Niwrad0
Rookie
Been told that I should use a lighter racquet. Not really sure why, other than it's "advanced". Coach said that 11oz is ok if you're energetic, shop said it's probably about the same, but got three demos to try. First racquet ever was a random 26'' junior from Walmart. Returned and asked a random local about a cheap "adult" racquet that seems good for how I felt with the junior racquet, etc. Got a 75% off Head Speed Pro 360 and currently strung with Yonex PTS 1.25mm at 54#. I also wanted a 2nd similar racquet as a backup if for some reason I needed HS Pro stringed and couldn't get it back in time to play. At the time of first stringing tried a few more demos and asked for something close in specs and feel to HS Pro and got Technfibre Tfight 315, strung with a multi, but now re-testing strings with a poly/multi hybrid as it was too powerful with all multi
All are size 2 grips, which is small for me, but manageable since grips are relatively fresh on demos
#1 - Head Gravity MP with Solinco Hyper G Soft, Tourna tension meter measured at 55, weighed around 10.6 bal around 333mm
#2 - Babolat Pure Stike 16 19 3rd gen with Yonex PTS 1.25mm, Tourna tension meter measured at 55, weighted about 11.2 bal around 325mm
#3 - Yonex VCore 98 with Yonex PTS 1.20mm, Tourna Tension meter measured at 50, weighted about 11.4 bal around 333mm
Initial impression and feel - Babolat is most enjoyable, followed by Yonex then Head
Coach feels my balls are better with Head than Babolat, Yonex sort of toss up. Drilled FH, BH, FH Volleys
Serves /w Head - Initial 2 serves during practice were good and easy to place when doing flat, but during matchplay it was much more challenging and often framed, not sure why but was able to get my spin serve in 9/10 with my older racquet whereas I couldn't get any spin serves/2nd serves in with the new racquet.
Match volleys /w Head - impressively good, easy to put away all balls at the net in doubles and position racquet without big mishits
Wall practice - preferred old Head SP, but of demos the Head and Babolat were the easiest to hit against the wall with on FH and BH
Return of serve /w head - pretty easy to return, balls never sailed long, and usually could get angle right to go over the net.
FHs - felt Babolat was most powerful, head was weakest, and yonex was weird but in-between the two, not sure why.
BHs /w head - often framed or late when usually my BH was very consistent with my Tfight or HS Pro. Although when I hit the sweet spot it had OK pace but not as much as I would like
BHs /w Babolat - felt most similar to Tfight
Topspin - easiest with head, but felt I could get more spin with my HS Pro.
Pain - no pain/soreness any difference from previous racquets, except dampener kept flying off the demos, so probably should use a different one. Was very obvious when dampener fell off as it was totally different sound
will update this original post as I go on with demos
Played one set with another player, demo'ing the four racquets in a normal rally with FHs and BHs. The Head was the most effortless to rally with. After warming up and using the Head for the match, felt that I couldn't really generate pace or return serves. Off center hits would basically cause my racquet to rotate nearly 90 degrees despite what I felt was a strong grip pressure. Serves were challenging to do, and rarely could I hit my targets, and even when they did, the other player was able to hit deflect the pace back easily, but I found tapping it in was easier than with my old Head SP. At the net I wasn't able to deflect the shots well, the ball sort of just went through the racquet and put away shots were a lot harder for some reason, kept hitting late or framing. At 2-5 decided to switch to my hold Head SP. Played for a while and won the next game but the change in the weight threw off my forehand, though my backhand was good and I hit a lot of down the line winners with my backhand. Ended up losing 3-6. Seems like the gravity is great for my FH, bad for my BH and the reverse is true when using my old Head SP. Actually I found I could hit winners off of first serves (if the other player landed it in) with my old Head SP and even at full stretch was able to deflect wide balls over his serve and volley play to lob at the baseline.
Played a doubles set with usual doubles group.
