Alcaraz and Sinner need heavier racquets vs Djokovic

[Tranqville]

End of this season stirred much discussion on how the young generation, lead by Sinner and Alcaraz, can be more competitive vs Djokovic. The thread here on whether Sinner should switch to 95 head size gave me an interesting idea. What if the NextGen needs a heavier racquet?

A light racquet is great for the model modern game, which is taught in tennis academies all over the world. Crush your first serve into a corner, crush your forehand into an opposite corner for a winner. Easy money. Maximum acceleration, severe pronation, wrist and all that. Until the game gives you the Final Boss - the serve comes back, plus one comes back, an attack is neutralized and a counterattack is unleashed. To beat Djokovic, young players need variety, need to be great on defensive, creating counters and scrapping extra percentages here and there. Alkaraz, Sinner are neutralized when attacked relentlessly. That is why both Djokovic and Medvedev ramp up their forehands vs them to 85 mph+. And Sinner's pace neutralizes Alkaraz.

What if the light racquet is limiting the ability to counter heavy pace? What if NextGen need pace absorbtion alongside pace generation? Djokovic uses heavy, stable racquet with high twistweigth to absorb pace, redirect, pass the net rusher. What if the heavy racquet is better for long, grueling rallies, as it allows to hit with slightly less RHS, gives more easy power? What if the heavy racquet gives more stability at the net? What if the light racquet is slightly lacking at the very pinnacle of the sport? What do you guys think?

 

[morten]

I have actually had the same thought

 

[Bambooman]

Yes. Kids are soft these days.

 

[L4S10s]

their whippy technique + heavy racquet = injury

 

[Grafil Injection]

Yes, with correct technique you can get both high spin and penetration with a heavy and tight string-bed racket.

 

[bobeeto]

I’m shocked that every new gen with some athletic potential has not tryed to copy Nadal’s setup to a lighter degree

 

[Tranqville]

I’m shocked that every new gen with some athletic potential has not tryed to copy Nadal’s setup to a lighter degree

Nadal has kept adding weight @12 throughout his long career, as he wanted more finishing power to shorten points.

 

[InsuranceMan]

Are there more stats to back up the claim that Med/Djokovic (usually defense bots) out power a guy like sinner who hits like a truck? I don’t buy it

 

[am1899]

If he’s like most other top level players, surely he has done his fair share of experiments with equipment. (Especially with Cahill in his corner).

Regardless, he is 4 in the world. He is doing a lot of things right. Dont think now is the time to be second guessing equipment…

 

[johnmccabe]

their whippy technique + heavy racquet = injury

No. This is not true. All they have to do is recalibrating their timing.

 

[johnmccabe]

I’m shocked that every new gen with some athletic potential has not tryed to copy Nadal’s setup to a lighter degree

Because they didn't have to, before setting the cross hair at someone as good as joker.

 

[jmacdaununder2]

I think it’s significant that Nogold doesn’t have to maintain as high racquet head speed as Sinner & Alcaraz do as pressure increases.

 

[johnmccabe]

I think it’s significant that Nogold doesn’t have to maintain as high racquet head speed as Sinner & Alcaraz do as pressure increases.

High racquet head speed is often talked about as the solution for all problems. But there is definitely a trade off at the end of the day.

 

[Tranqville]

Are there more stats to back up the claim that Med/Djokovic (usually defense bots) out power a guy like sinner who hits like a truck? I don’t buy it

 

[socallefty]

How much increase in Swingweight are you recommending? A range of 5-7 kg-cm2 might be possible to experiment and tweak with during an offseason. If you are talking about a range of 15-30 kg-cm2 to increase the SW, it would require a complete retooling of the timing of all shots and that would not be possible for a top pro to do suddenly midway through their career without a significant drop in results for a while that will dent their confidence. Confidence is a fragile thing that you don’t want to mess with as it is a big reason why the top players win close matches.

I think Sinner and Alcaraz were not ready tactically for Djokovic and Medvedev to up the speed on their FHs as much as they did this year in the Australian summer and Fall seasons when courts are faster. So, they didn’t know how to react to it and their shot tolerance/decision-making went to hell. I think they will likely prepare for it better during this off-season and at least against Djokovic they will play to his BH wing more next year - that’s what Sinner did effectively in the first match at Turin, but Djokovic hit his FH bigger and wouldn’t let him do it as easily in the Final. Against Medvedev, they should probably come to net more and take advantage of his deep court position, but they can‘t do it just by serving high kick serves as Medvedev was ready for it from Alcaraz in the USO semi while it was effective earlier in Indian Wells. Djokovic in contrast mixed up his serves more including many wide slices before coming in during the USO final.

