The tennis world was all abuzz last week with the news that Roger Federer is now using a new racket:
He has switched from the 90-square-inch model he has used since his youth to a larger, supposedly more powerful 98-square inch version. Why?
Well, Roger Federer is now ranked "only" #5 in the world. It's the first time he's been that low since 2003.
The thinking is that he has lost a step in foot speed and more than a few miles per hour in racket head acceleration and the larger frame will make up for it.
In other words, he'll hit it harder and with more spin.
I know all about changing rackets in an effort to change disappointing results.
Here's a reprint of a post from 2008 called When Life's A Racket.
When Life's A Racket
Last week, I posted
about the different cars of my life. Almost an autobiography told from
the perspective of different cars I'd driven. A lot of you seemed to
enjoy it.
So I thought it would be fun to do the same thing . . . except with tennis rackets. Caution: this post will mean the most to tennis nerds.
But here's a flavor of some of the different rackets I used at different ages, and what they meant to me at the time. Getting some of these images was not easy, but the cause prevailed.
My first racket was a handed-down, beat up Jack Kramer autograph. I originally used it to play a 1969 version of air guitar in the alley behind our house. It looked something like this:
That was the racket I used when I started playing tournaments and getting a little bit good. I remember earning my first state ranking with it -- #5 in Texas for Boys' 10-and-under!
My second racket came about because I broke my first. Yes, in a fit of rage at losing to Brad Stoffel, I not only cracked that Kramer, I folded the head completely over. I was 10 and I was mean. So my dad thought an . . . unbreakable racket might be better (I'm lucky he ever let me play again). So I got a Sheffield X-15 Steel racket -- steel was kind of the rage in 1971. Here's what it looked like:
By the way, that ad is from a 1971 issue of World Tennis
magazine that I have around the house. The ad is priceless -- if you
look in the bottom left corner there is a picture of Clark Graebner, who
endorsed the X-15. Except in the picture he's playing left handed and
everyone knows Graebner was a right hander. And you wonder why Sheffield
went out of the tennis business?
When I turned 11, I upgraded to the Head Master. Great racket. Almost a space age feel. I should have stayed with it longer. Here it is:
But when I got to be 12, everyone was switching away from metal and back to wood. I thought it would give me better control. Plus, I heard that Spalding had a "free list" for players with a good state or national ranking. At the time, I was #2 (behind that Brad Stoffel) in Texas, so I wrote to them. They said yes! So with my first "free" rackets, I switched to the Pancho Gonzales Autograph and back to wood frames:
I
stayed with Spaldings from when I was 12 to when I was 16. The most
interesting Spalding I ever used was called the La Vitesse -- French for
"The Speed." It was narrow, flexible, and had a small slit in the side.
Unfortunately, that slit made it so they warped very easily. But I did
love that racket and played reasonably well with it in the
14-and-unders. I think I switched to it when I played so badly with the
Pancho Gonzales that I thought of quitting (because it had to be the
racket's fault). Here's La Vitesse:
The
final Spalding was the World Open, which Aussie pro John Alexander used
in the mid-1970s. It was supposed to be Spalding's answer to the Jack
Kramer. It wasn't.
But you know, there's a reason Spalding doesn't make rackets anymore, either. So when I was 15 or 16, coach Danny O'Bryant was able to get me on Wilson's Free List and I came back to the place I never should have left: The Jack Kramer Authograph. Man, those felt great. Strung tight with VS gut. Smooth leather grip. I used this when I had my best results as a teenager, including winning the tournamet to be ranked #1 in Texas for Boys' 18-and-under. I still have a couple at our house, and they still look good:
Unfortunately,
by 1980, oversize rackets were all the rage and I felt I had to keep up
(because poor results had to be the fault of the racket, right?). So
just before I went to college, I switched to the Prince Woodie (can you
believe they named a racket that?). It was supposed to give the
advantage of the new "big" rackets with the feel of wood. Sadly, for my
game it did neither. Here's what that frame looked like:
I
only used it for like six months. Then mid-way through my freshman year
at college our coach suggested the Head Graphite Edge to me. It was
smaller in the head, which worked better with my strokes, and it was
graphite so it was cool. Plus, Princeton's team had a nice arrangement
with Head. So I switched and it helped:
I
used the Graphite Edge until my senior year when another crisis in
confidence led to another change. It was 1984, and I became convinced
that I needed to switch back to a standard-sized (like wood size)
racket. I believed the smaller head would help my backhand. That's how I
found the Rossignol F100 -- graphite, small, and with a grip shape that
felt like it was part of my hand. I played my best tennis ever with
this little racket:
Rossignol stopped making the F100 shortly after I started using it. But I stocked up on some frames and then after graduating from college began playing less and less.
