Lead Tape advice- Weight in the throat useless?

[backfootgrinder]

I took my Bab PD GT+'s to the shop to get weighted a few months back and tried a couple of different combinations of tape before settling on the combination of tape on 3 o'clock, 9 o'clock, and some in the throat too (They chose to put it in the throat themselves, I didn't specifically ask for that. I think it was 11 grams altogether).

The stock weight felt too light for me, and I wanted some more swing weight behind it.

It definitely feels a lot better than it did before, but my buddy was telling me how he thinks having weight in the throat is just 'dead weight' and he prefers to have no extra weight in the throat and just load up 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock parts of the frame, plus some in the handle.

I've thought about it a bit and now I'm wondering if that actually would make the swing feel a bit better- to have more weight put on the 3 and 9 o'clock sides of the frame and maybe a little more weight in the handle (silicone? lead? never tried it before).

Maybe the racquet will feel more maneuverable?

Anyone have a similar experience? What ended up feeling better?

 

[davidhshon]

Weight in the throat area is generally used to add swingweight without changing the balance of the frame. It's for a depolarized setup, whereas a polarized setup would have weight added near the ends of the frame, on the handle and the top of the head.

 

[backfootgrinder]

ok i haven't heard those terms before. Do you personally prefer the polarized or depolarized setup? Is one more common these days than the other?

 

[smirker]

ok i haven't heard those terms before. Do you personally prefer the polarized or depolarized setup? Is one more common these days than the other?

Polarized, think Nadal, Federer and modern back court players in the main. Lighter static weight but higher sw due to lead added at the poles of the racket.

Depolarized = Sampras, Edberg etc who played a more all court game. Higher static weight but lower sw to provide mass and retain manoeuvrability for volleys.

Polarized set up has become more popular, I prefer de-polarized personally.

 

[backfootgrinder]

ok so the 'static' weight is the overall weight of the racquet by itself, and not the swing weight?

and the weight in the throat adds to the 'static' weight, is that right? It doesn't affect the swing weight?

 

[backfootgrinder]

Polarized, think Nadal, Federer and modern back court players in the main. Lighter static weight but higher sw due to lead added at the poles of the racket.

Depolarized = Sampras, Edberg etc who played a more all court game. Higher static weight but lower sw to provide mass and retain manoeuvrability for volleys.

Polarized set up has become more popular, I prefer de-polarized personally.

so do you have the same sort of lead setup as me? 3 and 9s of the frame and in the throat too?

 

[SpinToWin]

ok so the 'static' weight is the overall weight of the racquet by itself, and not the swing weight?

and the weight in the throat adds to the 'static' weight, is that right? It doesn't affect the swing weight?

Lead in the throat does add to the swingweight, though the amount added is very little in relation to the mass you add. The key is that you increase static weight without changing the balance.

 

[backfootgrinder]

right. the balance, as in how head heavy or handle heavy it is right? gotcha. danke!

 

[Irvin]

ok so the 'static' weight is the overall weight of the racquet by itself, and not the swing weight?

and the weight in the throat adds to the 'static' weight, is that right? It doesn't affect the swing weight?

Any weight you add anywhere on the racket will increase static weight and SW!!! No way to get around that. Unless of course you add a point mass exactly on the axis and that's impossible. The device used to measure SW may not be accurate enough to detect the change but it is still there. SW is calculated on an axis usually at 10 cm from the butt cap. That point is very arbitrary and (according TW Professor) it is impossible to swing the racket on that axis. Therefore, the actual axis is somewhere lower that and very well may be at a point that is not on the racket. The farther the distance from the axis the greater the torgue needed to accelerate the racket. The heavier the racket and the higher the SW the more effort / torque you need to apply to the racket.

 

[backfootgrinder]

yeah ok. i know it still does increase the swing weight, i just meant not affect the swing weight enough to really notice a difference. yeah i get it now. thanks lads

 

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Polarized, think Nadal, Federer and modern back court players in the main. Lighter static weight but higher sw due to lead added at the poles of the racket.

