Diary of a Racketaholic

I use the TW automated customization tool. You need the length, swingweight, balance, static weight and what you want for the target swingweight, balance and static weight. The main headache is getting the swingweight unless you have access to an RDC machine or the iPhone App.

In general, nobody provides swingweight information when selling pro stock frames so you have to guess or measure. When I get all of my frames, I'm going to go have them measured so that I can do the frame matching.

Ross K said:

Male clothing or female?!:shock:

R

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"It puts the lotion on the Pro Staff"

^^^^^^

I just freaked myself out



There that's better

sparkyS4 said:

Ross, I have been lurking on this thread for quite some time, but haven't participated until now. I tried Power Player's 7g set up last night, and all I can say is WOW, I was absolutley crushing the ball. I posted my findings over on the 7g thread.

I played with the standard length swirly pure control for quite some time before switching to the Prince diablo mid. I can say that the 7g with 8 grams at 12 o'clock plays a lot like the pure control, but without the sluggishness that the pure control had. When I played full imte, the sluggishness was no big deal, but now at my advanced age, I had a hard time with it. The 7g hits that big, booming ball, but felt much easier to swing.

Hope this helps, I was amazed how the weight changed the dynamics of the 7g.

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PP - Have you ever considered a career in sales? Donnay and PK owe you some serious money

Ross K said:

Cheers PP,

Yes, I, too, couldn't withstand the weight/balance - play at optimum effectiveness with the Rad Pro. But I'll definitely consider your mod rec. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, I'm fairly sure the PK 7G is extremely hard to locate here in the UK

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This bums me out. I can't find a stick that matches it unfortunately in spec.

But I do have an alternative stick that could do it.

The Pure Drive Plus.

8 grams on each end should give you a SW of 360, balance of 6 pts and static weight of 11.8.

That could be an amazing setup, since I found the stock PD way too light. the XL length also makes higher SWs a lot easier to deal with.

EDIT. the APDC plus is even better as an option since it comes in at the same weight and a SW of 339.

You could have that stick weighing around 11.6 and with a huge SW of 360 using the same strategy and around 5-6 grams of lead instead of 8.

el sergento said:

PP - Have you ever considered a career in sales? Donnay and PK owe you some serious money

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Haha..first off that Silence of the Lambs is what I was thinking as well...you beat me to it.

Second, that is my career..glad you think I may be good..haha.

Luckily I "sell" good stuff. People don't hate me after trying out what I like. I would feel awful if I had crappy racquet tastes..lol.

Donnay and PK are awesome racquet makers, so they make it easy to rave about.

Dave M said:

You've put lead on that at 12?How much??

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2g @ 12, extended half inch taking SW up to around 370. Always found too much at 12 on this frame is a killer, just needs a tad I find.

Been playing with the spec a little. Today I found what I thought was a better balance at 6pts HL proved to be rather cumbersome. I changed the leather for the lighter bast core grip and lost about 10g but also put me down to about 3pts HL. It played so well. I won two sets 6-1 6-0 with on average 2 aces per game. No big power serves I can just place them so easily so smooth. Groundies were great again...bh bullets and found I could do some lovely wristy angles with the heavy head.

Key thing is serving tho. If I serve like that consistently I should be playing A team div1 tennis.

Naked of course

Power Player,

But I do have an alternative stick that could do it.

The Pure Drive Plus.

8 grams on each end should give you a SW of 360, balance of 6 pts and static weight of 11.8.

That could be an amazing setup, since I found the stock PD way too light. the XL length also makes higher SWs a lot easier to deal with.

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It just so happens I still have my old PD+ Team.


Meags,

I won two sets 6-1 6-0 with on average 2 aces per game.

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Good going there. I wish my stats matched that.


movdqa,

Thanks for advice... man, these TGKs are a pain to deal with - at least for me.:roll:


R

Tgk's are a pain. People should just buy a rad twin tube same mold as pt57s and mod it up.....!!

