Racquet forum?

[Brian G]

Thanks for providing such a great site for avid players and those of us looking to improve our games. Fantastic threads on some great stroke and mental developmental issues.

Is there any existing thread or potential forum to discuss racquet technology, advice on frames, customization, stringing, etc.?

[johnyandell]

Brian,

Have you checked out the Forums on that on TW? You can spend the rest of your life in racket heaven there. We'd never be able to touch them and wouldn't try...

To be honest, it's also kind of a personal thing with me because I am not an equipment or racket freak--I save all that for technique...so for now we'll stick to that.

John

[Brian G]

Your logic makes sense I guess. I have been over to the TW board and it is tough to sift through all of the personal flaming and "non-tennis" stuff going on. But if time was not a problem I could probably get some very good information. I am still searching for a good site (if there is one) that provides a more professional, unbiased forum to discuss the technical aspects of how the racquets effect stroke development, performance, etc. And what some actual instructors are seeing the better players doing re: racquet setup, strings and other frame issues. I am certainly no "racket freak" either and believe technique is 90% of the game....just looking for good racquet info though.

Thanks! Again, great site!

[jhm36]

Hi Brain,

I understand where you're coming from. Search engine isn't that good at TW and heaven forbid you ask a question that was asked three years ago or so. Somebody will come out of the woodwork to give you a little flame about needing to go through the archive first before posting.

I also see where John is coming from, considering just how much the subject is covered over at TW and how some of folks on this site post over there as well. Why bother with the duplication and possible dilution of the sites?

http://www.racquettech.com and related sites and magazines might be the place to go. Cost around 110 bucks a year though. Anyone a member? Worth the price? 9 dollars for some kind of month long membership to the website. That might be worth looking into.

[johnyandell]

Yeah to really do what you are asking is more or less a full time job--another area of expertise, and something I'm not interested in.

You know it's the player not the racket. All you need is some medium weight medium flex conventional graphite racket 11-12.5 oz mid size or oversize, maybe an extra half inch, and one of 20 good synthetic guts with a tension you find by experimentation. I'm using the Agassi oversize and to me it is just a pure pleasure but there are plenty of others.

Anything else is mainly bs. Yeah if you hit super big maybe a little lead here and there--or try the banger or hybrid string. It's all plus or minus 2%

If you believe any of the techno hype about superlight, special holes, magic materials, reverse weighting, etc etc, you need psychiatric help. Just my opinion and I know a lot of people disagree.

[daveeubanks]

racquet tech

In my experience I've really found that when it comes to developing young players starting them out with a head heavy racquet (no matter how small) can greatly retard the learning curve and make learning modern technique exponetially more difficult. Head light raquets really seem to give a more true feel when it comes to allowing the player to control the frame through the swing plane. I honeslty have yet to find a player where they responded better to a dramatically head heavy frame.

[johnyandell]

definitely agree. I like a slight head light balance for virtually all levels.

[Brian G]

Yeah to really do what you are asking is more or less a full time job--another area of expertise, and something I'm not interested in.

You know it's the player not the racket. All you need is some medium weight medium flex conventional graphite racket 11-12.5 oz mid size or oversize, maybe an extra half inch, and one of 20 good synthetic guts with a tension you find by experimentation. I'm using the Agassi oversize and to me it is just a pure pleasure but there are plenty of others.

Anything else is mainly bs. Yeah if you hit super big maybe a little lead here and there--or try the banger or hybrid string. It's all plus or minus 2%

If you believe any of the techno hype about superlight, special holes, magic materials, reverse weighting, etc etc, you need psychiatric help. Just my opinion and I know a lot of people disagree.

I completely understand and after playing for over 25 years, I agree with your premise that the racquet is the least of our concerns. I have played with about 10 different types/weights/sizes of racquets and my game is basically the same regardless of the racquet (my progress was made with better technique, fitness, etc.). On occassion I have found myself caught up in the whole "racquet physics" debate on the TW Board and while there is some good information over there I think that it takes away from spending more time on stroke development and strategy. I still wish that there was "some" racquet discussion here to tie into the rest of the site but I can appreciate your reasoning as to why that cannot be done. Thanks for the explanation.