why does stability matter?

[buttman]

I am a 4.0 rec player and I've been testing different racquets recently and right now I feel like low swingweight racquets (300-310) are much better. I have read that a tradeoff of low swingweight is less stability - that against heavy shots stability is more important. In my experience as long as I am hitting the center of the racquet the stability is same regardless of the weight of the racquet. This means that stability only matters on off center shots right? When we hit an off center shot with a stable racquet vs less stable racquet how much of an impact will it have during a match? I think I would much rather have maneuverability to have a better chance of my shot being on center. However, I do like the extra serve power from heavier racquets.

 

[Rosstour]

I am a 4.0 rec player and I've been testing different racquets recently and right now I feel like low swingweight racquets (300-310) are much better. I have read that a tradeoff of low swingweight is less stability - that against heavy shots stability is more important. In my experience as long as I am hitting the center of the racquet the stability is same regardless of the weight of the racquet. This means that stability only matters on off center shots right? When we hit an off center shot with a stable racquet vs less stable racquet how much of an impact will it have during a match? I think I would much rather have maneuverability to have a better chance of my shot being on center.

I think you're onto something but I'm not an expert

Stability was a big concern on my Warrior 100, that thing fluttered so much in my hand and I would routinely lose my grip

Adding a second overgrip cured the issue.

 

[Troicki’sCat]

I am a 4.0 rec player and I've been testing different racquets recently and right now I feel like low swingweight racquets (300-310) are much better. I have read that a tradeoff of low swingweight is less stability - that against heavy shots stability is more important. In my experience as long as I am hitting the center of the racquet the stability is same regardless of the weight of the racquet. This means that stability only matters on off center shots right? When we hit an off center shot with a stable racquet vs less stable racquet how much of an impact will it have during a match? I think I would much rather have maneuverability to have a better chance of my shot being on center. However, I do like the extra serve power from heavier racquets.

My stringer said it best. Too high a swingweight and you lose maneuverability, too low a swingweight and your shots lack penetration.

High SW isn’t just good for returning heavy balls (off center or not), but it puts weight behind your shots that you won’t get with too low a SW. As long as it’s not too high I think it’s much more optimal

 

[lazywombat]

The heavier pace/spin you face, the more stability matters. I loved Boom MP until i played 5.0 with big serve and lost multiple points returning his first serves that i would normaly have a chance to win with my heavier racquet.

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

I am a 4.0 rec player and I've been testing different racquets recently and right now I feel like low swingweight racquets (300-310) are much better. I have read that a tradeoff of low swingweight is less stability - that against heavy shots stability is more important. In my experience as long as I am hitting the center of the racquet the stability is same regardless of the weight of the racquet. This means that stability only matters on off center shots right? When we hit an off center shot with a stable racquet vs less stable racquet how much of an impact will it have during a match? I think I would much rather have maneuverability to have a better chance of my shot being on center. However, I do like the extra serve power from heavier racquets.

You are on to something, "stability" is thrown around casually too much on the boards, I'd say 310 SW should be great for you, 300 might be a little zippy without much benefit to the slightly added maneuverability above and beyond a 310 SW.

I'm a broken record to the annoyance of some, but if a rec player is adding SW to get stability because for some reason their timing is off and the racket is unstable "on off-center shots" is commonly used with the word "stability" , what good is a SW of 340 going to do if all you get from is bunting the ball back while still hitting off center, it's a a cure for the ailment but not the disease.

 

[Shroud]

You are on to something, "stability" is thrown around casually too much on the boards, I'd say 310 SW should be great for you, 300 might be a little zippy without much benefit to the slightly added maneuverability above and beyond a 310 SW.

I'm a broken record to the annoyance of some, but if a rec player is adding SW to get stability because for some reason their timing is off and the racket is unstable "on off-center shots" is commonly used with the word "stability" , what good is a SW of 340 going to do if all you get from is bunting the ball back while still hitting off center, it's a a cure for the ailment but not the disease.

Its possible to hit the center and still have the racquet be unstable…

 

[Donmikan]

Its possible to hit the center and still have the racquet be unstable…

Especially on volleys. With a 315sw racket every volley was a drop volley...

