Which rac(K)et brand technology is the most ridiculus?

[adlis]

Lets just take a look at the list of crap. Lets compare...


Pro Kennex:


kinetic energy....the racket can now swing for you? great!

ProKennex Ionic Technology.... more like ironic technology because all the technology is in the marketing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wilson:

Rollers.. ..( what a bunch of b.s. that was! In the 70's everyone had a pair)

Ncode ...(the N stands for nothing)

Nfoam;.....a new form of contraceptive

Ngrommets......That is not a nice word to call black people!

K factor...... aka...the Kmart factor, the "you can feel it (K)oming" slogan WTF wilson, (K)arbon? more like marketing (K)rap

(K)ompact Center...... A building where wilson invents random new technology .

(K)arophite Black...... (K)graphite? black? explain to me this exotic property that is graphite please wilson

Isozorb....should be called .."I so cannot believe how stupid you suckers are"

Triad......Named after Wilson suckers...they will "try" anything!

Hyper Carbon.. plain Normal carbon is so 20th century.

Hammer technology.....should be called screw technology because that's what wilson is doing to you.

Slingshot yoke ,,,,shoots eggs at you???

Isogrid....yah...I so am laughing that you would fall for this crap

W line of racquets....If a man uses it he will instantly grow a vagina

Nzone...very similar to the twilight zone, Its an alternate dimension where tennis players believe any pseudo technology Wilson invents.

FX technology..FX is the illusion that wilsons BS "technologies" are actually working.

Double Holes..isnt that a porno i watched a few weeks ago?

AGT- Articulated Grommet Technology.. big rig 18 wheeler Grommets coming 2010

BLX... short for BoLl0X. sums up every BS technology wilson has produced.





any more to add?

 

[KFed]

I expected Flexpoint and Fischer's Magnetics.

 

[Bottle Rocket]

I expected Flexpoint and Fischer's Magnetics.

Yeah... You forgot the best of all!

Fischer Magnetic Speed

When the ball hits the strings the racquet frame is naturally deformed as both sides move together. In a Magnetic Speed racquet, equally polarized magnets at the 3 and 9 o'clock positions return the frame to its original position faster than conventional frames. The result is more power returned to the ball and greater ball speed off the stringbed.

I think a couple that you listed are actually fairly legitimate, maybe not so ridiculous.

 

[mdjenders]

I like going back on archive.org and looking at the defunct racquet technologies on TW. This one is pretty good:

Dimension #3: More Comfort
The Air+ Comfort Handle is a breathable handle with independent suspension. Four independently suspended legs inside the exclusive Air+ Handle are designed to eliminate up to 50% of fatigue-causing shock. With every shot, air circulates in and around the handle for improved ventilation.

Uhh.... Who came up with this one?

I add this:

Dimension #4: MORE Bull****
Dimensions #1-3 are complete nonsense that will do nothing for you whatsoever.

 

[tenniko]

I expected Flexpoint and Fischer's Magnetics.

Although I think that Head Flexpoint was not a good idea, I disagree that it is the most "ridiculous" technology.

Flexpoint is actually mechanically reasonable, and you can tell that they tried something new.

If the racquet company can show that their new technology is actually there (not by painting), and that they have a sound scientific basis for the implementation, I'd say it's not ridiculous at all. Maybe it doesn't result in anticipated performance, but that doesn't make it ridiculous.

 

[origmarm]

I like going back on archive.org and looking at the defunct racquet technologies on TW.

What is this?

 

[tfm1973]

Good thread. I think the marketing mumbo jumbo with tennis racquets is funny. My current Tecnifibre racquets have "Texalium" - I looked it up. It's "high performance fiberglass twill weave coated with 99.99% pure aluminum". That sounded incredibly high tech and I have a elementary school education so I bought em. I'm waiting for a racquet coated in "Sexalium" which hopefully is a "high performance hooker coated in 99.99% pure aluminum".

 

[jmverdugo]

yonex elastic ti.
Do you want to see people jumping?... how about twaron for a gimmick?

