Hi and welcome to the Essential Tennis Podcast, your place for free, expert, tennis instruction that can truly help you improve your game. Welcome to episode number 406 of the Essential Tennis Podcast. Today we're talking about why racquet technology in air quotes is Bull. We'll keep it PG for the kids in the car. Racquet companies would love for you to believe that they've come up with the latest greatest, again, in air quotes, technology, okay, so
I'm just one time for the whole episode. Technology is an air quotes, right, for the entire episode. The racquet companies would love for you to believe that the new space age molecular, you know, graphite woven carbon fiber thing that they just like came up with is going to give you power and spin and accuracy and precision and consistency all at the same time without having to change your game at all. I'm sorry, it just doesn't work that way. I mean, think about
it. Every new racquet that comes out, the company wants you to believe that they've just invented some new, never-imagined thing before in the game of tennis. And if that was real, you know, over the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years, if there was a huge breakthrough all the time in racquet technology, again, air quotes, then all of us would be way better tennis players without actually doing
anything else, right? Like we could keep all the same habits, all the same patterns, be the same athletes, not make any changes to our movement patterns or athleticism or our fitness or anything else, and we'd be hitting bigger shots with more spin. But that doesn't happen. Now, just so I can dress the elephant in the room. And the last like 50 years has there been major upgrades.
Absolutely. When you go to the early metal racquets where they're aluminum and like steel, stainless steel like the Jimmy Conner's special or certainly back to wooden racquets, modern racquets are incredible. They've made the game way easier, but you still have to know how
to swing the racquet. If you don't know how to swing the racquet, how to do it effectively, and if you don't know what elements are critical, and that's what we're going to focus on today, in picking out a racquet so that it matches well to you and your game, then you're just not going to make progress. So real quick, I mean, so we made a video about this and we kind of poke and find a racquet company's a little bit. And so here's some real quotes from like real
marketing from racquet companies. Control frame technology developed for maximum control combines the stability of a square frame with the dynamism of a standard elliptical frame. Okay. How about designed with paradigm bending technology to optimize the bending profile between the shaft and hoop this racquet offers precision and pinpoint control rearranged the double braid at 45 degree angles, allowing this frame to breathe more upon impact. I like that. I like it. Would it breathe more?
How about patent protected frame will lay up process more connected to the ball feel while better complementing more modern vertical swing path material increases both flexibility and stability
without compromising through the swing. So I mean, here's the thing. If I was, I don't know, let's say serena Williams or Novak Jokevich or Janik Sinner or Suéon Tag or something like that, would I be able to tell the difference between something with a patent protected frame layup process that allows the material to breathe better and one that didn't have that. Now, I mean, if you want my honest opinion, I'm pretty skeptical. Even if I was, I'm pretty
skeptical. I'd be able to tell the difference and I'm pretty skeptical that compared to my other racquet that I started using two or three years ago, would I get more power, more spin, like better precision if I was eager? Probably not. And so for the rest of us, so for me, as a four or five player in real life, it's going to make zero difference. What does make a difference? Okay, so that's kind of like intro, right? So my, like, I'm just opening with the idea
here that most of this is just marketing mumbo jumbo. And over the last, let's say 10, 15 years, there haven't been any huge meaningful breakthroughs in technology. And if there was, there was, then everybody would be using it. And the technology wouldn't change. Like, do you notice how that, again, Eric quotes technology changes among, like, even the same manufacturers, like, Wilson's got a new technology every couple of years. If it was really so revolutionary,
and it was really such a huge breakthrough in performance, don't you think? Like, it would, ultimately, like, we would see like 20 technologies all rolled into one. Like, they wouldn't retire technologies if they were really better, but they, they're constantly rotating. It's a revolving door. So that every couple of years, you're like, oh, that's the thing that I need and you buy some new rackets. So a, you know, my personality's a little more on the cynical side of
things. I'll be honest. I'm pretty self-aware about that. So take it for a grain of salt. That being said, a big picture, 10, 15 years, all these rackets by major manufacturers that you've heard of, they're all super high quality. They're all made with great materials. They've all been engineered and designed so that it's as easy to play with as possible. What really matters is four different elements that we're going to talk about right now. And knowing, I think,
most importantly, like, what you prefer. And so we're going to go through these four elements. They are head size, weight, stiffness, string pattern. We're going to talk about the different types of players and what they typically prefer. And then we're going to talk about how you can mix and match them to optimize, you know, what's best for you. And ultimately, that's what it comes down to. This is highly subjective. It's highly personal. And so for me, personally, I can tell you my kind of
ranges in each of those elements and each of those factors. And I know right away, if a racket by any manufacturer, like if any one of those things is kind of out of whack based on what I know, I like after decades of trial and error and trying different manufacturers, different factors, I can tell you immediately if it's going to work for me or if it's not. So that makes it pretty easy for me. Like, let's, if I want to try different rackets, I know without even hitting a ball.