Alcaraz depends a lot on his drop shots on slow surfaces to end points when he has good court position and his opponents are deep, but he doesn’t seem to be able to execute it as well on fast surfaces. Sinner just has not had the physicality to play well for 2 weeks in a Bestof5 tournament so far - maybe he will put on some bulk this off-season. It also might be worthwhile for Sinner to play less tournaments and try to peak for Slams like the older players do. I think there is some tweaking of their game and tactics they can try before deciding they need to change their racquet SW significantly.

 

[Jonesy]

Nah, weight doesn't give you power. Pure Drive gives you power. These kids need a pure drive to beat Novak. Once i saw a man lifting a car just by holding a pure drive.

 

[Flying_Axe]

Nah, weight doesn't give you power. Pure Drive gives you power. These kids need a pure drive to beat Novak. Once i saw a man lifting a car just by holding a pure drive.

As Roddick said: "First he takes your legs, then you young men take my Drive."

 

[shamaho]

End of this season stirred much discussion on how the young generation, lead by Sinner and Alcaraz, can be more competitive vs Djokovic. The thread here on whether Sinner should switch to 95 head size gave me an interesting idea. What if the NextGen needs a heavier racquet?

A light racquet is great for the model modern game, which is taught in tennis academies all over the world. Crush your first serve into a corner, crush your forehand into an opposite corner for a winner. Easy money. Maximum acceleration, severe pronation, wrist and all that. Until the game gives you the Final Boss - the serve comes back, plus one comes back, an attack is neutralized and a counterattack is unleashed. To beat Djokovic, young players need variety, need to be great on defensive, creating counters and scrapping extra percentages here and there. Alkaraz, Sinner are neutralized when attacked relentlessly. That is why both Djokovic and Medvedev ramp up their forehands vs them to 85 mph+. And Sinner's pace neutralizes Alkaraz.

What if the light racquet is limiting the ability to counter heavy pace? What if NextGen need pace absorbtion alongside pace generation? Djokovic uses heavy, stable racquet with high twistweigth to absorb pace, redirect, pass the net rusher. What if the heavy racquet is better for long, grueling rallies, as it allows to hit with slightly less RHS, gives more easy power? What if the heavy racquet gives more stability at the net? What if the light racquet is slightly lacking at the very pinnacle of the sport? What do you guys think?

I concur with much of what you say, except your conclusion but I don't think the change is in the racket at all, the change should be strategic and tactical, variety is key as you say... but all these youngsters aren't build to that model...all they know is bash the ball... which for Djokovoc only serves to help him, only has to redirect the ball with the existing pace...

The strategic change is varying the pace so Djokovic has to adjust at every ball, get slow low balls to being him into no man's land... make him retreat back to retrieve an heavy ball, go back in again, etc

I once saw Manarinno playing like that against Nole, and was giving him fits.... but well Manarinno's game does tend to do that... lol

 

[Tranqville]

How much increase in Swingweight are you recommending?

I'm not qualified to recommend even shoe laces to these athletes. I was thinking more in line of what-ifs and about juniors traning to become elite athletes - what if they were exposed to heavier racquets earlier, in their forming years. Now it's perhaps too late.

That being said, looking at Big 3, they all approached racquet change differently. Novak tweaked his racquet once with Roman Prokes, increasting the length slightly, getting rid of a cross string, decreasing static weight, SW, but retaining RW, MGRI, and frame geometry/headsize. That made transition very smooth and required no change in swing. Roger's transition from 90 to 97 was more radical. Rafa has played almost his entire career with the same racquet, just adding weight at 12 and handle.

 

[Jonesy]

As Roddick said: "First he takes your legs, then you young men take my Drive."

If you want to beat the man use the tools that beat the man. The weapon of choice that can make you have a positive h2h against Novak.

 

[johnmccabe]

The strategic change is varying the pace so Djokovic has to adjust at every ball, get slow low balls to being him into no man's land... make him retreat back to retrieve an heavy ball, go back in again, etc

Slow short balls will be punished mercilessly, because his ball recognition and movement is too good. His worst matchup is Sinner with stamina.