 

[Ripper]

I expected Flexpoint and Fischer's Magnetics.

I couldn't agree more.

 

[tenniko]

Wilson Triad seemed pretty useless

 

[plus]

What about these stupid 'Speedports' or 'String Hole insert' system of Prince, with which you can undo it again!

Reminds me of an even stranger technology: Wilson 'power rollers' prostaff 7.6 or whatever it was named!

 

[JavierLW]

Lets just take a look at the list of crap. Lets compare...


Pro Kennex:


kinetic energy....the racket can now swing for you? great!

ProKennex Ionic Technology.... more like ironic technology because all the technology is in the marketing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wilson:

Rollers.. ..( what a bunch of b.s. that was!)

Ncode ...(the N stands for nothing)

Nfoam;.....a new form of contraceptive

Ngrommets......That is not a nice word to call black people!

K factor...... aka...the Kmart factor, the "you can feel it (K)oming" slogan WTF wilson, (K)arbon? more like marketing (K)rap

(K)ompact Center......hahahhahah

(K)arophite Black...... graphite? black? explain to me this exotic property that is graphite please wilson

Triad......Named after Wilson suckers...they will "try" anything!

Isozorb....should be called .."I so cannot believe how stupid you suckers are"

Hyper Carbon (as opposed to the new "Black carbon")

Hammer technology.....should be called screw technology because that's what wilson is doing to you

Slingshot yoke ,,,,shoots eggs at you???

Isogrid....yah...I so am laughing that you would fall for this crap

W line of racquets....If a man uses it he will instantly grow a vagina

Nzone...very similar to the twilight zone, Its an alternate dimension whereon tennis players believe any crap that Wilson puts out.



any more to add apart from wilson a PK?

I disagree that a few of these are the "most riduculous" or "crap". You can argue that they wont improve someone's game but some of them actually do something.

nCode and (K)Factor
--------------------

Before these technologys, Wilson racquets were mostly graphite in origin and were probally using cheap crappy manufactoring techniques. Which meant that they broke easier, and tended to wear out easier.

nCode (n stands for nanotechnology) and (K)Factor are really just technologys that involve the actual manufactoring of the frame. They do improve the sturdiness of the frame.

However they dont necessarily improve your game. And it doesnt necessarily mean they are any better than other brands. Some brands use poor manufactoring processes as well, but some brands (like Volkl came up with something similar to nCode over 10 years ago!!!)

This is isnt a marketing trick where you make something that doesnt do ANYTHING. It's a marketing trick where you make a product that sucks for years, and then you finally make it less sucky, but you market as something awesome. (computer software companys have been doing it for years, Tennis isnt far behind.....)

Wilson TRIAD
-------------

I had a couple of these (the 5.0 and the T5). The handle was a seperate piece from the hoop with a rubberlike insert between them. Meaning you wouldnt bare the brunt of the impact from using a superlight and stiff racquet.

But none of them were anything close to a players racquets, so anyone who uses players racquets would of hated them. (but then again, they could just use a heavier racquet just fine so why would they???)

I know one teaching pro who uses a 5.0 to feed, When you are feeding hundereds of tennis balls all day long for 7 days, and you want something easy and light, these are pretty accurate compared to most.

 

[JavierLW]

What about these stupid 'Speedports' or 'String Hole insert' system of Prince, with which you can undo it again!

Reminds me of an even stranger technology: Wilson 'power rollers' prostaff 7.6 or whatever it was named!

Is it just me, or the fact that suddenly certain pros started using these racquets right around when they came up with the "string hole insert" (which is really just the same as having grommets instead of stupid holes), proof that the whole thing with not having grommets but big holes instead is stupid???

I imagine that someone like the Bryan Brothers insisted that they have grommet like inserts if they were to get paid $$$ to use those racquets, because the big giant holes dont work for their game. (or they dont particularly care for them)

 

[mdjenders]

What is this?

Go to archive.org and type in tennis-warehouse.com into the address bar, and you can look at cached TW pages all the way back to 1998. It is kind of appalling to see all the crappy racquets that have been fazed out (and the classics that have persisted) through the years!

