Hey AG100 owners,
As a Aerogel 4D 100 player myself, I wanted to contribute to this thread and share my experience with that frame. I bought a pair of 4D 100s about 4 years ago, mainly due to the excellent reviews I found on different forums and in this thread in particular. It was a blind buy, as I don't have the access to any demo program in my country, and man, 4 years down the line and this stick is still awesome.
Now some of you might have bumped into a thread a started a week or two ago, as I'm looking for a new frame - I still am, but incidentally the quest for a new frame made me rethink things a little bit and changed my approach to the game somehow, which actually led me to enjoy my 4D 100 even more :shock:
4 years ago, I was playing at least twice a week, but it was mostly recreational and I didn't really have any direction I wanted to give my game, except to improve of course (I've been playing tennis for more than 20 years, being currently in my late 20s). The 4D 100 felt nice, and I tried to build my game around it but that was that - it was an awesome stick when I was having a good day, and an average stick when I was off my game lol. About 6 months ago however, I have decided to get serious about my game and play the 1st division national championship of my country which will be held later this year in July. I have trained a lot to improve my game and my fitness. Nowadays, I play between 10 and 12 hours a week, and hit the court as soon as 5 am on weekdays. I play against good players (one is a former national champion and another one a former runner up) and my coach who I practice with once a week is the head of the U12 development section at the federation. He's also my coach since I was 10. Now for some reason, I had it stuck in my mind that I wanted to be a baseline power player, maybe because I play exclusively on clay and because it is what the modern game is about, and because my main opponents are power baseliners. Although I trained very hard, I found that my game was not improving as much as I wanted, compared to that of my opponents, and I started questioning my gear hence the thread I created about searching a 18x20 midsize frame. In my experience, against good players who can hit consistently with a lot of spin and depth, the 4D 100 tends to get pushed around.
But this past week, something magical happened. Well it was actually a combination of circumstances. I initially set up my 4D 100s reading this thread so it has a leather grip and was strung at low tensions (although when I've started to get serious I have found out that raising the tension to 25 kg mains 27 kg crosses helped my game, at low tension the 4D 100 was WAY too powerful and lively for me). So I was out hitting with a mate, and found that my dampener actually broke so decided to play without one. In addition to that, I was testing a Luxilon overgrip (I usually play with Babolat MyGrip which is thick but I liked it as I tend to sweat a lot). The Luxilon overgrip was TERRIBLE, it literally disintegrated within 15 minutes of playing. So I have decided to play without an overgrip and without a dampener. There, it was an eye-opener if there ever was one. Now the feel, the precision of the 4D 100 was unleashed and wow I'm not exaggerating it was a completely new stick (or maybe it's all in my mind, but wow I really feel like it changed my game). We usually have tight sets with my mate but that day I beat him very handily! The most visible difference was the serve, it really changed the serve! I could hit all my spots and although I always was a big server, I usually averaged around 50% of 1st serves, but now I'm more in the 70s (I don't have precise data but I feel my % improved a lot). Besides I hit many many more aces and unreturnables. 1st serve is huge and placement is awesome. 2nd serve is very good too and gives me many free points and some aces too.
Groundies, well it plays different, not necessarily as drastically improved as the serve but the 4D 100 feels different in the sense that it makes me want to play with more spin and angles whereas before I would always flatten out my shots and look for depth. Actually, because of my new found serve I'm coming a lot more to the net. My game changed from trading from the baseline to trying to set up an approach shot and coming to the net. It seems to really work very well so far and I'm driving my usual hitting partners totally nuts lol I have discussed with my coach and it's the direction we're going to give my game from now onwards
I really like how I can be very very aggressive yet be very very consistent too. Now the only issue is the 4D 100 in this configuration is giving me some shoulder pain
But I don't know if it's because I tend to hit a lot more harder or because my shoulder needs to adjust, or a combination of both...
Well that's that, sorry for the very long a$s post. I'll make sure to keep you guys updated of further development
