Reinholds
New User
Hello Talk Tennis community.
I'm a novice player with just 4 month training. I train 8-15 hours a week and plan to play on local amateur tournaments.
I started out with an simple Babolat E-sense Comp. It's cheap, but for the money it's pretty ok built with the graphite construction and start weight of 275 grams (9.7oz).
E-sense is, as Babolat states, as control oriented racket as it gets for novice rackets. It was great for the first month or so, but soon I wanted little more power while retaining some of control and spin I've mastered. So I put in the RPM Blast and few times the RPM Team. It indeed gave some extra power while preserving the control I liked about the racket.
In 2rd month I had a chance to try out for few sessions the AeroPro Drive. It was 340 grams (12oz) heavy. I loved the feel of it, but I could play with it for only about an hour or so before I started to feel the wrist, elbow and shoulder.
I went back on training with E-sense Comp and started modifying it so that I can "grow into" AeroPro Drive in near future.
First I found the least powerful strings, in local shop, that gave some spin and ended up with RPM Dual at super high tension 26.5/25.5. The tension replicates the stiffness of the AeroPro Drive for about good 60%, and the lower power mean I needed to work harder myself. I added 6grams of the lead tape to the very top of the frame and 4 grams more on the bridge to increase the swing-weight. I added woofer grip and now my e-sense comp weights at 320g (11.3oz). Its like a baby AeroPro Drive: it's 100sq, it's crisp and feels on the stiff side, it's half the way in weight and the swing-weight is at the AeroPro Drive level. After about 100-120 hours of hard hitting with e-sense comp modified, I can easily train with AeroPro Drive for 3-4 hours non-stop without any pain or discomfort.
Thoughts on the products:
1. E-sense Comp: decent racket for someone to get into the sport. Very easy to play and get feel to a ball. Frame is on the soft side.
2. RPM Blast: great for spin, good for power, looses tension pretty fast.
3. RPM Team: great for spin, good for power, felt little softer but looses tension crazy fast.
4. RPM Dual: ok for spin, no power at all (good thing), on the stiff side but keeps the tension really good.
5. AeroDrive Pro, great racket, beautiful but can't tell much since I've trained with it only for month now.
I'm sure that there are out many many people that have 20 times the experience I have, but thought this might be useful for some other beginner or someone looking for a way how to grow into AeroPro Drive.
Cheers,
R
I'm a novice player with just 4 month training. I train 8-15 hours a week and plan to play on local amateur tournaments.
I started out with an simple Babolat E-sense Comp. It's cheap, but for the money it's pretty ok built with the graphite construction and start weight of 275 grams (9.7oz).
E-sense is, as Babolat states, as control oriented racket as it gets for novice rackets. It was great for the first month or so, but soon I wanted little more power while retaining some of control and spin I've mastered. So I put in the RPM Blast and few times the RPM Team. It indeed gave some extra power while preserving the control I liked about the racket.
In 2rd month I had a chance to try out for few sessions the AeroPro Drive. It was 340 grams (12oz) heavy. I loved the feel of it, but I could play with it for only about an hour or so before I started to feel the wrist, elbow and shoulder.
I went back on training with E-sense Comp and started modifying it so that I can "grow into" AeroPro Drive in near future.
First I found the least powerful strings, in local shop, that gave some spin and ended up with RPM Dual at super high tension 26.5/25.5. The tension replicates the stiffness of the AeroPro Drive for about good 60%, and the lower power mean I needed to work harder myself. I added 6grams of the lead tape to the very top of the frame and 4 grams more on the bridge to increase the swing-weight. I added woofer grip and now my e-sense comp weights at 320g (11.3oz). Its like a baby AeroPro Drive: it's 100sq, it's crisp and feels on the stiff side, it's half the way in weight and the swing-weight is at the AeroPro Drive level. After about 100-120 hours of hard hitting with e-sense comp modified, I can easily train with AeroPro Drive for 3-4 hours non-stop without any pain or discomfort.
Thoughts on the products:
1. E-sense Comp: decent racket for someone to get into the sport. Very easy to play and get feel to a ball. Frame is on the soft side.
2. RPM Blast: great for spin, good for power, looses tension pretty fast.
3. RPM Team: great for spin, good for power, felt little softer but looses tension crazy fast.
4. RPM Dual: ok for spin, no power at all (good thing), on the stiff side but keeps the tension really good.
5. AeroDrive Pro, great racket, beautiful but can't tell much since I've trained with it only for month now.
I'm sure that there are out many many people that have 20 times the experience I have, but thought this might be useful for some other beginner or someone looking for a way how to grow into AeroPro Drive.
Cheers,
R