 

[cknobman]

Is it just me, or the fact that suddenly certain pros started using these racquets right around when they came up with the "string hole insert" (which is really just the same as having grommets instead of stupid holes), proof that the whole thing with not having grommets but big holes instead is stupid???

I imagine that someone like the Bryan Brothers insisted that they have grommet like inserts if they were to get paid $$$ to use those racquets, because the big giant holes dont work for their game. (or they dont particularly care for them)

Do your research moron, even with the grommet inserts there are still "large" holes in the frame making the racquet easier to swing and move faster through the air and that is why pros use them.

 

[JavierLW]

Do your research moron, even with the grommet inserts there are still "large" holes in the frame making the racquet easier to swing and move faster through the air and that is why pros use them.

Wow, I touched a nerve from a beloved Prince fan I see.

Really? Pros use them because of the holes??? Then why dont all pros use racquets with holes in them????

Give me a break. Last time I checked, we dont swing our racquet blade first, you'd hit the frame. Depending on what angle the racquet is traveling in, those holes can do more harm in terms of wind drag which will not help the racquet move thru the air. (kind of like when you are driving on the freeway with your sunroof or windows totally open)

The Racquet already has LARGE holes in it, it's called the space between all the strings, you moron! (and strings are far more aerodynamic then then the frame on your O3PowerholeSpeedPortWunderGrommetless-w/Grommets racquet.

Your post has no basis on common sense. Im sure Prince might of marketed that way, and of course you will eat it up because you like your racquet, but to try to claim that those holes do something fantastic is just stupid.

 

[KFed]

I got flamed, I am sad now.

 

[Noveson]

I'm not a Prince user, but you should back your arguments up more. Give evidence that at a certain angle, holes give wind drag. And this part is unclear too, at what angle are you talking about? At a 45 degree topspin shot, the air should pass through the holes instead of epushing against it on a solid racket. Driving on the freeway with windows open analogy means the racket would be stabbing the ball at a 180 degree angle.

The technology is supposed to make the racket MORE maneuverable than it already is. It's not about already being able to swing the racket, but to swing it fastr in addition to more swingweight and stability with the heavier o3/Speedports.

Aerodynamic strings < Aerodynamic Frame and Aerodynamic strings

Personal attacks at the end makes your argument less credible on top of that, a hypocritical attack also.

<b> BTW I meant I expected Flexpoint, I didn't say it was ridiculous. I personally can feel the Flexpoint difference. </b>

Are you joking me? That made absolutely no sense. It's no about being able to swing it, just about swinging it faster? Even besides that, I'm sorry but those holes hurt more than they help. When you swing the racquet it's perpendicular to the ground, yet the wholes are facing vertical, how would that help? You could argue that the racquet isn't always perpendicular, but in that case, the holes would just cause more drag(the sunroof was a very good example). And you can feel the flexpoint difference? Really? That's interesting because from what I have seen, the racquets still flex at the throat, not the head. Even if it did work as said, a little bit above or below the points would make the ball even less accurate than it was before.

 

[jmverdugo]

^^ the air goes through the holes, is the same reason why the device to kill flys (dont know the name) has holes in it, im not saying that it actually helps but it does make sense. Imagine when the face of the racket pass in front of your face, is in that kind of movement that the holes are supposed to help.

 

[adlis]

I'm not a Prince user, but you should back your arguments up more. Give evidence that at a certain angle, holes give wind drag. And this part is unclear too, at what angle are you talking about? At a 45 degree topspin shot, the air should pass through the holes instead of pushing against it on a solid racket. Driving on the freeway with windows open analogy means the racket would be stabbing the ball at a 180 degree angle.

The technology is supposed to make the racket MORE maneuverable than it already is. It's not about already being able to swing the racket, but to swing it faster in addition to more swingweight and stability with the heavier o3/Speedports.

Aerodynamic strings < Aerodynamic Frame and Aerodynamic strings

Personal attacks at the end makes your argument less credible on top of that, a hypocritical attack also.