Felt like sampras today.....but hey I've got a great serve ha should of seen my opponents face.......

I wouldnt mind trying the insane sw thing with my ytep. Clocking in at 11.7 and 340 sw stock, 6pts HL, I'm thinking 6g at 12 and 6g in the cap should get me there? Whaddaya think?

Fed Kennedy said:

I wouldnt mind trying the insane sw thing with my ytep. Clocking in at 11.7 and 340 sw stock, 6pts HL, I'm thinking 6g at 12 and 6g in the cap should get me there? Whaddaya think?

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That's sure some secret weapon you're gonna be packing there.




R

Fed Kennedy said:

I wouldnt mind trying the insane sw thing with my ytep. Clocking in at 11.7 and 340 sw stock, 6pts HL, I'm thinking 6g at 12 and 6g in the cap should get me there? Whaddaya think?

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always found this sw tool to be useful.....http://www.usrsa.com/store/learningcenter/lc_combinedswtbal.html

it calculates your sw to be in the region of 360

FedK that would nail it. You will love it. The racquet will feel a lot more solid as well.

Ross..whats the specs on that team plus? lets turn it into a monster.

Power Player said:

FedK that would nail it. You will love it. The racquet will feel a lot more solid as well.

Ross..whats the specs on that team plus? lets turn it into a monster.

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Length 27.5 inches 70 centimeters
Head Size 100 square inches 645 square centimeters
Weight 11.1 ounces 315 grams
Balance Point 13 inches
33 centimeters 6pts Head Light
Construction 22-25 mm
Composition Graphite/Kevlar
String Pattern 16 Mains / 19 Crosses
Babolat RDC Ratings

Flex Rating 70 Range: 0-100
Swing Weight 330 Range: 200-400
Manueverability 67


R

Wow..that thing will be perfect. Add 8 grams of lead at 12 and 8 grams in the handle..SW will be 360ish and stock weight will be a very manageable 11.7.

movdqa said:

I use the TW automated customization tool. You need the length, swingweight, balance, static weight and what you want for the target swingweight, balance and static weight. The main headache is getting the swingweight unless you have access to an RDC machine or the iPhone App.

In general, nobody provides swingweight information when selling pro stock frames so you have to guess or measure. When I get all of my frames, I'm going to go have them measured so that I can do the frame matching.

Click to expand...

I find the TW swingweight calculator to be just as accurate as an RDC as long I time at least 30 oscillations at time with low amplitude, and repeat a few times to make sure my I am consistent.

RHs,

How we all doing? This is the quietest time of year for me tennis-wise. Off on holidays on Wednesday to Menorca. Very close to Rafa's home of course on Majorca. Would be nice to return with heaving muscles, off the scale topspin capabilities, ferocious bull-like detemination and bottomless reserves of undying energy. Sadly, I know that all I'll be bringing back is a red/brown suntan and few extra pounds.:roll:

R

Played doubles yesterday and my partner commented that I was hitting some pretty good topspin yesterday. I like the weight but I don't like the distribution of weight. I need to do some major reworking of the weight distribution.

Putting the lead tape at the top of the handle is a quick and dirty solution but I think that the balance would be a lot better if it was on the buttcap but I have to take off the overgrip and grip to do that.

I also want to move some of the tape from 11:00 - 1:00 to 3:00 and 9:00 to add a little stability. I have shrinkwrap sleeves (half and whole) and am considering using one of those instead of lead for weight. I like the idea of a polarized setup but I think that my frame is head-heavy at the moment and my arm doesn't like that kind of setup.

Still waiting for the TGK260.2s to arrive. Still hunting around for soft pro-stock or retail frames good for customizing.

