Cause of Shoulder Fatigue-High SW or Static Weight

kenshireen

Professional
What factor contributes more to shoulder fatigue a high SW or Static weight. I have been told that the SW is the primary culprit. I have a racket that is almost 12 oz but has a SW of 300...Yet when I hit with a racket with a static weight of 11 oz and a SW of 320 I find that it feels heavier on my arm.
 

1hbhBUX

Semi-Pro
Higher swingweights take more energy than higher static weights, although your type of stroke has a lot to do with that.

Some of that could also be the adjustment to a new frame.
 

Kcraig

Professional
What factor contributes more to shoulder fatigue a high SW or Static weight. I have been told that the SW is the primary culprit. I have a racket that is almost 12 oz but has a SW of 300...Yet when I hit with a racket with a static weight of 11 oz and a SW of 320 I find that it feels heavier on my arm.

Thanks for this thread/post--I am in the same boat as you and with past shoulder issues would love to hear more on this. I love a higher SW stick for groundies, volleys--but my shoulder suffers a bit on serving, especially on longer singles matches/tourneys. However, a lighter stick lacks the feel control I like. My current Diablo MPs are nice static weight of around 11.8-12oz., but the lower SW causes them to be unstable against heavier hitters:confused:

I am going to be demoing the Head Rad Pro soon which should shed some more light on this subject--that stick is a little unique in that it has a nice med static of 11.6ish but a hefty SW of 340+. Interested to see if I can handle it on serves!:-? The Pure Storm Tour GT was a little too much on serving, but it weighed in at 12.4+oz and was 335SW, so that was a mixture of both evils I guess.
 
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Sublime

Semi-Pro
It's actually both.

Swingweight measures the racket's resistance to rotate around a point about 4" up the handle from the butt cap. However what you're interested in is its resistance to rotate around a point about 20" to 30" behind the butt cap (distance to your shoulder, depending on how bent your elbow is on your doublebend).

Here are some formulas to convert where SW is swing weight and W is the racket weight in oz

For a straight arm:
= SW + (W * 2.4)^2

For a severe double bend:
= SW + (W * 1.6)^2
 
There could be many causes for your shoulder fatigue aside from the racquet. Swinging too hard, improper technique, lack of muscle mass.
 

Nellie

Hall of Fame
Most of the experienced teaching pros that I talk to go with a lighter, but more head heavy racquet (but with a lower swing weight than the "tour" racquest, due to shoulder fatigue. According to my Wilson rep., it is one of the reasons they have a K6.1 team that looks like a K.6.1 95.
 

fuzz nation

G.O.A.T.
I'm not saying that there's no such thing as a racquet that's too heavy for anyone, but more often than not, that shoulder fatigue comes from using a frame that's significantly heavier (in either way) than the one that you're accustomed to. That heavier racquet takes just slightly longer to get going to the contact point. If your ingrained timing doesn't get the frame to the ball on time, it's the shoulder that's usually called upon to rush it to the ball in a sort of "catch-up" maneuver. A quick service motion that calls upon too much work from the arm and shoulder will usually generate this fatigue faster than anything else.

Either a frame with higher static weight or significantly higher swing-weight can wear down a shoulder. In both cases, the racquet needs a slightly earlier move to hit the ball on time. I try to encourage any players that want to sample heavier racquets to do it on the practice courts where they can primarily concentrate on the tempo of their strokes. In a match where we're trying to focus on the points, our opponents, etc., we swing at more balls unconsciously and that's where more of that painful rushing of the racquet can happen.

Bad technique will obviously wear on a shoulder, too, but if a racquet is heavier, it needs different timing for a comfortable swing. Even if the shoulder doesn't fatigue right away, a player might get soreness in their wrist or maybe some golfer's elbow from a late push of the racquet to the ball.
 

SteveI

Legend
I'm not saying that there's no such thing as a racquet that's too heavy for anyone, but more often than not, that shoulder fatigue comes from using a frame that's significantly heavier (in either way) than the one that you're accustomed to. That heavier racquet takes just slightly longer to get going to the contact point. If your ingrained timing doesn't get the frame to the ball on time, it's the shoulder that's usually called upon to rush it to the ball in a sort of "catch-up" maneuver. A quick service motion that calls upon too much work from the arm and shoulder will usually generate this fatigue faster than anything else.

Either a frame with higher static weight or significantly higher swing-weight can wear down a shoulder. In both cases, the racquet needs a slightly earlier move to hit the ball on time. I try to encourage any players that want to sample heavier racquets to do it on the practice courts where they can primarily concentrate on the tempo of their strokes. In a match where we're trying to focus on the points, our opponents, etc., we swing at more balls unconsciously and that's where more of that painful rushing of the racquet can happen.

Bad technique will obviously wear on a shoulder, too, but if a racquet is heavier, it needs different timing for a comfortable swing. Even if the shoulder doesn't fatigue right away, a player might get soreness in their wrist or maybe some golfer's elbow from a late push of the racquet to the ball.

Great Post Fuzz... Not sure I can add anything to that one.

Steve
 
I have seen people at many clubs just slinging the racquet as hard as they can with a jerking motion. No matter how heavy or light this is bound to give you some problems. Bad technique.
 

fuzz nation

G.O.A.T.
I have seen people at many clubs just slinging the racquet as hard as they can with a jerking motion. No matter how heavy or light this is bound to give you some problems. Bad technique.

Yep. I think that my post was just a long winded agreement with your first one. That racquet can become almost irrelevant when the technique is jerky with too much arm on the ball.

I've actually talked over this issue in the past week with a couple of girls that I coach. Both have certain ailments in their swings and I'm working on convincing them both to power their strokes primarily with their legs and trunk rotation. Quite the uphill battle sometimes, but they're beginning to understand how to use a smoother tempo for a more reliable swing.
 
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