<b> BTW I meant I expected Flexpoint, I didn't say it was ridiculous. I personally can feel the Flexpoint difference. </b>

If it is great why do most of the ATP apart from koyla not bother with the stick. because it is a gimmick.

 

[mdjenders]

I rather like the o3 concept (yes, these racquets do feel whippier and faster to swing), but I have to admit that every time I see Kolya making craploads of unforced errors I wonder if he might really be far better off without those o ports.

 

[goober]

Lets just take a look at the list of crap. Lets compare...


Pro Kennex:


kinetic energy....the racket can now swing for you? great!

ProKennex Ionic Technology.... more like ironic technology because all the technology is in the marketing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


Triad......Named after Wilson suckers...they will "try" anything!

Isozorb....should be called .."I so cannot believe how stupid you suckers are"



Hammer technology.....should be called screw technology because that's what wilson is doing to you

W line of racquets....If a man uses it he will instantly grow a vagina

Disagree on some of these.

Prokennex kinetic and ionic technology is not a gimmick. It was made to reduce shock with micro-bearings. You can hear and feel the little bearings. Many, very many people swear by them in reducing tennis and arm pains.

W line was not a technology. It was a line of racquets marketed towards women.

Triad/isosorb was a 3 piece design that was made to decrease shock. Most people who played with the racquets felt that it did indeed have a muted feeling. Unfortunately the line of racquets they put it in was bad.

Hammer type racquets are still used by a boatload of rec players. I personally like head light racquets but you can't argue with success.

 

[origmarm]

Go to archive.org and type in tennis-warehouse.com into the address bar, and you can look at cached TW pages all the way back to 1998. It is kind of appalling to see all the crappy racquets that have been fazed out (and the classics that have persisted) through the years!

Thanks mate thats great, I'd forgotten how different the internet looked back in '98...just brings me back.

That and seeing some of the marketing blurb that accompagnied the Wilson Sledgehammer series...just wow

 

[DarkSephiroth]

Amazing that nobody has brought up the Head Chip-System yet! I have one myself, as I was duped into thinking it would really be effective back in high school.

For those who haven't heard of it :
According to Head, the ChipSystem eliminates 50% of the shock and vibration, so it never reaches the handle or the player. Piezoelectric material called Intellifibers embedded in the racquet's throat generate an electrical current upon ball impact. The current is carried via a circuit to a computer chip located inside the handle. The computer chip boosts the current and sends it back, out of phase, to the Intellifibers. This 'out of phase' current causes the Intellifibers to counter the motion occurring in the racquet, thus reducing vibration. The entire process takes 2 to 3 milliseconds.



LOL!

 

[cknobman]

Amazing that nobody has brought up the Head Chip-System yet! I have one myself, as I was duped into thinking it would really be effective back in high school.

For those who haven't heard of it :
According to Head, the ChipSystem eliminates 50% of the shock and vibration, so it never reaches the handle or the player. Piezoelectric material called Intellifibers embedded in the racquet's throat generate an electrical current upon ball impact. The current is carried via a circuit to a computer chip located inside the handle. The computer chip boosts the current and sends it back, out of phase, to the Intellifibers. This 'out of phase' current causes the Intellifibers to counter the motion occurring in the racquet, thus reducing vibration. The entire process takes 2 to 3 milliseconds.



LOL!

Researchers at Head must have been smoking the crack pipe when they came up with that one. I wonder if they ever saw those "This is your brain picture of egg, now this is your brain on drugs picture of egg frying in pan series of commercials?

 

[JavierLW]

Amazing that nobody has brought up the Head Chip-System yet! I have one myself, as I was duped into thinking it would really be effective back in high school.

For those who haven't heard of it :
According to Head, the ChipSystem eliminates 50% of the shock and vibration, so it never reaches the handle or the player. Piezoelectric material called Intellifibers embedded in the racquet's throat generate an electrical current upon ball impact. The current is carried via a circuit to a computer chip located inside the handle. The computer chip boosts the current and sends it back, out of phase, to the Intellifibers. This 'out of phase' current causes the Intellifibers to counter the motion occurring in the racquet, thus reducing vibration. The entire process takes 2 to 3 milliseconds.



