Lead Tape Lower Hoop

Anyone ever play around with lead tape only in the lower hoop? The bottom half like 4 and 8 or 5 and 7 o'clock-ish. Thanks.

slowfox said:

Anyone ever play around with lead tape only in the lower hoop? The bottom half like 4 and 8 or 5 and 7 o'clock-ish. Thanks.

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Search old posts by TennisMaverick, an old pro player and coach with close ties to Volkl. He advocated quite a few lower hoop mods. I've never done it much, only because a) mass in the lower hoop has only a small effect, gram per gram, on hittingweight and ACOR, and b) adding mass near the center of the frame tends to stiffen it. One thing I am curious about, though, is the difference one might feel when adding mass far from the longitudinal axis when adding that mass atbthe shoulders vs 10&2. Both will widen the powerzone by increasing ACOR on the periphery but mass atbthe shoulders might feel more nimble. I think this might be a reason why Volkl frames, which are widest at 4&8, feel more maneuverable than, say, a Yonex, which are wider near the tip. In any case, unless you habitually hit the lower half of the stringbed, adding mass down there won't help you, in terms of impact kinetics.

I usually lead my frames in the higher hoop, but leading lower hoop my be sometimes usefull too.
I had to add 2g at 4 & 8 to my Bio 400T in order to fix sligth instability when hitting lower in the stringbed.
That said i also have 2g at 12 for better stability in upper hoop and for more plow.
But i can imagine lead only in lower hoop if upper hoop feels fine.

I do it to increase the mass without raising swingweight, then I'll add lead at 12 to fine tune the swingweight until I get it where I want it. It works wonders if you just want more mass without swingweight, or if you just want to fine tune a racket with off specs.

Sorry if I'm reviving a dead thread, but I am wondering if anyone who has history of placing lead at 4/8 can give me their opinions on it.

I thought it gave me a bit more control against big hitters. Actually liked it for volleys. I play with an extended racket so lead at 3/9 actually made it too uncontrollable so 4/8 was a better compromise.

So you used lead at 4/8? Did you find that it compared to 3/9 it didn't increase the SW as much?

yes, 3/9 felt very heavy on a 28 inch racket and it was at the time over 13 ounces. I thought 4/8 actually depowered the racket (slightly moved the sweetspot down), while giving some more stability.

I actually prefer the feel of hits more towards the top of the hoop as it felt deader and more controlled vs the sweetspot which sometime flew too much. I also liked lead at the throat.

As has been said, lead at 6 can be very useful if you want add mass to the head for a more solid, stable feel, but without raising the power level like 3 & 9 or higher does.