Racquet Selection & TE - Somewhat different perspective. Am I totally off base?

[boosa683]

I am a 4.0 woman who used an N3 with no arm pain for years. Recently decided to upgrade to a more control-oriented frame. After much demoing, fell in love with the Youtek Radical OS. My game/confidence improved on every level in the recent couple of months with this choice; HOWEVER, for the first time I am having arm pain/TE.

After rechecking the specs and trying to figure out just what went wrong here (since the school of thought is to go HL and heavier, which is what I did), my only conclusion is that the Radical, though it felt WONDERFUL with proper hits, exposed my poor technique, especially serves, and when I did have mishits I really "felt" the jarring of the racquet, thus the pain. The N3 was such a granny stick (and carried a stiffness of only 47!) that it was nothing but comfort even on mishits.

I have now resigned myself to lay off tennis for a while to heal and when I do get back to playing getting a more arm-friendly upgrade (even though it is my understanding the Radical was supposed to be one!), using natural gut and working on a more fluid swing and letting the racquet do more of the work.

Am I on the right track here or am I totally off base? Most importantly, since I love the specs of the Radical so much, what tweener racquet would be a good fit for a 4.0, fairly athletic woman prone to TE? Am considering the ProKennex Kinetic Pro 5G Classic but it weighs more than the Radical. Would this be a good choice or should I go with something lighter? I absolutely love having the shorter length, more controlled and heavier racquet. Like I said, when I hit properly it just felt "right".

Sorry so long and thanks for any input.

BTW, if anyone out there wants to tell me how they "played through" their TE successfully...well....let's just say, you would make my day!!! I am so very bummed about sitting out for possibly months.

 

[TennisMD]

I am a 4.0 woman who used an N3 with no arm pain for years. Recently decided to upgrade to a more control-oriented frame. After much demoing, fell in love with the Youtek Radical OS. My game/confidence improved on every level in the recent couple of months with this choice; HOWEVER, for the first time I am having arm pain/TE.

After rechecking the specs and trying to figure out just what went wrong here (since the school of thought is to go HL and heavier, which is what I did), my only conclusion is that the Radical, though it felt WONDERFUL with proper hits, exposed my poor technique, especially serves, and when I did have mishits I really "felt" the jarring of the racquet, thus the pain. The N3 was such a granny stick (and carried a stiffness of only 47!) that it was nothing but comfort even on mishits.

I have now resigned myself to lay off tennis for a while to heal and when I do get back to playing getting a more arm-friendly upgrade (even though it is my understanding the Radical was supposed to be one!), using natural gut and working on a more fluid swing and letting the racquet do more of the work.

Am I on the right track here or am I totally off base? Most importantly, since I love the specs of the Radical so much, what tweener racquet would be a good fit for a 4.0, fairly athletic woman prone to TE? Am considering the ProKennex Kinetic Pro 5G Classic but it weighs more than the Radical. Would this be a good choice or should I go with something lighter? I absolutely love having the shorter length, more controlled and heavier racquet. Like I said, when I hit properly it just felt "right".

Sorry so long and thanks for any input.

BTW, if anyone out there wants to tell me how they "played through" their TE successfully...well....let's just say, you would make my day!!! I am so very bummed about sitting out for possibly months.

I believe technique or the lack thereof is more responsible for TE than the rkt itself. So a rkt with a heavier SW can cause you to be late on the ball and the only time I had TE in my case medial epicondylitis( inner elbow) sometimes called golfers elbow was when I tried a sm head size, flexible rkt that at that time was above my skill set I had a problem, teaching pro pointed out I was consistantly late on my forehand. I have since played with all sorts of so called arm killers PD, PDR and recently Head youtex E xtreme Pro and I have become a much better player and no arm issues. I also use an arm friendly string and recently a hybrid combo that has a non friendly string in it( wilson champion series) and no issues, So for me technique a key, also cross train and weight lift with attention to shoulder, elbow and forearem strength aswell as core and legs.