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

Its possible to hit the center and still have the racquet be unstable…

"center" is a dangerous word, might be miss understood when I use it, forehands I don't hit with the "center" per se, but with timing and the sweetspot I've never experienced unstable hits with sticks above 315 ish sw .

Especially on volleys. With a 315sw racket every volley was a drop volley...

Something going on here, most volleys the racket head won't move at all, so SW isn't that impactful (there is no swing ) but for off center shots , drop volleys require a nice dose of lefty spin for me so there is more movement, but for every single volley to be a drop volley, I could only have that happen maybe with a dead string bed. No way every volley with a 315 SW is a drop volley, but if it was, kick assssss, you can drop volley a 80 mph incoming groundstroke every time .

Real world example, Ezone 98 is close enough to 315 SW, if you hit the sweet spot with that, on a volley, it's not going to be a drop shot volley lol.

 

[socallefty]

Play against some of the better opponents you normally play against with the lighter racquets and see if you do fine. If so there is no problem. If not, then you need to think about the pros and cons of higher maneuverability/swing speed, but lower stability/power from mass. There is no ideal weight range that works well for all players against all opponents - everyone has to find their ‘Goldilocks’ range and even then make some compromises between what works best for serves/overheads and other shots.

 

[Shroud]

"center" is a dangerous word, might be miss understood when I use it, forehands I don't hit with the "center" per se, but with timing and the sweetspot I've never experienced unstable hits with sticks above 315 ish sw .

Something going on here, most volleys the racket head won't move at all, so SW isn't that impactful (there is no swing ) but for off center shots , drop volleys require a nice dose of lefty spin for me so there is more movement, but for every single volley to be a drop volley, I could only have that happen maybe with a dead string bed. No way every volley with a 315 SW is a drop volley, but if it was, kick assssss, you can drop volley a 80 mph incoming groundstroke every time .

Real world example, Ezone 98 is close enough to 315 SW, if you hit the sweet spot with that, on a volley, it's not going to be a drop shot volley lol.

Its mostly on service returns. Sure if you just face slice serves waiters tray 2nds you will never notice. But with some fast serves you can feel it at contact.

Maybe its me but i don’t want my stick to be unstable on any shot even off center or whatever you call it

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

Its mostly on service returns. Sure if you just face slice serves waiters tray 2nds you will never notice. But with some fast serves you can feel it at contact.

Maybe its me but i don’t want my stick to be unstable on any shot even off center or whatever you call it

I have to disagree, of course I am never r facing waiters tray serves unless I join a mixer for giggles, I could use a SW310 ish and it would be stable enough. I'll take myself out of the equation....

Don't you know or play/hit with any high level players that use Ezone 100s or 98s? Pure Aeros? Blaedes? Vcore 98s/ 100s? Extreme Pros?

If you don't there are a lot of them, are they just suffering through life with unstable service returns without realizing it?

 

[Shroud]

I have to disagree, of course I am never r facing waiters tray serves unless I join a mixer for giggles, I could use a SW310 ish and it would be stable enough. I'll take myself out of the equation....

Don't you know or play/hit with any high level players that use Ezone 100s or 98s? Pure Aeros? Blaedes? Vcore 98s/ 100s? Extreme Pros?

If you don't there are a lot of them, are they just suffering through life with unstable service returns without realizing it?

Not really here. I don't have the biggest tennis circle like when I was playing leagues. Only prince vortex, head Si6 or 7, Dunlop something, Wilson surge. One guy had a Bab IIRC but not sure.

But yes I think they might not know if they only have experience with light sticks. Said another way, I don't recall feeling unstable on returns except when using a light racquet. Its pretty noticeable when you are used to winning the contact and the racquet hesitates....

 

[Rosstour]

Its mostly on service returns. Sure if you just face slice serves waiters tray 2nds you will never notice. But with some fast serves you can feel it at contact.

Maybe its me but i don’t want my stick to be unstable on any shot even off center or whatever you call it

If you make clean contact in adequate time, stability won't be as much of an issue.