If it's going to be at least in the ballpark, and then it's a matter of just narrowing it down. So head size. The bigger a racket's head is, generally speaking, the more of a power racket it tends to be. I'm putting that in air quotes. What I mean, okay, so terminology, I'm going to be using power racket and control racket as two general varieties or flavors of
racket makeup, a power racket, generally is very light, very easy to swing. And the weight tends to be more towards the head of the racket so that when you hit the ball, it provides a lot of energy on its own. Whereas a control racket tends to be more heavy, tends to be harder but harder to maneuver and tends to have more of the weight and the handle of the racket. The balance is different.
The reason why is it takes bigger, longer swing to get that type of racket moving. And when you do hit the ball with that extra weight and with the weight more in the handle, it's more solid and stable and it's a little bit more precise and consistent compared to one that's more flimsy and maneuverable and has more weight in the head where that's designed to redirect and rebound more and more and more power energy from the incoming ball and send it back in the direction
it came from. So with head size, in general, the bigger the head size, the lighter the racket also tends to be. And in general, the bigger the head size, the more weight tends to be in the head of the racket. And when you combine those three factors together, you're going to get a racket that's
very easy to move around without necessarily great technique or mechanics. And also when the ball hits off of that racket with those characteristics, you're going to get a lot of energy that immediately comes off the racket very readily without having to do a lot, very athletically or strongly or very stable in a very stable way in terms of how you move your body and use your kinetic chain. Okay. So head size, a large head size is like 105 square inches or over
and a small head size is under 100 square inches. Okay. Like the standard control frame used to be 95 square inches. And over the years, it's started to slowly inch its way a little bit bigger, really popular control rackets these days are 98 square inches. There's still some 95 square inch rackets. And the smaller you go, generally, the heavier the overall racket is. And generally, the more weight balances towards the handle and away from the racket head. Okay. So let's talk about
weight. In general, the heavier the racket is the more of a control racket it tends to be. And the lighter overall, the racket is more of a power racket it tends to be. And in general, heavy rackets also tend to have small head sizes and light ones tend to have big head sizes. A heavy racket requires better preparation, better technique to actually move it and better timing. Because here's the thing, once you get a lot of weight moving through the air, it's pretty tough to
change your mind and be like, Oh crap. Okay. I'm actually swinging way too soon. Like I better, I better adjust or crap. I'm swinging way too late. I better speed this up real quick at the last second or else the ball's not going to go where I wanted to go. With a really big, really light racket, you can do that much more easily. With a really small, really heavy racket, you're timing the kind of has to be locked in. And if you get the train, you know, leaving the
station and then you realize that, Oh crap, I'm not on schedule. It's kind of too bad. I guess to kind of too late because there's just so much momentum traveling through. But the upside of that is when you get all that momentum traveling smoothly and efficiently at exactly the right time, then the racket does much more of the work for you in a much more solid way. And you don't have to move it so much with your body. Meaning like, you don't have to do, it's not required to do any
