lead tape & sweet spots (Tennis Racquets - General Tips & Comments)

Member Name: ChrisEdu

Product:	Tennis Racquets - General Tips & Comments
Date:	06/02/04 (810 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: bigger sweetspot, more control, less tennis elbow

Disadvantages: hard to find good technicians, few people have the skills, can be tiring if done poorly

I used to do a lot of racket customisation for players looking for an increase in the size of sweetspot without altering the feel of their raket too much. The key issue involved is the swing weight of the equipment. If you imagine two poles 60cm long with 100grams of lead positioned on them, one with all the weight at the tip and one with the weight at the handle end, you will find they feel different when swung. This is a feature of swing weight. Babolat make a machine that can give a good measure of this, if you can find anyone that has one! Failing this, taking a measure of the balance point of your racket before making an alterations to the weight can aid in keeping the feel the same, in so far as if the balance remains the same the feel shouldn't alter too drastically. Modern lightweight rackets manage to be incredibly light, yet maintain a large sweetspot by moving the majority of the mass in to the head loop of the frame, hollowing out the handle area, which used to be made from a foam injection material that kept weight down towards the handle. Testing with a range of players has proven that people get the best performance when using a racket that is as heavy as they are comfortable using, i.e. the more wegiht (to a point) the better the performance, as it not only increases the size of sweetspot, but also increase the racket's stability ( imagine hitting a 6inch nail with a tin tack hammer and then doing the same with a sledge hammer!). Most professional players, whilst seemingly using the rackets in the stores, actually use custom made frames that are generally in the area of 325+grammes in weight. I use customised Prince frames that I buy with the handles two sizes too small. This allows me to alter the weight of the racket quite drastically whilst maintaining the feel the the racket. I increase the handle size (adding weight to the handle) and then add quite a large amount of lead tape to the frame at roughly the 10 & 2 o'clock positions, alt

hough this does require play testing to find the optimal placement for each player. Having worked alongside a host of racket technicians that service rackets for the like of Greg Rusedski and co. at Grand Slam tournaments, I know for a fact that there are barely any top level players that use un-customised frames. The key is finding someone that knows what they are doing and talking to them about your needs. If you would like any further advice on customising a racket or altering the weight (I have done weight reductions for people too (on the frames!)) then feel free to contact me phoopha@yahoo.co.uk Alternatively, find a racket stringer that is certified by the USRSA, fairly easy in the USA but but not quite as readily available in the UK.

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