But I understand that's hard to do when you're wearing full sweatsuits and wielding a racquet with a 709g swingweight

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

Not really here. I don't have the biggest tennis circle like when I was playing leagues. Only prince vortex, head Si6 or 7, Dunlop something, Wilson surge. One guy had a Bab IIRC but not sure.

But yes I think they might not know if they only have experience with light sticks. Said another way, I don't recall feeling unstable on returns except when using a light racquet. Its pretty noticeable when you are used to winning the contact and the racquet hesitates....

Ok, but then it gets a little confusing when you say a 310SW isn't going to be stable on serves UNLESS one faces only waiter tray serves.

Especially when a 4.0 forum member asks about it because I can introduce you or him to countless 4.5 and 5.0 players who use rackets 310-325SW range and they find that 310-325 SW stable for serve returns.

Does that make sense, because the advice doesn't have much to back it up except for your own playing anD playing circle that seems a little limited.

 

[Shroud]

If you make clean contact in adequate time, stability won't be as much of an issue.

But I understand that's hard to do when you're wearing full sweatsuits and wielding a racquet with a 709g swingweight

thats just it, I never notice it then. Its when I use the light stick...

 

[Shroud]

Ok, but then it gets a little confusing when you say a 310SW isn't going to be stable on serves UNLESS one faces only waiter tray serves.

Especially when a 4.0 forum member asks about it because I can introduce you or him to countless 4.5 and 5.0 players who use rackets 310-325SW range and they find that 310-325 SW stable for serve returns.

Does that make sense, because the advice doesn't have much to back it up except for your own playing anD playing circle that seems a little limited.

There is stable and there is stable. If you only have experience with light sticks you can think it stable, but compared to a heavy stick its no contest. Its not like you can't play with a light stick. Its not like I didn't hit good returns with the light racquet. But coming from the heavy sticks its noticeable when the light racquet gets pushed around. So sure you can find those players but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't find it more stable with a heavier racquet. I think physics might have something to say about this.

And that is just now. I had a pretty big circle and faced some of those 5.0s and 4.5s you mention. But all with heavy sticks. Thats why it was jarring physically and mentally when I returned a fast serve recently with a light racquet.

Its like telling my buddy with the muscle car that a honda fit will get him to the store and lots more of those on the road...

 

[Dragy]

Don't you know or play/hit with any high level players that use Ezone 100s or 98s? Pure Aeros? Blaedes? Vcore 98s/ 100s? Extreme Pros?

None of these is 310 SW though, most over 320. Some most loved and used Blade generations were up to 330 in SW. Pure Aero, the ultimate whipping (butt wiping) machine is 322 as of now! Pure Drive, the gold standard of lightweight frames, has always been in 320-325 range, although some lower-SW generations exist.

Of course you might be ok using Team and Light versions as well, but whenever you need to handle incoming pace, it just doesn’t make much sense to go below 320!

Also, if we link stability to SW, it’s not that much about off-center hits. Off-center is covered by Twistweight, and wide frames have more by default, for example.

SW is important when you face bigger balls, and most of us don’t face 120 mph serves and 80 mph passing shots at the net… but it’s a spectrum, anyway.

It’s also important when making contact more towards the tip. As long as you manage to truly hit the sweetspot, while swinging on fast incoming balls, not blocking much, you can do well. Once you are forced to defend more, they get you stretched, hit hard and heavy where you barely reach the ball, as well as simply redirecting pace — decent SW is very helpful.

High SW also usually makes response more uniform, if the ball is coming faster or slower: you get what you produce. Lighter frames might give more drastically different power and depth depending on how fast a ball you got. Some love gauging shots one by one, some prefer more consistency from own swing.

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

There is stable and there is stable. If you only have experience with light sticks you can think it stable, but compared to a heavy stick its no contest. Its not like you can't play with a light stick. Its not like I didn't hit good returns with the light racquet. But coming from the heavy sticks its noticeable when the light racquet gets pushed around. So sure you can find those players but that doesn't mean that they wouldn't find it more stable with a heavier racquet. I think physics might have something to say about this.