 

[capecoddan]

End of this season stirred much discussion on how the young generation, lead by Sinner and Alcaraz, can be more competitive vs Djokovic. The thread here on whether Sinner should switch to 95 head size gave me an interesting idea. What if the NextGen needs a heavier racquet?

A light racquet is great for the model modern game, which is taught in tennis academies all over the world. Crush your first serve into a corner, crush your forehand into an opposite corner for a winner. Easy money. Maximum acceleration, severe pronation, wrist and all that. Until the game gives you the Final Boss - the serve comes back, plus one comes back, an attack is neutralized and a counterattack is unleashed. To beat Djokovic, young players need variety, need to be great on defensive, creating counters and scrapping extra percentages here and there. Alkaraz, Sinner are neutralized when attacked relentlessly. That is why both Djokovic and Medvedev ramp up their forehands vs them to 85 mph+. And Sinner's pace neutralizes Alkaraz.

What if the light racquet is limiting the ability to counter heavy pace? What if NextGen need pace absorbtion alongside pace generation? Djokovic uses heavy, stable racquet with high twistweigth to absorb pace, redirect, pass the net rusher. What if the heavy racquet is better for long, grueling rallies, as it allows to hit with slightly less RHS, gives more easy power? What if the heavy racquet gives more stability at the net? What if the light racquet is slightly lacking at the very pinnacle of the sport? What do you guys think?

yes.the light raquet cant handle the heavy ball .i use my pure drive when im playing with the younger group 324gram.i will use my pro staff at 280 gram for the older group i normally play with at the 4.0 level.

 

[Tranqville]

yes.the light raquet cant handle the heavy ball

This is only correct at moderate RHS. TWU research shows that with high RHS, a light racquet is akin to a heavy racquet in terms of stability. High RHS can negate almost all negative effects of low mass - my point is that the few percentage points not negated might be missing to beat Djokovic. Tennis is a game of small margins.

 

[Chairman3]

Let the racquet do the work...well said.
Less taxing as long as you have good footwork, and they should.

Plus, defense, heavier racquets can be easier to defend with regardless of the shot needed. I find this to be true for myself as well (obviously not a pro, just saying)
Efficient tennis wins matches.

 

[socallefty]

Maybe a heavier racquet helps on defense, but it might take away a lot on offense and in particular serve speed. The high RHS with these lighter racquets allows almost all the young guys including the ones who are average height for tennis pros (6’1“ and below) to serve over 130mph while the pros from the previous Big 3 generation topped out typically around 120mph.

I was impressed by Alcaraz at his height serving over 135mph easily even a couple of years ago. Today I saw Hamad Medejdovic hitting 140mph in the ATP finals at 6’2”. In the days of heavier racquets, you needed to be 6’5”+ to serve 130+ with only a few exceptions. Now it seems to be normal for younger guys of all heights to have 130+ serves and the lighter racquets seem to be helping with that as their technique doesn’t seem that different.

 

[Lukhas]

Maybe a heavier racquet helps on defense, but it might take away a lot on offense and in particular serve speed. The high RHS with these lighter racquets allows almost all the young guys including the ones who are average height for tennis pros (6’1“ and below) to serve over 130mph while the pros from the previous Big 3 generation topped out typically around 120mph.

I was impressed by Alcaraz at his height serving over 135mph easily even a couple of years ago. Today I saw Hamad Medejdovic hitting 140mph in the ATP finals at 6’2”. In the days of heavier racquets, you needed to be 6’5”+ to serve 130+ with only a few exceptions. Now it seems to be normal for younger guys of all heights to have 130+ serves and the lighter racquets seem to be helping with that as their technique doesn’t seem that different.

Not exactly. Serve is specifically the shot where swingweight matters the least. Which makes sense since it's also the only stroke where you have perfect control of both your ball and swing. It is in line with what @Tranqville alluded to regarding swing speed: in a perfect world where you can swing as fast as you can, the racket's inertia isn't as important. I therefore I would also suggest that it isn't as important on attack either since you're on the front foot and can choose what to do with the ball.
https://twu.tennis-warehouse.com/learning_center/racquetpower.php

I think the increase in serve speed has a lot more to do with poly strings: the serve percentages went up, and the power at which you can hit and keep the ball in also went up. IMO, the player who was at the forefront of that early 00's change was Andy Roddick: not only he was hitting bloody hard, but his percentages were also really high. That being said, the technique on serve is the one that IMO has evolved the least over the decades. Aside from being able to leave the ground with both feet, very little has technically changed about the stroke itself.

