Diary of a Racketaholic

O

oemarriskov

New User
tennisbike said:
20191125Tennis4.jpg

Well, I know I should not. But I did. I spent almost a hundred bucks for these three rackets.

I want to call myself a connoisseur of tennis rackets but realistically I know I am just an addict. So on a day when I was essentially kicked out of a tennis court, I did a bad thing, I drove two blocks to check out the Play It Again Sport store. From the last few visits, I expected the selection to be thinning and prices growing higher. Perhaps I would not be be tempted. I was wrong.

Although the tennis rackets can only be found on the very top row of hangers against the corner wall, I spotted the Wilson Pro Staff 85 first. It is different from mine in that this one has bumper guard where mine does not, and mine has the leather grip and this grip is covered under freshly installed black athletic tape. The red primer coast peeking under the grommet holes lead me to suspect that it is the much coveted St. Vincent one.

Next, I was surprised to find a Blade 104 in a decent shape. Wilson Blade 104 is Serena Williams's weapon of choice. Both the 98 and the 104 are very popular rackets and are pricey. On the auction site, they are both pricey and often in poor condition. People who play Blades hit hard and scrape the heck out of it. Plus the paint job is not known to be tough. So $44.99.. not low but .. reasonable!

The last one is a Prince Tour DB in good condition. I do not know the racket before but the design reminded me of the NXG series with the grommet less design plus the manipulated cross section. Overall I just like the unique design of the racket. For $22.99...

At the end, I walked out with all three.

Now I wonder when will I properly spend time with these three. I just started taking out the Prince Precision Response 710 that I purchased from the same store probably a year ago or more. And to properly bond or get to know a racket I would play and try it out with a couple of different strings, different tension. I would add some lead tape or "coils" and tweak the balance a little. It takes months to "romance" with a stick. .. Now it will be probably a year before getting to these three. I am so sick!
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All the way with you on the PS85, beautiful piece of history in tennis world...


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O

oemarriskov

New User
mad dog1 said:
I actually have 4-5 of them still. Good stick but much easier to play with modern sticks like Wilson’s ultra tour, 2015 blade or clash 98. :)
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4-5? That's a lot of classic stuff... Of course it's easier to play with modern sticks... I have RF97 autograph and PS97 and 95s

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T

tennisbike

Professional
Assuming everyone here has a collection, how do you enjoy them on the court? Do you have a system to rotate them into your bag or you pick one out of the pile on a whim?

For me, I would not put lead tape on the classics like the PS 85 or Max 200G. They are too massive for adding lead tape. Though I might try different strings on them. Now they are mostly gotten in the bottom of my pile in a closet. A few more modern classics such as Prince O3 Tour 100, Babolat PureStrike 18x20, Yonex Tour G gets close to the top and are my go to match stickes. But mainly I play around with Prince TT Warrior OS, MC LB and Bandit OS with added mass and different strings. I love the green Yonex YY-8500? after I skipped one main and one cross. It swings so beautifully. I love it for groundstrokes but could not volley with the small head.
 
O

oemarriskov

New User
tennisbike said:
Assuming everyone here has a collection, how do you enjoy them on the court? Do you have a system to rotate them into your bag or you pick one out of the pile on a whim?

For me, I would not put lead tape on the classics like the PS 85 or Max 200G. They are too massive for adding lead tape. Though I might try different strings on them. Now they are mostly gotten in the bottom of my pile in a closet. A few more modern classics such as Prince O3 Tour 100, Babolat PureStrike 18x20, Yonex Tour G gets close to the top and are my go to match stickes. But mainly I play around with Prince TT Warrior OS, MC LB and Bandit OS with added mass and different strings. I love the green Yonex YY-8500? after I skipped one main and one cross. It swings so beautifully. I love it for groundstrokes but could not volley with the small head.
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I have to admit that you had better collection than mine... Great job mate, I'm still working on my classic collection. As for me, right now, I have 11 racquet, all Wilson brand, and I keep it all in one bag, it's not big deal when I used to had my own car, but now I ride bicycle to the court, so it's a bit heavy if I bring all my racquet, so I limited the number to 3 racquet only, I used different racquet every week...

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joah310

joah310

Professional
tennisbike said:
Assuming everyone here has a collection, how do you enjoy them on the court? Do you have a system to rotate them into your bag or you pick one out of the pile on a whim?