And that is just now. I had a pretty big circle and faced some of those 5.0s and 4.5s you mention. But all with heavy sticks. Thats why it was jarring physically and mentally when I returned a fast serve recently with a light racquet.

Its like telling my buddy with the muscle car that a honda fit will get him to the store and lots more of those on the road...

Just trust me, the OP can be fine with a 310 SW at 4.0 and we should revisit the quote or assumption that only waiters tray serves can be returned with a 310 SW, that's not good advice.

 

[Honza]

You can always improve wiffiness and manouverability by getting stronger and fitter but you cant compensate an unstable racket in the same manner.
I guess younger players learn exactly that and exceptional players like Alcaraz do it better than the rest , but look at all the other world class players. They always choose a heavier stable stick.

But you are right. At low levels you wont get many heavy balls.

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

Pure Drive, the gold standard of lightweight frames,

doesn’t make much sense to go below 320!



heavy where you barely reach the ball, as well as simply redirecting pace — decent SW is very helpful.

I'd say Ezone 98, is the standard, it's only SW 314, and excels at popping the ball back outstretched.

But, yes, most go 320-320 plus ish if they are the top sellers/top used in higher level hands.

 

[Shroud]

Just trust me, the OP can be fine with a 310 SW at 4.0 and we should revisit the quote or assumption that only waiters tray serves can be returned with a 310 SW, that's not good advice.

This is what I wrote: "Sure if you just face slice serves waiters tray 2nds you will never notice. But with some fast serves you can feel it at contact."

Nothing in there about returning only waiters tray serves with a light racquet. Was talking about stability. You wont feel lack of stability with a light racquet with tappy serves. You will feel it on fast serves. Whether or not you can return with a light racquet is different from stability.

I never said what you are ascribing to me...

 

[ChrisJR3264]

My racket feels unstable when there’s not enough weight in the handle and the grip size was too small or gets too wet from sweat and twirled before contact.

I think stability in a racket is subjective. If you’re an aggressive baseliner maybe a lower SW will suit you with a more headlight balance.

If you’re more of a counterpuncher - higher SW helps. Idk. For me it’s making sure I have the correct size and a solid 6-7 points HL frame. Too high SW for me feels a bit erratic.

 

[Ryebread]

so many variables

I guess it depends on skill level/style of hitting.
But at 3.5 and up, it matters, IMO

If I take a racquet without good stability/plow and try to play my mates, my ground strokes could land short a lot.
and my volleys would suffer.

 

[ChrisJR3264]

so many variables

I guess it depends on skill level/style of hitting.
But at 3.5 and up, it matters, IMO

If I take a racquet without good stability/plow and try to play my mates, my ground strokes could land short a lot.
and my volleys would suffer.

Depends. There’s 5.0’s I see here and have played with that do zero customization to stock rackets at 315-320 SW per TW specs. And they’re holding up pretty well.

 

[Yamin]

You'll know when you need more stability. Low swing weight does not mean low stability, it usually means a higher twist weight (I'd call it "static" stability). For counter punching, blocking, volleys, etc, this would be what commonly is referred to as more stable. If you don't supply your own power and the game pace isn't too high, high twist weight is usually enough.

Swing weight is for offensive play or stability while the racket is moving. Going for lines, hitting with power, fast serve etc. If you have swing weight without twist weight, you'll need to stay on offense to have that same stability.

4.0 is where you might need to find something more "stable", but it's contingent upon the game pace and your style.

 

[Fed Kennedy]

What is a volley Alex

 

[Shroud]

My racket feels unstable when there’s not enough weight in the handle and the grip size was too small or gets too wet from sweat and twirled before contact.

I think stability in a racket is subjective. If you’re an aggressive baseliner maybe a lower SW will suit you with a more headlight balance.

If you’re more of a counterpuncher - higher SW helps. Idk. For me it’s making sure I have the correct size and a solid 6-7 points HL frame. Too high SW for me feels a bit erratic.

My gripsize is an L16. I can tell you that you can have huge handle and if there is not enough mass it can feel unstable. Sure gripsize helps but its not going to make up for lack of swing weight.

 

[Rosstour]

My gripsize is an L16. I can tell you that you can have huge handle and if there is not enough mass it can feel unstable. Sure gripsize helps but its not going to make up for lack of swing weight.