Ross K said:

RHs,

How we all doing? This is the quietest time of year for me tennis-wise. Off on holidays on Wednesday to Menorca. Very close to Rafa's home of course on Majorca. Would be nice to return with heaving muscles, off the scale topspin capabilities, ferocious bull-like detemination and bottomless reserves of undying energy. Sadly, I know that all I'll be bringing back is a red/brown suntan and few extra pounds.:roll:

R

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Had my honeymoon in menorca in a place called cala llonga.......anywhere near there??

movdqa,

Your customization/TGK travails sound oh so familiar to me!


Rich,

I don't know that place. We're going to Cuitadella. Been there before, it's absolutely beautiful. Like something from Romeo and Juliet. Very unspoilt and elegant. Needless to say, a far cry from North London.

R

> Your customization/TGK travails sound oh so familiar to me!

Well, I've been through this before. I just keep forgetting what a pain it is. One thing that does help, though, is a nice supply of customization supplies. I ordered a few packages of lead tape, overgrips, and shrinkwrap sleeves and I had an extra grip around for the frame that came sans pallet/buttcap/grip.

I really think that I can get to where I want to be with the TGK238.4 XL - but it might mean that I wind up with something like the KPS88 again though with higher swingweight and bigger headsize. I think that adding more weight to the handle can resolve the stiffness issues that I have (obviously I can't take that much stiffness if I'm having minor issues at 63 RA).

One of the TGK260.2s should arrive today according to the tracking website. The frame is listed as 350 grams static weight unstrung and it looks like it is strung with Big Banger 16 at 55. My guess is that this adds about 17 grams so this beast should come in at around 367 grams. I thought that it was 350 grams strung. Oh well, I don't think that I'll be adding any lead tape to this beast.

One of the 260.2s just arrive. I swung it a few times in the office - feels like an absolute log. I'm not sure what the headsize is - either 98 or 95 sq in. I was hoping that it was an XL but it isn't so it looks like I may have to standardize on SL. I'm not due to hit until tomorrow so I guess I can work on rebuilding the 238.4 tonight.

It has a beautiful leather grip on it and the buttcap has the biggest flare that I've ever seen on a racquet. No way your hand is going to slide off the bottom of this one. My guess is that it is around 12.95 oz and I'm going to add an overgrip to it - so much for trying to find a lighter KPS88.

Strung up a Pro 7G yesterday. An older gentleman I play with has been using it for years. It's all banged up but structurally intact.

It's easy to string up and the grommets seem like good and durable plastic.

It was funny how the racquet ever so slightly rattles when you move it around.

Anyway, I don't know the fellow well enough to clandestinely try it out before I hand it back to him, but if felt good in the hand. Might have to borrow it one of these days.

2 obeservations:

The head size, despite the 100si, isn't that big at all. It's only slightly bigger than my Prestiges, that are rated as 98, but are closer to 95. Seems like PK measures their racquets the same way Head does.

Also, I didn't measure, but if felt heavier than what I would have thought. Didn't feel as head light either. That could just be a product of the extended length though.

Anyhoo, thought I'd share.

Cheers

Interesting...I never thought about the head size being smaller. I am pretty sure it should be at least a 98 though.

movdqa said:

I have shrinkwrap sleeves (half and whole) and am considering using one of those instead of lead for weight. I like the idea of a polarized setup but I think that my frame is head-heavy at the moment and my arm doesn't like that kind of setup.

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Try using the 1/4 oz fishing weights, just wrap a small portion of an ovegrip around them and they fit snugly right under the buttcap. The 1/4 oz ones usually work out to around 7g a piece. It's uber polarized and the stick will come around like greased lightening. I had 2 of them in there for 14g but ended up taking one out a few months back.

Very stable and no rattling. Best part is the cost: $1.75 at Walmart

No room for fishing weights in my frames.

Power Player said:

Interesting...I never thought about the head size being smaller. I am pretty sure it should be at least a 98 though.

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Well, I put it side by side with my PPro and it's just slightly wider and slightly longer at 6''.

Hold your's up against the Plat 99, I bet the 99 will be bigger than the 100. Or not.........

movdqa said:

No room for fishing weights in my frames.

