@TennisHound is right. Strung it up with Ashaway kev 17g and max power rough (20g or 19g IIRC) at 86/66lbs. Brilliant!
Added my handle and some lead at 10 and 2. Matched the ratio of my old stick. Thought it weighs more it feels faster somehow.
Played ok with it but had noticeably more spin. A lot more!! Not sure why. Its not the string pattern I don't think. Its more dense in the middle than the old stick. Probably not the strings as much since I have used them before.
So that leaves 2 things I can think of.
1. The differential is working better because its a smaller frame.
@travlerajm am I remembering correctly that the smaller frames work better with differentials?
2. It is faster. I matched the ratios and usually that produces the same response between different racquets. So the old one was 155g measured at the head and 185g measured at the grip. New one was 191g at the grip after I put my handle on, and the tip was 154g. So I added 5.5g to get to 160.2g, maintaining the same ratio of .837 between the tip weight and the grip weight. Would the fact that the Blade is 27" vs 27.25" make it feel faster. Asked another way, matching ratios like that would the length make a difference and if so would it make the shorter stick pull through contact faster? And in the past I purposely adjust MgRi to make it whippier but never got the spin. Would it be worthwhile to elongate this stick?
This thing served awesome. I was getting more speed and spin. Kickers were bouncing higher and flats seemed faster. One serve surprised my partner who has seen my serve for 30 years. In other regards it was like any other racquet change for me. Bh was always great but fh seemed confused and several mishits. Still won the set though....Great honey moon going on. Probably a keeper just for what it did to the serve.
The one con was the flex.
@PeterFig. What is going on with wilsons flex. Just like the RF97a this Blade Team was firm on most shots but turned to mush on a few. It seems super stiff on center shots but shots at the top of the hoop like that huge overhead and that screaming bh return caused it to get soft. It was noticeable and very disconcerting. It was like the RF97a. My other wilson sticks never behaved like that. 6.1 95, Blx 2, Profile, Burn 100s, etc. They were stiff no matter where they were struck. So Peter is this some new tech? And is there a stick that doesn't do that in wilsons line up?? Any mod that can fix that?? FWIW, always hitting the sweet spot is not something Shroud can do all the time...
Elbow was fine btw.
