"Arm friendly" racket vs. "Not horrible for your arm" rackets

fuzz nation said:
A pal of mine - former college slugger with a pretty big game - ran into a ferocious case of TE some years ago that completely sidelined him for a few months. He regularly played the PD Roddicks, but his arm blew up when he switched into full beds of poly. He did a lot of things including physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, etc. to get his arm squared away.

He loved those racquets and wanted to keep playing with them when he finally returned to the courts, but he thought it would be smart to switch to softer string. He had the means, so he got several sets of natural gut and had me string a couple of his PDR's at different tensions so that he could find his best tension.

I can tell you that his comeback was borderline miraculous - no pains, no twinges, no issues at all. After seeing this story play out up close and personal, I'm convinced that step #1 for anybody looking for arm-friendliness needs to go for softer strings in any racquet they might prefer. Since you're liking the same racquet as this guy, I'd say keep trying different strings. You may not need to go all in with natural gut, but I'll bet that you can find something workable in a string that won't devour your arm.
Click to expand...

For me, the solution was to go with higher static weight and higher twist weight. I use ALU strung at 52 pounds and it feels fine.

As far as the power issue goes, I just add lead tape until I get enough power.
 
I should play with lead tape.
It's funny how demo'ing a racket is basically impossible.
Strings, tensions, lead tape all affect performance.
I think I will just buy some random racket and learn to love it.
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
I should play with lead tape.
It's funny how demo'ing a racket is basically impossible.
Strings, tensions, lead tape all affect performance.
I think I will just buy some random racket and learn to love it.
Click to expand...

Basically what I did. I bought a set of racquets on specs (that very few others wanted) and just got used to them.
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
I should play with lead tape.
It's funny how demo'ing a racket is basically impossible.
Strings, tensions, lead tape all affect performance.
I think I will just buy some random racket and learn to love it.
Click to expand...

Perhaps that's the key.

Fortunately I know that my preferences run toward a general combo of weight, balance, and flex. Whenever I've tried to get along with significantly lighter frames or maybe even dabble with poly hybrids, it's been just awful for me. Playing with the lighter racquets has actually injured me - enough of that nonsense.

So even if I can't buy something off the shelf that's exactly right for me, I'm somewhat confident that I can tune many frames toward a better fit for me. I always recommend to our pals here to pay attention to the basic specs of different racquets that they sample. It seems to me that whenever those "big three" (the specs I mentioned above) are about right for any of us in a new frame, we've got a potential winner.
 
movdqa said:
For me, the solution was to go with higher static weight and higher twist weight. I use ALU strung at 52 pounds and it feels fine.

As far as the power issue goes, I just add lead tape until I get enough power.
Click to expand...

Same deal for me - I want my comfortable swing tempo to produce decent power and I think I get that when I have "enough" racquet weight to drive the ball using a natural stroke or serving motion. Lighter racquets might be quicker or relatively easy to swing, but I can't use significantly higher swing speeds to compensate for the diminished power. That's rough on my arm and shoulder.
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
I should play with lead tape.
It's funny how demo'ing a racket is basically impossible.
Strings, tensions, lead tape all affect performance.
I think I will just buy some random racket and learn to love it.
Click to expand...

That's how i started with the Phantoms. Heard good things about the Phantom 100 when my TE was still an issue even with more arm friendly frames. Decided to just buy one since it was a hard racquet to get in Canada. Didn't love it at first since it was very different from my PD+ and Blade SW 104. But it was comfortable as all get out, and after each session sith ti my elbow felt better and better.

So I stuck with it and added a little lead to the tip, lowered the string tensions to get a little more pop and really started to groove with it. After a couple months I was playing every bit as good as I was with the older frames. I could still serve better with a PD and still hit 2HBH's better with the Blade. But I had better slices and touch shots with the Phantom and more control of depth.

No racquet is perfection but any racquet can be made to play well. And over time any brain can adapt. I'm sure if you'd started your odyssey into tennis with a Phantom 100 and tried to switch to an PD, your initial impression would be, "What the heck is this harsh tinny rocket launcher?"
 
I tried the Wilson Ultra today.

I think I figured out why I don't like these rackets.
They are heavy. Ultra, Graphene, Textreme.

I am used to Pure Drive.
Even the POG 93 does not feel as heavy.
I think this is messing up my swing.

Pure Drive hit like a dream today.
I prefer the POG 93 over any of these new rackets.
Better power, spin, and control.

But, I just don't want to play 93
 
A Wilson Ultra heavy?

PD 11.2 oz strung
Wilson Ultra 100 11.2 oz strung
Prince Phantom 100 11.6 oz strung
Head Speed Pro 360 11.5 oz strung

Not seeing the heft dude. And the only one over a 320 SW is the Phantom at 328.

