pastashop42
Rookie
Long time reader, infrequent poster here... Looking for your sage advice on racquet modification...
I learned to play in the days of Edberg and Sampras, and that's my playing style. Unsurprisingly, my favorite stick awhile back had been Wilson PS 85. I find it a great hit when I'm "on." But at 50, I feel a little too old and slow for it these days.
I've played with Yonex DG97 330, which is nice overall -- solid returns and volleys, good precisions... But somehow I reliably get golfer's elbow after I play with it for a stretch.
More recently, I've played reasonably well with slightly weighted up Angell ASL2 and K7 Red. The ASL2 worked well in the beginning, but then I started trying slightly more modern style of hitting, maybe emulating Federer, and having a hard time with the ASL2. It seems to be quite string sensitive, and I feel like the ball kind of "slides off" whenever I hit anywhere toward the hoop.
The K7 Red "hooks" the ball much better for me. I immediately felt like I could "throw" the racquet forward and let the stick and strings do their thing. But not all is well – I find it is a little too muted / lacking in feedback, and sometimes erratic (very open string pattern). Particularly, whenever I try to do my classic down-the-line slice approach shot, or inside out forehand, or stick volley, for that matter. I tried several string setups in it, but nothing thicker than 16L gauge – is that the problem?
A few weeks ago I dug out an old POG 110, weighing ~360g and ~31.5 cm balance point. I have another one of these, but it's 20g lighter and more headlight! Anyhow, I played reasonably well with the heavier one. (Better than with the lighter one, even after adding some lead in the hoop on the latter – getting nothing on serve returns, can't hit deep.) I recently put HyperG Round 17G in the heavier POG – this improved its consistency, but after a few hours of play, I realized that I very much dislike the Prince grip shape, and I don't like it all that much on my backhand.
I came into possession of two reasonably well matched Head Graphene Touch Prestige MP sticks in great shape. I tried it with a few different strings - ZX / ProLine hybrid and now Zero and Sync. I do like the fairly plush and predictable feeling of this stick on impact, and I do like the Sync a bit more than Zero. It felt a bit underpowered, low-spin to me, so I've put some weight at 12 o'clock, lowered string tension (48/46 lbs). The grip shape on the HGTP-MP feels like classic Head, which feels great on my forehand, but makes it hard for me to locate the "face" of the racquet on the 1hbh; I've layered some tape to build up the broad bevels to make it feel a bit more like Wilson, which helped. It seems like the stick is light enough and consistent enough to tolerate some mods...
So, here's the question – without recommending to me to just buy a pair of modern Wilson ProStaffs (whose specs are going to be all over the place anyway), can you suggest some mods that I could make to the HGTP-MP? Anyone have luck weighing up and/or doing other mods to get the HGTP-MP working well for them?
Thanks in advance!
I learned to play in the days of Edberg and Sampras, and that's my playing style. Unsurprisingly, my favorite stick awhile back had been Wilson PS 85. I find it a great hit when I'm "on." But at 50, I feel a little too old and slow for it these days.
I've played with Yonex DG97 330, which is nice overall -- solid returns and volleys, good precisions... But somehow I reliably get golfer's elbow after I play with it for a stretch.
More recently, I've played reasonably well with slightly weighted up Angell ASL2 and K7 Red. The ASL2 worked well in the beginning, but then I started trying slightly more modern style of hitting, maybe emulating Federer, and having a hard time with the ASL2. It seems to be quite string sensitive, and I feel like the ball kind of "slides off" whenever I hit anywhere toward the hoop.
The K7 Red "hooks" the ball much better for me. I immediately felt like I could "throw" the racquet forward and let the stick and strings do their thing. But not all is well – I find it is a little too muted / lacking in feedback, and sometimes erratic (very open string pattern). Particularly, whenever I try to do my classic down-the-line slice approach shot, or inside out forehand, or stick volley, for that matter. I tried several string setups in it, but nothing thicker than 16L gauge – is that the problem?
A few weeks ago I dug out an old POG 110, weighing ~360g and ~31.5 cm balance point. I have another one of these, but it's 20g lighter and more headlight! Anyhow, I played reasonably well with the heavier one. (Better than with the lighter one, even after adding some lead in the hoop on the latter – getting nothing on serve returns, can't hit deep.) I recently put HyperG Round 17G in the heavier POG – this improved its consistency, but after a few hours of play, I realized that I very much dislike the Prince grip shape, and I don't like it all that much on my backhand.
I came into possession of two reasonably well matched Head Graphene Touch Prestige MP sticks in great shape. I tried it with a few different strings - ZX / ProLine hybrid and now Zero and Sync. I do like the fairly plush and predictable feeling of this stick on impact, and I do like the Sync a bit more than Zero. It felt a bit underpowered, low-spin to me, so I've put some weight at 12 o'clock, lowered string tension (48/46 lbs). The grip shape on the HGTP-MP feels like classic Head, which feels great on my forehand, but makes it hard for me to locate the "face" of the racquet on the 1hbh; I've layered some tape to build up the broad bevels to make it feel a bit more like Wilson, which helped. It seems like the stick is light enough and consistent enough to tolerate some mods...
So, here's the question – without recommending to me to just buy a pair of modern Wilson ProStaffs (whose specs are going to be all over the place anyway), can you suggest some mods that I could make to the HGTP-MP? Anyone have luck weighing up and/or doing other mods to get the HGTP-MP working well for them?
Thanks in advance!
