mnttlrg
Professional
I am confused about a few things involving racket flex. Most of my experience with flexy rackets has been that they are unplayably wimpy and energy inefficient. Yet somehow most of the pros seem to favor low flex in their pro stock frames (commonly as low as 58). Outside of the superior piloting, is there something majorly different about those pro stock rackets compared to the retail ones I'm trying out? Something about it just doesn't make sense to me. How much does RA correlate to velocity potential, or is it an entirely misleading spec altogether?
If RA is measured from the tip, does that mean that one racket could be flexy in the throat and stiff in the hoop, and another can have a stiff throat and a flexy hoop, but they end up having the same RA rating? Or would the RA match the throat flex and have nothing to do with the hoop flex? How much of RA is based on the flex of the throat versus the flex of the hoop? Am I right in guessing that beginner rackets are stiff in the throat and flexy in the hoop, and that pros like flexy throats with stiff hoops? If there are differences in the flex between the hoops and the throats, why don't they have two different flex ratings in the racket specs?
I've noticed a recent trend with newer rackets having a lower RA rating (say from ~65 to ~62), and still having seemingly the same level of velocity and spin as the previous models. What did they do to make this possible?
That might be a bunch of different versions of the same question, but it seems like an incredibly important question. I am completely baffled at how it is possible to get such big velocity and spin out of noodle-flex rackets, unless their noodle-flex rackets are drastically different than the ones I've tried. Maybe it's all a function of swing weight or something.
If RA is measured from the tip, does that mean that one racket could be flexy in the throat and stiff in the hoop, and another can have a stiff throat and a flexy hoop, but they end up having the same RA rating? Or would the RA match the throat flex and have nothing to do with the hoop flex? How much of RA is based on the flex of the throat versus the flex of the hoop? Am I right in guessing that beginner rackets are stiff in the throat and flexy in the hoop, and that pros like flexy throats with stiff hoops? If there are differences in the flex between the hoops and the throats, why don't they have two different flex ratings in the racket specs?
I've noticed a recent trend with newer rackets having a lower RA rating (say from ~65 to ~62), and still having seemingly the same level of velocity and spin as the previous models. What did they do to make this possible?
That might be a bunch of different versions of the same question, but it seems like an incredibly important question. I am completely baffled at how it is possible to get such big velocity and spin out of noodle-flex rackets, unless their noodle-flex rackets are drastically different than the ones I've tried. Maybe it's all a function of swing weight or something.