EDIT: Found a cool video showing serves through the decades. Yeah, the players are bigger and better trained and it is a factor, but not as much as being allowed to produce enough spin to get the ball to stay in.

Tennis Serve Evolution

From 1919 to XXI century, the serve hasn't change very much. Examples of Gerald Patterson, Donald Budge or Rod Laver.

www.tokyvideo.com

That being said, while I do think in most instances heavier has more advantages than drawbacks especially at pro level, I don't have strong opinions on exactly who should use exactly what. Just general observations that it's maybe worth a shot.

 

[socallefty]

Force = Mass x Acceleration

When I was younger in my 30s/early 40s, I served harder with 11-11.5 oz (SW 320-25) demo racquets than my usual 12-12.5 oz (SW 335-345) racquets presumably because I got higher RHS. In the last decade I’ve gained weight, have arthritic knees and a less flexible back - now there seems to be an upper ceiling to the RHS that I can swing on the 1st serve irrespective of my racquet’s SW or weight. So, now I serve harder with higher SW racquets with more mass since my top acceleration is constant. On my 2nd serve, I put more spin on the ball with the lower SW Strike VS due to higher RHS on 2nd serve swing speeds than my heavier PST, but I serve harder on 1st serves with the PST.

 

[Mischko]

Yes, and it has been obvious since Sinner beat Alcaraz by just hitting through him, just like hard hitters hit through Goffin or De Minaur etc, it was obvious Alcaraz doesn't have a solution at all, and that on percentages he loses in the end, after 200 points

Kind of thought that both were going to up their weight and sw already this time last year, or by AO 2023, was surprised they hadn't. I thought they are young, not playing GS semis yet etc, they are still developing their game, variety, moves etc, but their coaches plan to eventually go up. However, they haven't and I did think it was going to be a fail. And then it was only a matter of time when other coaches and top players would figure out that to beat Alcaraz you have to starve him of time, just hit through him, not allow him to lead the game

Blocking, depth and counterpunching is significantly easier with higher sw, it's a big difference even at my humble level, at their level it's huge. Alcaraz and Rune play with the same racquet and string, but 327 vs 350 swingweight, and good luck trying to hit through Rune.

Jannik at 340 is not that weak, but still has some weak balls, when stretched has to swing at balls where he could just put a racquet on it instead, with higher sw. And his static is low, like 306g or so, at least it was, now seeing him hit much more stable volleys, I'm thinking they added some weight to the handle. Federer also played at 340sw at the end, but with 340g static, and a megastable frame

So yeah, it's a matter of time, they should've done it already

Didn't follow Djokovic much when he was younger, but also had an impression that when he started dominating, was it 2010?, it was because he leaded up his frame to the max and just played the wall on his side of the court. Prior to that, he had a much more nimble game, and would often attack, serve + 1 or so, even on clay. Was it with a Wilson briefly?

But after putting a ton of lead he just played safe tennis, with the new-ish swing on serve, with difficulties to bring the very heavy racquet head up correctly. And then we had a decade of him, Nadal and Murray competing in "who has more lead below the bumper", and playing each other in long "percentage tennis" duels, and those I skipped entirely. My excuse is that I was very busy with work.

 

[shamaho]

Slow short balls will be punished mercilessly, because his ball recognition and movement is too good. His worst matchup is Sinner with stamina.

Those are the short balls that result from desensive shots, or from scrambling to a ball after a moderate length exchange...

I was speaking of the other kind, that mixes up the rally, while he's expecting another power shot... of course it won't work every time, but I've seen him make wild mistakes out of those balls, when he's winding up for redirecting a power shots, then had to re-adjust for the short ball...

 

[Klitz]

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Emmaunel Macron was caught smearing semen on the World Cup trophy

TimHenmanATG smokes Crystal Meth whilst reading The Guardian

Nancy Pelosi sucked Volodymyr Zelensky off

Növax Dèportovic slammed down and smashed a racquet, Marcos Baghdatis responded by snapping 4 racquets on his knee

Andy Murray was caught wañking over the fact he has a metal hip

Spencer GORE went to Ukraine and forced Thotties to burn their fannies by shoving hot Chicken Kievs into them

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Red Rick wants to molest children that resemble Andy Murray

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Jess Glynne was caught cutting her fanny while watching Pete Sampras force his kids to smoke Crystal Meth

Thriller was caught furiously wánking to the fact James Blake got to Number 4 in the world

Carlos Sainz got Charles Leclerc on the Pipe

Alexander Lukashenko is going to transform into a SLOTH

Slicehand slices fannies with one hand, hence the name

Djokovic2011 is planning to shoot up USO2023 if Növax Dèportovic is not allowed to play

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Donald Trump is Inbred Dickwad

Why is this bot so angry all the time?