L16? Why so small? Not man enough for L20?

You seem like a nice guy but the stuff you say is basically disqualifying. 500gram racquet, string at 90lb, hit with the same side of the racquet face without any racquet twirl, playing in multiple layers of sweats in the warm weather....do you seriously expect normal people to find any of this helpful? It's just an ego stroke for you and I'm tired of pretending otherwise.

 

[socallefty]

You guys should accept that players are different in their perception of stability just like they are in their perception of power, control, spin, comfort etc. You might need a certain spec to feel a racquet is stable while someone else might feel that way about a lighter or heavier racquet. There is no universal truth that a 100mph serve can be returned only by a racquet of a certain weight - or only a racquet of a certain weight can fell stable against a 100mph serve. We are talking about 0.5 or 1 oz difference in most cases when we talk about light and heavy retail racquets!

Go watch top rated junior kids play. They bang the ball pretty hard at the age of 12-14 with all kinds of lightweight sticks.

 

[Rosstour]

You guys should accept that players are different in their perception of stability just like they are in their perception of power, control, spin, comfort etc. You might need a certain spec to feel a racquet is stable while someone else might feel that way about a lighter or heavier racquet. There is no universal truth that a 100mph serve can be returned only by a racquet of a certain weight - or only a racquet of a certain weight can fell stable against a 100mph serve. We are talking about 0.5 or 1 oz difference in most cases when we talk about light and heavy retail racquets!

Go watch top rated junior kids play. They bang the ball pretty hard at the age of 12-14 with all kinds of lightweight sticks.

Exactly

I play with a good amount of 4.0-5.0 players who can hit over 100mph on serve, and once I went to a smaller racquet head and larger grip, I stopped having stability issues on returns, even with my puny 10.4oz racquet and girly L4 grip. Twist weight much more important than swing weight IMO, especially once you get really adept at generating RHS.

 

[Shroud]

L16? Why so small? Not man enough for L20?

You seem like a nice guy but the stuff you say is basically disqualifying. 500gram racquet, string at 90lb, hit with the same side of the racquet face without any racquet twirl, playing in multiple layers of sweats in the warm weather....do you seriously expect normal people to find any of this helpful? It's just an ego stroke for you and I'm tired of pretending otherwise.

Sorry. If some one makes a conclusion and I have evidence to the contrary I will usually chime in. In this case the conclusion was that the grip size mattered in stability and I pointed out that yes it does but it is possible to have a huge grip and still feel instability. Its more nuanced than gripsize.

Disqualifying?
1. Its a 400g racquet, but Pros have won wimbledon with a 400sw racquet and they were women.

2012 Mercury Insurance Open

Professional-quality tennis racquet re-stringing and customization at affordable prices by Greg Raven.

www.hdtennis.com

Heck the tennis nerd has a whole vid on playing with heavier racquets. Its not like I am saying everyone needs 400g, but there are advantages to heavier racquets.

2. There are tournament stringers on here that do run into requests from juniors for 90lb tensions and some pros like Dustin Brown string tight. Sure the trend is lower tension but I have stated that Tension is inversely proportional to swing weight. Which I think is an important thing to observe.

Dustin Brown's string tension......32kg (70.5lbs)!

That guy must have tendons of steel....

tt.tennis-warehouse.com

3. Not changing grips on the FH and BH returns and hitting on the same side of the racquet has been used by some pros like Almagro and Bastagui (or whatever his name was). There is even a vid on youtube showing it. Is it disqualifying if a pro does it?

4. I have NEVER advocated anything about sweats. Nothing. I just wear them because it feels right. These days I actually wear shorts and a long sleaved shirt. I think I am getting better so my heat tolerance is more normal.

