Training occasionally with a heavier racquet

[tennisplayer]

Is training occasionally with a heavier racquet a good idea?

To give some background, I used to think that one should always use the same type of racquet, in order to develop good feel and consistency. When I went on vacation a while ago, I left my regular racquets behind, and took one of my older and heavier racquets with me. I hit with it for a week, and when I returned, it seemed that I was actually playing better than ever with my regular racquet, which seemed lighter and easier to wield. I am thinking now that I should practice with my older, heavier frame at least once a week. Have any of you tried this with good or bad results?

 

[Midlife crisis]

Is training occasionally with a heavier racquet a good idea?

To give some background, I used to think that one should always use the same type of racquet, in order to develop good feel and consistency. When I went on vacation a while ago, I left my regular racquets behind, and took one of my older and heavier racquets with me. I hit with it for a week, and when I returned, it seemed that I was actually playing better than ever with my regular racquet, which seemed lighter and easier to wield. I am thinking now that I should practice with my older, heavier frame at least once a week. Have any of you tried this with good or bad results?

You'll probably find a lot of controversy on this subject, with some saying that the change in swingweight will mess up the timing of your strokes.

I'm on the other fence, in that there's an incredibly developed biofeedback mechanism for tennis players, in that we can swing nearly anything within a reasonable amount of weight and still time the ball correctly. I believe this is because we don't use our maximum force generating capacity nor maximum muscle contraction speeds for the vast majority of our shots, and so as we swing we're able to correct and supplement extra power if our swing location gets behind where it should be.

A case in point would be my 12 year old son, who has been playing tennis less than a year. He currently plays with a 10 ounce racquet, but a couple of months back was using about a 9.5 ounce racquet. I purchased a Snauwaert Ergonom that was 14 ounces strung. Of course, he had to try it and really never missed a beat. He hit it clean and well timed from the first stroke, and the only time he had problems was running hard to his backhand, when it really became a strength issue. He was able to serve and volley just as easily, just as long as he wasn't trying or didn't need to go all out.

As an aside, I normally use a 28" long, 376 gram racquet as my primary, but practice 30-50% of the time with a Jack Kramer autograph woodie. It takes a few minutes to get used to one or the other, but from then it's just tennis as usual.

Give it a try and see how it works for you.

 

[freelans]

I always practice with my favorite racket which is quite heavy and leaded down. This racket has string savers at every possible spot and I want the strings as dead as possible.


Then when I'm fatigued or outgunned, I play some matches with a lighter racket with live strings.

It really helps on serves groundstrokes and volleys but I might be a bit more tentative at the beginning stages of the games with the lighter racket.

 

[Tim Tennis]

I have an old racquet that I taped cardboard to both sides of it. Which of course makes it a lot heavier and causes a lot of wind resistence. I will practice a series of serve motions, forehands, backhands with it. It is amazing at just how light your regular racquet will feel and how easily you can bring it around. I can always tell what kind of tennis day I am going to have by just how light my regular racquet feels in my hand.

 

[Bungalo Bill]

Is training occasionally with a heavier racquet a good idea?

To give some background, I used to think that one should always use the same type of racquet, in order to develop good feel and consistency. When I went on vacation a while ago, I left my regular racquets behind, and took one of my older and heavier racquets with me. I hit with it for a week, and when I returned, it seemed that I was actually playing better than ever with my regular racquet, which seemed lighter and easier to wield. I am thinking now that I should practice with my older, heavier frame at least once a week. Have any of you tried this with good or bad results?

I use the power disc which you can buy here. I highly recommend increasing your strength to increase the wieght of your racquet.

 

[misterg]

I'm recovering from a wrist injury and in the minetime I play with the left (non dominant) hand with a heavier racquet...

 

[Marius_Hancu]

I'm recovering from a wrist injury and in the minetime I play with the left (non dominant) hand with a heavier racquet...

search for "wrist" in the Health forum and read all those threads

 

[tennisplayer]

Thanks for your tips and suggestions, guys. I am going to do one or two practice sessions a week with my heavier racquet, and also try out the power disc. Tim Tennis, it's amazing - for me too, how heavy the racquet feels in my hand is a perfect gauge of how I will play that day!

 

[troytennisbum]

I used to think that one should always use the same type of racquet, in order to develop good feel and consistency.

My thoughts exactly. Only I still believe this. Makes no sense to train with one raquet and then use a different one in competition. If your going to
train with say, a heavier raquet, then that should be the one you always use to compete with.

EOM.

 

[mucat]

I practice with PS85 6.0 and play with TiRad OS. The PS 85 help fine tune my swing to hit cleaner shots.

 

[vinky]

How about training with lighter rackets? It would benefit much in the same way as how runners sprint downhills;it makes the nervous system improve acceleration

 

[Marius_Hancu]

How about training with lighter rackets? It would benefit much in the same way as how runners sprint downhills;it makes the nervous system improve acceleration

having a set of various rackets will definitely improve your technique, versatility and control. I'd suggest having both a 18x20 and a 16x19, from medium to heavy in weight.

risk: your consistency with the default racquet.

 

[joe sch]

Training with heavier rackets will improve your stroking and strenght but you need to be careful since you can pull back muscles or cause shoulder injuries if you go to long or start too heavy. As long as you can stay infront of your returns with good anticipation and early stroke preparation, it will pay benefits when you drop the weight back. The biggest challenge for me is returning fast serves with a heavy racket, its obviously a response timing handicap.

 

[Tim Tennis]

It is all about racquet head speed and control

How about training with lighter rackets? It would benefit much in the same way as how runners sprint downhills;it makes the nervous system improve acceleration

I like that, very interesting. It might be a good way to tell just what your maximum "reasonable potential" is as far as generating racquet head speed. It might be a good way to define what muscle groups are the weak link in keeping you from getting close to the racquet head speeds you can achieve with the lighter racquet. When you start to push the envelope you do have to be careful about injury.

 

[troytennisbum]

How about training with lighter rackets? It would benefit much in the same way as how runners sprint downhills;it makes the nervous system improve acceleration

Probably not.

Look at it this way. Do basketball players or baseball players train with
balls of different weights ?? How about football players ?...do you think quarterbacks and recievers do passing drills with footballs of different weights to allow "the nervous system to improve it's accerleration"? No, this would help throw off a player's game in all of these sports. Point being, you use what your going to be using in an actual game.

Of course developing tennis players, should, throughout their careers, try raquets of different weights/characteristics as their bodies and tennis ability changes with time. But your not just using raquets of different weights because you think it will improve your ability with ANOTHER raquet that you ALREADY know is BETTER for you !!!!! That makes no sense. Rather, use your limited practice time, energy, and other resources to devlope your touch/feel/technique with ONE raquet that is OPTIMAL for your individual playing style. Common sense, no? You should practice, and train your nervous system with what you are going to use in competition.

Don't be a jack of all trades, master of none. Rather be a MASTER of ONE raquet to maximize your chance of success at the next tournament.

EOM

 

[Dan007]

My coach tells me to practice swinging with a heavy racket a lot and after doing that the racket was lighter and I was able to swing a lot faster.

 

[Andres]

That's right, Dan.
I train myself with a small 68 sq. inches, 18 oz racquet. That not only strenghtens my arm (and groundstrokes), but it helps you to hit sweetspots more often...

It works for me, u guys should give it a try