 

[johnmccabe]

Those are the short balls that result from desensive shots, or from scrambling to a ball after a moderate length exchange...

I was speaking of the other kind, that mixes up the rally, while he's expecting another power shot... of course it won't work every time, but I've seen him make wild mistakes out of those balls, when he's winding up for redirecting a power shots, then had to re-adjust for the short ball...

Top players don't do these guessing very often. They react and read the ball.

 

[Klitz]

NoleFam is inçel who wañks off to Növax Dèportovic

But he has a wife and kids. How can he be an involuntarily celebate

 

[chrisb]

End of this season stirred much discussion on how the young generation, lead by Sinner and Alcaraz, can be more competitive vs Djokovic. The thread here on whether Sinner should switch to 95 head size gave me an interesting idea. What if the NextGen needs a heavier racquet?

A light racquet is great for the model modern game, which is taught in tennis academies all over the world. Crush your first serve into a corner, crush your forehand into an opposite corner for a winner. Easy money. Maximum acceleration, severe pronation, wrist and all that. Until the game gives you the Final Boss - the serve comes back, plus one comes back, an attack is neutralized and a counterattack is unleashed. To beat Djokovic, young players need variety, need to be great on defensive, creating counters and scrapping extra percentages here and there. Alkaraz, Sinner are neutralized when attacked relentlessly. That is why both Djokovic and Medvedev ramp up their forehands vs them to 85 mph+. And Sinner's pace neutralizes Alkaraz.

What if the light racquet is limiting the ability to counter heavy pace? What if NextGen need pace absorbtion alongside pace generation? Djokovic uses heavy, stable racquet with high twistweigth to absorb pace, redirect, pass the net rusher. What if the heavy racquet is better for long, grueling rallies, as it allows to hit with slightly less RHS, gives more easy power? What if the heavy racquet gives more stability at the net? What if the light racquet is slightly lacking at the very pinnacle of the sport? What do you guys think?

 

[chrisb]

To change to heavy rackets is STUPID try thinking before you expose yourself

 

[kabrac]

I'd like too see a tournament where they use wooden or aluminum racquets only. Or even go all in.....probably too late now.

 

[spottishwood]

spottishwood måsturbates to Australian Open whilst wanting to troll TW

El Yotamo is Inbred Dickwad

Bizkits is Chad (TW6 November 21 2021)

A centre court match at Wimbledon was interrupted when NatF spilt Crystal Meth over 3 people

Andy Murray is a Metal Hipster

Waspsting wañks to footage of retired weak-era tennis players whilst sniffing anything he can to get high

Budd Dwyer only had a few seconds to transform into a KOAAAALA before he would have been jumped

US Open should be called US Closed as it was closed to Növax Dèportovic in 2022

MurraysMetalHip wants to invade Area 51 to molest Aliens

threehandedbackhand måsturbates to Italian tennis

Stringertom edited an episode of Teletubbies to show Budd Dwyer An Hero, the original KOAAAALA

Emmaunel Macron was caught smearing semen on the World Cup trophy

TimHenmanATG smokes Crystal Meth whilst reading The Guardian

Nancy Pelosi sucked Volodymyr Zelensky off

Növax Dèportovic slammed down and smashed a racquet, Marcos Baghdatis responded by snapping 4 racquets on his knee

Andy Murray was caught wañking over the fact he has a metal hip

Spencer GORE went to Ukraine and forced Thotties to burn their fannies by shoving hot Chicken Kievs into them

ForehandCross måsturbates furiously to the thought of going to Russia and getting sent to a gulag

3loudboys was caught måsturbating violently to Vladimir Putin

Lewis Hamilton got Toto Wolff on the Pipe

Elon Musk wànks to footage of SpaceX Starship exploding

Babolast was caught listening to Charmless Man by Blur while måsturbating to BeatlesFan cutting her fanny