5. "Its an ego stroke". It might look like that but trust me I would do alot more editing. Show me posters who have vids of them getting crushed by players .5 or even 1.0 above them. Most are highlight reels of winners. Here is an example. I was part of the RF97A playtest and played it stock against a 4.5 and struggled serving because the racquet was too light. You can see me mistiming all kind of shots because it was too light or headlight. Yet i posted it and even kept the LMAO comment in the comment section. Def not ego:

 

[Rosstour]

Sorry. If some one makes a conclusion and I have evidence to the contrary I will usually chime in. In this case the conclusion was that the grip size mattered in stability and I pointed out that yes it does but it is possible to have a huge grip and still feel instability. Its more nuanced than gripsize.

Disqualifying?
1. Its a 400g racquet, but Pros have won wimbledon with a 400sw racquet and they were women.

2012 Mercury Insurance Open

Professional-quality tennis racquet re-stringing and customization at affordable prices by Greg Raven.

www.hdtennis.com

Heck the tennis nerd has a whole vid on playing with heavier racquets. Its not like I am saying everyone needs 400g, but there are advantages to heavier racquets.

2. There are tournament stringers on here that do run into requests from juniors for 90lb tensions and some pros like Dustin Brown string tight. Sure the trend is lower tension but I have stated that Tension is inversely proportional to swing weight. Which I think is an important thing to observe.

Dustin Brown's string tension......32kg (70.5lbs)!

That guy must have tendons of steel....

tt.tennis-warehouse.com

3. Not changing grips on the FH and BH returns and hitting on the same side of the racquet has been used by some pros like Almagro and Bastagui (or whatever his name was). There is even a vid on youtube showing it. Is it disqualifying if a pro does it?

4. I have NEVER advocated anything about sweats. Nothing. I just wear them because it feels right. These days I actually wear shorts and a long sleaved shirt. I think I am getting better so my heat tolerance is more normal.

5. "Its an ego stroke". It might look like that but trust me I would do alot more editing. Show me posters who have vids of them getting crushed by players .5 or even 1.0 above them. Most are highlight reels of winners. Here is an example. I was part of the RF97A playtest and played it stock against a 4.5 and struggled serving because the racquet was too light. You can see me mistiming all kind of shots because it was too light or headlight. Yet i posted it and even kept the LMAO comment in the comment section. Def not ego:

It's disqualifying bc these things are only usable by pros and near-pros like you. Most people are not strong or skilled enough to do it your way, I think you know that, and so it's an ego stroke just like driving around in a tractor trailer and claiming that anything else is just too small for your giant cojones

400g with 86lb strings and L16 grip is ridiculous for most of us. And since you're so popular on here, people read your posts and think "man I've got to get on that level or I'm a sissy" and those specs are only going to work for supermen like you, not little weenies like the rest of us

 

[Shroud]

It's disqualifying bc these things are only usable by pros and near-pros like you. Most people are not strong or skilled enough to do it your way, I think you know that, and so it's an ego stroke just like driving around in a tractor trailer and claiming that anything else is just too small for your giant cojones

400g with 86lb strings and L16 grip is ridiculous for most of us. And since you're so popular on here, people read your posts and think "man I've got to get on that level or I'm a sissy" and those specs are only going to work for supermen like you, not little weenies like the rest of us

def not a pro and I think I take a "try it and see" approach. FWIW its not a strength thing. I am a weak old guy and probably would be in the bottom half of people my age strengthwise....

Anyhow I could turn it around and say that because pros seem to be hitting with a light stick, THAT is disqualifying because they are pros. Mere mortals need a different setup. I for one am struggling with increased RHS and see a good argument for a slower swing for a rec player and agree with the OP about the increased serve power with a heavier racquet.

The return thing though anyone with a 1 hander can do IMHO.

Socal is right everyone is different and I agree. If you can hit with a light stick and are happy then go for it. Heck I didn't even give the OP any advice which I would have if I was such an egotist...

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

I'm sure OP got more than he bargained for, @Shroud you are spraying serves with the RF97 in that video because the SW is too heavy , not too light, Like I've told you before , you would play better with lower sw than the RF97 , just an ezone, if you were willing to give it a good 6 months of training a few times a week..

Anyway, the real issue is the word "heavy" because it's hard to discuss it when you are playing with a SW 459 (if that is not sarcasm in your signature), no one should be using that kind of club IF they want to win more, if it's just for fun , I guess have fun, but that's so extreme.