I wouldallow the issue to cool down before resuming the game

 

[vantageboy]

hitting late and using my wrist excessively really ruined my arm( mri revealed tendonosis) -first thing take 3 months off of tennis(sorry for the bad news) if u have a china town were u live search out an acupuncturist-one that is very aggressive in his/her technique-warm the elbow-swiftly poke with a needle 10/20 times then cup the blood thru the tendon area-then proceed with the acupuncture and electro stim.-8 sessions of this every week along with the flexbar , tcm , super cissus supplement along with a smoothie of wild frz blueberries,ginger,greek yougurt,tart cherry juice,bananas,pineapple core-in the 4th month start the acupuncture-start the smoothie/tcm /fish oil right away along with a phiten tennis seleeve-wear every day. next 3 months still no tennis(6 months total no tennis) 52 years old and the things above reversed my problem.i have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at it. good luck

 

[dozu]

if the granny stick worked for you, why switch?

at 4.0 women level, granny stick is probably fine.

the radical is a fine flexible racket, but it's still a huge stiffness jump from 47 to 57.... and the heavier weight will cause late hits if your technique has issues.

 

[stingstang]

I got TE from the AG300 (flex 60) but I play with a K95 and 500 tour (69, 71!!) pain free. I figure the reason was because the frame has so little power I had to swing for the fences to find juice. With the others I can swing smoothly because the power is so easy.

 

[boosa683]

Guess the N3 "worked" for me and, yes, if I have to go back to it to be able to play a lifetime of tennis there is no question I will.

That said, I enjoyed hitting with the more control-oriented Radical MUCH more - it just felt better overall. Hoping I can simply find the right racquet/string tension on a tweener that won't punish me so harshly for my mishits before going back to the nothin-but-power N3. Would this not help me improve my strokes in the long run?

 

[fuzz nation]

I believe that when any of us change to an unfamiliar racquet, that's going to be a little hard on the arm as we make the subtle adjustments in our swing timing. A different frame is bound to have different handling behavior, even with spec's that are similar to out current gear. That's going to mean racking up a few extra mis-hits while dialing in the strokes.

If you consider another change, either to a ProKennex or something else, do what you can to get a demo session first. Even if the spec's look ideal, I think that any of us can only be confident with a different frame once we've had the test drive to see how it fits. Not sure if you demo'ed the Radical before you grabbed one?

As for the TE, best of luck there. I think that you can stack the odds for a recovery more in your favor with icing, massage, and eventual exercise to strengthen your forearms a bit. There's certainly a bundle of knowledge handy here and elsewhere that ought to help with a "therapy plan" that you can live with.

 

[dozu]

string is a big factor also... OP you can try gut or gut hybrid in the low 50's tension on the Radical... and try to improve on the techniques, you will be fine.

the #1 sin is the bent elbow at impact on BHs... make sure you have a LOCKED elbow at impact!

 

[boosa683]

Thanks for all the great info. I will definitely be stringing my Radical with Ngut at lower tension to see how that feels. Just hope that doesn't make it too soft! The thought of having to "experiment" with Ngut is a little worrisome but if I get it right it will be well worth it. Elbow feeling better today. Things are looking up.

 

[haerdalis]

The pk ki5 also comes in a lighter package. Ki5 295 plays much like a radical mp and is very armfriendly.

 

[Fuji]

I have golf elbow and I've played around with a ton of different sticks, right now I'm settled on the Dunlop Biomimetic 300 Tour. It's all about find a racket that just meshes well with your arm. My favorite racket is the Wilson Prostaff Classic 6.1 @ 13.4oz strung @ 60lbs with Head RIP Control 16. That thing has a stiffness of something like 70; but it's the most comfortable piece of tennis equipment I own!

Also check out Natural Gut string. Even a cheap(er) one like Titan might be a viable option at only 20 bucks a set. It's just a bit more then a high end multifilament and if you play indoor or in a not very humid environment then it might be perfect for you.

As for working on your TE, with golf elbow all I do is take a few days off when I can, do the throwers 10 and stretch properly before and after I play. Doing a little bit of light weight work if you can on your arm also helps me A LOT for it. (10lbs weight just doing bicep and wrist curls, along with some elbow work.) It works wonders on me and I feel a lot better. Also if you rub the forearm just above where it is sore, I find it helps.

Also I noticed you mentioned letting the racket do the work. This is probably the single most important thing you can do to prevent your elbow from hurting. A more fluid swing = a more relaxed arm = a happier elbow!

How hard are you gripping your racket on a scale of 1-10. For me a lot of pain comes when I grip at around 5-6 when in reality you should only be gripping at around 2-3. It may sound weird, but the less tightly you grip it, the happier your arm is going to be as well. When moving to a heavier racket, I noticed I gripped A LOT MORE tightly and it hurt my elbow a ton, sure enough when I loosened my grip it helped tremendously.

Good luck with your elbow and racket situation! If you have any questions to anything I said just ask and I'll try to answer!

