If you can handle a heavier racquet, is there any benefit to a lighter frame?

[fuzz nation]

My C10 Pro weighs .357 kg, has SW of 336 and balance of 31.5 cm. Using the formula I get

336-(.357*(31.5-10.16)^2) = Recoil weight of 173.42

Is this an ideal recoil weight


I guess a more realistic set up would be 11.5 oz, SW 325 but more head heavy balance right? I like my C10 Pro for it's plowthrough and capacity to absorb shock but sometimes I feel like I'm just a tad slow on faster balls. I was wondering if I can bring the C10's plow and comfort to a lighter racquet that'll allow me to increase my swing speed? Is that even possible?

My C10's were great for me as soon as I first tried them some years ago, but the racquets I was using then were the Wilson 6.1 Classics. The C10's didn't have the same degree of HL balance that I was accustomed to and the stock C10's felt a little more sluggish for me than the Wilsons. So I leaded their handles and that made my C10's feel a lot more right for me.

If you haven't tried adding weight to your handles, I recommend an experiment or two. You'll still have the same heft and plow-through in your hoop, but a bump in HL balance should give you a little quickness you want.

The other Volkl I keep in the bag is the Organix 10 325g. These "10 Series" 325g frames - including the more current V-Sense 325g - are lighter overall, so there's room to lead the hoop, the handle, or both. While the C10 seems to be slightly more flexible than the 325g's, the soft feel and performance in my O10's really came to life after adding a little lead.

If you need a lighter alternative to the C10 that you're okay with tuning, consider the VS 10 325g (it's on sale!) or maybe the V-Sense 10 Tour. One of our pals here thinks the VS 10 Tour feels and behaves like a leaner alternative to the C10. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I'll probably scratch that itch in the spring.

 

[Irvin]

Be careful where you’re going when you start adding weight to the butt to make a racket more maneuverable. I also feel like it speeds up the racket adding weight to the butt but science does not agree with me. If you work out the numbers it will require more force to rotate the racket.

 

[Sardines]

I've always believed the old saying that a player should use the heaviest racquet they can handle.

I use the RF97 Auto, and have a little lead tape at 2 and 10. I don't ever feel like it's too heavy, but I have noticed that I have by far the heaviest set up of anyone I play with. Most people are using something along the lines of a stock blade or pure strike/drive/aero, etc.

I wonder sometimes if I'm using somewhat old/obsolete mindset and should use a lighter frame. I guess the pros use quite heavy frames, but I've even heard that some of the younger guys are going to lighter racquets with less head light balance.

The heaviest racquet we think we can play with and the actual weight may not be the same. High static weight has a detrimental effect on how fast you swing 1 hr into a match, not the first 20 mins. I've played with 380g+ frames all my tennis life, from the PS85 to PS90, culminating to a modded 371g RF97A in 2014, until about a year ago, when I realized in my mid 40s, I was missing my best serves more often late into a match, when it used to be my steadiest serve. The shift was subtle too on the ground strokes, as my foot speed slowed, I was rushing to balls and less ready to take full swings, thus making me hit at higher effort more often on the run.
I never thought it was my fitness, as my training regimen kept me within 15 seconds of my peak mile speed in my mid 20s. And I still can do core exercises like I did 15 years ago. Ego, and the timed results, kept me from realizing the obvious, cronus was coming for me in subtle ways.
I'd experimented with lighter racquets over the years, and always added my weight because my stroke timing were tuned to that speed. I settled on 360+g, 20g less allowed me to hit bigger, for longer and for more margin for error going to a 95 from a 90. But went back to the RF97 in 2014. I played really well for 1.5 years, but then as I pass 45, I had difficult hitting crucial serves and began missing more aggressive returns against UTR13+ big servers. I tried adding and taking weight off.
So I decided to experiment with the SV98+, which 25g lighter after all the mods to get the same SW, balance. The added power of the racquet and lighter weight meant I served heavier, more consistently in the latter end of a 3rd set than I did with the RF97. I was hitting as big off the ground but on a dead run, stretched out, I was hitting better top spin shots. I no longer have arm soreness from fatigue over 4-5 days of continuous play, as I did with the RF97, so long as I kept the strings fresh.

I have had some elbow pain recently, but I played many hours with the racquet before it emerged, so I don’t really think it was the cause.

So what would be your take on a heavy, headlight racquet for a baseline player?

Fatigue due to weight can and does cause detrimental stroke defects which can cause the pain.

