use both interchangeably (is that a word?). Have fun.
 
Ljubicic for number1

Ljubicic for number1

Hall of Fame
The bandit is a fantastic racquet, even at the lower weight it makes the warrior feel cheap and nasty in comparrison. It also serves the meanest slice serves in the business.
 
T

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
Ljubicic for number1 said:
The bandit is a fantastic racquet, even at the lower weight it makes the warrior feel cheap and nasty in comparrison. It also serves the meanest slice serves in the business.
Click to expand...

I agree that the Warrior OS feels cheap and tinny - I'm a fan of Prince frames, but it's by far the the worst Prince frame I have tried. I haven't tried the Bandit, but I have enjoyed the feel of other Morph beam frames from Prince, so I would be inclined to believe these positive words about the Bandit.
 
wmrhawk

wmrhawk

Rookie
bought a bandit after not playing for a couple of decades, because i thought it made sense (Prince being respected name, and the power/control number seemed to be in the center, so i couldn't go too far wrong). played with them for a few years, but when one broke i decided to shop more thoroughly and get more of a players (heavier & more control) stick. now use K95 & i am very happy with it. incidently, the thing that bothered me most about the Bandit was the dumb shaped bumper guard. at roughly the 10/2 o'clock spots, the bumper guard got smaller, covering less of the racquet under it and exposing it to wear. i could never figure out why the guard was that shape.
 
U

ufgatorkid

Rookie
I've used both, and I preferred the warrior.

Warrior
Very stable. Flexible, and provided great feel. Lacks power, and was harder to generate spin. The sweet spot is also smaller. Great control though. Excellent if you're more of a flat hitter.

Bandit
Less stable than the warrior. The sweetspot is bigger, and off-center hits are more generous, but tougher on the wrist/elbow. Easy to generate spin, but its light weight made it hard to control the power, for me anyway.

It really more depends on your game. People speak highly of both frames. I also love the mostly white pj of the warrior. It's just sleeker to me.
 
Z-Man

Z-Man

Professional
They're both great racquets. Keep in mind that although the Bandit is light, it is very head heavy, so it does have some nice swingweight. You really can't go wrong--it just depends on what kind of weighting you like. The Bandit is HH, the Warrior is HL.
 
netman

netman

Hall of Fame
Bandit OS is the best lightweight OS design that has hit the market in many years. Better yet, it is a fabulous platform for customization. I took a couple of Bandit OS frames, added 1 oz of lead inside the handle and roughly 1/2 oz at 3, 9 and 12 and ended up with a great frame with big power and good control. Plus it was very comfortable. Only down side was it ate strings at a high rate. I rarely break strings, but I was lucky to get 8-10 hours out of a string job.

I loved those frames and won many matches with them, even though I typically play 12 oz, mid plus frames. I tried the Warrior OS and while I thought it was okay, it never came close to matching the performance of my modded Bandits.

Point being you can start out with a stock Bandit OS and as your skill grows, add weight so that it grows with you. Prince had a big winner in the Bandit OS design and its the reason you can still buy them today. It is an absolute steal at the prices you can buy it these days.

-k-
 
Jack the Hack

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
There actually have been quite a few threads on this subject in the past. Here is one from about 1.5 years ago:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=62579&highlight=Warrior

I used to use the Bandit OS, modified with additional lead at the 3 and 9 positions. I could hit very heavy groundstrokes with that frame, but for me, it lacked feel... particularly at the net, or if you were trying to hit a pinpoint serve. Also, although the racquet is very light overall, the balance is very head heavy (and even heavier with the lead I added) and it has a high swing weight. This meant that the manuverability suffered on fast exchanges. And finally, as others have mentioned, the Bandit OS has a very open string pattern, which eats strings fast.

At the end of last year, I went on a business trip to California. While I was there, a friend wanted to play tennis, and I borrowed one of his Warriors to hit. To my surprise, the frame was very manuverable, had amazing feel, and fit my game very well. When I returned, I ended up buying 6 of the frames off of TW (at $69, you can buy more of them and still pay less than a couple O3 models). I have been very happy with this racquet, and have been playing with it in it's stock form. Recently, I have been considering the idea of adding some lead to the head, which may hurt the manuverability a bit, but increase the power and stability when I'm playing against harder hitting 4.5 or 5.0 players.

Also, this may not be relative, but I was practicing with my USTA league team a couple weeks ago when one of my buddies broke the strings on all three of his Wilson nPro frames. I let him borrow one of my Warriors, and for the next three sets, I could see and feel more spin and power on his serve and groundies, better returns, and crisper volleys. His nPros are MP, while my Warriors are OS, so that could have been the difference... but it certainly had him wondering.

Bottom line, I used to say that the Bandit was more suited for baseliners and the Warrior for net players. However, as a baseliner myself, the Warrior has been great, and it has much better feel on everything. Then again, this is a subjective statement and it is probably best if you can actually demo both frames before purchasing.
 
Z

zeocin

Guest
Jack the Hack said:
There actually have been quite a few threads on this subject in the past. Here is one from about 1.5 years ago:

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=62579&highlight=Warrior

I used to use the Bandit OS, modified with additional lead at the 3 and 9 positions. I could hit very heavy groundstrokes with that frame, but for me, it lacked feel... particularly at the net, or if you were trying to hit a pinpoint serve. Also, although the racquet is very light overall, the balance is very head heavy (and even heavier with the lead I added) and it has a high swing weight. This meant that the manuverability suffered on fast exchanges. And finally, as others have mentioned, the Bandit OS has a very open string pattern, which eats strings fast.

At the end of last year, I went on a business trip to California. While I was there, a friend wanted to play tennis, and I borrowed one of his Warriors to hit. To my surprise, the frame was very manuverable, had amazing feel, and fit my game very well. When I returned, I ended up buying 6 of the frames off of TW (at $69, you can buy more of them and still pay less than a couple O3 models). I have been very happy with this racquet, and have been playing with it in it's stock form. Recently, I have been considering the idea of adding some lead to the head, which may hurt the manuverability a bit, but increase the power and stability when I'm playing against harder hitting 4.5 or 5.0 players.

Also, this may not be relative, but I was practicing with my USTA league team a couple weeks ago when one of my buddies broke the strings on all three of his Wilson nPro frames. I let him borrow one of my Warriors, and for the next three sets, I could see and feel more spin and power on his serve and groundies, better returns, and crisper volleys. His nPros are MP, while my Warriors are OS, so that could have been the difference... but it certainly had him wondering.

Bottom line, I used to say that the Bandit was more suited for baseliners and the Warrior for net players. However, as a baseliner myself, the Warrior has been great, and it has much better feel on everything. Then again, this is a subjective statement and it is probably best if you can actually demo both frames before purchasing.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for your long post! Good to know this:-D
 
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