Hypothesis "the better a player plays, the pickier the player is about the racket used and all elements of the string used"

FuzzyYellowBalls

FuzzyYellowBalls

Legend
A quote by the lovely @glenda in the Recoil Weight thread, which made me curious. Albeit she is a 5.0 level or 5.5 level player who "cares" about her equipment, but more like in the sense of " I have no idea what racket polarization is or how it applies. I have no idea what racket recoil is, either. I'll repeat. I put a racket in my hand. If it feels good, I'll take a few shadow swings. If it feels good, I'll give it a court workout with strings and tension of my choice. If then the racket delivers the way I intend, it's a keeper."

Of course a beginner as they progress to whatever you think is intermediate cares more about equipment than before. I think the sweet spot for obsessing about a racket winning matches , playing with different rackets for singles doubles, the real intense racket equipment focus is in the middle.

This is not tinkering for fun, but for literally transporting that W into the record column.

Tour players are particular about rackets and strings, but don't often deviate from what they have used since their youthsssss.

So in a way the hypothesis is correct, but some skip the whole middle part since maybe they go intermediate before they become teenagers or they just blow past it to level 5.0 or so? Maybe not.
 
In my experience, there is almost zero correlation between playing level and sensitivity to how the racquet feels.

I have seen amazingly talented players who hardly notice what you change, and other equally great players who freak out if I add a 0.1-gram sticker anywhere on the frame.

But in both cases, the actual performance level is equally sensitive to the changes.

Hope that makes sense.
 
Yeah, I've found it really doesn't matter your level: some people are sensitive to equipment changes, some aren't. A buddy of mine used to customize for Wilson, and he said that one time one of their players had somehow gotten an un-customized racquet in their bag. When he brought the racquet to restring, my buddy noticed, asked the player if he could fix it, and the guy responded that he didn't even notice it hadn't been customized yet, but told him to go ahead.
 
travlerajm said:
In my experience, there is almost zero correlation between playing level and sensitivity to how the racquet feels.

I have seen amazingly talented players who hardly notice what you change, and other equally great players who freak out if I add a 0.1-gram sticker anywhere on the frame.

But in both cases, the actual performance level is equally sensitive to the changes.

Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...
The performance level changes equally regardless of sensitivity, so it's not mental i guess, and how much does it change, the performance level, because it could change equally insignificantly or equally significantly.
 
PFG1 said:
My experience is all over the place.

As a 5.0 level mens player, I’m super picky on strings. But frame wise…I don’t care that my blades aren’t matched spec. Way too many other variables for that to matter.

But I know a lot of lower level guys who obsess over frames. Yet are playing with 3 month old poly.
Click to expand...
Kind of like what @Dartagnan64 said. Interesting.
 
PFG1 said:
My experience is all over the place.

As a 5.0 level mens player, I’m super picky on strings. But frame wise…I don’t care that my blades aren’t matched spec. Way too many other variables for that to matter.

But I know a lot of lower level guys who obsess over frames. Yet are playing with 3 month old poly.
Click to expand...

A few years ago, a pro at my club who has been perpetually rated in the top five in age group competition in our area, switched racquet sponsorships. I saw him take a brand new racquet that he had never hit with, put his usual string in it, and proceed to hit for about 15 minutes at a high level barely missing any balls. It was a fairly significantly different racquet than what he was using before, which was stiffer balanced more evenly. That was very eye opening for me.

I used to try to match my racquets within 1% for swingweight and static weight, but recently broke one of my frames and had to put a new frame into service. Because I customize with over 45 grams of weight, I didn't get it very close at first try but I found that any difference in swing feel disappeared within the first 30 seconds of hitting. Now, as long as my racquets are within 5-7 grams and 5-7 swingweight units, I can pretty much pick any of them up and play just as well (or as poorly) as with any other racquet, and if I am playing poorly and switch to a frame of different weight, I'm still playing just a poorly. It's also true though that if I'm timing the ball well, I can use any racquet in my bag and still play well, because they all have the same string at the same tension. It's liberating to not obsess over the frame weight, inertia, and balance like I used to.
 
I choose my racquet model and preferred stringjob carefully every few years after demoing a few racquets. After that I buy 3-4 of them, don’t measure any specs and just play with them. I guess I adjust during the warmup if there are any spec variances.

When players match their racquets very carefully for specs, I always wonder if they also string them all at the same time with the same stringjob and cut the strings out early after a few hours. Otherwise if you play with poly, the age of the stringjob changes performance quite a bit if each racquet‘s stringjob has 5, 10, 15 more/less hours on it than other carefully matched racquets. You’ll end up having to adjust during the warmup just like others who don’t carefully match the specs of their racquets.
 
I can only speak to my own experience but I use what I use because I feel what happened when I hit something badly (lazy footwork, racquet not quite in position, poor reaction to incoming ball...whatever the reason) and I feel what happened on good shots.
 
socallefty said:
I choose my racquet model and preferred stringjob carefully every few years after demoing a few racquets. After that I buy 3-4 of them, don’t measure any specs and just play with them. I guess I adjust during the warmup if there are any spec variances.

When players match their racquets very carefully for specs, I always wonder if they also string them all at the same time with the same stringjob and cut the strings out early after a few hours. Otherwise if you play with poly, the age of the stringjob changes performance quite a bit if each racquet‘s stringjob has 5, 10, 15 more/less hours on it than other carefully matched racquets. You’ll end up having to adjust during the warmup just like others who don’t carefully match the specs of their racquets.
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To me, the condition of the string bed is way more impactful to racquet performance than the specs of the frame. So I agree; if you’re not going to re-string every few hours, there’s no point in customizing so exactly. The pros do it, sure, but they can also afford to restring after every match, not to mention using multiple racquets in one match.
 
