Yonex Head Shape - Purpose?

JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
Yonex is the only racquet with that boxy-square headshape to their racquets. What is the purpose of this design and what would be the benefits? It would seem to give you a little more room on mishits on the outer edges of the frame, towards 11/1 or 7/5 o' clock.

The reason I ask is because I have just started playing with a VCore 98 and it's taking me a little time to get used to this new frame shape. I also have been framing balls sometimes on kick serves and I'm not sure if it's due to the frame shape or not?
 
G

Gasolina

Professional
Its supposed to be the Isometric tech. Not sure if its a gimmick or not, but I kinda like it because it makes the racquet head appear smaller. Don't really like the look of the Egg-ish prince heads too.
 
G

Gasolina

Professional
I went ahead and checked the power zone sizes of the Yonex RDiS Mid vs. the WIlson BLX Blade Tour and the sweetspot dose extend to the sides more than the Blade. Interesting
 
F

fuzz nation

G.O.A.T.
If the sweet-spot more or less mimics the shape of the hoop, I believe that the square-ish isometric profile of Yonex frames makes for a slightly wider sweet-spot. I also think that it makes for a sweet-spot that ends more abruptly at the top of the string bed compared with a more oval shaped head though. That's been my experience having used the older MP Tour-1 mids, the more recent RDS 002 Tours, and also their RQiS 1 Tour.
 
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vandre

vandre

Hall of Fame
JackB1 said:
Did u frame balls now and then when you started with Yonex?
Click to expand...

yep. lots more than usual for a time. if i remember correctly, they were mostly near the top of the hoop. then i adjusted and now i can't hardly hit with anything else.
 
eidolonshinobi

eidolonshinobi

Professional
vandre said:
yep. lots more than usual for a time. if i remember correctly, they were mostly near the top of the hoop. then i adjusted and now i can't hardly hit with anything else.
Click to expand...

+1
yonex frames take some time to get used to but they're worth the investment because they're quality racquets.
 
Agent Orynge

Agent Orynge

Professional
JackB1 said:
48% larger than oval shaped racquets???

lol. marketing mumbo jumbo I say.

It's like Prince claiming every new model has a 50% larger sweetspot than the prior one.
Click to expand...

I agree, for the most part. The only thing unique about the head shape is that you get corners. So, the upper and lower most strings are longer than they are on traditional, circular frames, but I don't think it quite adds up to a 48% improvement.

I actually started with Yonex, so I never thought any less of them for having a different head shape. Eventually I moved on because the frames were just too muted for my tastes, though I can't say if that was caused by the isometric head.

By the way, what strings are in this London? They're atrocious.
 
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JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
vandre said:
yep. lots more than usual for a time. if i remember correctly, they were mostly near the top of the hoop. then i adjusted and now i can't hardly hit with anything else.
Click to expand...

That's nice to hear I have company :)

Just to clarify, it's only during kick serves that I frame an occasional ball.
I am guessing that I am hitting it either too early or too late. Maybe it's just a timing issue? I guess I can try hitting some with quicker timing and some with "later" timing and see which gets better results?
 
TheBoom

TheBoom

Hall of Fame
I think it has a great effect on the power for one reason or another i was able to destroy the ball with the 100 mp and it had a very distinct feel to it almost like a trampoline? Anyway i may look into the v core line this summer for one reason or another but definitely has good characteristics to it
 
Fuji

Fuji

Legend
I've used Yonex for about a month now, and I haven't noticed any extra framing, but I did notice added comfort. It's great when hitting in the upper hoop for me. :)

-Fuji
 
JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
Fuji said:
I've used Yonex for about a month now, and I haven't noticed any extra framing, but I did notice added comfort. It's great when hitting in the upper hoop for me. :)

-Fuji
Click to expand...

I definitely notice the sweetspot being a little higher than middle. On the flipside, balls hit below the middle go nowhere.
 
vandre

vandre

Hall of Fame
JackB1 said:
I definitely notice the sweetspot being a little higher than middle. On the flipside, balls hit below the middle go nowhere.
Click to expand...

you know, i've noticed that i like to hit higher in the head with mine better than low. that doesn't seem to follow with the powermap of my stick, but oh well.
 