For me, I would not put lead tape on the classics like the PS 85 or Max 200G. They are too massive for adding lead tape. Though I might try different strings on them. Now they are mostly gotten in the bottom of my pile in a closet. A few more modern classics such as Prince O3 Tour 100, Babolat PureStrike 18x20, Yonex Tour G gets close to the top and are my go to match stickes. But mainly I play around with Prince TT Warrior OS, MC LB and Bandit OS with added mass and different strings. I love the green Yonex YY-8500? after I skipped one main and one cross. It swings so beautifully. I love it for groundstrokes but could not volley with the small head.
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honestly our family pretty much collects rackets we just have them sitting in the garage until we decide to try it again, we have tons of pogs just sitting there, alot of times we play it once and into the pile it goes... The pile is huge... currently about 130 rackets total
 
O

oemarriskov

New User
joah310 said:
honestly our family pretty much collects rackets we just have them sitting in the garage until we decide to try it again, we have tons of pogs just sitting there, alot of times we play it once and into the pile it goes... The pile is huge... currently about 130 rackets total
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130 Racquets? Damn, with that number, people in my neighborhood can play tennis 24/7... Would be glad if you could share some pictures of your racquests pile sometimes... I'll show my collection soon...

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T

tennisbike

Professional
joah310 said:
honestly our family pretty much collects rackets we just have them sitting in the garage until we decide to try it again, we have tons of pogs just sitting there, alot of times we play it once and into the pile it goes... The pile is huge... currently about 130 rackets total
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Nice! 130 total! Did you actually count them? Wish I have more POG. Only got one.

:) I started from about 2016, scoring a PS85 Chicago w/ no headguard for $1. Looking over my log, I counted 50. Probably more than that in the pile. I do feel a bit guilty about them. But collecting, mostly "rescuing", is an inexpensive hobby. I am sure many people spend more money on alcohol in a month than the total cost of my pile.

One stick I want to like more but only has a brief hit is the beautiful Prince Woodie. Feels like a club compare to a Head Vilas L.
 
joah310

joah310

Professional
tennisbike said:
. But collecting, mostly "rescuing", is an inexpensive hobby. I am sure many people spend more money on alcohol in a month than the total cost of my pile.
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totally agree, most of our rackets come from the local thrift stores where they are usually under 10, for the most part very cheap. Havent got a ps 6.0 85 yet but hope to
 
joah310

joah310

Professional
O

oemarriskov

New User
joah310 said:
ill start making an album with the good ones, but just too many and need to get rid of some too
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I'm still at work right now, after I get back home I'll share all my ProStaff collection.... [emoji106][emoji106]
Btw, I'm from Indonesia, if you don't mind could you tell me/us where you come from and where'd you get those racquets... I'm trying to find Pro Staff Tour 90, the one RF won his first Wimbledon in 2003... None I could find here in my country, and to buy it from **** is too difficult nowadays, the government increase the taxes for tennis racquet...

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joah310

joah310

Professional
oemarriskov said:
I'm still at work right now, after I get back home I'll share all my ProStaff collection.... [emoji106][emoji106]
Btw, I'm from Indonesia, if you don't mind could you tell me/us where you come from and where'd you get those racquets... I'm trying to find Pro Staff Tour 90, the one RF won his first Wimbledon in 2003... None I could find here in my country, and to buy it from **** is too difficult nowadays, the government increase the taxes for tennis racquet...

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I live in Washington US. I think my cousin has one of those, but as for us we have a few 6.1 95. we dont have any 6.1 90s even though we hope to come across one.
 
O

oemarriskov

New User
joah310 said:
Very cool saw it once in **** but never really wanted to buy. We have one large head. How does the 125 play?
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Holy cow... No words to describe [emoji28][emoji28], almost couldn't believe it, I play singles today, and if usually I played at 80% with any other racquet, using this staff doubled the percentage, never feel like this before, every slices got in at the baseline, no matter how fast the ball came to me, if I swing this racquet right, it feels like I can return any kind of shots...

Volley? Incredible feel, hitting all directions feel so easy, because the light head weight it so maneuverable...

Forehand? Totally amazing, doubled my power 2 times, produced monstrous spin... And if I hit it flat, the ball will go sliding on the floor because it's too fast... Troubling my opponent returning my full power shots....

