I have just published my podcast with Andrew from Prospect Customization. It’s available on Spotify, iTunes and the usual places.
I really enjoyed talking to a like-minded tennis nerd and we could easily have go on for a couple more hours. If you want to follow Andrew’s work, you should check out his Instagram Prospect Customization. He publishes a lot of interesting stuff around swing weights and customization.
You can listen to my podcast with Andrew from Prospect Customization here. If you have any questions about this podcast or want to dive deeper into this topic, please put your comment below.
In this podcast we talk about:
- Andrew’s racquet history
- What you should look for in your own racquet
- How much the racquet matters
- Why Federer’s forehand was better with Pro Staff 90
- Pro player specs – Djokovic, Murray and so on
- The lack of knowledge about customization and gear in tennis clubs around the world
- How racquets work at the college level
- Why you should pay attention to your gear
We touch on a lot of things that are close to the heart of us tennis nerds. When discussing you just realize how deep and overlooked this topic can be on all levels of tennis players. Yes, technique, footwork, fitness all play key roles in making you into a better player, but the racquet setup and your strings play a big role in you feeling confident on the court and playing your best tennis.
I, like Andrew, have experienced this myself many times over. With racquets, you know when it feels right. And when it feels right, make sure you list the specs so you get an understanding of why and then stick to that.
If you are lost in the tennis gear jungle, check out my consultation service here.
I hope you enjoyed the podcast! Please subscribe and tell your friends if you do.
5 comments
Having recently played with the Pure Strike 98 (16×19) 3rd Gen and Clash 98, I have hung up my racquets with 100 frame. I believe the 98′ frame works better for my single-handed backhand as I get better racquet head speed and the shots are more incise. Given all the reviews about the Pro Staff 97 v13 being very low powered and challenging to maneuvre, I just picked up the Pro Staff 97L, and am looking at ideas to customise it – would have been ideal if it was 305g unstrung instead of 290g which is rather featherlite. Hence, this post is very timely for my latest curiosity on customisation. Thanks Jonas!
I agree with quite a few things Andrew said. But after seeing some of his instagram stuff, I think he also has some quite weird opinions. The one I‘m mostly referring to is his post about balance, where he‘s separating the number before the comma from the one after. I find it kind of absurd to say there‘s a reason why one-handed backhand players would use a balance of XX.4 or XX.7, for example Federer with 31.4 and Thiem with 32.4. I just can‘t see any coherence between both of those numbers. Federer’s racket is just much more headlight and I believe you can see the difference in racket balance in how different they both hit the ball.
Would like to hear your thougts on that.
Cheers, Spin ;)
I see your point there, no I am not really sure about the balance or swing weight numbers of 31.4, 32.4 or 305, 325, and 335 relating to a certain player characteristic. I think that might be taking it a bit too far. But it’s interesting to discuss and Andrew digs into this with a lot of energy and passion so I find it a lot of fun to talk about with him.
Sure, I totally get that – it‘s always fun to talk to someone, who shares the same passion.
I just can’t fathom any college Division 1 or 2 player not knowing the specs of their racquet. That just blows me away. I recently was playing a doubles round robin with a bunch of really great guys at the 4.0-4.5 level. There were 12 guys playing and afterwards we found ourselves around a table sharing some adult beverages. I asked all 11 if ANY of them knew their swingweight. ANSWER: Zero. How many knew their RA ( I had to explain RA). ANSWER: Zero How many knew their static weight ANSWER:Two, but 4 generally knew.
How many had bought a new racquet in the last two years . ANSWER 11.
DUH! I must be a TennisNerd.