J

Jack Romeo

Professional
i think this has been discussed before and the sweetspot of the yonex is definitely different than other rackets. i tend to think of it as a "sweetish zone." it's a bigger, more consistent-feeling area of the stringbed that feels sweet. but at the same time, the center doesn't seem to be as sweet as the centers of the rounder-shaped heads of other racket brands.

but also now, there are other brands that use technologies with similar effects as the isometric design. i think the prince o-port/speedport technologies and the babolat woofer systems make their stringbeds feel a bit similar to yonex - consistent all over but not totally sweet in the middle. i've tried the o3 white, o3 red, speedport white, pure storm, pure drive gt and aeropro drive cortex and that's how i felt about the stringbeds of these rackets.
 
vsbabolat

vsbabolat

G.O.A.T.
JackB1 said:
Yonex is the only racquet with that boxy-square headshape to their racquets. What is the purpose of this design and what would be the benefits? It would seem to give you a little more room on mishits on the outer edges of the frame, towards 11/1 or 7/5 o' clock.

The reason I ask is because I have just started playing with a VCore 98 and it's taking me a little time to get used to this new frame shape. I also have been framing balls sometimes on kick serves and I'm not sure if it's due to the frame shape or not?
Click to expand...

http://www.yonex.com/tennis/technology/racquets.html
10% bigger sweetspot than an ordinary round head racquet
The ISOMETRIC square head shape reduces the inert space found in a conventional round frame. As a result, the racquet is easier to swing through and has superior manoeuvrability.

The sweetspot is the area of a racquet where the longest main and longest cross strings meet in the stringbed. In an ordinary roundframe racquet, the sweetspot is where the 8 main and 11 cross strings meet.

In the YONEX ISOMETRIC square head racquet, 10 main and 13 cross strings meet in the stringbed to produce a sweetspot that is 10% larger than the effective hitting area of a conventional round head racquet.
 
JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
I am sorry, but I think this larger sweetspot thing is just not true. I have been using the VCore 98 for 2 weeks now and I don't find the sweetspot any larger than any other similar racquets. In fact, it seems a little smaller to me than most.
 
tennismonkey

tennismonkey

Semi-Pro
i can mirror jack romeo's assessment. yonnies have a slightly larger sweetspot that is not quite as "sweet". it's distributed over a larger range. i tend to hit high on the hoop and with yonnies i find far less dead feel up there. i think the feel of a yonex with a 98 square inch head size feels like a 100 square inch racquet in terms of sweetspot size and feel.

jack - i don't discount your take but i wonder if you have another 98 square inch racquet to compare with your vcore 98. apples to apples so to speak.
 
JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
tennismonkey said:
i can mirror jack romeo's assessment. yonnies have a slightly larger sweetspot that is not quite as "sweet". it's distributed over a larger range. i tend to hit high on the hoop and with yonnies i find far less dead feel up there. i think the feel of a yonex with a 98 square inch head size feels like a 100 square inch racquet in terms of sweetspot size and feel.

jack - i don't discount your take but i wonder if you have another 98 square inch racquet to compare with your vcore 98. apples to apples so to speak.
Click to expand...

Yes, I can compare to the 98" Becker London which I played with for the past 6 months or so. Any differences in sweetspot size are pretty much immaterial and not very noticeable IMO.
 
T

T-ennis 888

Rookie
Jack Romeo said:
i think this has been discussed before and the sweetspot of the yonex is definitely different than other rackets. i tend to think of it as a "sweetish zone." it's a bigger, more consistent-feeling area of the stringbed that feels sweet. but at the same time, the center doesn't seem to be as sweet as the centers of the rounder-shaped heads of other racket brands.
Click to expand...

Spot on description of the Yonex sweetspot cf. rounder-headed racquets by JR here.
 
Z

zumzool

Semi-Pro
JackB1 said:
I am sorry, but I think this larger sweetspot thing is just not true. I have been using the VCore 98 for 2 weeks now and I don't find the sweetspot any larger than any other similar racquets. In fact, it seems a little smaller to me than most.
Click to expand...

Your taking one racquet and making a generalization of the sweetspot on all yonex racquets. it's ridiculous.
 
Buckethead

Buckethead

Banned
zumzool said:
Your taking one racquet and making a generalization of the sweetspot on all yonex racquets. it's ridiculous.
Click to expand...

You can't take his opinion and comments about rackets seriously He makes dumb comments more often than rational ones.

He is defying now the Isometric Head shape, if you can believe, not only that, He is defying the Japanese and engineers designers from Yonex.
 