A little bit difficult to hit flat serves, because it's too wide, but worka fine if I use twist serves or kick serves

Sorry my bad English, I hope you understand, I got too excited explaining my review

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joah310

joah310

Professional
oemarriskov said:
Holy cow... No words to describe [emoji28][emoji28], almost couldn't believe it, I play singles today, and if usually I played at 80% with any other racquet, using this staff doubled the percentage, never feel like this before, every slices got in at the baseline, no matter how fast the ball came to me, if I swing this racquet right, it feels like I can return any kind of shots...

Volley? Incredible feel, hitting all directions feel so easy, because the light head weight it so maneuverable...

Forehand? Totally amazing, doubled my power 2 times, produced monstrous spin... And if I hit it flat, the ball will go sliding on the floor because it's too fast... Troubling my opponent returning my full power shots....

A little bit difficult to hit flat serves, because it's too wide, but worka fine if I use twist serves or kick serves

Sorry my bad English, I hope you understand, I got too excited explaining my review

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Click to expand...
Your English is fine. Thanks for the review. It's very interesting. I never knew that a racket so big could be so good. I guess it's the ps blood in it.
 
O

oemarriskov

New User
joah310 said:
Your English is fine. Thanks for the review. It's very interesting. I never knew that a racket so big could be so good. I guess it's the ps blood in it.
Click to expand...
At first, I'm not putting too much hope in this racquet either, I bought this racquet just because I already had PS85 St Vincent and Staff 85... I'll post the picture of the 3 racquets later... Thanks Man, you really made my day...

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joah310

joah310

Professional
oemarriskov said:
At first, I'm not putting too much hope in this racquet either, I bought this racquet just because I already had PS85 St Vincent and Staff 85... I'll post the picture of the 3 racquets later... Thanks Man, you really made my day...

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Click to expand...
Nah man ur the one teaching me lots of new things.
 
O

oemarriskov

New User
joah310 said:
Nah man ur the one teaching me lots of new things.
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I hope I'm not making any stupid comments or reviews, I'm just an ordinary not so much recreational tennis player...

Knowing you guys had so much racquets made me feel motivated to search and collect old racquets...

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O

oemarriskov

New User
legrandLeconte said:
Nice collection. Wilson fan or Federer fan?

My collection is mostly of raquets classics : 80's and 90's. Also some more modern.

To Roger alone PS85 and PS90Tour.
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Thank you, our family started using Wilson racquets back in 1994, my father used to play with Wilson Profile, I don't remember the headsize, but it's pretty small racquet, I'll try to get some pictures of it later... Then, I started to play tennis in 2001, using Wilson high beam series... But I've no confidence at all, it's really hard to play tennis at that time, I've no talent at all, LoL...

Then, in 2009 I watched Federer tweener against Djokovic in US Open semi's... Suddenly, I feel motivated to play tennis again... And becoming Federer's fan, and always following FeDal match until now, love tennis even more, and teaching kid's in my hometown to play tennis...

So yes, I am Federer and Wilson fans...

Sorry for bad English...

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O

oemarriskov

New User
oemarriskov said:
Thank you, our family started using Wilson racquets back in 1994, my father used to play with Wilson Profile, I don't remember the headsize, but it's pretty small racquet, I'll try to get some pictures of it later... Then, I started to play tennis in 2001, using Wilson high beam series... But I've no confidence at all, it's really hard to play tennis at that time, I've no talent at all, LoL...

Then, in 2009 I watched Federer tweener against Djokovic in US Open semi's... Suddenly, I feel motivated to play tennis again... And becoming Federer's fan, and always following FeDal match until now, love tennis even more, and teaching kid's in my hometown to play tennis...

So yes, I am Federer and Wilson fans...

Sorry for bad English...

Sent from my RMX1851 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Another addition to my collection, just arrived today... Wilson Pro Staff Stars and stripes 95, Jim Courier
73272651ea28d528e5bb14f6a218d08d.jpg


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H

hurworld

Hall of Fame
oemarriskov said:
Thank you, our family started using Wilson racquets back in 1994, my father used to play with Wilson Profile, I don't remember the headsize, but it's pretty small racquet, I'll try to get some pictures of it later... Then, I started to play tennis in 2001, using Wilson high beam series... But I've no confidence at all, it's really hard to play tennis at that time, I've no talent at all, LoL...