OhYes cuts her rotten fanny at Wimbledon during a Noväx Depõrtovic match

Red Rick wants to molest children that resemble Andy Murray

NAS broke into Roger Federer's house and munched through the fridge

Jess Glynne was caught cutting her fanny while watching Pete Sampras force his kids to smoke Crystal Meth

Thriller was caught furiously wánking to the fact James Blake got to Number 4 in the world

Carlos Sainz got Charles Leclerc on the Pipe

Alexander Lukashenko is going to transform into a SLOTH

Slicehand slices fannies with one hand, hence the name

Djokovic2011 is planning to shoot up USO2023 if Növax Dèportovic is not allowed to play

Nadal_Django wants to suck Rafael Nadal off whilst smoking weed

merwy màsturbates to Hungarian soccer

Clay lover loves licking ClayQueen's rotten fanny

Mediterranean Might màsturbates violently to Cypriot beach volleyball players

MurraysMetalHip is TimHenmanATG with an alternate account

Donald Trump is Inbred Dickwad

How does this troll even know me lmfao. I barely post these days.

 

[mtommer]

What if the light racquet is limiting the ability to counter heavy pace? What if NextGen need pace absorbtion alongside pace generation? Djokovic uses heavy, stable racquet with high twistweigth to absorb pace, redirect, pass the net rusher.

It's not. They don't. He doesn't.

They can all hit heavier shots and lighter shots back to an opponent with ease. They all literally do it in every rally.

Pace absorbtion and pace generation, are again, literally done in every rally all pros play.

Djokovic doesn't use his racquet to "absorb" anything. He absorbs it, he redirects it and he passes players.

Doubles players play the same gammet of racquets singles players do and play all the shots Djokovic does.

 

[Tranqville]

Djokovic doesn't use his racquet to "absorb" anything. He absorbs it

I'm not sure if I follow your logic here.

 

[mtommer]

I'm not sure if I follow your logic here.

What is the common frame all top 25 players use? What is the common string job they all use? Tension? Weight? Balance?

There is no common setup. Yet, they all play each other and handle each other's shots just fine. Their weapon of choice, so to speak, is already optimized to their game.

 

[dl32]

Yes, with correct technique you can get both high spin and penetration with a heavy and tight string-bed racket.

It’s called hitting like Novak or Fed! Although, Fed’s RF97 wasn’t as closed as Novak’s PT113/346.

 

[classical_tennis]

Top juniors, 12's/14's and up are on court four hours a day or more. Often just mindlessly hitting back and forth. In many cases, they are "arming the ball", not using full body weight. And hitting very flat, no topspin or heaviness, but fast as heck, they win junior tournaments, fizzle out after that. So for junior tennis 4+ hours a day hitting, they need a 300-305 racket, maybe less for girls. The 315 gram rackets are too tiring for the training they do, and with the technique they use.

But, they do not encounter the top 50 ATP serves, the pace, the heaviness of what they would face as pros. The weight of the ball has not changed, but the heaviness of shots has. I say more fitness, gym, two maybe three hours on court, and by 16's they should be playing with an ATP swing weight (340+), racket modifications needed of course, weight in handle and hoop. Lot's of information of racket modifications of top players, coaches, juniors, and parents of juniors should educated themselves.

I use Willson 6.1 95's,, 16x18, BLX version, 3 grams in handle, and 3 grams head tape around hoop (yes the black head tape adds weight, but more evenly than lead), Yonex super grap overgrip, Babalot Rafa vibration dampener, Gosen Polylon 17 gauge mains 44 lbs., and Gosen OG Sheep 16 gauge crosses 48 lbs. All told, the rackets are static weighted at 364 grams, very headlight, but super stable. The reason I give these details is many coaches and most parents and juniors have no clue. The Babalot rackets with full poly strung at 50 lbs. is an arm killer. The stock light rackets (Speed, Aero, Ezone, etc.) used provide instant gratification, but no foundation. These rackets need customization. Such a lack of expertise and materials for these juniors. Also, coaches use even lighter rackets, 285 grams more or less, because they are feeding, rallying all day with lesser players, etc. So the juniors are influenced by this. something needs to change so that top players are using properly weighted rackets, that will withstand the rigors of top college and ATP tennis.

 

[K1Y]

Top juniors, 12's/14's and up are on court four hours a day or more. Often just mindlessly hitting back and forth. In many cases, they are "arming the ball", not using full body weight. And hitting very flat, no topspin or heaviness, but fast as heck, they win junior tournaments, fizzle out after that. So for junior tennis 4+ hours a day hitting, they need a 300-305 racket, maybe less for girls. The 315 gram rackets are too tiring for the training they do, and with the technique they use.