The next switch happened with the "widebody" phase of rackets in the late 80s and early 90s. I got hold of the Rossignol FT580, which had that good grip shape, a wider head frame, and good backhands stored up inside it. So I gathered up a bunch of them which I still have and still use. I played several tournaments with it in the early 90s and like it a lot. Take a look:
Then
last summer I figured I could no longer use obsolete,18 year old
rackets. So I bought a new-fangled, high-tech Head Prestige. It looked
great -- but for the first time ever I got tennis elbow. Had to be the
racket's fault, right?
So now I'm back with an obsolete, 18 year old, low-tech Rossignol.
What's next? A Jack Kramer Autograph of course!
So I thought it would be fun to do the same thing . . . except with tennis rackets. Caution: this post will mean the most to tennis nerds.
But here's a flavor of some of the different rackets I used at different ages, and what they meant to me at the time. Getting some of these images was not easy, but the cause prevailed.
My first racket was a handed-down, beat up Jack Kramer autograph. I originally used it to play a 1969 version of air guitar in the alley behind our house. It looked something like this:
That was the racket I used when I started playing tournaments and getting a little bit good. I remember earning my first state ranking with it -- #5 in Texas for Boys' 10-and-under!
My second racket came about because I broke my first. Yes, in a fit of rage at losing to Brad Stoffel, I not only cracked that Kramer, I folded the head completely over. I was 10 and I was mean. So my dad thought an . . . unbreakable racket might be better (I'm lucky he ever let me play again). So I got a Sheffield X-15 Steel racket -- steel was kind of the rage in 1971. Here's what it looked like:
By the way, that ad is from a 1971 issue of World Tennis
magazine that I have around the house. The ad is priceless -- if you
look in the bottom left corner there is a picture of Clark Graebner, who
endorsed the X-15. Except in the picture he's playing left handed and
everyone knows Graebner was a right hander. And you wonder why Sheffield
went out of the tennis business?When I turned 11, I upgraded to the Head Master. Great racket. Almost a space age feel. I should have stayed with it longer. Here it is:
But when I got to be 12, everyone was switching away from metal and back to wood. I thought it would give me better control. Plus, I heard that Spalding had a "free list" for players with a good state or national ranking. At the time, I was #2 (behind that Brad Stoffel) in Texas, so I wrote to them. They said yes! So with my first "free" rackets, I switched to the Pancho Gonzales Autograph and back to wood frames:
I
stayed with Spaldings from when I was 12 to when I was 16. The most
interesting Spalding I ever used was called the La Vitesse -- French for
"The Speed." It was narrow, flexible, and had a small slit in the side.
Unfortunately, that slit made it so they warped very easily. But I did
love that racket and played reasonably well with it in the
14-and-unders. I think I switched to it when I played so badly with the
Pancho Gonzales that I thought of quitting (because it had to be the
racket's fault). Here's La Vitesse:The
final Spalding was the World Open, which Aussie pro John Alexander used
in the mid-1970s. It was supposed to be Spalding's answer to the Jack
Kramer. It wasn't.But you know, there's a reason Spalding doesn't make rackets anymore, either. So when I was 15 or 16, coach Danny O'Bryant was able to get me on Wilson's Free List and I came back to the place I never should have left: The Jack Kramer Authograph. Man, those felt great. Strung tight with VS gut. Smooth leather grip. I used this when I had my best results as a teenager, including winning the tournamet to be ranked #1 in Texas for Boys' 18-and-under. I still have a couple at our house, and they still look good:
Unfortunately,
by 1980, oversize rackets were all the rage and I felt I had to keep up
(because poor results had to be the fault of the racket, right?). So
just before I went to college, I switched to the Prince Woodie (can you
believe they named a racket that?). It was supposed to give the
advantage of the new "big" rackets with the feel of wood. Sadly, for my
game it did neither. Here's what that frame looked like:I
only used it for like six months. Then mid-way through my freshman year
at college our coach suggested the Head Graphite Edge to me. It was
smaller in the head, which worked better with my strokes, and it was
graphite so it was cool. Plus, Princeton's team had a nice arrangement
with Head. So I switched and it helped:I
used the Graphite Edge until my senior year when another crisis in
confidence led to another change. It was 1984, and I became convinced
that I needed to switch back to a standard-sized (like wood size)
racket. I believed the smaller head would help my backhand. That's how I
found the Rossignol F100 -- graphite, small, and with a grip shape that
felt like it was part of my hand. I played my best tennis ever with
this little racket:Rossignol stopped making the F100 shortly after I started using it. But I stocked up on some frames and then after graduating from college began playing less and less.
