It was that bad. Wilson sent me 2 strung with VI gut/ Serve power great, forehand great, backhand right into the back fence no bounce, Sold them immediately
Worst rackets of all time
- Thread starter Autodidactic player
- Start date
Henry Hub
Hall of Fame
I think I have that particular horror show in my collection:
Easy on the eye, utterly putrid on the court. It has all the feel and power of hitting with reinforced cardboard.
Steve Huff
G.O.A.T.
The Snauwaert Ergonom was probably the worst. Not that it hit that bad, it actually hit well. But, it was hard to serve with. What made it the worst was that any company that thought it would actually sell must have been crazy. I loved Snauwaerts, but really, where was the marketing department. At some point in its development, someone had to say, "this ain't gonna sell". And, it didn't. And Snauwaert went under.
coachrick
Hall of Fame
I have a Horizon Mid somewhere in a box...pretty sure I can flex the frame just by swinging itI think I have that particular horror show in my collection:
Easy on the eye, utterly putrid on the court. It has all the feel and power of hitting with reinforced cardboard.
BGod
G.O.A.T.
The T-2000 is indeed not a terrible racquet for performance, but it will kill your elbow. I'll try and come back with a photo of me playing it, I was able to even do backhand overhead volley with it just fine.
Just that after about an hour my arm felt about to separate and I needed to take 4 days off.
To answer the OP not citing the weird gimmick types, pretty much the Walmart starter brands are next to crapulance. When I first started coaching I had to tell about half the parents if they wanted their kids to actually improve they'd need to get a decent racquet. I often lent out my secondary frames because it wasn't fair having a kid not being able to get a ball in because his racquet is for dirt.
Just that after about an hour my arm felt about to separate and I needed to take 4 days off.
To answer the OP not citing the weird gimmick types, pretty much the Walmart starter brands are next to crapulance. When I first started coaching I had to tell about half the parents if they wanted their kids to actually improve they'd need to get a decent racquet. I often lent out my secondary frames because it wasn't fair having a kid not being able to get a ball in because his racquet is for dirt.
slice bh compliment
G.O.A.T.
I agree it is turrble. But why did it hurt your elbow? Bad strings. Heavy? Too harsh?
The one i have is sort of flexible...it it has victor imperial from 1980. Feels ok, but it creaks!
dak95_00
Hall of Fame
I've hit with many of them and like them. I can't tell the difference between the welds and no welds when hitting. They do make creak sounds but that's usually at the pallet being that its plastic.
I'll say this though, you'd better utilize the weight room to make that your daily racquet. Of course I could say that about nearly all racquets of that era.
I'll say this though, you'd better utilize the weight room to make that your daily racquet. Of course I could say that about nearly all racquets of that era.
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
I think I had one of those Prince Triple Threats. No feel and no control.
michael valek
Hall of Fame
Several contenders : Fischer Stan smith mono thing. Terrible.
Head radical, all of them.
Wilson 6.1 prostaff heavy piece of sh@t
Pure strike also.
Just my opinion.
Head radical, all of them.
Wilson 6.1 prostaff heavy piece of sh@t
Pure strike also.
Just my opinion.
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
Which ProStaff 6.1 are you referring to? I played with the nCode for years and it was a solid frame with sneaky power and great control. That said, I don't think ProStaffs are as great as many people do. There are other options out there that are as good if not better.
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
Once the stringer at my club brought a bunch of demos by. I picked up one called the Head Crossbow. The hoop had a flexible bit near the throat to generate more power. Total garbage on every level. No feel no control and just felt cheap.
I also once owned two More Precision 110's by Prince for some reason. Completely uncontrollable and no feel. If those were the racquets Prince was making in those days no wonder people stopped using them.
I also once owned two More Precision 110's by Prince for some reason. Completely uncontrollable and no feel. If those were the racquets Prince was making in those days no wonder people stopped using them.
michael valek
Hall of Fame
Prostaff 6.1 classic
slice bh compliment
G.O.A.T.
What an interesting post. I feel...all over the place on your entries.
That fischer stan smith mono thing was so cool looking and sadly....so disappointing to hit with.
Head radicals, yup, never liked them...even the legendary twin tubers.
Wilson six one....i always liked them. Not enough flex or feel for me, but man, i could thump a ball with it.
Pure Strikes have always appealed to me.
Autodidactic player
Professional
Yeah but it was beautiful! Kind of like that gorgeous mean girl in High School. You knew it would never work but you still wanted to be seen with her!
michael valek
Hall of Fame
Exactly. I was using a Puma Becker at the time, went to Austria on hOliday, and nagged my parents to buy it for me. It was crap.
Agree with you about T2000. Recently I tried it and was surprised how good and powerful it is.
slice bh compliment
G.O.A.T.