On FHs, notably lacking in power, depth and spin. Even when going for winners felt like it was too easy for opponents to hit winners right back. Also when trying for big swings I felt I had pretty low control, so I tended to pull back to keep the ball in play
On BHs, had ok power, but again notably low powered racquet, but didn't want go go for big swings to keep the ball in play as the ball tended to sail or fly off unpredictably
At the net, it was ok, maneuverability was decent and sweet spot felt large so able to get ok shots, but again mostly felt very defensive, a pusher kind of net game just deflecting volleys back at opponents as again going for put aways often resulted in net errors or framing the ball. Backhand volleys felt challenging to put spine quite flat shot
On serve it was challenging to generate spin on serves, flat serves had good pace however, and the larger sweet spot felt a tiny bit easier to make contact but placement was hard to go out wide or T, and sweet spots felt as though it would not quite be where I expected ball to go.
On return of serve it was challenging to develop enough pace, it mostly absorbed the pace and ball kinda died in the stringed, unless I took a relatively flat cut at the ball, in which the ball would shoot off the strings, but sweet spot was small and felt like it tended to 'mishit' without feeling like a mishit.
Overall impression: a friendly rally racquet that felt like I was playing with a big sponge. quite defensive in nature
Next day I went back to my usual tennis shop, dropped off the Yonex and Babolat Demos and picked up Head Radical MP, Head Speed MP, and Head Extreme MP to demo. I measured each one at home like I do with my other racquets. I've always been measuring it but since I don't feel like re-stringing every demo I've pasted my notes here. I measured weight with a kitchen scale and balance by literally balancing the racquet and measuring from the buttcap. I used a simplified formula for 'swing weight' or NSM, which isn't accurate but something I use to compare one racquet to another. Tourna tensiometer to measure tension, measuring in a diagonal fashion across the stringed.
Demo - Head Gravity MP /w Solinco Hyper G Soft 1.30mm bal 333mm 10.5oz
NSM - 271
Feb 6
L -> R Mains: 45 50 55 | 50 55 55 | 50 55 55 | 55 55 55 | 55 55 50 | 45
T -> B Crosses
30 40 40 | 40 40 35 …
Demo - Babolat Pure Strike 16x19 3rd Gen /w YPTS 1.25mm bal 325mm 10.7oz
NSM - 263
L -> R Mains: 50 55 55 | 55 55 55 | 55 55 50 | 50 55 55 | 55 55 60 | 45
T -> B Crosses: 35 40 40 | …
Demo - Yonex VCore 98 /w YPTS 1.20mm bal 333mm 10.9 oz
NSM - 281
L -> R Mains: 40 40 50 | 50 50 45 | 45 45 45 | 50 45 50 | 50 45 50 | 40
T -> B Crosses: 30 40 35 | 35 …
Demo - Head Speed MP /w Technifibre Black Code 331mm 10.5oz
NSM - 267
L -> R Mains: 40 50 50 50 50 50 50 45 45 45 45 50 50 50 45 40
T -> B Crosses: 30 35 40 …
Demo - Head Radical MP 334mm 10.6oz /w Wilson Resolve Spin
NSM - 275
L -> R Mains: 30 35 40 40 45 40 40 40 45 40 45 45 40 40 40 35
T -> B Crosses: 30 30 30 …
Demo - Head Extreme MP 328mm 10.5oz /w Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power 125 crossed /w Solinco Hyper G 16
NSM - 263
L -> R Mains: 30 45 50 50 45 50 45 45 50 45 45 50 45 50 35
T -> B Crosses: 30 35 35 …
I went and played 30mins with my usual hitting partner only hitting 'good forehands' using all head MPs. partner said that the radical looked the best, followed by extreme tied with gravity. In terms of ball flight, I felt that Speed had the lowest ball flight, followed by the Radical, then Gravity, then extreme. The extreme was the 'easiest' and most effortless to swing, but I couldn't hit as consistently with my 'good forehand', and sometimes mis-hit. The next lowest perceived effort was followed by the gravity, which was the most consistent but did not have the penetrating low flight I liked to hit. The third was radical, but felt the best to hit with and had the biggest (in terms of how bad) mishits, but also had the 2nd best consistency and a very low ball flight over the net. The speed MP was the most challenging to swing and had the lowest ball flight to the point where I felt it was a bit difficult to clear the net. However I liked the black out look the best, and it looks like my older racquet and is in the correct grip size (#3), while the rest were #2.
Compared to my old Head Speed Pro and Tfight 315. Definitely those two 11oz were obviously harder to swing, however may be useful to use when I get stronger and have better technique, and I like the black/white look in general.
Will continue to demo more in point play and serves for next few days.