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I've put fishing weights in my Prestiges and Radicals. Fit no problem.

Easiest way to add weight to the butt though is to just use lead tape and use the mid section of the two "chambers" in the handle.

What I mean is that you cut a piece of lead tape, bend it in half, and then stick it on the middle divider in a V formation.

like so:

^- Lead tape
l - Division between the two "chambers" in the handle.

I have sold all my racquets and am down to 2 7Gs.

Do have my Dad's Dunlop Mfil 95 and Ill compare those 2.

movdqa said:

No room for fishing weights in my frames.

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Oh, is that because of the silicone?? Couldn't you just scrape some silicone out and inject a couple of fishing weights??

Power Player said:

I have sold all my racquets and am down to 2 7Gs.

Do have my Dad's Dunlop Mfil 95 and Ill compare those 2.

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Man that was quick. I've been giving away my frames and still haven't managed to sell them all.

My buddy is looking for a second 99, what did you get for them if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers

> Oh, is that because of the silicone?? Couldn't you just scrape
> some silicone out and inject a couple of fishing weights??

I would like to leave the pro stock frames as close to where I received them as possible. I could always just push nails into the silicon - I've had plenty of practice with that on my 1990s frames.

el sergento said:

Man that was quick. I've been giving away my frames and still haven't managed to sell them all.

My buddy is looking for a second 99, what did you get for them if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers

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$199 from Donnay. Sold for $100, so I lost a little there. Another reason I am glad I have found a racquet I can grow my game with. The racquet buying gets pricey.

Hopefully I will be cured by this thursday.
Got a deal with Vantage and waiting to receive 2 packages on thursday, so I have been selling all my gear, even my TGK 238.5´s and PSC´s. Got a bunch of BC20´s and custom 95"´s on their way. I know Vantage is highest quality available ( as good as pro stocks), so whats not to like?. From now on I will only consider Vantage and the best thing is that I can order the same frames year after year and never have to search for old discontinued frames.

big bang said:

Hopefully I will be cured by this thursday.
Got a deal with Vantage and waiting to receive 2 packages on thursday, so I have been selling all my gear, even my TGK 238.5´s and PSC´s. Got a bunch of BC20´s and custom 95"´s on their way. I know Vantage is highest quality available ( as good as pro stocks), so whats not to like?. From now on I will only consider Vantage and the best thing is that I can order the same frames year after year and never have to search for old discontinued frames.

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Ikke en chans du klarer dig mer än 2-3 månader min vän

So u even sold your beloved POG´s??

I received 3 i.Prestige MP´s today and played with them and also used my new YT Prestige MP. The i.Prestige is so much more soft, so much more feel, so much more solid then the YTP mp. The YT prestige is not a bad frame, not at all, it´s just that the i.Prestige might even be the GOAT!

It's an amazing stick. You can always polarize it if you want a more solid feel and more plow. Lead on a favored stick seems to be all that is needed to keep things exciting once you find a tried and true.

Pulled the old ytep out of the garage last night boys, did the deed with the lead.
This thing is a loobjician war club now.
Bouncing the ball around I'm feeling zero vibration. Heading out to play, hope I can keep the ball in the court.

Awesome man..I wonder how the extreme will respond to the lead. Have specs?

I am hoping to get a little more feedback from more of you guys on this setup and then I will make a thread about how to do it and the best racquets for the job. The extreme should be a good candidate.

I put it on the scale last night, if I remember correctly it started at 11.7.
I put 6g at the tip and 6g at the tail, which brought me to about 12.2. With a fresh tourna and dampener it came in at 12.5. I think it was 350g on the nose.
Balance and sw I have to get from the shop, it's hard to compare extremes with the crude dangle method bc the headshape is so weird.

That's the only thing with the Extreme Pro..the SW is lower than optimal for getting The Roddick.

I am going to guess the SW is around 343ish....still going to be better than stock, but could weigh a little more than you want.