Wow. I played some of the best tennis of my life with that. Even the estusa version of it was good. Just my opinion. Big serves, nice firm feel, maneuverbale for such a solid, heavy frame.
But i can see people disliking it, if they prefer a smoother, muted feel.
coachrick
Hall of Fame
Hey, now!!! I played with the original Superform and actually tied for first place in a Fast Serve Contest using it! I have an unstrung Stan Smith model in addition to the original Superform and a couple of others(one wood!).Yeah but it was beautiful! Kind of like that gorgeous mean girl in High School. You knew it would never work but you still wanted to be seen with her!
michael valek
Hall of Fame
I mean the Fischer was crap for me. The Puma was and still is amazing.
coachrick
Hall of Fame
I have to tell one of my stories here. Late '70s and I'm entering a local tournament in Columbia, SC...needing a Mixed Doubles partner. I see a familiar last name among the Open Women's registered players and decide to call her about partnering in MxD. I mentioned I knew her last name; but I had no idea who SHE was(her brother was a well-known tour player). Given that she was a teen and I was a college student, I wasn't surprised when her dad stayed on the phone extension during our conversation. We agree to play and a few days later, we show up for our match. Now, I was half a hot dog back then, managing a nice tennis shop and wearing all the latest clothing. The conservative young lady shows up for our match with two Jack Kramer Autos(strung with nylon) under her arm, wearing white shorts and a white T-shirt(with just a touch of NC State red trim on the collar and sleeves). I show up with a full Oleg Cassini outfit that we had just gotten into the shop...and I'm carrying the Fischer Superform...complete with RED stencil! I can see she has nice strokes during the warm up as she doesn't miss a thing. The first return I make goes by her shoulder for a drop shot winner and she turns and looks at me like I have two heads! I found out JUST how consistent she was...when in three 3-set matches, she did not double-fault a single time nor did she miss a service return!!!!! She won the Women's Singles easily, beating a girl who was just a year out of playing 1-2 singles for a highly ranked university. We were quite the combo of hot-doggery and classic conservative style!!! Ah, the good old days!!!Yeah but it was beautiful! Kind of like that gorgeous mean girl in High School. You knew it would never work but you still wanted to be seen with her!
joe sch
Legend
Yes, that surprised me as well. I knew lots of players that loved the superform rackets. I liked hitting them and still have a few nice hitters including a few NOS
heninfan99
Talk Tennis Guru
How much pain has the Pure Drive caused in rec players?
heninfan99
Talk Tennis Guru
How much pain has the Pure Drive caused in rec players?
Sold a lot of elbow braces, tho.
Sold a lot of elbow braces, tho.
jonestim
Hall of Fame
Different era, but....
“If there's ever been a racquet that should be demoed before buying, it's this one, as it had a definite love/hate effect on our team.”
http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/reviews/GR98T/GR98Treview.html
“If there's ever been a racquet that should be demoed before buying, it's this one, as it had a definite love/hate effect on our team.”
http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/reviews/GR98T/GR98Treview.html
coachrick
Hall of Fame
That's a beauty. I think I've got one somewhere, also NOS.Yes, that surprised me as well. I knew lots of players that loved the superform rackets. I liked hitting them and still have a few nice hitters including a few NOSpower woods
coachrick
Hall of Fame
That had some really odd numbers associated with it, review-wise!!
Simon_the_furry
Hall of Fame
A solid 4.0 baseliner on my high school tennis team uses a Crossbow.
That racquet is not easy on the eyes at all... *gags*
Simon_the_furry
Hall of Fame
deleted
Overheadsmash
Professional
Beat me to it - the Head Crossbow series had to the biggest pieces of garbage ever produced by that company. I remember trying one. They came out and disappeared almost immediately.
joe sch
Legend
Yes, was a little diff finding the sweet spot consistently. I have one nice model strung up with a black rpm to see how nice it would hit with a softer spinning poly. Probably would have been even better with gut but still enjoyed the hits. Its sorta nice to get looks for having such a diff racket and showing they can still hit the ball pretty well in the right hands
joe sch
Legend
Yes, was a little diff finding the sweet spot consistently. I have one nice model strung up with a black rpm to see how nice it would hit with a softer spinning poly. Probably would have been even better with gut but still enjoyed the hits. Its sorta nice to get looks for having such a diff racket and showing they can still hit the ball pretty well in the right hands
joe sch
Legend
Yes, was a little diff finding the sweet spot consistently. I have one nice model strung up with a black rpm to see how nice it would hit with a softer spinning poly. Probably would have been even better with gut but still enjoyed the hits. Its sorta nice to get looks for having such a diff racket and showing they can still hit the ball pretty well in the right hands
Simon_the_furry
Hall of Fame
Head Microgel Monster.
Extremely light and a fairly open pattern. Yet somehow no spin potential whatsoever.
Swingweight of 320, yet no stability.