 

[grhcan99]

My C10's were great for me as soon as I first tried them some years ago, but the racquets I was using then were the Wilson 6.1 Classics. The C10's didn't have the same degree of HL balance that I was accustomed to and the stock C10's felt a little more sluggish for me than the Wilsons. So I leaded their handles and that made my C10's feel a lot more right for me.

If you haven't tried adding weight to your handles, I recommend an experiment or two. You'll still have the same heft and plow-through in your hoop, but a bump in HL balance should give you a little quickness you want.

The other Volkl I keep in the bag is the Organix 10 325g. These "10 Series" 325g frames - including the more current V-Sense 325g - are lighter overall, so there's room to lead the hoop, the handle, or both. While the C10 seems to be slightly more flexible than the 325g's, the soft feel and performance in my O10's really came to life after adding a little lead.

If you need a lighter alternative to the C10 that you're okay with tuning, consider the VS 10 325g (it's on sale!) or maybe the V-Sense 10 Tour. One of our pals here thinks the VS 10 Tour feels and behaves like a leaner alternative to the C10. I haven't tried it yet myself, but I'll probably scratch that itch in the spring.

I'll try adding weight to my C10 and see how it goes. I do have an O10 325 and like it too. This is probably my plan B. And get a VSense 10 325 to have a pair. Yes I've read about @Rabbit liking his VSense 10 Tour and tempted to try. But that will be plan C For now I like how heft moves the ball for me. It's just my poor timing sometimes especially in first few minutes of a hit that I miss having something quicker in my hand. Btw, how did you lead your O10?

 

[HopeHawk76]

I recently switched from a heavier stick (rdis100mp) to a lighter one (2018 pure drive) because I’m getting older (42) and my arm was getting tired after long hitting sessions. I’ve actually enjoyed the lighter setup at the net because I can respond more quickly. As you would expect you end up missing some stability and plow through. I’ve always used stiff board like set ups and I’ve never had wrist elbow or shoulder issues. The change to the lighter Babolat hybrid has been a lot of fun.

 

[fuzz nation]

I'll try adding weight to my C10 and see how it goes. I do have an O10 325 and like it too. This is probably my plan B. And get a VSense 10 325 to have a pair. Yes I've read about @Rabbit liking his VSense 10 Tour and tempted to try. But that will be plan C For now I like how heft moves the ball for me. It's just my poor timing sometimes especially in first few minutes of a hit that I miss having something quicker in my hand. Btw, how did you lead your O10?

Step one for me with the O10 was to add lead at 3 and 9 o'clock on the hoop in small increments until it got to feeling more stable through the ball for me. I had already been using the C10 for some years (the 6.1 Classic before that), so that degree of plow-through had pretty much become something that I want with any racquet. I did my tuning while hitting against a backboard - easy to start and stop without driving a hitting pal crazy.

One of my O10's has a total of about 8 inches of 1/4" Gamma lead tape on the hoop - 4 inches of tape at 3 o'clock, 4 inches at 9 o'clock. The other one has a total of about 10 inches on the hoop (5 inches per side). Not sure why they're not exactly the same, but I'm always tweaking just a little and both of these frames seem to be running fine for me now as they are. I should do a little checking of weights and balances just to see how they compare.

My next step was to put 1/2" lead tape on my handles to get a balance up to around 10 pts. head-light (HL). This has always been my most familiar balance - that's why I leaded the handles of my C10's, too. Once I tuned my O10's, they really came to life. Comparing the first one that I leaded up against the one that was still in stock form was hard to believe. The extra heft gave me a LOT more of that soft-racquet feel at contact along with better control and consistency. Nice at the baseline, but also much better for me around the net. Actually, when I was helping out a pal with some clinics a couple summers ago, I met a guy who also had these O10's and he had done the exact same tuning with his frames.

My O10's currently have weight added to their handles in the form of heat shrink sleeves instead of the lead tape. This chunky, blocky handle is pretty comfortable for me and these are 4 5/8" grips with the sleeves added, then a replacement grip, and then an overgrip (now they're a little over 5"). Final heft is around 12.8 oz. - slightly heavier than my 12.6 oz. C10's, but my O10's are also slightly quicker handling for me.

I also recently picked up a pair of the VS 10 325g's on sale at TW and I plan to give them a similar tuning. They seem to spec about the same as the O10's, so it should be easy enough to get these VS 10's dialed in for prime time, too.

 

[grhcan99]

[

Step one for me with the O10 was to add lead at 3 and 9 o'clock on the hoop in small increments until it got to feeling more stable through the ball for me. I had already been using the C10 for some years (the 6.1 Classic before that), so that degree of plow-through had pretty much become something that I want with any racquet. I did my tuning while hitting against a backboard - easy to start and stop without driving a hitting pal crazy.

