Greetings, all. First of all, thanks to Tennis Warehouse for affording us the opportunity to playtest the new Volkl and present our findings.
This playtest is sort of a two-for-one, in that, both my wife and I tested the racquet presented to us, and are giving our collective, yet separate, thoughts on the test racquet.
Tennis experience/background:
My wife and have been playing for over 40 years each (yikes! Kind of hard to write that out), and played competitively through middle school and high school, as well as at the local club level. We were both #3 seeds in our competitive days.
We both have A-type personality traits that we typically keep in check.
We both played and practiced so much in our youth that we burned out, long before we even met. I’d gotten to the point where I was getting angry ( McEnroe-style ), throwing / breaking racquets, and generally making a public arse of myself, and not enjoying it anymore. I voluntarily quit the game at 17 for two years, realizing it was better for me, and the game, to just quit for a while.
My wife, while not quite as bad, also stopped playing for a while, as she was also burned out.
Now, we no longer play competitively, but practice competitively. We run each other ragged, try to hit winners on each other, and get to every ball we can on the first bounce.
We know that when we try to play matches or keep score, an internal switch is thrown, and our A-type personality traits come out in full force and we revert to the jerks we were in our youth.
Describe your playing style (i.e. serve & volley):
We’re both solid 4.5s, having played for most of our lives and can get back to 5.0 if we apply ourselves. Sadly, old age, work, family, and other obligations prevent that, but we’re generally okay with that.
Our strokes are pretty well grooved, as are our games, and the muscle memory is solidly engrained. We can take six months off from the game, and within 10-15 minutes, we’re 90% back to where we were when we left off.
My wife is a solid baseliner, long before it became the norm. I’m an all-courter, who can wail at the baseline, but given an opportunity to get to net, won’t hesitate. Unlike the current norm, I don’t feel like the net is radioactive.
We’re old school, with old school games and strokes...long strokes, one-handed backhands, mix of topspin, slice, and flat strokes.
Current racquet/string:
We’ve played long enough that we know what type of racquet and string setup works for us—as well as what doesn’t—pretty quickly. When we find a racquet that works for us, we tend to stick with it for multiple years.
For the past 9 years, I’ve been playing with three Volkl Tour 10 Mids, with a Gosen SG. I usually have one in the upper tension range, one middle, and one lower, typically with the crosses ~10% lower than the mains. Lately, I’ve been dabbling with poly / SG hybrids, but I realize that I’m not getting any younger, and probably need to move to a lighter player’s racquet.
For roughly the same amount of time, my wife has had two Volkl C10 Pros in her bag, usually with Prince Synthetic Gut or Gosen SG, one mid range, one lower, also with crosses lower by ~ 10%.
Realizing that we’re both slowing down, she recently changed to a Head Graphene Instinct Rev.tail-weighted with 1.5 oz of lead, blue stick, and coins in the handle, making it more HL and generally heavier, strung with Cyclone 17 mains, OGSM 16 crosses, at 53 / 47.
I’m probably changing over to the Head YTIG Prestige S, though in the meantime, I’ve been using my wife’s old C10 Pros, generally pretty successfully.
Racquet model tested: Volkl Organix 7 295
String set-up in test racquet: Hybrid, mid-range tension
How many hours did you play with the racquet? 8
Comments on racquet performance:
The TW test specifically stated that you couldn’t request a specific racquet. I was hoping that—given that we’d both played Volkl 10 series racquets for so long—that we’d get the Organix 10 Mid. No such luck. Still, we figured we’d give it a try, knowing its specs were way off from what we currently or previously use, or gravitate towards, with open minds.
Years ago, I picked up the old C7 Comp for my niece (late 90s?), which was a wonderful stick. I was hoping that maybe some of that old 7 Series carried over to the new one.
Cosmetically, it sure is green. I’m reminded of the Kneissl Tom’s Reach Machine, as well as an old Kneissl ski from ~’75-76, replete with the black lettering. For texture freaks—which include my wife—it’s mostly a gloss finish, though inside the hoop is more of a matte finish. I wonder if that’s for folks using lead, as perhaps the matte is friendly to the addition and removal of lead tape than a gloss finish would be.
Heft immediately notes that it’s far more head-heavy than what we’re used to ( 6-8pts HL vs EB ) even without looking at the specs. It’s also a noticeably larger head size than what we play with ( 93 / 98 vs 104 ) as well as lighter strung weight ( 340 / 346 vs 309 ), and SW ( 327 / 323 vs 318 ),and thicker beam width ( 20 / 20 vs 24.5). The biggest, most noticeable difference was the stiffness ( 59 / 63 vs 74 RA ).
We resisted the temptation to modify the specs to our personal preferences, as we wanted to give an honest assessment of the racquet in stock form, and its intended audience.
Again, we’re trying to be open-minded, and have tried a bunch of modern sticks in the process of moving to new racquets, but most of the new stuff has left us cold. We both went in, hoping that, having played Volkl for so long, maybe we’d be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, we were pretty disappointed, but it’s probably because we’re old farts with old school games and tastes.
-groundstrokes:
The Organix 7 295g has tons of free power. Too much for our games, which is why we gravitate towards flexier, lower-powered racquets, where we can use our longer, natural, grooved strokes.
We couldn’t swing freely and expect the ball to stay in play. So we either had to abbreviate our strokes, which doesn’t feel natural, or use a modern, brushing stroke adding extra spin, which also isn’t natural for us. It was frustrating for both of us, but given how most pros teach modern strokes these days, it would probably work better for newbs and younger folks playing the modern game.
Also, given the wider beam than what we’re used to, we found ourselves framing the ball more than our normal sticks. (Note: the Graphene Instinct Rev has a slightly wider beam than our Volkl 10s, but not as thick as the O7-295).
-serves:
Again, lots of free power…but the balance, head size, weight, and stiffness felt awkward. It also makes an odd whistling sound, at least when I was serving. My wife could hear it from pretty far away, while I was serving and she was back at the club house. Neither good nor bad, just an observation.
-volleys:
Who, besides doubles specialists, goes to net these days? Well, me, but again, the specs are so far removed from what I’m used to or gravitate towards, that it left me pretty cold. Too big, too thick, too stiff to allow me to employ my normal touch.
My wife doesn’t spend much time at the net, but when she did, she wasn’t as comfortable or as effective as how she would be with either her old C10 Pro, or the newer Graphene Instinct Rev.
-serve returns:
Using the server’s power, pace, and spin against them, simply blocking it back, it’s a-okay. But once again, if I tried to take my normal cut at the ball, I’d send it sailing. If I back off, I’d dink it into the net.
My wife is recovering from joint issues, so she didn’t spend much time returning my serves.
General reaction/comments on overall performance:
Volkl is generally known as producing arm-friendly racquets…but given the state of the modern game these days, they have to offer something to stay current. In the process of play-testing modern racquets, some are able to mask / hide / damp out the stiffness. The IG Instinct MP hid its stiffness pretty well.
The O7-295 wasn’t brutal when playing, but we both felt its after-effects the next day.
Given how its specs are so far removed from what we’re used to or gravitate towards, we can’t recommend it for our games. That being said, there are lots of newbs out there and folks who play the modern game for whom this racquet was clearly intended. If you play a modern game, and don’t have joint issues, it’s certainly worth a play test.
Thanks again to Tennis Warehouse for giving us the opportunity to add to this user playtest!