On second thought, you use the KPS88, so it shouldn't faze you too much.

Hankenstein said:

Ikke en chans du klarer dig mer än 2-3 månader min vän

So u even sold your beloved POG´s??

I received 3 i.Prestige MP´s today and played with them and also used my new YT Prestige MP. The i.Prestige is so much more soft, so much more feel, so much more solid then the YTP mp. The YT prestige is not a bad frame, not at all, it´s just that the i.Prestige might even be the GOAT!

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Ha ha have faith in me my swedish friend, I must resist and I will:twisted:.

I havent sold my POG´s but they are for sale along with pretty much all my frames. With all the options that Vantage has to offer Im sure I can find my holy grail.
YTPP is an ok racquet, but the TGK 238.5´s I just sold does everything better and with much more feel. I prefer the feel of the older prestige models but I also prefer open patterns so I dont really have many options with head.

Greetings, gents. It's been a minute.

I spent pretty much the entire last week watching tennis rather than playing, as I was out at the tourney here in LA. I have some "My-face-nearly-exploded" eavesdropping to tell you about, a racquetholic coming upon James Blake having a conversation about... his sticks.

He was out on the practice court talking to another player (a doubles guy), asked why he'd changed sticks. Blake: "I'd been searching forever," he said. "They finally got the materials right." He said Donnay had put together a bunch of sticks that he playtested, actually going to a factory in Austria to do so. "Different string patterns, but they all felt great." As for the one he picked, which was the Dual Pro in his hand, he said, "I hit with this and asked, 'How many of these do you have?' They said 15. I said, "I want them."

James' brother, who is living the dream by traveling with James as his hitting partner, also hits with the same Dual Pro, but I also spied a Donnay Blue 99 in his bag, with lead tape around nearly the entire inside of that frame. (but it stayed in the bag; he hit with the Pro). At one point the two brothers were talking about James needing to do a certain number of appearances for Donnay, and the brother said something about Donnay currently making 40 more racquets for James.

For the record, James' Dual Pro (still can never know for sure if it's the exact stick now available from Donnay) has a ton of lead - as he's always put on all of his frames - placed from about 1:30-4:30. The buttcap of his racquet was also covered by a sticker label that listed a bunch of numbers, which I believe included a string tension of 64 but I can't say for certain, I just saw the No. 64 written and figured that's what it was.

Elsewhere, Guillermo Canas, former player and now Ernests Gulbis' coach, was also hitting with a Dual Pro all week. His had absolutely no lead on the frame, and had the customary silver Donnay 'D' buttcap, so it appears as though he plays his stock.

MEANWHILE, all of this as a prelude to ... this mysterious Dual Pro supposedly arriving to me sometime today. Actually a dynamite, serendipitous occurrence: There was a delay in Donnay getting my frame in stock after I ordered it (perhaps it's because some guy named 'Blake' needs 40 of them? hmm..), so after some time had passed, they decided to send me a used one to play with before my new one was ready. Stellar for me, because if I don't like this used one then I figure I should be able to just cancel the other one and save some serious dough. We shall see.

Playing wise, I returned to the courts last night for the first time in a week and wanted to cry, it was so bad. Everything was off, and I've got a league match tonight. Thankfully this is not the playoff semifinal I have later this week but a regular season match in another league. We'll see. It could be ugly.

And I'm just now catching up on all of the heavy polarization/weight up 12'oclock experiments by PP and others. Very interesting stuff. Makes sense to me, but I'm still somewhat skeptical it would work for me personally, at least to the extent of a 360 SW. Maybe 350. Don't think I could really turn the Ace into that beast, since it's not headlight enough to begin with, but perhaps the Dual Pro and BC20 could be leaded so and tried out. An experiment for another day. First I desperately need to find my forehand.

Wow Gads..thats a hell of a poast to return with.

Very interesting stuff..what a crazy convo to hear as a racquet junkie.

