Next racquet for a 12 yr old (360+ Speed MP Lite?)

[HarPikada]

Hello,

I have a 12 yr old boy who might be rated as approaching advanced. Meaning, he plays frequently, he's got much of his technique in place, has good swings, but not quite the CONSISTENT racquet acceleration/whip. His typical style is to play with control. He has a double-handed backhand. His strength was slow developing so for good maneuverability I have had him playing with Head Graphene 360 Speed Lite this past year. (He was the definition of lanky -- a bit less now.) I feel now that I ought to step his racquet up, but need some help.

I know one can overdo this sometimes, nevertheless:

360 Speed Lite comes in at 9.9oz/278 strung, 298 swing weight, 13.82 twist weight, 2pt head heavy.
360+ Speed MP Lite at 10.3oz/292, 317 swing weight, 13.5 twist weight, 1 pt head light.
(Flex rating is nearly identical although they say the embedding of spiral fiber along the shoulders in 360+ gives it a better "feel".)

Speed MP Lite appears to be the recommended step up in the Head family. Looking at the specs it indeed seems so for the most part. Slightly heavier, swing weight's up meaningfully, balance is tending towards head light. However, that the twist weight is EVEN lower than Speed Lite confuses me! I understand one should be aiming for the sweet spot all the time anyway so it shouldn't matter, but in reality, helps to have some twist stability/sweet spot forgiveness (especially for net play/volleys), no? There is the option I gather of adding a few gms at 3 and 9 to improve TW but I have no idea what that would do to balance etc. Would probably need to add some gms near the grip as well? Does the racquet get too heavy then? (For those reasons my preference is to avoid customization.)

Any comments on this would be quite appreciated.

Thanks!!

 

[n8dawg6]

mp lite is a different mold, has a thinner beam. i prefer it, but the twistweight doesnt lie and it will be slightly more unstable on mishits. like you noted, that can all be adjusted by lead over time. IMO the mp lite is aimed at the more advanced player, but it really depends more on what dude likes better if he can try out both.

 

[Steve Huff]

Before putting more money into a new racket, why not start adding weight to his current one. Then, as he gets bigger, enlarge the grip some, add wt at both ends. At least for a year or so.

 

[joah310]

Just get a heavier stick. or slap on some leather and lead. I would recommend a roughly HL 320 SW racket with a much higher static weight.

 

[Hansen]

there is no need to stay within the head lineup. i had to make the same decision as you since i train a 12 year old who used a pure drive lite till now.
since i don´t want to use poly forplayers at that age i searched for a control oriented frame which has enough spin potential with multi but still enough control.
so the two racquets i ordered for a demo were the gravity mp lite and the yonex ezone 98 l. my student liked both, so i made the decision, lol.
and in my opinion the yonex is the better racquet, better vibration dampening (gravity feels metallic and pings), better control (gravity launch angle is high and things can get wild if tension drops) and equal in power.
due to the specs of the ezone its useable now and perfect for the years to come.

 

[HarPikada]

Taking all of your thoughts into account makes sense probably to get another one of the 360 Speed Lite he is using right now, and lead it up. Starting with such a light base gives plenty of flexibility anyways. Maybe split 4 gms between 3 and 9, then add same amount (4 gms) over the grip. Hopefully that will keep the balance more or less where it is (bottom of the grip might be even better?). I could also experiment with adding 2 gm at 12 to directly increase the swing weight. How does that sound? I gather that it's good for the arm for such light racquets to be head heavy. This is 2 pts HH to begin with. I probably don't want to make it significantly more head heavy.

This would get us time for my son to develop some more while trying out other racquets such as Yonex eZone 98/100 referred to by Hansen which I have heard great things about. There's also a 100L version of it that comes in at 10.6oz/301 strung, 311 SW, 14.52 TW. And being 3 pts HL, a solid base for modification. Would love some feedback from anyone who's tried this particular racquet. Great specs from what I can tell. Keen, now, on trying this one even as an interim racquet.

 

[sheaunien]

My 12yrs old went from a 275g unstrung to a 300g unstrung, about 5 month ago. Demoed Pure Aero, Pure Strike 100, Yonex Vcore Pro 100 & Wilson Clash 100. Currently using Clash 100.

 

[Hansen]

to lead up the racquet and look how the player reacts to the weight change is a good idea. 4gr total at 3 and 9 is a good, better than 2gr at 12, because light swingweight racquets lack stability, so 3 and 9 is the better place.

I gather that it's good for the arm for such light racquets to be head heavy.

hh isn´t good for the arm, but a certain sw is necessary and if the frame is light than a hh balance is the consequence. so don´t be afraid of changing the balance more toward less hh.