LOL!

Im not sure about the science of this one. Just because it doesnt do anything for ANYBODY's game, doesnt mean that it isnt doing "something".

I think it's like the TRIAD system, for the most part they put this in a bunch of bad frames to begin with.

Some of these racquets were pretty amazing though (not for playing tennis unfortuanlly), I dont remember which one it was, but we had all the side nets taken down at our club one day, and the teaching pros were hitting line drives with it into the wall 4 courts away (side by side courts). Unfortuanlly with that kind of power the ball is never going to stay in the court, but if you had some sort of physical handicap it might help.

I always wondered how they got away with this, when you are not allowed to have an energy source inside of a racquet per the rules of tennis??? Whoever is in charge of approving this one, obviously didnt read Head's whitepaper or they are not very asute on technology. "electrical current...."

 

[JavierLW]

^^ the air goes through the holes, is the same reason why the device to kill flys (dont know the name) has holes in it, im not saying that it actually helps but it does make sense. Imagine when the face of the racket pass in front of your face, is in that kind of movement that the holes are supposed to help.

It's called a fly swatter.

Just because you drill holes in something doesnt make it necessarily fly thru the air faster. Especially when you are talking about something that's not necessarily moving in the direction of the opening.

Depending on how thick the frame is, you are just creating more exposed surface area which creates wind drag. You'd be better off just making the frame more aerodynamic without the holes.

The reality of it is given the tennis racquet's weight / balance and how solid of a structure it is, will determine how fast you can swing it and more importantly how much energy is transfered to the ball.

Worrying about air moving thru the frame is very minor compared to that. If the racquet weighed a lot more, or you were really weak, that would be a diffrent story.

 

[jmverdugo]

Ok, im not a fanatic of this O3 tech but here are my thoughts...

It's called a fly swatter.

Thank you

Just because you drill holes in something doesnt make it necessarily fly thru the air faster. Especially when you are talking about something that's not necessarily moving in the direction of the opening.

You are absolutely right, the holes by itself wont do a thing, the purpose is to reduce the resistance produced by the air so you can get the same head speed you would with another racket but with less effort.

Depending on how thick the frame is, you are just creating more exposed surface area which creates wind drag. You'd be better off just making the frame more aerodynamic without the holes.

Babolat aeropro?

The reality of it is given the tennis racquet's weight / balance and how solid of a structure it is, will determine how fast you can swing it and more importantly how much energy is transfered to the ball.

Worrying about air moving thru the frame is very minor compared to that. If the racquet weighed a lot more, or you were really weak, that would be a diffrent story.

My guess is that if you have to swing the racket 400 times in a game, in the final moments, you will be less tired and able to keep the same head speed if you have less resistance by the air. Im pretty sure that the benefit is minimal for a single stroke yet you would be able to get the same head speed and transmit the same energy to the ball using less of your own energy. That is of course the theory.

Also, this would be more perceptible on modern strokes where the moment when you want more head speed is when you move the racket tangencial to the ball to provide spin, the movement that goes in the axial direction of the ball doesnt requiere to much head speed.

 

[HyperHorse]

Honestly the ignorance shown here disgusts me...
About Head Intellifibres, the pizeoelectric fibres...
If you actually do a search on google/wikipedia,
these were developed by some Italians for use in military helicopters, in the transmission system to kill vibration.
Now i've hit with a Intellifibre racquet, and i can say without a shadow of doubt that they work.
Same thing goes for the Pro Kennex kinetic system, even though the sound is a little annoying.

 

[Commando Tennis Shorts]

Disagree on some of these.

Prokennex kinetic and ionic technology is not a gimmick. It was made to reduce shock with micro-bearings. You can hear and feel the little bearings. Many, very many people swear by them in reducing tennis and arm pains.

W line was not a technology. It was a line of racquets marketed towards women.

Triad/isosorb was a 3 piece design that was made to decrease shock. Most people who played with the racquets felt that it did indeed have a muted feeling. Unfortunately the line of racquets they put it in was bad.

