I am looking to replace my Yonex Vcore Dual G 330. It’s a little heavier than I want, not very maneuverable and I regularly struggle with volleying, but I love it’s stability on groundstrokes and returns. I’m a 4.0 college club player out west. I’ve liked Yonex but would be open to a new brand. I’m young and have never had arm issues so that’s not a problem either.
My current demo list needs to be narrowed down to four. I am looking at
Babolat Pure Strike Project One7
Babolat Pure Drive
Wilson Blade(maybe? Possibly a burn. Never played Wilson)
Yonex Vcore 310
Head Graphene 360 Speed Pro.
They are all in the 310-320 range, a little stiff and hit a hard ball. Any thoughts or suggestions?
I also prefer a rather stable racquet and I only get that from something that has "enough" heft to stand up to the ball. If you like that Dual G 330, you might get it to work better around the net for you if you add some weight to the handle and give it maybe two more points of head-light balance. I've done this more than once with my own rigs by simply placing 1/2" lead tape under my overgrips - easy enough to peel off if that doesn't work for you. There are also other methods for weighting a racquet handle.
Since the weight is added to the frame's handle, this really doesn't make the racquet more cumbersome like it can when adding only a few grams out on the hoop. My favorite frames weigh 12.8 oz., but they have about 10 pts. HL balance and maneuver with ease. They're lethal around the net. Yes, I tuned them myself. I've even let a couple of kids - 10-12 year old boys and girls of average ability - borrow these in recent years and they were fine using them for over an hour.
By comparison, I've noodled with Pure Drives and also have a pair of the 2015 Blade 98. Much lighter than my frames, but also significantly less head-light. While they're fine for lots of folks - and that's great - they're not for me. Not so stable and also not too maneuverable for me. So before you get rid of your current Yonex, consider a simple experiment to adjust the balance and see if you can get a better fit with it.
As far as arm issues are concerned, I don't think you need to worry about a racquet selection so much as a choice of strings. Any frame can become much more harsh when strung with a full bed of poly. If you're playing a hybrid at reasonable tension (and maybe one that includes a light gauge poly main), you may be just fine with that if you really want to rip on the ball. If you don't need poly - not many of us really do - you might get a great combo of performance, comfort, and cost using a 16 ga. syn. gut.