kind of sudden quick like flips or turns or twists of the racket to propel the ball. Once you get the racket moving and it's got its momentum traveling towards the ball, this is part of the reason why really high level players look so relaxed is they tend to have heavy rackets bigger, longer, smoother swings. And when you combine a big long, well timed swing with a heavy racket, then they can just be smooth and fluid and relaxed and effortless. And the reason why a really big,
really light racket is not very recommendable. And like, I don't recommend you use a big, easy to move racket is because it's so easy to move. And you don't have to use very good mechanics. You don't have to have very good timing in order to just get the ball back. Now, if you want to be a great player, you do need those things. And so I tend to direct people and recommend people towards the heaviest, smallest racket that they can comfortably and easily maneuver
around. Don't go any lighter than kind of your middle of the road sweet spot because it's going to encourage you or rather enable you. It's going to open the door to bad habits that you don't want to get used to. Super light and super maneuverable is great if you've got bad technique because
it makes it easier to play the game. But it does not going to lend itself very well to you developing great quality movement mechanics and habits because you don't have to have great movement mechanics and habits when the racket does so much for you because it's a power focused racket. Okay, now we haven't talked about stiffness yet. This is a big factor that really changes the feel of what the racket feels like. Like when the ball hits the racket, the ball's got a bunch of
momentum. The racket has a bunch of momentum and those two objects collide with each other in space. The stiffness rating of the racket makes a big difference in how it feels and also how much energy does or doesn't come off your racket. So the stiffer the racket, generally the more of a power racket it tends to be because when the ball touches the strings for a tiny split second, the racket flexes and then the ball actually leaves the racket before the ball leaves the strings
before the racket has a chance to fully recover and go back to its original shape. So when a fast ball and a fast racket collide, the racket's going to flex and it's going to bend and then it goes back to its original position and the stiffer it is, the faster it goes back to its original position and the faster it goes back to its original position, the more energy or power is going to be created by the racket as opposed to by you with like how you're moving and accelerating your body.
And the more flexible the frame is, the slower it returns back to its original position and so the less readily it creates power kind of on its own. So stiffer rackets make more power because of that snapback kind of effect and more flexible racket frame doesn't snap back as quickly. So it sends relatively speaking less energy into the ball, traveling back in the direction it came from.
So this is totally personal preference, although in general player or control type of frames tend to be more flexible and less stiff and so large head size generally a power racket, light weight,
generally a power racket, stiff frame, generally a power racket. You put all of those things together, a really light weight, really big racket head, super stiff and if all of the weight is balanced in the head, you've got like maximum physics and maximum engineering to send back maximum energy in the direction the ball came from originally. And then the opposite end of the spectrum is your control frame. Lots of weight in
the handle heavy overall weight, small racket head and more flexible materials. Now again more of the responsibility is on the player and less of the responsibility is on the racket and that's what makes a player frame. All right, one more factor we'll talk about here and then I'll start making recommendations for finding what you like best. So string pattern is the last thing we'll talk about.