No touch. One of the worst racquets I've ever seen to slice with.
Only things it had going for it were decent power potential and good maneuverability. Other than that, absolutely awful.
Extremely light and a fairly open pattern. Yet somehow no spin potential whatsoever.
Swingweight of 320, yet no stability.
No touch. One of the worst racquets I've ever seen to slice with.
Only things it had going for it were decent power potential and good maneuverability. Other than that, absolutely awful.
Mugu
Rookie
no way. i played with the T2000 for years and i loved it. thought it was a major improvement over wood.
Shaolin
Talk Tennis Guru
Nothing will ever be worse than the double handled racquet endorsed by the Battistone brothers. Nothing.
http://www.naturaltennis.com/about/
http://www.naturaltennis.com/about/
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
I think just about any gimmicky racquet belongs in this discussion. I was looking at some of the collections of unusual racquets people have posted on here and the consensus is that any unusual racquet design tends to play poorly.
So I still submit that my Prince TTT More Precision is perhaps the worst. There wasn't really anything gimmicky about it. It was a fairly traditional frame that was just crap to play with.
http://www.thetennisspot.net/ProductImages/pr-more-prec.jpg
And unlike the T2000 no one played top level tennis with those.
A couple of times I played a guy who used one of these. He loved the racket and was thoroughly impressed with their customer service helping and answering any questions, even getting a call from Brian Battistone (who seemed like a nice guy the one time I talked with him). When we played, i kept being surprised by the direction the ball was hit. It was misleading because the angle was different than a regular racket.
Shaolin
Talk Tennis Guru
Yeah who knows maybe it plays great. I just hate how it looks to the point where I cant give it a chance.
Racquets are beautiful to me and that thing is an abomination.
SystemicAnomaly
Bionic Poster
Insert amused chuckle here. Only you, JC and a few others thought much of this racket. Billie Jean King used it for a while but ended up going back to wood. Most ppl, that I knew, tried it for a bit but then when on to other options after a relatively short time. Sure, the T2000 was innovative and a game changer but not that many ppl seemed to really like. The Head Master (aluminum), which came out a bit later in the early/mid 1970s, was a much more popular racket than the steel T2000 ever was.
Mugu
Rookie
insert another amused chuckle here. when i was playing with the T2000 back in high school, my doubles parter was using that Head Master. i never tried it. who knows, maybe i would have liked it better too!
coachrick
Hall of Fame
And another amused chuckle...At one time mid-latish '70s, my alma mater(a top 20 team or better during those years) had FOUR singles players using the T-series Wilson rackets. The 2000 was not highly praised; but the 3000 and 4000 were well-liked(except by me, the stringer, who had to string almost all of them with nat gut).insert another amused chuckle here. when i was playing with the T2000 back in high school, my doubles parter was using that Head Master. i never tried it. who knows, maybe i would have liked it better too!
The HEAD Master was semi-popular; but the Red Head was the "good player's" choice. We did have one teaching pro who used the Master and really liked the fact that it felt like a balloon
WestboroChe
Hall of Fame
We'll need to start a new thread to debate the merits of the T2000. Wasn't that also the liquid metal terminator model in T2?
I think it's hard to say it's the WOAT when Connors used it so well for so long. But on the other hand no one ever played tennis like Connors. So maybe that says something.
I think it's hard to say it's the WOAT when Connors used it so well for so long. But on the other hand no one ever played tennis like Connors. So maybe that says something.
coachrick
Hall of Fame
The 6061 alloy and frame cross-section of the Master made it very soft compared to the Pro(7005 alloy). The Standard was even softer than the Master(and cheaper). That round design just didn't work for me, although a Master silhouette in the angular 7005 alloy might have been interesting. The Edge pretty well killed the Master, although HEAD waited too long to introduce the Vector as a mid-size version of the Pro. Ah, the good old days !!!
vsbabolat
G.O.A.T.
What did you think of the String Lock versions?
coachrick
Hall of Fame
I played the String Lok Vector for a time. Used all manner of scrap string(heavy on red/black to color coordinate !) and except for the occasional mis-step with the locking barrels(coming loose or just not fitting properly), it was a decent racket. Just a half-decade too late as metal was leaving the scene(with the exception of a few like the Prince Magnesium and Pro). BTW, we "perverted" an original HEAD Edge to String Lok just for kicks...looked odd; but worked just fine. Had the system been around in the late '70s, it likely would have had a significant impact.
I actually liked the Vector, but stuck with my wood racket until I switched to graphite. Never really liked the Master (which my brother used) or the Pro.
I actually liked the Vector, but stuck with my wood racket until I switched to graphite. Never really liked the Master (which my brother used) or the Pro.
I actually liked the Vector, but stuck with my wood racket until I switched to graphite. Never really liked the Master (which my brother used) or the Pro.