 

[HarPikada]

Would you mind telling me what level your son plays at, @sheaunien? I had my son demo Clash 100. He is still learning to differentiate a racquet induced change from the typical "noise" in one's game, but he thought he was struggling to get more pop off from defensive situations with that racquet.

 

[sheaunien]

My daughter is in between intermediate and advance.

 

[Steve Huff]

When I start adding weight to a racket, I try to find the area on the strings where they are making contact with the ball -- look for ball fuzz etc. Then, I add weight adjacent to that area, so it could be at 3 and 9, or 2 and 10. I rarely add wt at 12 as that can bring the sweet spot up a little too. To add in the handle, the easiest way is to add lead tape to the bevels in the grip. Gamma lead tape (or tungsten tape these days) is pretty thin, so you can add quite a bit and still not get the grip much larger.

 

[Khoiifish]

oh man, he's at that age where he is so close to switching to a ~300g racket, I switched around 13 as well and everyone in my country I swear was using an aeropro drive at 13-16ish years old. It's hard to deny that babolats are the perfect tweener rackets for that age group. It feels like they're cheating with the pace and topspin juniors can produce with them and just a disclaimer, I don't even like babolats anymore. So I do recommend getting a ~300g racket as soon as he can use it and thus the steps I would probably envision are:

1. Lead up his current racket as suggested with counterbalance in the handle (however you want to do it)
2. Moving to a ~300g adult racket when he is ready. I swear all juniors hit bombs with the pure aero / pure drives (Im still 23 so I do play with 16-18 year old juniors at my local club all the time). I don't see a point personally switching to something like the ezone 98L, I feel he's gonna develop so quickly in the next year or so and will easily handle the mass of 300g racket. You could consider the new Ezone 98 (SW only 317), or Clash 100 (SW only 312) or even the Vcore 98 is a good option bit heavier though (SW = 322). I feel its best to give them that extra tweener oomph and spin to allow them to play aggressive and learn how to hit kill shots.
3. When he gets stronger and feels like he needs more control then he can switch out to something like a blade, or Speed Pro or Vcore Pro or Gravity MP.

What I'd do to be 12 again and learn tennis! So many things I would change in hindsight. But the one thing I wouldn't change is the move from step 1 to step 2. Once moving to step 2, he can always play with a racket like that for the rest of his life if he wanted to and switching to even more control won't be the biggest need. However, getting from the speed lite to ~300g just gives the necessary stability in my opinion. All personal opinion of course! If you are really well off, then yeah you can get the speed MP lite, but he'll be switching out of it before you know it.

 

[HarPikada]

All the comments have been helpful in figuring out the next steps, thanks a ton!

I don't see a point personally switching to something like the ezone 98L, I feel he's gonna develop so quickly in the next year or so and will easily handle the mass of 300g racket.

@Khoiifish Your point is well taken. I have to count on/work towards getting him strong enough so in another year he can switch straight-away to >= 300g racquet. There's some in his group who have already done that.

So, I just got him another 360 Speed Lite just for customizing (along with lead tape, tungsten putty, postal scale.) To begin with I will add 4 gms split between 3 and 9. The racquet is already supposed to be 2 pts HH, so I have to figure out where to add the counter weight. It would seem that the lower I can put the counter weight the more I can revert the racquet to a HL scenario with least amount of weight? Wouldn't adding another 4 gms inside the butt cap be the best way to go?

 

[joah310]

All the comments have been helpful in figuring out the next steps, thanks a ton!


@Khoiifish Your point is well taken. I have to count on/work towards getting him strong enough so in another year he can switch straight-away to >= 300g racquet. There's some in his group who have already done that.

So, I just got him another 360 Speed Lite just for customizing (along with lead tape, tungsten putty, postal scale.) To begin with I will add 4 gms split between 3 and 9. The racquet is already supposed to be 2 pts HH, so I have to figure out where to add the counter weight. It would seem that the lower I can put the counter weight the more I can revert the racquet to a HL scenario with least amount of weight? Wouldn't adding another 4 gms inside the butt cap be the best way to go?

you can invest in a leather grip and some blue tack for counterbalancing. Maybe add some lead at 12, and some in the throat.

 

[Steve Huff]

Most kids wouldn't want a leather grip. Most people outside these boards don't want leather grips. Leather was really your only option in the 70's (and before) and new grip materials were developed for a reason--very few people wanted them. The 1st synthetic grips I remember were from a company called Qoro. I think I might still have 1 somewhere.