A more open string pattern means there are less strings. In other words, there's the like little squares and rectangles that are kind of make up the space in between the strings and when you just look at your racket face, the strings, there's mains that are going up and down, there's crosses that
are going right and left and then you've got the kind of squares or boxes in between. And open string pattern, those boxes or squares are larger and that means there's less strings within the racket head and that all of the things being equal produces more power and more spin and the more close the pattern is the smaller those squares are, the more strings there are generally speaking,
the less power it's going to make and the more precise it's going to be. There's more strings in contact with the ball, but there's a little bit less of like a trampoline effect when there's more of them it kind of cradles the ball and sends it back without as much like cutting against the ball to create spin. And also there's more physical strings to kind of cushion or buff at the
energy of the ball and then send it back. And so close more strings, more closed pattern tends to be less power, more control and a more open string pattern tends to be more power and also more spin as well. Okay, so we've actually, I kind of cheated, I've actually been talking about five different factors, head size, overall weight, the balance of the racket, where the weight is, we've talked
about stiffness and string pattern. And all of these are, I want you to view each of them as like a spectrum and where you fall in the spectrum for each of those is a matter of personal preference. But in general, the higher level of player, the more they tend to like a smaller head size, heavier weight because they have bigger longer swings and better timing to take advantage of the
solid stable precise feel that those rackets provide. And in general, the lower the level of the player, the more they tend to like a bigger head size and a lighter weight because they tend to have shorter, chopier swings and worse timing. So they need a racket that provides a little bit more umph for them because they don't have the mechanics or the timing to be really precise with how
they move their body. Very efficient, very powerful. So if you're not exactly sure where you fall on the scale for all of those factors, then by far the best thing to do for your game is just to find out by trying a range of different weights and balances and head sizes. So you can find out what's best for your for your unique style. If you've been playing for a while and let's say you're average tennis player. So average like just by the numbers is about a three three five level here
in the United States. If you've been playing for years and like you've already you're not a beginner anymore like you're already very familiar with the game and you've taken a bunch of lessons, you've played a bunch of matches and you know in general, you know what you're talking about. Then I recommend just starting right in the middle of the spectrum for each of those things. So I'd recommend starting
with pretty evenly balanced. So not a ton of weight in the handle in terms of balance, but also not a ton of weight in the head in terms of balance. In the middle of the road for weight is probably going to be like in the 10 ounce range like 10 three 10 four 10 five 10 six like in there is kind of the middle of the road. If you go and I'm sorry off the top of my head, I don't have grams. I just don't I'm just not used to using grams. I'm just apologize like in advance. I'm going to use
ounces here. Okay. I should have prepared and had grams ready in front of me here. I mean just Google it really quickly. Oances to grams and let's see what 10.5 ounces is 14 oh wait that's 0.5 10 10.5 ounces is 200 now. Okay. So 300 grams is a good kind of middle of the road kind of average weight. If you go a bunch heavier than 300 grams or 10.5 ounces, you're definitely in the control side of the spectrum. And now like we're talking about racket that's pretty significantly
difficult to move and maneuver and time your swings with. That's a racket that's designed for somebody who's very high level player. And so above 11 ounces for ounce in terms of ounces, now we're definitely getting into control style of frame design for somebody with great mechanics, great habits, good athleticism, good timing. If you get below 10 ounces. So here what's 11 11 ounces is 311 grams. So you start getting to 315 320. We're definitely talking about a control frame.
And if you're an average tennis player, you probably shouldn't be leaning in that direction. You should be sticking more about more around the 300 gram and 10.5 ounce range. On the other end of the spectrum, anything below 10 ounces is almost certainly designed for power. And it's probably not going to be great for encouraging good mechanics. In fact, it's going to make it very easy for
you to use poor mechanics. And that's not something I recommend. Now if you're a pure beginner and you're just getting started, I think it's okay to start with something super easy just to get you going, just get the ball rolling. But after a little bit of comfort and familiarity and success and being able to just hit the ball back and forth, I honestly recommend you start to level up the weight and bring more of the balance towards the handle and bring the head size down a little bit less.
And so for grams, 10 ounces is 283 grams. So anything less than that, we're talking about certainly a power focused racket. And I'm not a huge fan of power focused racket. I don't recommend them. Unless you have some kind of physical limitation where you just physically can't move your body well. If you can't, if you're limited in terms of how you can rotate and turn your body and produce power and energy, if you're very, very old or you're very, very young and you just don't have much physical
strength, it's okay to go lighter. But those should be exceptions, in my opinion. And everybody else should be looking to push their boundaries and be a little bit heavier and a little bit smaller than a power type of racket. So how do we figure this out for ourselves? Trying different rackets, demoing, demoing, demoing. And after a while, and pay attention,
so as you demo different frames, go ahead and try a couple. And by the way, dietemsporits.com just came out with a range of rackets that I love for this because they're, it's their new Nova line of rackets. They're all the same head size. They're all 100 square inches. There's five of them. They have different weights and different balances that really do a good job of complimenting different levels of player that have different preferences in terms of like
weights and balance. And so it's a really cool way to go through and try a couple of rackets that have some variables constant, but other variables a little bit tweaked so that you can really get a good solid sense of, well, do I really like a little more weight in the head or a little bit more weight in the handle? Do I like a racket that's more around like 10.4 or more around 10.7?
