Brando
Professional
Advanced players care about recoil, and here’s why. Swingweight, twist weight, and recoil weight (also called ‘hitting weight’) all measure the inertia of a racquet along different axes or planes. Recoil weight shares the same plane as swingweight but its axis is the balance point (vs. the hand), and that makes it a piece of the racquet puzzle you never knew you were missing. RW measures how close a frame’s weighting is to its poles. The higher the recoil, the more polarized it is.
Polarity matters because it very much affects a racquet’s behavior. For instance, weighting at the tip adds polarity, placing mass as close to the sweetspot as it can be, resulting in maximal increase (per gram added) in power and plow through at ball contact. The wider this weight is spread over the tip, the more twist weight it adds, meaning more stability on off center hits. Add counterweight on the handle or, most efficiently, under the butt, and you add inertial stability, enabling you to swing-through with less effort.
To any player this all sounds pretty good. So why isn’t every racquet polarized? Two reasons.
First, while polarization may make a frame swing more efficiently (as in power from effort), it also makes it harder to swing accurately. The very definition of “unwieldy,” truly polarized racquets require consistent, advanced form to bring them through because it takes more energy to get their generally weightier hoops moving. So you have to swing early, much earlier than with a depolarized frame; which is weighted more evenly, making the hoop come through faster.* Since amateurs prefer ease in their swing over efficiency, especially if it costs consistency, makers tend to make less polarized racquets.
The second reason for depolarized frames is that the length of a player’s arm can determine their preferred RW. Longer armed players tend to prefer the pulling-a-hoop feel of high RW. Shorter armed players prefer the pushing-a-handle feel of low RW. Why? The arm swings a racquet as the upper lever in a double-pendulum with its pivot points being the shoulder and wrist.
The longer your arm, the faster it’ll bring the racquet (the lower lever) through, enabling it to pivot forward to meet the ball too soon and at too sharp an angle. So taller players prefer frames with more hoop-lag so as to meet the ball in front with a stable (open) wrist. Weight closer to the tip and/or tail (polarizing weight) slows down the hoop so as to increase that lag for longer arms. Shorter arms bring the racquet through slower, causing the hoop to more naturally lag the handle. These players then prefer lower recoil weights for less lag. This means using a racquet that’s more evenly weighted throughout, a depolarized frame.
Are there exceptions to these “rules?” Sure, and they abound among the pros, with their higher weights and swingweights. Amateurs, though, can use these principles to get an idea of where to start hunting their best recoil weight. It’s no coincidence that the height of the average player (male and female) is 5' 7" [170cm] and the average RW of the top-20 selling frames of 2022 is a middle of the road 158 (with a standard deviation of 7).
The ideal recoil weight for a polarized frame is 170 or more while ideally depolarized frames measure 150 or less. To calculate a racquet’s RW, you only need to know its weight, balance point and swingweight (SW):
SW - (wt. in kg × (balance [in cm] - 10)²) = Recoil Weight
You don't need calculate RW yourself. Instead, simply feed its Big-3 specs (wt., balance, SW) into TennCom’s handy tool. Easy-peasy.
ALL OTHER THINGS EQUAL (and exceptions assumed)
Polarized racquets (165 - 180 RW+) are recoil-stable (more forgiving of horizontally off-center hits), require more precise timing (due to lag), and produce more power. They can also produce more spin and sharper hitting angles. Heavier racquets tend to be more polarized, with more mass distributed where it's needed at the impact point and under the hand as counterbalance.
Depolarized racquets (155 - 140 RW-) tend to be lighter and more torsion-stable (higher twist weighted), hitting a flatter ball and allowing more precise tuning of depth. While easier to swing, they translate more impact shock to the arm since lacking the mass to absorb vibration. Polarized frames, having more mass near the impact point and/or under the hand, absorb more vibration. (Tecnifibre fills its mostly depolarized frames with foam to soften this shock.)
Customizer Note: increasing the SW to weight ratio increases RW, as does lowering balance via tail weighting because both increase polarization.
EDIT: READERS HAVE ASKED ME TO POST MY RW TABLE (introduced in post #25 and rounded out in post #298) HERE FOR EASIER REFERENCE:
Apt Racquet Recoil Weight (±2 points) per Player Height (as indicator of arm length)
Recoil: S/W - (mass in kg x (balance-point [in cm] - 10)²)
Polarity matters because it very much affects a racquet’s behavior. For instance, weighting at the tip adds polarity, placing mass as close to the sweetspot as it can be, resulting in maximal increase (per gram added) in power and plow through at ball contact. The wider this weight is spread over the tip, the more twist weight it adds, meaning more stability on off center hits. Add counterweight on the handle or, most efficiently, under the butt, and you add inertial stability, enabling you to swing-through with less effort.
