Orson Welles
Rookie
I keep hearing many so called "experts" claim that top junior players shouldn't play with the powerful rackets and that they should only play with the so called "player rackets." My son is a top ranked national player in the B14s and he plays with one of the Wilson Triads. This racket is very powerful, but he can control it and because of the dampeners in the racket it's actually a lot easier on the arm. Moreover, Roddick uses the Blue Babalot which is very powerful so how bad can it be if he can control it with his great power.
It seems to me that when one looks at the history of professional tennis tour starting with Jimmy Connors pioneering the Wilson T2000 and dominating everyone else who couldn't control that racket, and now with the newer wide body rackets, the players who were able to control the most powerful rackets throughout history and technology development were the ones who succeeded. If you read Bil Scanlon's book "Bad News for McEnroe" he talks about how when the new rackets came out in the 1980's all the pros, including him, tried to dismiss them as only for "club players" but he admits that the players who grew up with wood rackets never learned to control the more powerful graphite rackets and that's why they invariably had no choice but to stick with wood and they quickly blown off the tour by the younger players like Becker who grew up with the powerful rackets and that's why they could control them. It was almost impossible to switch rackets when you're in your 20's. Scanlon also believes that McEnroe couldn't come back because he couldn't control the new technology and that he would have lasted a lot longer at the top of the tour if he could have adapted to the new rackets. Scanlon also points out that Sampras kept using that smaller headed pro staff, not because it was so great, but because he grew up with a similar racket and couldn't switch to something much different later on, particularly since he was successful with that racket.
Some local pros tell me that kids should start with the low power rackets in order to learn how to hit the ball "properly" and then they can switch to power later on. But all these local pros never switch themselves to the more powerful racket as adults even though they claim that they now have the proper stroke; and the reason they don't switch is that they can't control the more powerful rackets even if they tried. Their so called proper swing is apparently not proper for the more powerful rackets.
Don't get me wrong, if a junior is simply getting sloppy and lazy and trying to use the racket's power while hitting the stroke incorrrectly, then this is a problem. However, my son has excellent strokes modeled after someone like Agassi.
I'd like to hear others weigh in on this. So far, no has convinced me that I am wrong, but I'm open to hearing other opinions.
It seems to me that when one looks at the history of professional tennis tour starting with Jimmy Connors pioneering the Wilson T2000 and dominating everyone else who couldn't control that racket, and now with the newer wide body rackets, the players who were able to control the most powerful rackets throughout history and technology development were the ones who succeeded. If you read Bil Scanlon's book "Bad News for McEnroe" he talks about how when the new rackets came out in the 1980's all the pros, including him, tried to dismiss them as only for "club players" but he admits that the players who grew up with wood rackets never learned to control the more powerful graphite rackets and that's why they invariably had no choice but to stick with wood and they quickly blown off the tour by the younger players like Becker who grew up with the powerful rackets and that's why they could control them. It was almost impossible to switch rackets when you're in your 20's. Scanlon also believes that McEnroe couldn't come back because he couldn't control the new technology and that he would have lasted a lot longer at the top of the tour if he could have adapted to the new rackets. Scanlon also points out that Sampras kept using that smaller headed pro staff, not because it was so great, but because he grew up with a similar racket and couldn't switch to something much different later on, particularly since he was successful with that racket.
Some local pros tell me that kids should start with the low power rackets in order to learn how to hit the ball "properly" and then they can switch to power later on. But all these local pros never switch themselves to the more powerful racket as adults even though they claim that they now have the proper stroke; and the reason they don't switch is that they can't control the more powerful rackets even if they tried. Their so called proper swing is apparently not proper for the more powerful rackets.
Don't get me wrong, if a junior is simply getting sloppy and lazy and trying to use the racket's power while hitting the stroke incorrrectly, then this is a problem. However, my son has excellent strokes modeled after someone like Agassi.
I'd like to hear others weigh in on this. So far, no has convinced me that I am wrong, but I'm open to hearing other opinions.