And it's cool to try different rackets. They have the same head size, the same string pattern, the same stiffness, but kind of just tweaked the weights and the balance dials a little bit. Now, totally don't have to try dietemsporits in order to do this. You can just go to 10.4 warehouse or 10.6 press or any other online retailer that has a demo program and look through,
look at the racket you have right now. And if you've been playing with it for a while, I recommend trying a couple frames that are just a little bit heavier, like 0.2 or 0.3 ounces heavier than what you've been used to. And maybe a couple square inches smaller in terms of racket head size or not. Like if you're already around 98 square inch or 100 square inch, you can stay
in that range. But if as an example, you've been playing for a while with 105 or 110 square inch racket and you're actively working hard to refine your movements, your habits, or techniques, then honestly something a little smaller, a little heavier is going to complement those efforts. It's going to reward you for trying to master better quality technique. So hopefully this overview has been helpful. Those are the different factors to look for.
And just to tie it back around to the opening and kind of the intro of this, technology and listen, I like I've worked with diadem, all right. I have a relationship with them. I love their rackets and they pay me to recommend their stuff. And so it's a business, you know, relationship. I'm just being super transparent about it. And I'm just telling you flat out, they don't have any air quotes technology that is mind-blowing and game changing is going to
move your game from 3.5 to 4.0. And neither does Wilson or Babelot or head or Yonix. They all have great quality rackets, all of them. Like I would be super happy to play with any of those brands. As long as the weight and the balance and the stiffness and the head size were in line with what I like for my game. And I know what I like for my game based on my style of play and my physical strengths and weaknesses and things that are I'm good at and I'm not good at, you know, as an athlete. I know
what feels great to me and what compliments my particular game style. And that takes time to figure that out. So please demo it again. I don't care where you demo from. But if you want to support the podcast, definitely go to dietimsports.com. They have a great demo program and you can get several of the Nova line of rackets together for I think it's just $17 after my discount. If you use code ET15, you can get 15% off anything there, even balls, even grips, even demoing rackets.
And I love the whole Nova line. I've hit with all five of the rackets and it's really cool to just see the the subtle differences that a little bit different bounce, a little bit different weight makes when everything else is the same. So if you want to really raise your racket IQ, I highly recommend doing that experiment. If you're skeptical about dietim and you don't want to
go through them, that's totally fine. Just go to another retailer and get pick two or three or four rackets that are all slightly different weight and head size and balance and try them out and see what you like and learn. Have fun with it. See what feels great. Make sure you hit volleys and serves and ground strokes like don't just smash four hands, but all men's feels great. Make sure you hit a little bit of everything and you'll start to see the pros and cons from
different parts of the court and different attributes in the rackets. And that's when you can really start moving in the direction of a frame that fits you best, that is most comfortable and confident for you and that's where you're going to play your best tennis. So hopefully the overview here is super helpful. Thanks so much for listening. Appreciate you being a sport or the podcast. Make sure to use code ET15 to dietimsports.com. All your tennis needs can be met there. Super
high quality, great service, fast shipping. Thanks for to dietim for their support. And thanks to you for listening. Take care. For more free, game improving instruction, be sure to check out essentialtennis.com where you'll find hundreds of video, audio and written lessons. Also be sure to subscribe to essential tennis on iTunes and YouTube where we are the number one resource in the world providing passionate instruction for passionate tennis players. Thank you so much for listening
today. Take care and good luck with your tennis.