It’s not a simple quest. For me it’s almost eternal. I’m never completely happy with my frame – it almost feels like my tennis soul never will find peace. As I’m writing in “My Tennis Racquets” I’m currently playing with the Head IG Prestige MP and the Wilson Pro Staff Six.One 90 BLX but I can’t really make up my mind. Maybe I need something in between like a Volkl Powerbridge or a Wilson Six.One 95?
These thoughts keep going back and forth in my head. But I can’t keep changing my racquets forever. I need to make up my mind and stick to my decision, to get that connection to the racquet. For a while I played really well with the Wilson Pro Staff 90, but its small headsize makes it really unforgiving and when you’re one nanosecond slow in your step you might get punished not being able to generate enough power or hit the sweetspot.
And that’s when I go back to the Head IG Prestige MP where I can really crush the ball on my forehand wing but where I’m finding it difficult to get the same control on my backhand side, but for slice and topspin shots.
So what can you do? Well, you either try another racquet but that can be very costly and it’s definitely not the only alternative. My idea for the moment is to add lead tape to make the Head more stable and get a leather grip to add some more weight and stability. I have also changed the strings from the previous Luxilon Big Banger Alu Power (great strings by the way) to Babolat RPM Blast and the first match I played with the strings went great. We’ll see what happens this week.
The point I want to make is that a new racquet is not always the answer. You might also customize the racquet you’re playing with. These are ways you can alter or customize your tennis racquet:
1. Change the strings (some say the strings are 70% of the tennis racquet)
2. Change the tension of the strings (string looser for more power, tighter for more control).
3. Add lead tape to the frame.
4. Change the grip. Maybe a tackier grip can help you? Maybe you need a thicker grip? Maybe it would make sense to remove one overgrip and have a smaller grip so as to be able to the get more racquet head speed on your swings?
There are also many other tennis accessories you can try. Check out Tennis Express for more info.