 

[Rosstour]

def not a pro and I think I take a "try it and see" approach. FWIW its not a strength thing. I am a weak old guy and probably would be in the bottom half of people my age strengthwise....

Anyhow I could turn it around and say that because pros seem to be hitting with a light stick, THAT is disqualifying because they are pros. Mere mortals need a different setup. I for one am struggling with increased RHS and see a good argument for a slower swing for a rec player and agree with the OP about the increased serve power with a heavier racquet.

The return thing though anyone with a 1 hander can do IMHO.

Socal is right everyone is different and I agree. If you can hit with a light stick and are happy then go for it. Heck I didn't even give the OP any advice which I would have if I was such an egotist...

I appreciate you not flying off the handle, this is why you are so well liked.

Imagine the other end of the extreme though. Imagine a guy who played only with 8oz racquets? He'd be laughed out of here so fast. It's an extreme, an outlier, but your gravitas causes us to kinda normalize it.

And yeah you were struggling with the RF97 because you have warped your game to fit the most extreme racquet setup I've ever heard of. Of course you're gonna be off when you try using anything else, and that's not because the racquet is "too light" at 12oz....I also didn't see you "too early" to those balls. You were late to a lot and standing way too far inside the court (IMO of course but I'm nowhere near the player or physical specimen you are)

 

[Shroud]

I'm sure OP got more than he bargained for, @Shroud you are spraying serves with the RF97 in that video because the SW is too heavy , not too light, Like I've told you before , you would play better with lower sw than the RF97 , just an ezone, if you were willing to give it a good 6 months of training a few times a week..

Anyway, the real issue is the word "heavy" because it's hard to discuss it when you are playing with a SW 459 (if that is not sarcasm in your signature), no one should be using that kind of club IF they want to win more, if it's just for fun , I guess have fun, but that's so extreme.

its not true. it was more headlight and you can see that I am hitting earlier than normal which is why the ball is hitting the net on the first and sailing long on the second. RF 97A is 9 points hl and I added 2 ogs to it IIRC. Thats about 16g. No clue how hl it made it but usually my sticks are 2pts hl. I might have adjusted but it was a different stick when I added weigh.

Here is the vid before the review set with my normal heavy racquet and I am serving much better (not saying it is a GOOD serve, just that it is better than with the RF97A:

FWIW I AM experimenting with a light stick and my serve is trash anyhow. 40 years of tennis and I still can't seem to get a decent toss That said I struggle to serve fast with a light racquet. More power to those who can.

Also, Its not sarcasm. My stick is what is in the sig. There is a thread where I measure it with the Briffredi machine and the owner of the company helps me to get an accurate reading. Also its extended so some of that SW if from length and not mass but I think most adults could swing it.

Matching Swingweights

I have 2 racquets that weigh withing .1g of each other with one being 386.9 and the other being 387g. I used 2 scales and the head weight and the tip weight are identical except for the .1g. I can live with that, but does that mean the swingweights are close? Guessing not because the lead is...

tt.tennis-warehouse.com

 

[Shroud]

I appreciate you not flying off the handle, this is why you are so well liked.

Imagine the other end of the extreme though. Imagine a guy who played only with 8oz racquets? He'd be laughed out of here so fast. It's an extreme, an outlier, but your gravitas causes us to kinda normalize it.

And yeah you were struggling with the RF97 because you have warped your game to fit the most extreme racquet setup I've ever heard of. Of course you're gonna be off when you try using anything else, and that's not because the racquet is "too light" at 12oz....I also didn't see you "too early" to those balls. You were late to a lot and standing way too far inside the court (IMO of course but I'm nowhere near the player or physical specimen you are)

No worries. Its all supposed to be fun. FWIW I prove that I can be late with any racquet, even a 330g one

Here is a point with the RF97A brought up to 422g. Its a different experience for me but sure I have warped my game but mostly for arm health. I tried those light noodles and I can hit late with them too. And sunday when I hit with the 330g racquet I wasn't serving, just playing 21. I played great. But my elbow was sore from it and I actually had to pull off of some bhs because it would hurt. Never ever have that issue with the heavy stick...