Questions on how swing weight modifications effect performance

[MoxMonkey]

Rainy day here, not much to do. Decided I'd put lead tape on my RF97. About 8 grams total, from about the 11 to 1 o'clock.

I am shadow swinging in my living room and can definitely feel a difference in the SW. It appears from a thread search this added around 12 points to the SW, and moved the sweet spot up the bed.

I'll hit around with it tomorrow morning at the club.

My question is what effect do these things have on how the ball plays? If the RHS speed/angle remains constant I would assume it would be a heavier, deeper ball flight on groundstrokes. Is this an accurate assessment? I assume it would create more plow through and probably dwell time, at the expense of it being more difficult to swing/handle. Would it also get 'pushed around' less from high paced incoming balls? (provided ones able to still wield said heavier racquet cleanly)

Also, does the more weight a racquet have help fend off tennis elbow, because you wouldn't need a death grip on it to handle a fastball?

Thanks in advance, and please no comments on 'you can't handle that much weight' and whatnot. This thread isn't about whether or not one should do this, it's about what happens to the racquet characteristics when it's done.

 

[tennis347]

I can tell you that adding 1 gram at 12 adds 3 SW points so the 8 grams of lead will be adding at least 20 SW points from 11-1.The RF 97 is a fairly hefty frame adding that much weight will effect maneuverability and your ability to generate racquet head speed.

Adding that much weight could effect your technique and could very well aggravate an elbow issue IMO. I have seen a number of feedback referencing that you should play with the heaviest frame you can handle without sacrificing technique as well as arm fatigue in playing session.

You certainly will get more plow and more power but IMO, there are too many other sacrifices as I have noted above.

 

[MoxMonkey]

I can tell you that adding 1 gram at 12 adds 3 SW points so the 8 grams of lead will be adding at least 20 SW points from 11-1.The RF 97 is a fairly hefty frame adding that much weight will effect maneuverability and your ability to generate racquet head speed.

Adding that much weight could effect your technique and could very well aggravate an elbow issue IMO. I have seen a number of feedback referencing that you should play with the heaviest frame you can handle without sacrificing technique as well as arm fatigue in playing session.

You certainly will get more plow and more power but IMO, there are too many other sacrifices as I have noted above.

Yeah I read through the old posts again and some how misinterpreted the calculation, it's more like 20sw points, maybe even a little more. The tape peels right off if need be.

Anyway this might help more in what I'm trying to accomplish, which is see how increasing sw affects racquet performance.

 

[Power Player]

Try serving kick serves with it and see how that goes.

 

[MoxMonkey]

I hit with my ball machine last night and with some guys from the club this morning for a couple hours.

To be honest it was great. To me it felt that I could place the ball with decent pace without having to swing hard. I was able to stay within myself and could also handle incoming pace well. It also felt like the bed had more feel.

The biggest difference I noticed was on the OHBH. I was able to hit with good spin and pace, the racquet seem to 'pick up' lower shots when hitting topspin drives, and I could muscle/strongarm high deep balls to drive them past the service line.

Who knows if it will stick, but at minimum I have learned that lead does a lot, and that's worth it in itself.

 

[FIRETennis]

Do yourself a favor and remove the 8g from the tip of the RF97!
The RF97 is statically heavy enough to not need an additional 25 swing weight points for a grand total of 360SW.

 

[Irvin]

I am shadow swinging in my living room and can definitely feel a difference in the SW. It appears from a thread search this added around 12 points to the SW, and moved the sweet spot up the bed.

Your sweet spot (COP) only moved about 6 mm up. SW went up about 25 points but how did you measure 8 g?

 

[MoxMonkey]

Your sweet spot (COP) only moved about 6 mm up. SW went up about 25 points but how did you measure 8 g?

I knew couldn't have moved all that much, but it's noticable in play. It's not so much the sweet spot but the racquet is more forgiving (to use a golf term) on hits high on the bed.

As how I weighed it, i cut come strips and the weight of them totaled 8g, using a digital kitchen scale that measures in 0.5 g increments