Overall impression - Preferred the radical, however extreme was the easiest to swing and to generate depth.
Next morning, reviewed the SwingVision shot map, seeing which had the tightest pattern of shots and/or the highest balls in. Winner was Speed MP followed by Radical MP. Definitely considering these two after seeing how wild the SwingVision shot map looked - it definitely took Extreme MP off the list as well as Gravity MP despite its spongy feel making it easy to bunt balls back in court
All are size 2 grips, which is small for me, but manageable since grips are relatively fresh on demos
#1 - Head Gravity MP with Solinco Hyper G Soft, Tourna tension meter measured at 55, weighed around 10.6 bal around 333mm
#2 - Babolat Pure Stike 16 19 3rd gen with Yonex PTS 1.25mm, Tourna tension meter measured at 55, weighted about 11.2 bal around 325mm
#3 - Yonex VCore 98 with Yonex PTS 1.20mm, Tourna Tension meter measured at 50, weighted about 11.4 bal around 333mm
Initial impression and feel - Babolat is most enjoyable, followed by Yonex then Head
Coach feels my balls are better with Head than Babolat, Yonex sort of toss up. Drilled FH, BH, FH Volleys
Serves /w Head - Initial 2 serves during practice were good and easy to place when doing flat, but during matchplay it was much more challenging and often framed, not sure why but was able to get my spin serve in 9/10 with my older racquet whereas I couldn't get any spin serves/2nd serves in with the new racquet.
Match volleys /w Head - impressively good, easy to put away all balls at the net in doubles and position racquet without big mishits
Wall practice - preferred old Head SP, but of demos the Head and Babolat were the easiest to hit against the wall with on FH and BH
Return of serve /w head - pretty easy to return, balls never sailed long, and usually could get angle right to go over the net.
FHs - felt Babolat was most powerful, head was weakest, and yonex was weird but in-between the two, not sure why.
BHs /w head - often framed or late when usually my BH was very consistent with my Tfight or HS Pro. Although when I hit the sweet spot it had OK pace but not as much as I would like
BHs /w Babolat - felt most similar to Tfight
Topspin - easiest with head, but felt I could get more spin with my HS Pro.
Pain - no pain/soreness any difference from previous racquets, except dampener kept flying off the demos, so probably should use a different one. Was very obvious when dampener fell off as it was totally different sound
will update this original post as I go on with demos
Played one set with another player, demo'ing the four racquets in a normal rally with FHs and BHs. The Head was the most effortless to rally with. After warming up and using the Head for the match, felt that I couldn't really generate pace or return serves. Off center hits would basically cause my racquet to rotate nearly 90 degrees despite what I felt was a strong grip pressure. Serves were challenging to do, and rarely could I hit my targets, and even when they did, the other player was able to hit deflect the pace back easily, but I found tapping it in was easier than with my old Head SP. At the net I wasn't able to deflect the shots well, the ball sort of just went through the racquet and put away shots were a lot harder for some reason, kept hitting late or framing. At 2-5 decided to switch to my hold Head SP. Played for a while and won the next game but the change in the weight threw off my forehand, though my backhand was good and I hit a lot of down the line winners with my backhand. Ended up losing 3-6. Seems like the gravity is great for my FH, bad for my BH and the reverse is true when using my old Head SP. Actually I found I could hit winners off of first serves (if the other player landed it in) with my old Head SP and even at full stretch was able to deflect wide balls over his serve and volley play to lob at the baseline.
Played a doubles set with usual doubles group.
On FHs, notably lacking in power, depth and spin. Even when going for winners felt like it was too easy for opponents to hit winners right back. Also when trying for big swings I felt I had pretty low control, so I tended to pull back to keep the ball in play
On BHs, had ok power, but again notably low powered racquet, but didn't want go go for big swings to keep the ball in play as the ball tended to sail or fly off unpredictably
At the net, it was ok, maneuverability was decent and sweet spot felt large so able to get ok shots, but again mostly felt very defensive, a pusher kind of net game just deflecting volleys back at opponents as again going for put aways often resulted in net errors or framing the ball. Backhand volleys felt challenging to put spine quite flat shot
On serve it was challenging to generate spin on serves, flat serves had good pace however, and the larger sweet spot felt a tiny bit easier to make contact but placement was hard to go out wide or T, and sweet spots felt as though it would not quite be where I expected ball to go.