Customizing is fun to do. It brings racquets to your preferred ballpark, less adjustment. It allows you to not think actually once you are set. It allows you to use racquets which are “just lacking something” easily, without long journey of finding The One.

The thing with high level players working as club pros is you usually face them in non-competitive situations and during the part of their life where they no more care much about their tennis results. So obviously they don’t give a … anymore. Unless getting injured.

Evidently, best players in the world do care about their equipment and adjust their sticks to prolong success in their careers (Roger, Rafa, Novak all tinkered with their specs and came back winning GS again).

Saying “technique and practice are more important” — obviously they are! We lack practice and fitness not dependent on whether we tinker with our sticks or not.

As a separate note, we do easily adjust to different racquets rallying — that’s true. But then you go on serving and you have that 2nd serve breakpoint down… and you don’t think about recoil weight or something, but racquet dynamics IS different, and unless you’ve already hit several dozens of kick serves in warmup with this exact one, it’s now more shaky than you would desire.

Same for some touch volleys, etc. You are just more confident and consistent in all situations if you do one same racquet. Or matched ones. And overall suitable for your game. Imagine Jasmine Paolini using Prestige Pro? She would still golden-set a rec dude with optimal MgR/I racquet, but would she be in 2 consecutive GS finals? I bet no.

Strings lives matter, of course.
 
OP's stream of consciousness was so exuberant that I couldn't understand a thing, but what I understand is that the higher the RHS, the smaller the margin of error and the more sensitive the movement is to any changes in the racquet. Also, different racquets suit different hitting patterns, which are unestablished and evolving for a developing player. As you progress, certain racquets will work better at specific times and the racquet roulette might be beneficial.

It's clear that most tennis players don't play with the racquet that is most optimal for them. Some players couldn’t care less, which is quite deteriorating considering the huge effect of the racquet on performance. For example, you can start using some pro specs right in the beginning, but then you’re unlikely to play with a racquet that yields the best results for you immediately. On the other hand, committing to a specific racquet will also develop your game in a certain direction. However, when you start approaching your peak and establish your playing style, there’s less and less room for changing racquets, but there are still plenty of variables to customize.

One thing is still certain - When a sponsor brings some serious money on the table, I guess anyone is capable of adapting to a racquet switch.
 
Dragy said:
As a separate note, we do easily adjust to different racquets rallying — that’s true. But then you go on serving and you have that 2nd serve breakpoint down… and you don’t think about recoil weight or something, but racquet dynamics IS different, and unless you’ve already hit several dozens of kick serves in warmup with this exact one, it’s now more shaky than you would desire.
Click to expand...

Human performance varies much more, day to day and sometimes even minute to minute, than a couple of percent difference in some aspect of the racquet. And besides, what if during that breakpoint-down second serve, the wind is blowing just a little harder?

Undoubtedly, the best players in the world are exceptionally gifted at precisely repeating a highly athletic motion. But also undoubtedly, recreational players, even high level ones, are not. Otherwise, we would miss much less than we do.

Sure it can be fun to match racquets and it definitely can’t hurt. Unless it becomes a mental crutch such that a player loses confidence because something is a couple of grams off. Those are the players you can often mess up by saying “you’re serving great today”, or maybe even more passively aggressively, “you’re hitting great even though the sweat that has absorbed into your grip has changed your balance point”. No lie - I’ve competed against someone like this.
 
I had to smile when I saw the headline :) I can totally relate to this...as I was young (12-15) I used to play with couple of my friends like every weekend with one racquet with a factory string inside for like 2 years maybe? No idea about any weight of the racqeut at all, you just got used to it, there was no other option. Grip size? No clue...swingweight the same :-D as the stringbed became looser we were just putting the string savers inside. More and more. And at one point I remember I had the stringbed full of these. And we were totally happy. We even thought that if you break the strings, you would have to buy a new racqeut :-D really...we had absolutely no clue about gear whatsoever.
And now we're overthinking every possible aspect of the game including the dampener weight and effect :)
So thanks to the author for bringing back the memories...;-)
 
I can only speak for myself, but my winning percentage went up once I started learning about frame specs, matching frames, restringing before matches, etc...I play at 4.5-5.0 level.

Nothing can replace practice and hard work, but minimizing variables in tennis is always a good thing. You should do everything you can in your control to replicate a consistent level from day to day. Not caring about your equipment is just folks being lazy and trying to justify it, IMO. Obviously it doesn't matter for 3.0 and 3.5's.
 
PistolPete23 said:
To me, the condition of the string bed is way more impactful to racquet performance than the specs of the frame. So I agree; if you’re not going to re-string every few hours, there’s no point in customizing so exactly. The pros do it, sure, but they can also afford to restring after every match, not to mention using multiple racquets in one match.
Click to expand...
Interesting thought, probably right
 
Konik_1982 said:
I had to smile when I saw the headline :) I can totally relate to this...as I was young (12-15) I used to play with couple of my friends like every weekend with one racquet with a factory string inside for like 2 years maybe? No idea about any weight of the racqeut at all, you just got used to it, there was no other option. Grip size? No clue...swingweight the same :-D as the stringbed became looser we were just putting the string savers inside. More and more. And at one point I remember I had the stringbed full of these. And we were totally happy. We even thought that if you break the strings, you would have to buy a new racqeut :-D really...we had absolutely no clue about gear whatsoever.
And now we're overthinking every possible aspect of the game including the dampener weight and effect :)
So thanks to the author for bringing back the memories...;-)
Click to expand...
all credit goes to the mighty @glenda
 
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