What Are Customized Racket Frames?

A.J. Chabria

What's a customized racket frame? There are actually four answers.

First, all the manufacturers make custom frames for their tour players. These are frames made by the factory to a player's specs which can include changing the stiffness.

You can be certain that these frames are different--often far different--than the frames they want to sell you, but the specific changes are usually kept secret. (For the inside story of what we were able to find out about Rafa Nadal's actual rackets, Click Here.)

Second Variation

A big racket company isn't going to make you custom frames the way they do for tour players. But, the second option is for players to purchase frames made to their exact own specs from smaller specialty companies like Angell. (Click Here.)

These rackets can include exotic components such as "micro braided layers," "foam cores," and "aramid fiber," which is used to stop bullets. Player can designate head size, weight, stiffness, balance, swing weight, even length and color. Angell also sells commercial versions of their most popular custom choices.

Third Variation

The third type of customized rackets, and the most common, are frames that are individually matched. These are stock commercial frames that racket technicians tweak to match mass and balance precisely so they play virtually identically.

According to Bob Patterson of the United States Racquet Stringer's Association, "Most players participating in league or tournament play carry at least two rackets in their bag. Having those rackets matched makes transitioning from one to another during a match much easier.

"While most dealers and racquet technicians realize identical models of rackets will have variances in weight, swing weight and balance due to manufacturing tolerances, most consumers do not."

I often customize and match frames in this fashion with lead or tungsten tape, a balance board, a swing weight calculator, and the USRSA's Racquet Customizer Tool. The process entails using mass in the right places to match the lightest frames in a player's bag to the heaviest.

It is a competitive advantage to have all frames in the bag identical in mass (to the gram) and balance (within a millimeter or two). It's quick and inexpensive, and it takes the variables and a lot of doubt out of a player's head.

This helps players get away from having a favorite stick, and a "backup". It also frees a player up to use a racket based on feel or stiffness they prefer, then adjusting the specs for weight and balance.

Variation 4

The fourth type of customized rackets are frames that technicians modify much further with lead, leather, plastic, or silicone to enhance the play for specific individuals, based on their level and game style.

As a teaching pro, coach, and Master Racket Technician, I see a lot of players that could benefit from this more involved process. (For more on what it means to be a Master Racket Technician, Click Here.)

Of course players benefit from lessons, purposeful practice, and match play. But they can make quick gains with augmented frames.

Although a small percentage of players do have their frames further customized in this manner, in general this option is underutilized by recreational and also college level players.

Customizing a frame in this way can add stability, power, and resistance to twist. The technician can make the swing weight lower or higher. He can create a different feel in the handle. Coaches, players, and racket technicians must collaborate on this, and it usually takes some trial and error.

Additional mass gives more stability on impact, so a lot of advanced players deal with the pace of the opponent with a heavier frame. Adding weight to the head usually means the racket moves less quickly and is less maneuverable, but can deliver more power. But adding mass in the handle can make a frame more stable without making it slower through the air.

Some Master Racquet Technicians use other materials like silicone, plastic, lead, rubber, or tungsten inside the handle to dampen the feel, and also add mass at the other end of the stick.

Replacing leather grips with synthetic grips can reduce handle mass. But when my clients want a heavier, firmer handle, I typically replace synthetic grips with leather.

In terms of feel and performance, players who go this route love a custom frame's additional stability on all shots, especially when playing attacking tennis. It's a confidence boost to feel great about your equipment.

Examples!

Over the years I have customized hundreds of frames for tour players, for college players, including players from prominent schools from California to Iowa, to Florida. But I really get a kick out of it when a club player progresses using a customized racket.

My favorite example is a 4.0 woman in her forties who can handle her husband's biggest serves now that her frames perform better in her hand. I changed her Babolat Pure Drives from 300 grams to 308 grams with lead tape in the handle. This made the balance a few mm more head-light, rendering her frame more powerful but also made it "feel way more maneuverable and also a lot more stable," as she put it.

My other favorite is a fellow teaching pro who got rid of his tennis elbow with silicone-filled handles which took his very typical 300 gram frames to 317grams. He claims he is serving bigger than he did as an NCAA player.

He liked the gentler feel from the silicone. He also liked that adding the mass inside the handle did not affect the grip size, even by one millimeter.

For a 4.5 to 5.0 recreational player I actually matched three generations of the Yonex V Core 97 frame. They all now weigh 360 grams strung, with a 312mm balance point. Not quite as hefty as the ones actually used by Stan Wawrinka, but very powerful, and maneuverable.

For a Division 1 college player, I matched his new Pure Aero Roland Garros frames to his older frames, customized by a professional racquet technician in Europe. I added 10 grams of lead under the bumper in an arc from the 11 to 1 o'clock positions, and added 4 grams of silicone inside the handle.

We call this a polarized set up. It increases swingweight, adds power, and gives a dampened, solid feel. This player thumps the ball, and likes the subtle, muted "thud" from the small amount of silicone.

For a 24 year old player playing in the Futures and Challenger Qualies, I customized his Yonex DR 98+. We went from the stock 310 grams to 316 grams with ix grams of lead at the ten and two o'clock positions. We replaced the synthetic grip with leather, which added six more grams.

A female 3.5 doubles player, age 49, played with the Head Speed. Of the shelf the frames varied from 296g to 301g. We went up to 315 grams with lead in various parts of the handle.

This increased the grip size on bevels three and seven. This grip shape appeals to her, and the additional handle mass gives the frame, "better feel and touch on volleys."

A petite 13 year old girl plays with a 285 gram Babolat Pure Aero Team. She wanted something a little heavier, to deal with the increased pace in the 14s. Eliminating the need to purchase new frames, we simply added fifteen grams to the top of the handle around the hilt. She handles her dad's serves now, and has achieved a sectional ranking.

More!

I coach a ranked sixteen year old boy. This past eighteen months, he has grown 4 inches and added twenty pounds. His competitors have grown similarly, and most of their serves have increased in velocity by twenty MPH.

We shaped his Prestige Pro's grips with some hand-cut, very thin plastic sheeting, to feel more like a Wilson, Dunlop, or Babolat. This added five grams to the handle. We placed another five grams in the 3 and 9 o'clock positions, mimicking the Perimeter Weighting System of his father's older Wilson Pro Staffs.

Finally there is Tennisplayer's own Giancarlo Andreani. He hits a heavy ball with any racket, but is now playing with Babolat Pure Strikes.

He wanted to replicate the feel of the Volkl C10 Pros he used in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We matched the balance point (312 mm) of his new Pure Strikes to his beloved C10 pro, but without having to increase the static mass all the way up to the whopping 371g of his previous frames. With leather grip, no over grip, and polyester strings, his new pure strike weighs just 359g.

The truth is that multitudes of players buy frames that are probably too light for their level and have the wrong balance. As you can tell, there is a wide range of possible changes players can make.

If you are handy with tools and equipment, you can try improving your frames yourself. That can be a long trial and error process however. Where are you going to put how much lead and/silicone?

The reality is that because of their experience, Master Racquet Technicians have an edge when it comes to modifying frames. If they understand your level and game style, they'll probably have a good idea where to start.