So it's something else. Probably your unwillingness to reshape your game around a racquet and trying to force a racquet to apply to a game developed on a different racquet.

Square peg, Round hole.

You say you want to protect your elbow? You say you like how the PD plays? Then here's some frames to try: Wilson Clash, Head Extreme MP. Both have the power you crave and are more arm friendly than a PD.

But I'm sure you'll do your own thing. Like you always do and then make 1000 posts about it.
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
I tried the Wilson Ultra today.

I think I figured out why I don't like these rackets.
They are heavy. Ultra, Graphene, Textreme.

I am used to Pure Drive.
Even the POG 93 does not feel as heavy.
I think this is messing up my swing.

Pure Drive hit like a dream today.
I prefer the POG 93 over any of these new rackets.
Better power, spin, and control.

But, I just don't want to play 93
Click to expand...

It took my nine months to get used to my racquets.

And they are really heavy.
 
I think I am ditching the 18x20.
The snap-back ZX string behaves like poly, so I don't need 18x20 to keep strings from moving.
Plus, easier to string 16x19.

I think if Poly is the culprit for TE, then I've got that addressed w/ MonoGut

PD has a low swingweight (308)
Ultra & TT100P are 324

Pure Drive is light but 72, so maybe I will go for a similar racket. Blade, Beast, etc.
I might even string up a PD with ZX and see how it goes.
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
I think I am ditching the 18x20.
The snap-back ZX string behaves like poly, so I don't need 18x20 to keep strings from moving.
Plus, easier to string 16x19.

I think if Poly is the culprit for TE, then I've got that addressed w/ MonoGut

PD has a low swingweight (308)
Ultra & TT100P are 324

Pure Drive is light but 72, so maybe I will go for a similar racket. Blade, Beast, etc.
I might even string up a PD with ZX and see how it goes.
Click to expand...

All feathers.

My RF97:

IMG_2394.jpg
IMG_2395.jpg
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
Not only does VS gut play harsh as hell,
it breaks in 5 hours. Total overhyped trash.
You can quote me on that !
Click to expand...

Shows how different we all are when it comes to strings and strokes. I find VS to be one of the softest gut in the market right now and excellent for hybrid setups. I have the Lux Natural Gut in two of my racquets and that plays far more crisper than VS. Even then, I would never use the word 'harsh' with gut.

I am on the Klip Legend playtest for TW. Not sure how crisp and powerful that is compared to other gut strings, but I am pretty sure it wouldn't be harsh on the arm.

What are you stringing your gut at? What tensions?
 
TimeToPlaySets said:
Not only does VS gut play harsh as hell,
it breaks in 5 hours. Total overhyped trash.
You can quote me on that !
Click to expand...

The breakage thing is why I abandoned it, but it was never anything but soft and full of feel even at 60lbs tension in my PD. That racquet is harsh. Gut in my Phantom 100 is like playing with butter. But full bed still breaks too soon so messing around with hybrids again.
 
The gut was in my POG 93.
Very harsh! Snapped it in 5 hours.

I will demo the Clash, Blade, and Beast.
Then I will pick one and focus on tennis.
 
You can definitely make a stiff frame feel pretty soft with a good set of gut strings. It's a very different from all the synthetics. You can pretty much string it as tight as you want and it's still soft. That is perfect for someone with arm problems.
 
I agree with you Fuzz nation i think strings make a huge difference. I am going through a chronic phase of GE for the second time this year but with rest exercises and therapy am starting slooowly to heal. The rackets i used prior to GE are 2 Volkl Super G'S the 295 version weighted up to approx 330 grams and the 325 in stock form. Both are super plush and have lovely feel (once you get used to playing with them, i used to use PD Andy Roddick) . During my initial playing phase after the GE first time round i forayed into using Soft Poly's in the crosses @50 pounds (Volkl Vstar & Volkl Cyclone with Wilson synthetic gut in the mains and for the first few hours they played delicious, lovely thumping power and control , however i soon encountered dull elbow pain once the tension in the Poly's started to drop.

My point is this, as the elbow is getting better i have been mucking around hitting a few balls here and there for the dogs in the park and against a wall. If i use the volkls strung with the poly crosses that have now lost a bit of tension my arm starts to hurt even in these arm friendly control rackets with arm friendly Polys, so i started to use the PD Roddick which i strung as an experiment with a full bed of Multi (Yonex Rexis) guess what no Pain!!

I will now switch my Volkls to full multi and see how it goes I thinks string play a huge part with arm pain although not the entire picture obviously. Each time i have had acute pain was due to late contact Volleys. I also believe the Soft Polys to be ok to play with once the pain has gone but to just be wary when the tension goes and re-string
 
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