Hammer type racquets are still used by a boatload of rec players. I personally like head light racquets but you can't argue with success.

Very true. Fixed my arm/wrist pain, and after a while, you don't even hear the mini-bearings

 

[adlis]

DUNLOP Aerogel 4D

The forth dimension of dunlops marketing BS

 

[Johnny-Cage]

Hey i love the wilson rollers. Too bad wilson stopped manufacturing them....

What f there's a racket with O3 ports, microgel, aerogel, [k]factor, rollers, triads, etc rolled into one?

 

[vndesu]

cortex

10char.

 

[Radical Shot]

Intellifibres still make me laugh.

Imagine. Electronic fibre that stiffen the racquet upon impact.

Why not just make a stiffer racquet in the first place!?

 

[mental midget]

^^ the air goes through the holes, is the same reason why the device to kill flys (dont know the name) has holes in it, im not saying that it actually helps but it does make sense. Imagine when the face of the racket pass in front of your face, is in that kind of movement that the holes are supposed to help.

too awesome.

 

[william7gr]

Babolat's cortex seems to be a joke.

 

[jetlee2k]

I've played and collected many tennis racquets but I noticed PRINCE racquets are the worst.. Except for POG, Prince Boron (considered high value for collector) the rest are just piece of junk.. Volkl is probably the one who actually put some thought into their racquets.. Many racquet companies just want to sell so they create some kind of new models, gimmick every year..

 

[Mick]

I've played and collected many tennis racquets but I noticed PRINCE racquets are the worst.. Except for POG, Prince Boron (considered high value for collector) the rest are just piece of junk.. Volkl is probably the one who actually put some thought into their racquets.. Many racquet companies just want to sell so they create some kind of new models, gimmick every year..

haha. i have a big prince racquet collection, consisting of the prince mono and o3 white. mono because i like how it looks and o3 white because i can play really well with it

 

[VGP]

Ngrommets......That is not a nice word to call black people!

Uh, what?!

 

[mtommer]

DUNLOP Aerogel 4D

The forth dimension of dunlops marketing BS

Read some of the reviews of this "technology". It isn't BS. It's not even technology for that matter. It is just adding more of the M-Fil (?) braiding at strategic points and apparently has helped with better feel.

 

[morten]

the Head intelligence? i mean, intelligent fibers in a racket!!!

 

[j4s0nx09]

What about the head Crossbow?????

i think thats ridiculous

 

[sk8ing]

What about the head Crossbow?????

i think thats ridiculous

I agree

head crossbow suposivly pulls the strings up as you hit the ball
but wouldn't the tension of your strings pull it up already

its a great idea
they just didn't make it right...

 

[adlis]

O-Ports reduce drag, producing faster swing speeds. Ok I will drill huge holes into my Chevy cobalt to reduce drag.

 

[charliefedererer]

I wouln't put this in the catagory of ridiculous.
More in the category of ruining their credibility.
Head has to take the prize for totally abandoning its former hyped racquet technology breakthough as it has jumped from liquidmetal to flexpoint to microgel.
Wilson at least puts a spin on its player's frames as being part of an evolutionary line.

 

[morten]

Head intelligent technology

 

[charliefedererer]

Head intelligent technology

GOAT. 10char

 

[BobFL]

nothing compares to flexpoint! that just insults my/our intelligence....
Equilibrium formula was pretty simple:

Liquidmetal + 2 holes + paintjob = flexpoint

 

[ramseszerg]

Flexpoint.

1. What happens when the ball hits off centre, for example higher up on the stringbed? Does the racquet then bend the other way making the ball shoot off in the other direction?

2. If the flexpoint technology is so good, why not put the same holes in the microgel racquets?

 

[adlis]

nothing compares to flexpoint! that just insults my/our intelligence....
Equilibrium formula was pretty simple:

Liquidmetal + 2 holes + paintjob = flexpoint

unforgivable


to be fair to HEAD most companies pull this bs. wilsons Pros who have PWS with a a kblade PJ is another example.