The next switch happened with the "widebody" phase of rackets in the late 80s and early 90s. I got hold of the Rossignol FT580, which had that good grip shape, a wider head frame, and good backhands stored up inside it. So I gathered up a bunch of them which I still have and still use. I played several tournaments with it in the early 90s and like it a lot. Take a look:
Then
last summer I figured I could no longer use obsolete,18 year old
rackets. So I bought a new-fangled, high-tech Head Prestige. It looked
great -- but for the first time ever I got tennis elbow. Had to be the
racket's fault, right?So now I'm back with an obsolete, 18 year old, low-tech Rossignol.What's next? A Jack Kramer Autograph of course!
As always your blog post was a great read, perhaps smashing tennis rackets is a Davis trait.
ReplyDeleteRemember in my day," cat gut" was the string of choice. But I was told don't get them wet or they might break. What is your choice now for strings?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the very fun post. Re: your most recent pick -- Head tinkered around with the magnificent Prestige Classic a number of times in the last 15 years with very mixed results, and the Flex-Point Prestige you posted a photo of was, in my opinion, one of the poorest of the offerings. Now, happily, they're back with a wonderful version of the Prestige that you might love, available in a 93 or 98, with 18/20 or 16/18 string pattern options. The bright red Prestiges you see so many tour players (such as Tommy Hass, etc etc) using this year are truly splendid frames that you might enjoy greatly.
ReplyDeleteI remember La Vitesse.
ReplyDeleteYour " cousin ", Mike Davis
"Cousin" Mike -- you can't leave this comment and then no more info! Contact me at talbotdavis@gsumc.org
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Hilarious. The F100 is the worst racquet I've ever hit with. Different strokes, eh?
ReplyDeleteMy friends and I were still learning tennis and they couldn't hit with it either. I did fine with the Kramer Autograph "Pro" wood and the other racquets I hit with. Although I was an awful player I could manage to even play with a warped Billie Jean King wood that was too light and had a small grip. But, try as I might, I could get absolutely no sense of where the ball was going with the Rossignol and it also felt awful.
Unfortunately, my friend broke the racquet hitting baseballs with it. It's a shame but that's the wastefulness of youth. I had bought it new on closeout at a sports shop for $20.
Perhaps the biggest problem was the stringing. It was strung at 45 lbs with Prince Durathin, a 19 gauge string that probably had Kevlar in it. Kevlar is just pure garbage for tennis string. I have no idea how Agassi managed to use it. It also loses tension like nothing else and still feels horrible.
My first tennis elbow experience was from Prince Pro Blend (kevlar mains) in my Precision 730. The local pro helpfully strung it at max tension. I had so little power with that block of concrete that I lost to a 70 year old bunting the ball to the corners with a Mach 1000.
That 730 was outstanding for overheads but the open string pattern made control too difficult to obtain. It was also too light but had a truly beautiful metallic green paint job.
Today I enjoy playing with my old firm flex T-2000, my TA Davis Espirit graphite mid, my PS 85, a Pancho Gonzales wood, and so on. I played a lot of doubles with my Prince Mono until it was stolen. The best wood racquet I've used is the Wilson Advantage. That was also stolen.
I picked up a Spalding wood at a thrift store recently for $2 and had trouble controlling it at first because of the low tension but then I played very well with it. If it hadn't cracked when I accidentally knocked it on the court I'd still use it, even with the slight warp. It's amazing how much power I got out of it, even though it was a woodie with no graphite stiffening. It was not a racquet for precision defense, though. It really played best when you'd hit out.
The Woodie is a terrible racquet for my game, I must say. I even strung it with natural gut. Just awful, really. It's supposed to have a big sweet spot but the ball never feels sweet anywhere on the string bed. I've never been a fan of oversize heads and especially oversize heads with wide string patterns.
Oh, and my first racquet of all that was bought new was some Donnay composite oversize with a very thin beam and an oversize head and a very dense pattern. I didn't like it... absolutely no power... played like a noodle. It was probably a junior racquet.
The Yonex R-27 is pretty awful, too. It's a bit like the Rossignol.... no good idea of where the ball will go because of the odd head shape plus a harsh feel.