One of my O10's has a total of about 8 inches of 1/4" Gamma lead tape on the hoop - 4 inches of tape at 3 o'clock, 4 inches at 9 o'clock. The other one has a total of about 10 inches on the hoop (5 inches per side). Not sure why they're not exactly the same, but I'm always tweaking just a little and both of these frames seem to be running fine for me now as they are. I should do a little checking of weights and balances just to see how they compare.

My next step was to put 1/2" lead tape on my handles to get a balance up to around 10 pts. head-light (HL). This has always been my most familiar balance - that's why I leaded the handles of my C10's, too. Once I tuned my O10's, they really came to life. Comparing the first one that I leaded up against the one that was still in stock form was hard to believe. The extra heft gave me a LOT more of that soft-racquet feel at contact along with better control and consistency. Nice at the baseline, but also much better for me around the net. Actually, when I was helping out a pal with some clinics a couple summers ago, I met a guy who also had these O10's and he had done the exact same tuning with his frames.

My O10's currently have weight added to their handles in the form of heat shrink sleeves instead of the lead tape. This chunky, blocky handle is pretty comfortable for me and these are 4 5/8" grips with the sleeves added, then a replacement grip, and then an overgrip (now they're a little over 5"). Final heft is around 12.8 oz. - slightly heavier than my 12.6 oz. C10's, but my O10's are also slightly quicker handling for me.

I also recently picked up a pair of the VS 10 325g's on sale at TW and I plan to give them a similar tuning. They seem to spec about the same as the O10's, so it should be easy enough to get these VS 10's dialed in for prime time, too.

Wow you got your O10's heavier than the C10's? But they're still more manuverable than the C10? I've got to try that So mainly just 3 & 9 and handle then. Thanks.

 

[TennisHound]

Basically, if you can use a heavy racquet proficiently, then do it, because you can hit a heavier ball and overpower opponents. If you can't, or if your shoulder gets tired from serving, and it just feels heavy, then don't. I would bet we've all used heavy racquets at some point; (I'm not sure if used that semi-colon correctly) but with age, playing time, laziness and lack of exercise, most of us gravitate to lighter frames. I wish I could use an a RF97, but its just a feels a little heavy for me now. I won a whole lot of matches with that racquet. But, I'm lazy now, and don't want to play that hard, so I use a lighter one.

 

[grhcan99]

Basically, if you can use a heavy racquet proficiently, then do it, because you can hit a heavier ball and overpower opponents. If you can't, or if your shoulder gets tired from serving, and it just feels heavy, then don't. I would bet we've all used heavy racquets at some point; (I'm not sure if used that semi-colon correctly) but with age, playing time, laziness and lack of exercise, most of us gravitate to lighter frames. I wish I could use an a RF97, but its just a feels a little heavy for me now. I won a whole lot of matches with that racquet. But, I'm lazy now, and don't want to play that hard, so I use a lighter one.

Good point. I have not reached that point yet where weight has become an issue. I guess I'm just a slow starter. After 30 minutes I'm usually at full throttle and at that point I'm just cruising.

 

[J011yroger]

Basically, if you can use a heavy racquet proficiently, then do it, because you can hit a heavier ball and overpower opponents. If you can't, or if your shoulder gets tired from serving, and it just feels heavy, then don't. I would bet we've all used heavy racquets at some point; (I'm not sure if used that semi-colon correctly) but with age, playing time, laziness and lack of exercise, most of us gravitate to lighter frames. I wish I could use an a RF97, but its just a feels a little heavy for me now. I won a whole lot of matches with that racquet. But, I'm lazy now, and don't want to play that hard, so I use a lighter one.

In 3 years you got too old to use a racquet?!

J

 

[travlerajm]

Once 13-oz.+ frames became my new normal (about 10 years ago), I found it impossible to go back to anything lighter. Just doesn't feel right.

 

[fuzz nation]

[


Wow you got your O10's heavier than the C10's? But they're still more manuverable than the C10? I've got to try that So mainly just 3 & 9 and handle then. Thanks.

I should qualify that a little bit. I don't know whether one model is much more maneuverable than the other, but I'm more confident around the net with my O10's. It might be that they have a mildly less flexible hoop compared with the C10's and that sharper, "crisp" feel on my volleys gives me better touch and accuracy. If feel counts for anything though, my O10's also feel like the slightly quicker racquets.

 

[TennisHound]

In 3 years you got too old to use a racquet?!

J

yep, it’s like it hit all at once. Of course we’re not counting my 12.6oz Wilson Graphite Matrix since it’s 85sq in.