Depolarized = Sampras, Edberg etc who played a more all court game. Higher static weight but lower sw to provide mass and retain manoeuvrability for volleys.

Polarized set up has become more popular, I prefer de-polarized personally.

I think Sampras' racquet is "polarized". Dude's got a roll of lead tape at 3 and 9 o'clock... -.-

 

[Irvin]

I think Sampras' racquet is "polarized". Dude's got a roll of lead tape at 3 and 9 o'clock... -.-

Polarized is when the lead tape is at the head and down in the handle. The Sampras method results in the highest moment of inertia along the centerline axis from the head to butt while polarized results in the highest moment of inertia on an axis perpendicular to the centerline axis at the balance point.

 

[torpantennis]

Good measure for whether racquet is polarized or not is mgr/i. As the original mgr/i thread proved, most of the best pros tended to have mgr/i=21.0, so we can call that racquet "neutral". Then, polarized racquets would have mgr/i<21.0, and depolarized racquets mgr/i> 21.0.

Federer DOES NOT have a polarized setup. His racquet is neutral at 21.0. Nadal however has a heavily polarized racquet.

I've personally found out that mgr/i=21.0 DOES work. So whether it's good to add lead at throat or not depends on the racquet. Most of the racquets in stock form are too polarized, so lead at throat makes them much better.

 

[Muppet]

If you add too much lead at 3 and 9 it could become cumbersome to twist the racquet quickly and comfortably. It would be solid for off-center shots though. But your techs probably added enough lead for that already.

It sounds like you're happy with your racquet the way it is, but to feel what a more polarized setup feels like, remove the lead from the throat and add lead to the top of the hoop : handle in a 1:3 ratio if you want to keep the same balance. The change would soup up your racquet a little, and it would feel less comfortable until you get used to it.

 

[Povl Carstensen]

Federer had lead in the throat of his PS 85 (just trivia).

 

[joe sch]

I took my Bab PD GT+'s to the shop to get weighted a few months back and tried a couple of different combinations of tape before settling on the combination of tape on 3 o'clock, 9 o'clock, and some in the throat too (They chose to put it in the throat themselves, I didn't specifically ask for that. I think it was 11 grams altogether).

The stock weight felt too light for me, and I wanted some more swing weight behind it.

It definitely feels a lot better than it did before, but my buddy was telling me how he thinks having weight in the throat is just 'dead weight' and he prefers to have no extra weight in the throat and just load up 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock parts of the frame, plus some in the handle.

I've thought about it a bit and now I'm wondering if that actually would make the swing feel a bit better- to have more weight put on the 3 and 9 o'clock sides of the frame and maybe a little more weight in the handle (silicone? lead? never tried it before).

Maybe the racquet will feel more maneuverable?

Anyone have a similar experience? What ended up feeling better?

Not useless !

You may want to search on "John Cauthen"

 

[movdqa]

What you do with your racquet somewhat depends on the frame too.

I had a lot of lead tape on my YT Prestige MPs at 3/9 because the racquet was unstable without it. I had two layers of lead between 10 and 2 as well. I'd call this non-polarized. On my IG Prestige MPs, I only have lead between 10 and 2 (3 layers). None needed at 3/9 because the racquet is far more stable. It may be that they moved more material in the frame to 3/9 from someplace else but it was definitely a move in the right direction.

I like the idea of maximizing SW and minimizing Static Weight for efficiency and I've gotten used to the polarized feel. The polarized setup also gives you more dynamic flex. I can play with either but it takes a bit of time to get used to one if you're used to the other.

Djokovic has lead running from 8 to 4. Fed has lead at 12. Nadal has lead at 12. Wawrinka has visible lead at 3/9 (don't know if there's any at 12. Berdych has lead at 12 and 3/9. I don't recall any pros with lead at 6 though.

 

[backfootgrinder]

thanks guys this is great. appreciate the input!