To any player this all sounds pretty good. So why isn’t every racquet polarized? Two reasons.
First, while polarization may make a frame swing more efficiently (as in power from effort), it also makes it harder to swing accurately. The very definition of “unwieldy,” truly polarized racquets require consistent, advanced form to bring them through because it takes more energy to get their generally weightier hoops moving. So you have to swing early, much earlier than with a depolarized frame; which is weighted more evenly, making the hoop come through faster.* Since amateurs prefer ease in their swing over efficiency, especially if it costs consistency, makers tend to make less polarized racquets.
The second reason for depolarized frames is that the length of a player’s arm can determine their preferred RW. Longer armed players tend to prefer the pulling-a-hoop feel of high RW. Shorter armed players prefer the pushing-a-handle feel of low RW. Why? The arm swings a racquet as the upper lever in a double-pendulum with its pivot points being the shoulder and wrist.
The longer your arm, the faster it’ll bring the racquet (the lower lever) through, enabling it to pivot forward to meet the ball too soon and at too sharp an angle. So taller players prefer frames with more hoop-lag so as to meet the ball in front with a stable (open) wrist. Weight closer to the tip and/or tail (polarizing weight) slows down the hoop so as to increase that lag for longer arms. Shorter arms bring the racquet through slower, causing the hoop to more naturally lag the handle. These players then prefer lower recoil weights for less lag. This means using a racquet that’s more evenly weighted throughout, a depolarized frame.
Are there exceptions to these “rules?” Sure, and they abound among the pros, with their higher weights and swingweights. Amateurs, though, can use these principles to get an idea of where to start hunting their best recoil weight. It’s no coincidence that the height of the average player (male and female) is 5' 7" [170cm] and the average RW of the top-20 selling frames of 2022 is a middle of the road 158 (with a standard deviation of 7).
The ideal recoil weight for a polarized frame is 170 or more while ideally depolarized frames measure 150 or less. To calculate a racquet’s RW, you only need to know its weight, balance point and swingweight (SW):
SW - (wt. in kg × (balance [in cm] - 10)²) = Recoil Weight
You don't need calculate RW yourself. Instead, simply feed its Big-3 specs (wt., balance, SW) into TennCom’s handy tool. Easy-peasy.
ALL OTHER THINGS EQUAL (and exceptions assumed)
Polarized racquets (165 - 180 RW+) are recoil-stable (more forgiving of horizontally off-center hits), require more precise timing (due to lag), and produce more power. They can also produce more spin and sharper hitting angles. Heavier racquets tend to be more polarized, with more mass distributed where it's needed at the impact point and under the hand as counterbalance.
Depolarized racquets (155 - 140 RW-) tend to be lighter and more torsion-stable (higher twist weighted), hitting a flatter ball and allowing more precise tuning of depth. While easier to swing, they translate more impact shock to the arm since lacking the mass to absorb vibration. Polarized frames, having more mass near the impact point and/or under the hand, absorb more vibration. (Tecnifibre fills its mostly depolarized frames with foam to soften this shock.)
Customizer Note: increasing the SW to weight ratio increases RW, as does lowering balance via tail weighting because both increase polarization.
* Polarization’s hoop-lag effect can be understood from the analogy of swinging a plain iron rod of equal weight and length with a rod ‘barbelled’ at each end. The barbelled rod will be harder to get moving, and so will lag your swing but release more energy on whatever it hits.
EDIT: READERS HAVE ASKED ME TO POST MY RW TABLE (introduced in post #25 and rounded out in post #298) HERE FOR EASIER REFERENCE:
Apt Racquet Recoil Weight (±2 points) per Player Height (as indicator of arm length)
4’10” 140 RW | 4’11” 142 RW | 5’ 0” 144 RW | 5’ 1” 146 RW | 5’ 2” 148 RW | 5’ 3” 150 RW | 5’ 4” 152 RW | 5’ 5” 154 RW | 5’ 6” 156 RW | 5’ 7” 158 RW | 5’ 8” 160 RW |
5’ 9” 162 RW | 5’10” 164 RW | 5’11” 166 RW | 6’ 0” 168 RW | 6’ 1” 170 RW | 6’ 2” 172 RW | 6’ 3” 174 RW | 6’ 4” 176 RW | 6’ 5” 178 RW | 6’ 6” 180 RW | 6’ 7” 182 RW |
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