rafa_prestige89
Professional
Were do the pros put the lead tape (if they use lead tape) to mantain the balance of the racquet?(under the grip, above the handle,...?)
Pro's lead location
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crazylevity
Hall of Fame
They usually maintain the balance by counter-weighting. TW recommends lead at 6 o clock if u don't want to change the balance, and I've never seen a pro put lead there.
There is no one place they put it. Even the same pros may put it in different places on each frame, since all frames come off the line slightly differently. The idea is to make them MATCH, and that requires different things for each frame. They aren't maintaining the balance of a specific frame, they are making the balance of all their frames match each other. Generally speaking, if you're trying to add weight, but maintain the balance of your frame, you can do one of two things:
- Add weight exactly at the balance point of the racquet (NOTE: this does not mean 6 0'clock necessarily, as each racquet has a different balance point to start with).
- Add weight somewhere on the head, and then counterbalance it with weight in the handle.
How you choose to do this depends on what else you're trying to achieve. One of the most popular ways is to add weight at 3 and 9 o'clock on the head for stability and then counterbalance with the appropriate amount in the handle or under the grip.
Whichever method you use, it's a good idea to avoid guesswork, which means you need access to equipment that can measure the weight, balance point and swingweight of your racquets, at the very minimum. If you have this, you can also use the calculators on the USRSA website, which will give you many options for where to place weight (and how much) to achieve the desired effect.
rafa_prestige89
Professional
Wow, thanks a lot LPShanet for the great explanation that you gave me...but I was just wondering where pros like safin for example but the counterbalance lead, once that I never saw his racquets with weight abovethe handle...do they put it under the grip?
Glad to help. When counterbalancing, under the grip is a decent and fairly accessible place to put it. If you have a good racquet technician working with you, you can also put the weight inside the handle/pallet using fillers and lead or other materials. Pros have been known to use either of these methods. If you're trying to counterbalance a frame with handle weight, you generally want to keep the weight right where your hand is, since that is the point of leverage for your strokes, and has the least impact on moment of inertia and swingweight. However, some will put it at the base of the handle, too. It's pretty rare to see it above the handle but still on the shaft, since that adds weight AND swingweight without helping stability.
As for visibility of the lead, that can vary a lot. Some players put it right where you can see it (such as on the inside edge of the frame), but many have more sophisticated ways of customizing (some of which aren't available to you). Many put weight in the head, but do so under the grommet strip (or even inside the layup), where it can't be seen. In the handle, it can be put under the grip or even inside the handle via various methods (lead shot, foam, etc.). Finally, many pros, especially higher ranked ones sponsored by a company with a pro room (e.g. Head and Wilson), get their pro room to do custom weighting and balancing before the frames are sent out, so there is no cosmetic evidence. This weight can be put inside the frame or be hidden under a paint job (which players like Safin get anyway, since they're not using current frames).
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baseliner87
Rookie
yes so do i.
That is completely correct.