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In D Zone

In D Zone

Hall of Fame
Dont' feel anything extra between different head shapes. I own a collection Yonex and other brands (Wilson, Dunlops, Technifibre and Prince).

If you are shanking the ball - it has to more about timing and technique while some were no accustomed to the size and shape of the head.

Sweetspot is about the even compared to other brands. I found string set up relative to playing style and frame stiffness are main contributing factor to one's playin preference.
 
Buckethead

Buckethead

Banned
In D Zone said:
Dont' feel anything extra between different head shapes. I own a collection Yonex and other brands (Wilson, Dunlops, Technifibre and Prince).

If you are shanking the ball - it has to more about timing and technique while some were no accustomed to the size and shape of the head.

Sweetspot is about the even compared to other brands. I found string set up relative to playing style and frame stiffness are main contributing factor to one's playin preference.
Click to expand...

I do, every time I hit with a friend's rackets(not Yonex ones) I notice how good my Yonies are.

I hit with the Youtek prestige mid maybe a few times in the past 2 months and is nowhere near the RDS mid in term of how big the sweet spot is and all other departments. All Head MP rackets have a much smaller sweet spot than Yonex without a shadow of a doubt.

Years ago I demoed a K90 and is not as good as the RDS mid.

I switched from the Volkl DNX 10 to RDS mid and I never look back, even if the DNX 10 had a better feel, but everything else to my game was better.

BTW ZumZool, I bought a SRD Tour 95, so I soon will have that one along side the RDS, RQiS 1 tour and R-22.
 
Power Player

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Heck yeah, the Prestige mid has a super small sweet spot. It also has one of the best of all time, but you obviously have to hit it consistently to enjoy it.

"He is defying the Japanese and engineers design from Yonex." - I appreciate the dramatic impact in this statement..lol..

"Years ago I demoed a K90 and is not as good as the RDS mid."

You are most likely in the minority here.

Buckethead has serious passion for yonny.
 
Buckethead

Buckethead

Banned
Power Player said:
Buckethead has serious passion for yonny.
Click to expand...

I do like them a lot, just as much as i like Sony, Ferrari, Mercedes, Gibson and Marshall.

Brands like these make better products than other competitors that is why I like and tend to stick to the higher end quality products.
 
Power Player

Power Player

Bionic Poster
Gibson and Marshall are 2 wonderful brands that I own myself.

But I also own Fenders as well..lots of great stuff out there.

In fact as a guy who was getting free Gibson and has tech support for life from them, I can tell you that their quality was not always great. There were many years in the mid 90s and up where things started going real bad.

Happens with everything.
 
JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
zumzool said:
Your taking one racquet and making a generalization of the sweetspot on all yonex racquets. it's ridiculous.
Click to expand...

No I am not. I just mentioned the last 98" I played with. I have tried dozens of 98" racquets and all I am saying is the Yonex shape doesn't
seem to make a noticeable difference in the sweetspot size.
 
JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
Buckethead said:
You can't take his opinion and comments about rackets seriously He makes dumb comments more often than rational ones.

He is defying now the Isometric Head shape, if you can believe, not only that, He is defying the Japanese and engineers designers from Yonex.
Click to expand...

Please keep your insults to yourself.

I am not "defying" anyone. I am giving my personal opinion.
 
Buckethead

Buckethead

Banned
Power Player said:
Gibson and Marshall are 2 wonderful brands that I own myself.

But I also own Fenders as well..lots of great stuff out there.
Click to expand...

I have a 2 Gibsons Les Paul(electric), 1 Fender (an unique one with 2 double di marzios and a single coil in the middle) , 2 Ibanez(one Prestige) , and a Marshall JCM 900 Half stack( with the speakers replaced), a mini JSX for home practice, and a Mesa Boogie Lone Star.

I am looking to get an Earni Ball guitar, the old white Silhouette and that's it.
 
Buckethead

Buckethead

Banned
JackB1 said:
Please keep your insults to yourself.

I am not "defying" anyone. I am giving my personal opinion.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry if I offended you.

But Tennis Maverick didn't have much patience with you neither based on comments you make.

Anyway good luck with your racket search.:)
 
JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
Buckethead said:
I do, every time I hit with a friend's rackets(not Yonex ones) I notice how good my Yonies are.