Then, in 2009 I watched Federer tweener against Djokovic in US Open semi's... Suddenly, I feel motivated to play tennis again... And becoming Federer's fan, and always following FeDal match until now, love tennis even more, and teaching kid's in my hometown to play tennis...

So yes, I am Federer and Wilson fans...

Sorry for bad English...

Sent from my RMX1851 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
That's a great story! If you don't mind me asking, which country are you from?
 
T

tennisbike

Professional
Hello, my name is tennisbike and I am an racketholic..

Am I seeing the cure now?

In late November last year, I picked up a St. Vincent PS 85. I strung it up with SG using proportional method at 43/42 lbs. I played with it a couple times comparing to my PS Chicago. For some reason, I hit better than ever, according to POP with the Chicago.

Two weeks ago, I was recruiting an assistant coach and discovered that it was his birthday. I decided to give him a racket. So I invited him home and show him some of my woodie collection, about 10, plus a few personal favorites. He had seen me using woodies or T-2000 around and mentioned that he would like to try them. So he seemed to really like the SV. Hmm... I paused and thought about whether to give away my prized SV for a moment.. then just like that I gave him the SV.

While I was hauling the rackets in and out of my closet, a dedicated walk in closet that I keep all my racket, probably about 40 total. I recognized at least a handful that I had not even played with. Prince Mono, Prince Graphite OS with no grommet, Vokal C10 Pro, Prince Woodie, Wilson Blade 104 ... plus another handful that I only strung once and had not really spent the time to tweak the balance or try different string setup. It suddenly hit me that I might not even get to all of the rackets in my whole life. I am a hoarder.

Why am I still scanning **** for a Yonex Dual G 330g or Prince EXO Ignite that I might be able to handle while the Prince Tour 100 is so easy to hit with? I can be perfectly happy hitting with the monster Prince Bandit OS leaded up with the same Kevlar string I installed almost 12 months ago. That one half a set of string probably would last me 5 years, since flipped it and I am not a string breaker. I still look for a bargain in string reels but I am added more string reels faster than I can break sets of them.

.. A week after I gave away the SV, the assistant coach came with his freshly strung SV PS. He was VERY HAPPY hitting with it. He said it felt better than the modern RF PS he was using.

In stead of being ignored in a dark corner of my closet, the SV is well appreciated, and is abusing balls actively. For the SV PS, for him, I am happy....

I am happy.
 
T

tennisbike

Professional
Like the pandemic, there might be a secondary infection, (of the racket-hoarding-disease)

Distancing from any form of racket related media or physical contact needs to be strictly observed.
 
haqq777

haqq777

Legend
No idea why but I purchased a VCore SV 98 this week that arrives tomorrow. One more random racquet in the closet isn't going to hurt anybody #HolicMusings
 
Power Player

Power Player

Bionic Poster
I got a coach and it basically cured me. I see the guy every week and he was like “get one frame and stop Fing around”. Conveniently the blade came out and is awesome so I honestly have not been checking out frames since last summer.

Those 2 factors helped me a lot. And surprise, my tennis game got a lot more consistent. Im sure i will check something out again but ive been doing a ton of hiit and prepping for when we can all hit balls again.
 
mad dog1

mad dog1

G.O.A.T.
haqq777 said:
No idea why but I purchased a VCore SV 98 this week that arrives tomorrow. One more random racquet in the closet isn't going to hurt anybody #HolicMusings
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Hopefully it’s much better than the sv95 which was the perhaps the most unstable racquet in stock form surpassed only by the 16/19 v7 blade.
 
bertrevert

bertrevert

Legend
Bump, How come the racquet from 10-15 years ago makes a mockery of all the others since? All the others gathering dust under the bed. All the ones sold. Or is this just a byproduct of racquetaholicism? Always trying to recapture that first golden drink from the fountain of racquets...

Seems like a light 95 racquet from ages ago just suits my game maybe? the Wilson nCode Tour 95 was a Tour in name only because it certainly isn't heavy at 10.2 ounces (288 grams) unstrung, 16x20 and 27.25inches which I cut down to 27.

Maybe bringing the hoop close to the hand worked, maybe it's the lightness, maybe it's a one-off, maybe it's not that good and it's just racquetaholism...
 
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