I am surprised you didn't run to the bathroom and freebase basalt while shooting cortex after that encounter.

Donnay has Blake and I think that is great. I love Blake's game.

JG ^^^,

Hey, good 'eavesdropping' there buddy. Your fellow 'holics salute you, Sir!

Wow, pretty incredible JG, and highly interesting too. It must be some frame if Blake has finally settled on something (I recall reading/hearing elsewhere that he is infamous for not liking frames, or not finding something akin to what he played a good few years back originally.) Anyhow, good luck, and keep us posted re the Dual Pro.

R

^^
That's exactly what he was saying. He again said something later in the convo like, "It's just the materials. They finally got it to feel like my other one," which I assume he meant the Dunlop he'd long played with. Anyway, yeah, it was an alarming convo to hear as a junkie for sure. And especially as one who has the very same frame coming my way. "Wait'll I tell the boys!" I was thinking...

Other notes:

A few minutes later Del Potro strolled onto the court for his warm up, and man, the guy is just so smooth. He starts his practice - both groundies and serves - hitting like a sloth, VEERRRY smooth, easy swings, before he starts to ramp it up. Ball just explodes off his racquet. His hitting partner, some middle aged guy who may be his coach, was rocking what appeared to be a stock YT Radical MP (but it had a funny looking buttcap) and never missed a single ball. I mean, even the hitting partners on tour, you watch them and you wonder where on earth do these people come from. Everything just comes so easily to these guys, it's both beautiful and painful to watch.

Couple hours later, was watching DelPo and Blake slug it out and it was a great match, 6-4, 7-6, with Blake playing about as well as he could and looking very lively and fit, a good sign for, who knows, MAYBE one more run at the Open where he wins one or two or, if he's lucky, three matches. Guy looked very, very good, and is just endlessly entertaining with his go-for-broke shotmaking.

Gulbis? I had no idea the guy was so entertaining. His press conferences were just sheer hilarity all week. Used to hate the guy, but now I kind of love him because I think tennis could really use a personality like his up in the Top 10.

Nice stuff Gads..... Maybe when they make it to the east coast I can catch some practice sessions.... hopefully.... which I enjoy more than the matches.

Always liked Blake.

klementine79 said:

Nice stuff Gads..... Maybe when they make it to the east coast I can catch some practice sessions.... hopefully.... which I enjoy more than the matches.

Always liked Blake.

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Blake is playing Nalby in your neck of the woods tonight, DC.

The Eagle has landed. LOVE the simplicity of the Dual Pro black paintjob. Huge kudos to Donnay for that. Strung with Donnay's full poly rather than the hybrid setup. All-black stenciling on the "D" rather than the black-red combo that usually comes with their frames.. Just bouncing the ball of the stringbed, some vibration. With Sampras O damp, actually feels very good. But, we'll see. No hitting yet. This may very well be a one-and-restring-with-Tour Bite situation, like Donnays usually are for me, though the full poly gives me enough hope (the multi they have in the other hybrids feels like melted cheese) to give this setup a try.

League match tonight, I don't dare use this thing, do I? If it was my playoff, no way, but this is a reg. season affair in a league where I'm already 2-0. I guess I'll hit some serves and such in the hour beforehand and see how it feels. Will probably not mess with anything and keep the Ace in hand, unless I get out to a comfortable lead or something and feel comfy with experimenting.

Anyway, beautifully simple stick. (much like the Ace, in that regard).. No weight-slide options for weight, but the interchangeable buttcap is still in play -- perfect setup for me because I always hated dealing with the slides but love the buttcap tweaking.

Klem, I agree: the practice sessions are gold. One of the very best parts of attending pro tourneys. One funny moment: Blake was practicing overheads, pelting them, pelting them, and then out of nowhere he hits one right at his coach standing off to the side by the netpost, obviously on purpose, Blake grinning. "Lucky for you I hit it right into the racquet for you," he said (he'd it it right off the racquet the coach was holding)