I hit with the Youtek prestige mid maybe a few times in the past 2 months and is nowhere near the RDS mid in term of how big the sweet spot is and all other departments. All Head MP rackets have a much smaller sweet spot than Yonex without a shadow of a doubt.
Click to expand...

Now who's making "dumb statements"? Your generalization about Head vs Yonex isn't making your case strong.

You are also correlating the Yonex sweetspot size with the headshape. There is no proof they are related. You may prefer your Yonex's when you try other brands because you are so accustomed to your Yonex's. Head has many racquets with HUGE sweetspots, like the Speeds, the Extremes and the Radicals. Of course the Prestige has a small one. It's a Player's racquet and small sweetspot = accuracy. Larger sweetspot will get the ball back over, but you won't be able to put it on a dime.
 
Z

zumzool

Semi-Pro
Buckethead said:
BTW ZumZool, I bought a SRD Tour 95, so I soon will have that one along side the RDS, RQiS 1 tour and R-22.
Click to expand...

Awesome... let me know what you think... I find the sweetspot in stringing to be around 57-58 lbs.... i'm finding the bb melbourne to be very similar. just wish it had a more open string pattern.
 
JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
Buckethead said:
I'm sorry if I offended you.

But Tennis Maverick didn't have much patience with you neither based on comments you make.

Anyway good luck with your racket search.:)
Click to expand...

TM didn't have much patience with anybody. Also he has nothing to do
with you insulting me. I'm sure there are people in your life that don't like you either, but
if I brought their name's into this discussion that wouldn't make much sense either.

Appology accepted. Let's keep this discussion about the topic please.
I think that's great that you are so passionate about Yonex, but I just starting using one so I have a different point of view at this moment. Maybe in the future I will agree with you.
 
Buckethead

Buckethead

Banned
JackB1 said:
Now who's making "dumb statements"? Your generalization about Head vs Yonex isn't making your case strong.

You are also correlating the Yonex sweetspot size with the headshape. There is no proof they are related. You may prefer your Yonex's when you try other brands because you are so accustomed to your Yonex's. Head has many racquets with HUGE sweetspots, like the Speeds, the Extremes and the Radicals. Of course the Prestige has a small one. It's a Player's racquet and small sweetspot = accuracy. Larger sweetspot will get the ball back over, but you won't be able to put it on a dime.
Click to expand...

Since when player's racket has to have a small sweet spot?? I never heard of that, sweet spot has to do with design concentration of materials and weight where it makes the sweet spot.

I am stopping right here with this issue.

I hope you sell the Yonex racket and play with something else and don't be mad and don't take this as an insult, I just don't think you are suitable to Yonex.
 
tailofdog

tailofdog

Semi-Pro
Really

Buckethead said:
Since when player's racket has to have a small sweet spot?? I never heard of that, sweet spot has to do with design concentration of materials and weight where it makes the sweet spot.

I am stopping right here with this issue.

I hope you sell the Yonex racket and play with something else and don't be mad and don't take this as an insult, I just don't think you are suitable to Yonex.
Click to expand...
Is there a not suitable list put out by Yonex?
 
JackB1

JackB1

G.O.A.T.
Buckethead said:
Since when player's racket has to have a small sweet spot?? I never heard of that, sweet spot has to do with design concentration of materials and weight where it makes the sweet spot.

I am stopping right here with this issue.

I hope you sell the Yonex racket and play with something else and don't be mad and don't take this as an insult, I just don't think you are suitable to Yonex.
Click to expand...

I dont take it as an insult. I take it as nonsense.

Forgive me for not checking with you beforehand to make
sure you think I am "suitable".

After reading some of the things you have written, your
opinion means pretty much nothing to me. You don't even realize
that better players WANT a smaller sweetspot for more accuracy.
It's the same reason why pro golfers use clubs with smaller sweetspots
and the hackers use clubs that they can hit all over the face.

Most of your statements sound like they are just things that you
believe for whatever reason and they aren't based on anything factual.
 
WilsonPlayer101

WilsonPlayer101

Professional
Remember Fox tennis racquets? They kind of had a boxy head shape too.

FoxRacquets.jpg
 
Timbo's hopeless slice

Timbo's hopeless slice

Hall of Fame
anyone would think there had been a bit if a drift off topic...

I did try Yonex but the shape freaked me out. It felt like playing blues with a B.C. Rich, perfectly possible but very off putting!
 
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