On return of serve it was challenging to develop enough pace, it mostly absorbed the pace and ball kinda died in the stringed, unless I took a relatively flat cut at the ball, in which the ball would shoot off the strings, but sweet spot was small and felt like it tended to 'mishit' without feeling like a mishit.
Overall impression: a friendly rally racquet that felt like I was playing with a big sponge. quite defensive in nature
Next day I went back to my usual tennis shop, dropped off the Yonex and Babolat Demos and picked up Head Radical MP, Head Speed MP, and Head Extreme MP to demo. I measured each one at home like I do with my other racquets. I've always been measuring it but since I don't feel like re-stringing every demo I've pasted my notes here. I measured weight with a kitchen scale and balance by literally balancing the racquet and measuring from the buttcap. I used a simplified formula for 'swing weight' or NSM, which isn't accurate but something I use to compare one racquet to another. Tourna tensiometer to measure tension, measuring in a diagonal fashion across the stringed.
Demo - Head Gravity MP /w Solinco Hyper G Soft 1.30mm bal 333mm 10.5oz
NSM - 271
Feb 6
L -> R Mains: 45 50 55 | 50 55 55 | 50 55 55 | 55 55 55 | 55 55 50 | 45
T -> B Crosses
30 40 40 | 40 40 35 …
Demo - Babolat Pure Strike 16x19 3rd Gen /w YPTS 1.25mm bal 325mm 10.7oz
NSM - 263
L -> R Mains: 50 55 55 | 55 55 55 | 55 55 50 | 50 55 55 | 55 55 60 | 45
T -> B Crosses: 35 40 40 | …
Demo - Yonex VCore 98 /w YPTS 1.20mm bal 333mm 10.9 oz
NSM - 281
L -> R Mains: 40 40 50 | 50 50 45 | 45 45 45 | 50 45 50 | 50 45 50 | 40
T -> B Crosses: 30 40 35 | 35 …
Demo - Head Speed MP /w Technifibre Black Code 331mm 10.5oz
NSM - 267
L -> R Mains: 40 50 50 50 50 50 50 45 45 45 45 50 50 50 45 40
T -> B Crosses: 30 35 40 …
Demo - Head Radical MP 334mm 10.6oz /w Wilson Resolve Spin
NSM - 275
L -> R Mains: 30 35 40 40 45 40 40 40 45 40 45 45 40 40 40 35
T -> B Crosses: 30 30 30 …
Demo - Head Extreme MP 328mm 10.5oz /w Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power 125 crossed /w Solinco Hyper G 16
NSM - 263
L -> R Mains: 30 45 50 50 45 50 45 45 50 45 45 50 45 50 35
T -> B Crosses: 30 35 35 …
I went and played 30mins with my usual hitting partner only hitting 'good forehands' using all head MPs. partner said that the radical looked the best, followed by extreme tied with gravity. In terms of ball flight, I felt that Speed had the lowest ball flight, followed by the Radical, then Gravity, then extreme. The extreme was the 'easiest' and most effortless to swing, but I couldn't hit as consistently with my 'good forehand', and sometimes mis-hit. The next lowest perceived effort was followed by the gravity, which was the most consistent but did not have the penetrating low flight I liked to hit. The third was radical, but felt the best to hit with and had the biggest (in terms of how bad) mishits, but also had the 2nd best consistency and a very low ball flight over the net. The speed MP was the most challenging to swing and had the lowest ball flight to the point where I felt it was a bit difficult to clear the net. However I liked the black out look the best, and it looks like my older racquet and is in the correct grip size (#3), while the rest were #2.
Compared to my old Head Speed Pro and Tfight 315. Definitely those two 11oz were obviously harder to swing, however may be useful to use when I get stronger and have better technique, and I like the black/white look in general.
Will continue to demo more in point play and serves for next few days.
Overall impression - Preferred the radical, however extreme was the easiest to swing and to generate depth.
Next morning, reviewed the SwingVision shot map, seeing which had the tightest pattern of shots and/or the highest balls in. Winner was Speed MP followed by Radical MP. Definitely considering these two after seeing how wild the SwingVision shot map looked - it definitely took Extreme MP off the list as well as Gravity MP despite its spongy feel making it easy to bunt balls back in court
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