Hello fellow Tennisnerds,
after not playing actively for more than 22 years, I now continued my Tennis-journey at the age of 42, because my teenage daughter wanted to get into Tennis. Not long after I came back to the good old red clay, the local players were inviting me to their 1st men's team training sessions, asking me to join their team next season. Actually they signed me up without me having a say, because they need more players
But I'm still asking myself if the 93p is the right choice for me, especially when getting back to competitive Tennis and competing with hard-hitting guys in their 30s.
Back in the 90s I was playing very competitively but then had a bad shoulder injury with surgery and shortly after that I stopped playing and haven't come back until 1,5 months ago.
Others say I have a very old-school and sophisticated technique, if you wanted to compare my groundstrokes to a former pro-player I think Michael Stich would be a good comparison. Only that I'm a lot shorter, so physically I'm much closer to Agassi
Before hitting with the boys, I tried out these sticks:
- Pro Kennex Q+ Tour
- Wilson Pro Staff 97 V13.0
- Wilson Clash 100
- Dunlop CX 200 Tour 18x20
- Babolat Pure Strike 18x20
- Babolat Pure Drive Lite
- Dunlop SX 300 Lite
- Prince Phantom 100X (18x20)
- Phantom 100X (290g)
- Prince Phantom 93p
and the 93p was the only racquet that felt really good. The Pro Kennex felt "meh", the Pro Staff was a bit too stiff and gave me irritating feelings in the upper arm.
The Clash was missing control and feel, also was too light. The Dunlop actually was my first choice before I tried the 93p, but still gave me some irritations in my arm ---> my daughter is now using the Dunlop.
The Babolats gave me painful feelings in my arm right from the first hit. The 100x Phantoms did not feel as comfortable as the 93p. The Lite racquets were missing mass which lead to unclean and too fast swings, especially on my forehand. The 93p and its weight "forces me to have clean technique" which is very positive for my sensitive shoulder. So my conclusion was that my shoulder prefers head-light sticks for now.
But I also think the problem with testing racquets is that you are not allowed to re-string them. And all of these were strung with Polys at around 55lbs. I think that it would've made a big difference if I would've been able to restring them with a softer string / tension. But still, the 93p felt better than any other racquet, even when strung with a poly at 54lbs.
I'm now stringing my 93p with Head Velocity MLT 16 at 44 to 48 lbs. 44lbs was very comfortable but lead to a lot of uncontrolled "moon balls". 48lbs seems to be a good compromise for now, like the middle-ground between control and power. The MLT strings also feel a lot better to my sensitive shoulder than the previous poly-setup in the test-stick.
So I mainly chose the 93p because it was "the only stick that felt good and didn't hurt my arm / shoulder". But now that I have to play long baseline-rallies on clay I'm not sure the 93p is the best choice. It feels as if my racquet choice makes life harder than it has to be. The "boys" are all hitting very aggressive with lots of depth and Top Spin. They're also not swinging as big as I do, actually their technique reminds me more of hitting with a flyswatter and they also make a lot of unforced errors, but when their strokes land close to the baseline I'm having a very hard time returning their shots with enough power, often putting me into a very defensive position. If you watch us playing you can instantly see that I (have to) put much more body mass / body movement into every stroke and I have to work a lot harder to get the same power as they do.
If you combine that with the unforgiving nature and the smaller head size of the 93p you can probably understand my "do I make my life harder than necessary?" thoughts.
But they also have a different style of playing Tennis. I'm more of a tactical player, aiming for precision and variation, only hitting hard if the opportunity for a winner or attacking the net is realistic. My goal is to hit as effortlessly and relaxed as possible. They on the other hand are "always hit as hard as you can with as much Top-Spin as you can" club-players, accepting lots of unforced errors in the process.
From my point of view there are 2 roads I can take now:
1. Perfect my "old-school" technique and style of playing with the 93p, combating their heavy Top-Spins. Accept that I have to work a lot harder than they do to generate power, doing more of a "full body workout" with every stroke. Hoping that in the end this will pay off, especially from a health perspective.
2. Try out some more racquets, trying to find something to make life a bit easier in spin-intensive clay-rallies. Looking for the arm-friendly, controlled feeling of the 93p with more forgiveness, spin and power.
What would you guys propose in my situation?
