This is not only a HEAD Extreme Team review, but also deals with the Extreme MP L and Team L. These racquets are all lighter but surprisingly stable.
Sometimes there is a macho vibe around tennis racquets. It needs to be heavy and demanding. Otherwise, you’re not a “real” player. This cannot be more wrong. Like I keep repeating, over and over again, you need to play with what works for you. Tennis is a highly personal sport, which is part of its beauty. Go for whatever makes you play well and feel good on the court. Ultimately, it’s all about having fun while getting exercise (win-win!). And I think this is the vital part of this HEAD Extreme Team review. These racquets are all fun to use!
Specifications
HEAD Extreme MP L
CPI: 600
WEIGHT (UNSTRUNG): 285 g / 10.1 oz
STRING PATTERN:16/19
HEAD SIZE: 645 cm² / 100 in²
BALANCE: 325 mm / 0.7 in HL
LENGTH: 685 mm / 27.0 in
BEAM: 23/26/21 mm
HEAD Extreme Team
CPI: 700
WEIGHT (UNSTRUNG): 275 g / 9.7 oz
STRING PATTERN: 16/19
HEAD SIZE: 645 cm² / 100 in²
BALANCE: 330 mm / 0.5 in HL
LENGTH: 685 mm / 27.0 in
BEAM: 23/26/21 mm
HEAD Extreme Team L
CPI: 900
WEIGHT (UNSTRUNG): 265 g / 9.3 oz
STRING PATTERN: 16/19
HEAD SIZE: 680 cm² / 105 in²
BALANCE: 345 mm / even
LENGTH: 685 mm / 27.0 in
BEAM: 23/26/22 mm
Who are they for?
The Extreme Team L is one of the most potent racquets in HEAD’s standard racquet line-up. The HEAD CPI scale goes from 100-1000, where 100 is the lowest power level, and 1000 is the highest. So this frame is suitable for beginners to lower-level intermediates. It’s pretty fun to spin the ball with this powerful racquet and it’s remarkably solid for such a light racquet. This is the most impressive part of the new Extremes. They feel extremely (pun intended) solid.
Both the Team and the MP Lite are incredibly similar in all respects. The swing weights were very similar, and I’m not sure if we need to have both options. I could play them side by side and switch between them without issues. I could play some competitive sets with these racquets against 4.5-5.5 players, and although I didn’t play my best and lacked some control at times, they were also fun to use and offered lots of power and spin. These racquets work well up until the medium intermediate level. I would say 3.5-4.0 NTRP even.
How do they play?
This was the most surprising part of this HEAD Auxetic Extreme racquets play-test. I usually prefer heavier racquets, but here I was taken by the power, spin and stability of these lighter frames. I think the Auxetic tech is most evident in these racquets with bigger head sizes like the new Speeds and these Extremes (click the link for my review of the MP model) when it comes to the Prestiges and the Extreme Tour, I did not feel like it made as much of an impact as it does here.
Serving was a joy with these frames, and baseline tennis felt relatively effortless. The stability at the net was also better than expected. The biggest issue, which was not tough to guess, was that you lacked some control sometimes, but players who can hit with plenty of top spin will surely enjoy these frames. If you’re curious about what a lighter frame could do to your game, look no further than these excellent Extremes.
If you’re curious about these or other tennis products, please consider our affiliates, Tennis Warehouse, Tennis Warehouse Europe, and Tennis Only.
Are you on Team Extreme?
5 comments
As always, good content on TennisNerd. I use a 300 gram Ezone 100 and really like. My hitting partner last year started using a 285 gram Pure Aero Team and he really loves it. I tried it but the string pattern is too open for me. In match play it becomes too unpredictable for me. I am actually a bit tempted to buy one lighter racquet to play around with, perhaps the Ezone 100L, or the new Extreme MP L. I am however curious about how the light frame will affect arm health. At the least the theory is that a lighter frame will be worse for the arm….right? Also curious about power level. Theory states that the 300 gram frame should be more powerful than the 285 gram frame, all other tings being equal? If you compare in this case the Extreme MP to the Extreme MP L, did you notice any difference in level of power? Impact on arm? Stability?
I don’t think a lighter frame is necessarily worse for the arm. 285g is not that light unless you play guys that hit very hard (Futures level). The swing weight decides the power level more than the static weight. And the string pattern. I noticed no impact on my arm in between MP or MP L. I actually like the Extreme Team a lot and it’s pretty cool because it has an RA of 61 strung.
Does the lime green frame throw off your focus on the ball to the center of the racquet. Just curtesy if this happens to anyone.
It doesn’t affect me
Hi there. Thanks for the review
I purchased Team extreme L for my 12 year old intermediate son. Within a week coaches and parents were telling him it was too light and naturally now he doesn’t want such a L version.
Appreciate any advice over internet is general but would still appreciate a view as you have used the racket thanks