-Fuji

 

[prjacobs]

Thanks for all the great info. I will definitely be stringing my Radical with Ngut at lower tension to see how that feels. Just hope that doesn't make it too soft! The thought of having to "experiment" with Ngut is a little worrisome but if I get it right it will be well worth it. Elbow feeling better today. Things are looking up.

Personally, I think that gut plays well for a long time. (That is, unless your son going looking in your closet and puts his foot on your racquet bag)... It plays better than anything for me . In NYC, it costs me $23 more to string with babolat VS gut. Well worth it.
And... I think that every tennis lover owes themselves one set of high quality gut in their frame.
Feel better...

 

[movdqa]

> BTW, if anyone out there wants to tell me how they "played
> through" their TE successfully...well....let's just say, you would
> make my day!!! I am so very bummed about sitting out for
> possibly months.

I developed tennis elbow around April or May of 2010. I used a very heavy, stiff racquet (KPS88) and increased my playing time and made some changes to my serve to try to bump up racquethead speed. On a 13.3 ounce racquet. So I developed TE and I tried various things - changing to a Ki5 PSE for one. I wound up resting for a month and then went back to playing tennis once a week and did this until the TE went away after about nine months. I also took Advil to keep the inflammation down. Would it have gone away faster if I stopped playing altogether? I don't know. But I'm fairly happy now with the way it turned out.

Have you considered adding some lead tape to your Radical to improve stability? Perhaps a little in the handle and some on the hoop?

 

[namartens]

Two years ago I switched from a kblade tour (alu power or bbo as string) to a pure drive. The first time I went out to hit (strung w/alu power) I had a stinging pain in my wrist and had to quit for 3 or 4 weeks. Instead of getting rid of the sticks I decided to string them with a soft string at a lower tension to get used to them and it worked for me. Ended up playing for almost 2 years with all kinds of stiff poly's without feeling a thing.

Recently, I wanted to switch rackets and I had a long period of demoing a lot of sticks. Played with a different one every time and couldn't find what I was looking for and even worse; I was playing horrible. So I decided to just go back to my pure drives. First hitting session was with a softer Wilson Sensation and everything was ok. Decided to string it with one of my favorites, Babolat Revenge, but now I experienced a pain in my elbow instead of wrist. Wrist was more like a stinging pain and the elbow right now feels different. More like it's on fire.

Will I be able to get used to it again like I did last time??

 

[whomad15]

Yonex and Volkl make very nice arm-friendly racquets.
String does make a big difference.

 

[vantageboy]

becker london strung with vs gut is great on the elbow/shoulder and i have the worst kind of T. E.

 

[boosa683]

Thanks, again, for all the great responses. My Radical is at the shop now getting strung with the Ngut and am picking up Thursday.

As a side note, I actually picked up my old N3 and hit with it 2 nights ago. Yes, this was totally against my better judgment, but it was a case of my team having to forfeit if I did not play and I felt a bit obligated. Was also curious how the N3 would feel after so much time away from it. Two things - confirmed how much more I enjoy the control of the Radical but also made me curious about the Triad technology of the Wilson racquets. My N3 NEVER gave me elbow problems and after doing some research found that many people find the Wilsons to be extremely arm-friendly. Thinking now that maybe a BLX that is closer in specs to a Radical and more control-oriented than the N3 would be worth at least a demo? Is there something to this Wilson technology that makes them better able to handle shock?

Any thoughts? Looks like the BLX Pro Open or BLX Blade Team might be a good fit?

Please no flames for getting back out and hitting again, LOL! I got enough of those from my tennis mates that night who knew I was having issues. Oddly enough, my arm did not seem to suffer any from the match. Next day was continuing to feel better.

 

[boosa683]

Oh..and, Fuji, your tip on loosening the grip really helped. Never realized just how stinkin' tight I was gripping the racquet. Such a wonderful feeling to actually let the racquet do its thing! I have always tended to get too close to the ball and swing late and all of these fundamentals probably go hand-in-hand. I just need to R-E-L-A-X a little bit!

 

[Fuji]

Oh..and, Fuji, your tip on loosening the grip really helped. Never realized just how stinkin' tight I was gripping the racquet. Such a wonderful feeling to actually let the racquet do its thing! I have always tended to get too close to the ball and swing late and all of these fundamentals probably go hand-in-hand. I just need to R-E-L-A-X a little bit!

For sure! Before I learned this little tid bit, I was always gripping with a death grip! It really inhibited my power and arm health!

Relaxing during your stroke is a good thing! Especially on serve!

-Fuji