But, they do not encounter the top 50 ATP serves, the pace, the heaviness of what they would face as pros. The weight of the ball has not changed, but the heaviness of shots has. I say more fitness, gym, two maybe three hours on court, and by 16's they should be playing with an ATP swing weight (340+), racket modifications needed of course, weight in handle and hoop. Lot's of information of racket modifications of top players, coaches, juniors, and parents of juniors should educated themselves.

I use Willson 6.1 95's,, 16x18, BLX version, 3 grams in handle, and 3 grams head tape around hoop (yes the black head tape adds weight, but more evenly than lead), Yonex super grap overgrip, Babalot Rafa vibration dampener, Gosen Polylon 17 gauge mains 44 lbs., and Gosen OG Sheep 16 gauge crosses 48 lbs. All told, the rackets are static weighted at 364 grams, very headlight, but super stable. The reason I give these details is many coaches and most parents and juniors have no clue. The Babalot rackets with full poly strung at 50 lbs. is an arm killer. The stock light rackets (Speed, Aero, Ezone, etc.) used provide instant gratification, but no foundation. These rackets need customization. Such a lack of expertise and materials for these juniors. Also, coaches use even lighter rackets, 285 grams more or less, because they are feeding, rallying all day with lesser players, etc. So the juniors are influenced by this. something needs to change so that top players are using properly weighted rackets, that will withstand the rigors of top college and ATP tennis.

Roman Prokes, the one who did Agassi and Djokovic his rackets, does not agree on this with you. He says the Ezone for example is already good as it is, it cannot handle more than a few grams extra. More customization and it will be a bad racket.

 

[Airmate]

Roman Prokes, the one who did Agassi and Djokovic his rackets, does not agree on this with you. He says the Ezone for example is already good as it is, it cannot handle more than a few grams extra. More customization and it will be a bad racket.

Stock Ezone is good, but saying "it cannot handle more than a few grams extra" makes no sense. If so, why Yonex releases the heavier Ezone Tour? Why Kyrgios, Ruud, Osaka and Shelton all have extra lead now/in some point of their professional career? I agree that Ezone is already a complete racket, but player for sure can benefits by adding some weight here or there and make it suits the player better...

 

[Tranqville]

Roman Prokes, the one who did Agassi and Djokovic his rackets, does not agree on this with you. He says the Ezone for example is already good as it is, it cannot handle more than a few grams extra. More customization and it will be a bad racket.

Actually, this is not what Roman Prokes has said. Here's the interview that you are, perhaps, referring to, the Ezone discusison is around 11 minutes mark.

 

[K1Y]

Actually, this is not what Roman Prokes has said. Here's the interview that you are, perhaps, referring to, the Ezone discusison is around 11 minutes mark.

You could also just ask my source before trying to correct me. Actually it is what Roman Prokes has said. That's not the interview I was referring to. The one you linked is three years old. I was referring to this one that came out this year:

Listen from 1:10 on and Roman will conclude that the yonex ezone 98, vcore etc will be really bad when you start to add 15-20 grams.

 

[Tranqville]

Thank you for posting this, @K1Y. And I do stand corrected.

 

[TennisHound]

Stats don’t lie

 

[TennisCJC]

their whippy technique + heavy racquet = injury

Federer had SW north of 350 for most of his career and his game was as modern as Sinner or Carlos. In fact, Carlos' FH reminds me a lot of Federer's. He never had a shoulder, arm or wrist injury to my knowledge. To a professional male athlete, a 12-12.5 oz racket with SW 340 to 360 is fairly light.

 

[TennisCJC]

Nah, weight doesn't give you power. Pure Drive gives you power. These kids need a pure drive to beat Novak. Once i saw a man lifting a car just by holding a pure drive.

Yes it does and no you didn't. You can actually see the easy power Djokovic, Federer and Nadal got with SW north of 350.

 

[jmacdaununder2]

You could also just ask my source before trying to correct me. Actually it is what Roman Prokes has said. That's not the interview I was referring to. The one you linked is three years old. I was referring to this one that came out this year:

Listen from 1:10 on and Roman will conclude that the yonex ezone 98, vcore etc will be really bad when you start to add 15-20 grams.

VCore 98 + 15 grams must approximate VCore 98 Tour to some degree?